Leadership Words of Wisdom

The Words of Wisdom below are quotes I saved from the countless books and articles I have read on Leadership. I like to end my memos and emails with one of them, sometimes randomly selecting one and often, matching one to the audience receiving the message or the subject of the message. I credited the author where he/she was identified. Many had no author listed.

  1. Fix responsibility no matter what or you will not be able to put plans in place to accomplish your goals.
  2. People quit people before they quit the Agency.
  3. Develop your action plan before you get into a crisis.
  4. Do what is right even when no one is watching – author unknown
  5. When it comes to leading people, there is no problem that is unique to you.
  6. Even though your responsibilities increase when you become a manager, you lose some of the rights or freedoms you may have enjoyed in the past.
  7. A real leader spends his time fixing the problem instead of fixing blame.
  8. When you write things down you commit to doing them. If you simply tell me what you want to do there is really no commitment in getting it done.
  9. When you depend on another’s perceptions to match your expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
  10. Take the time to manage your boss the same way you manage your subordinates.
  11. One of the main things for a leader is to eliminate confusion.
  12. Escape from management land regularly and get in touch with your staff.
  13. Your job is not to lower the bottom by adjusting for and accommodating the lowest performing employees. Your job is to raise the top by recognizing and rewarding superstar behaviors.
  14. Doing the right thing is not always easy – in fact sometimes it is real hard – but remember that doing the right thing is always right.
  15. Everything you do matters because your team is watching and depending on you to do the right thing – you are always leading.
  16. Guard your integrity as if it is your most precious leadership possession because that is what it is.
  17. Results improve in proportion to the level of trust earned by the leader.
  18. Results improve when leaders and their followers are held accountable for their actions.
  19. Results improve to the extent that the leader hires and develops talented people.
  20. Results improve when leaders establish a crystal clear vision with a convincing reason to embrace the vision.
  21. Results improve when followers understand their role and are rewarded for their accomplishments.
  22. Results improve when a leader removes obstacles inhibiting followers.
  23. Results improve in proportion to the self-esteem and attitude of the leader.
  24. Results improve to the extent the leader embraces change and makes change positive.
  25. Results improve as followers are allowed to accept responsibility for their actions.
  26. Results improve in proportion to the leader’s ability to confront issues affecting his followers.
  27. Results improve when the leader is a positive role model.
  28. Results improve to the extent that leaders develop themselves and their followers.
  29. There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.
  30. Sometimes when I slow down I go faster.
  31. Everyone has peak performance potential – you just need to know where they are coming from and meet them there.
  32. You can expect more if you inspect more.
  33. When the best leader’s work is done, the people say “we did it ourselves”.
  34. Everyone is a potential high performer – some people just need a little help along the way.
  35. To know and not to use is not yet to know.
  36. One of the main reasons people leave an organization is because management is not meeting their needs.
  37. We will forget and forgive any judgment error that you make but integrity mistakes are forever. – David Cottrell
  38. Keep your promises.
  39. Speak out for what you think is important.
  40. Always err on the side of fairness. – David Cottrell
  41. Do what you say you are going to do.
  42. We ask of you that you accept responsibility for being the very best at your job so that we can be the best at ours.
  43. Everything you do is exaggerated; you are under a magnifying glass.
  44. You are always leading, you can never not lead. – David Cottrell
  45. Trust happens mostly when there is face-to-face, two-way communication…and caring.
  46. If you do not show us you care we conclude that you don’t. Then we reciprocate…we stop caring too.
  47. What you reward, reinforce and train for is what you will receive.
  48. The best time to make a change is when it seems the least necessary.
  49. When you are positive we are more positive. When you are negative we follow your lead.
  50. The longer a problem is allowed to fester within our team, the more energy and emotion it will take to solve.
  51. If you create an environment for learning we will develop and become more skillful.
  52. Leadership cannot be claimed like luggage at the airport. Leadership cannot be inherited even though you may inherit a leadership position.
  53. Leadership must be earned by mastering a defined set of skills, by working with others to achieve common goals, and building trust.
  54. The art of communication is the language of leadership.
  55. I heard what they said. I will believe it when I see it. You can say that again.
  56. One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat only has nine lives – Mark Twain
  57. We judge ourselves based on our intentions…but others judge us based on our actions. And….actions speak louder than words.
  58. Walk the talk and get the results you want.
  59. There are no misunderstandings; there are only failures to communicate.
  60. Knowledge is power and knowledge shared is power multiplied.
  61. I would rather see a sermon than hear one any day.
  62. I would rather you walk with me than merely show me the way.
  63. The eye is a better pupil and more willing than the ear.
  64. Fine counsel is confusing but example is always clear.
  65. The best of all preachers are those who live their creeds.
  66. To see good put in action is what everybody needs.
  67. I soon can learn to do it if you let me see it done.
  68. Lectures that you deliver may be very fine and true but I would rather get my lesson by observing what you do.
  69. I may not understand you and the high advice you give but there is no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.
  70. Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.
  71. The first key to greatness is to be in reality what we appear to be – Socrates.
  72. People watch everything you do – you are always leading – everything counts – do the right thing.
  73. I can live for two months on one good compliment – Mark Twain.
  74. Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying “make me feel important” – Mary Kay Ash.
  75. Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on earth – George W. Crane
  76. You are in the right to expect recognition by giving it! It is that simple.
  77. It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed. – Napoleon Hill
  78. Coaching is not an addition to a leader’s job; it is an integral part of it.
  79. Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want is the support of others.
  80. If you raise the bottom, the top also rises.
  81. The process of coaching includes staying in touch with everyone on your team.
  82. The best leader is the one who surrounds him or herself with winning people.
  83. Many top performers go to bed hungry at night, that is hungry for recognition from me.
  84. Your job is to create a climate in which people can excel and move into areas of greater responsibility within the agency.
  85. Avoiding a problem does not solve it.
  86. If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard just keep putting off doing it – Olin Miller
  87. Time flies. It is up to you to be the navigator.
  88. Sometimes I get a feeling that the two biggest problems in America today are making ends meet and making meetings end – Robert Orben
  89. Meetings without specific objectives tend to achieve nothing specific. – David Cottrell, Mark C. Layton
  90. Treat people with respect.
  91. Listen to other’s ideas.
  92. Keep informed about what is going on.
  93. Be considerate of your own time – be considerate of other’s time.
  94. Recognize others for doing a good job.
  95. The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today’s work superbly well – Sir William Osler
  96. It is your responsibility to know and understand your own talents, values and desires.
  97. Life is too short not to be happy, and too long not to do well. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  98. Focus on finding the right place – the right job – that relies on your talents and your gifts.
  99. The art of communication is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong things at the tempting moment – Dorothy Nevell
  100. The more you help others grow the more you will grow.
  101. The key to effective writing is being clear and concise.
  102. Clarity begins with simplification.
  103. People judge how much you care by how attentive you are.
  104. The unraveling process is making molehills out of mountains.
  105. The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
  106. Spending time improving where you are instead of looking where you think you should be is the key to your success.
  107. Don’t miss the next chance. Write your goals down and develop a plan to make them happen.
  108. Many of life’s failures are people who do not realize how close they were to success when they gave up – Thomas Edison
  109. Words to live by are just words unless you live by them – you have to walk the talk.
  110. Values are the goal that is in each of us. They are the real fortune of our agency.
  111. When you make a promise you have to deliver.
  112. We judge ourselves mostly by our intentions but others judge us mostly by our actions.
  113. People hear what we say but they see what we do. Seeing is believing!
  114. Good things happen when you make sure that good things happen!
  115. The rules: start with me – find others who believe – show them how – hold them accountable – do right by those who do right.
  116. If you cannot do it don’t say it. And if you can’t say it don’t play it.
  117. Let everyone hold the trophy.
  118. When you break a promise, more than the promise gets broken.
  119. Even a fortune collects dust if you let it.
  120. Programs usually fail for one of two reasons. Either they are bad ideas to begin with or they are good ideas that are handled poorly.
  121. You earn the right to expect others to do things by doing those things yourself.
  122. Vision without action is meaningless.
  123. It is critical that Managers insure their departments are about what we say our agency is about.
  124. Before you implement decisions check to ensure that they are in accord with organizational values.
  125. Ask for help in solving problems – seek ideas, suggestions and information.
  126. Listen and respond with empathy.
  127. It is far better to forgive and forget than to resent and remember.
  128. I I am only one but still I am one – I cannot do everything but still I can do something – and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do – Edward Everett Hale
  129. Kindness is Christianity with its working clothes on.
  130. The moments that stand out in life are the moments when you have done things for others.
  131. To get to love a person we must come in close contact with him – Mother Teresa
  132. Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not – Samuel Johnson
  133. Do what you can with what you have, where you are – Theodore Roosevelt
  134. Involve the people with the knowledge in the decisions.
  135. Plan your work – work your plan – make the most of what you have.
  136. The more staff understands how the Agency works, the more likely they are to accept and support change.
  137. Do right by those who do right.
  138. Set the example – remember that everything counts – set the example.
  139. Well begun is half done.
  140. Those on the go are those in the know!
  141. F For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?
  142. T The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren’t is the willingness to work very, very hard.
  143. Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome. Not everyone can be number one.
  144. The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time.
  145. The only place you find success before work is in the dictionary.
  146. Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
  147. The road to success is lined with many tempting parking spaces.
  148. Success is more attitude than aptitude.
  149. There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. – Colin L. Powell
  150. Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
  151. The Lord gave us two ends – one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one we use the most.
  152. Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.
  153. Success doesn’t come to you – you go to it.
  154. I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got. – Walter Cronkite
  155. Courage is fear holding on a minute longer. – George S. Patton
  156. M Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
  157. To get what we’ve never had, we must do what we’ve never done.
  158. In confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins…not through strength but by perseverance. – H. Jackson Brown
  159. The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it and the faith to believe it possible.
  160. It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life…we can never help another without helping ourselves. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  161. If you will spend an extra hour each day of study in your chosen field, you will be a national expert in that field in five years or less. – Earl Nightingale
  162. Whether you think you can, or think you can’t…you’re right. – Henry Ford
  163. Remember…with awareness comes responsibility…responsibility to act.
  164. Put a smile in the path of a complaint…once daily. Cease to complain.
  165. Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. – Dr. Joyce Brothers
  166. Begin somewhere. You cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do. – Elizabeth Smith
  167. If you’re doing your very best, you won’t have any time to worry about failure. – H. Jackson Browne
  168. Leave no questioning in anyone’s mind as to where you stand.
  169. The difference between “involvement” and “commitment” is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was “involved” – the pig was “committed”.
  170. The same man cannot be skilled in everything; each has his special excellence. – Euripides
  171. It’s not the hours we put on the job but what we put into the hours that counts. – Sydney Madwed
  172. If you don’t make things happen, then things will happen to you. – Roman Virgil
  173. Much that passes for education is not education at all but ritual. The fact is that we are being educated when we know it least. – David P. Gardner, University President
  174. People will forget what you said. People will even forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.
  175. We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. – Max DePree
  176. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift – that’s why it is called the present.
  177. Methodically cultivate relationships – they are your lifeline.
  178. Give your life and wisdom away.
  179. No investment is too small.
  180. Embrace lifelong learning.
  181. Use your downtime as mental uptime – read, listen, learn, visualize.
  182. Use mentors to get valuable answers to tough questions.
  183. Seek out different opinions before they come to you.
  184. Make a positive change every day.
  185. You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist! – Friedrich Nietzsche
  186. K Knowledge is the best eraser in the world for disharmony, distrust, despair, and the endless deficiencies of man. – Orlando Battista
  187. I Intolerance has been the curse of every age and state. – Samuel Davies
  188. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. – Carl Jung
  189. The real death of America will come when everyone is alike. – James T. Ellison
  190. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his {or her} point of view. – Harper Lee
  191. We need to remember across generations that there is as much to learn as there is to teach. – Gloria Steinem
  192. It takes all sorts to make a world. – English Proverb
  193. Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety. Differences must be integrated, not annihilated, not absorbed. – Mary Parker Follett
  194. No two people are exactly the same. So, if being different was to equal being wrong, EVERYONE would be wrong — including YOU! – Steve Ventura
  195. Recognize and accept that generational differences naturally influence our ideas, expectations, values, perceptions and behaviors at work.
  196. Acknowledge that everyone wants to be treated with dignity and respect. And, remember that based on their individual experiences and perspectives, those expectations will likely be defined differently by different people.
  197. Give coworkers, customers and suppliers the same “benefit of doubt” that you wish from them. Presume that the people you interact with are motivated by good and noble intentions – unless they prove otherwise.
  198. Accept that you can learn from others’ different life experiences, perspectives and approaches – just as others can learn from yours.
  199. Make an effort to focus on your similarities with others rather than your differences. Find, appreciate and celebrate the common ground you share with those you work with…and work for.
  200. Continually challenge your beliefs, opinions and assumptions about individuals from different generations.
  201. Remember that each individual brings something special {and needed} “to the table”…each person represents a piece that must be present in order for your organizational puzzle to be complete.
  202. Focus on what really matters: productivity, teamwork, customer service and mutual success.
  203. Accept the fact that how you treat, deal with and respond to others is purely and simply a matter of your own choosing.
  204. Guard your integrity as if it’s your most precious leadership possession, because that is what it is.” – David Cottrell
  205. Relationships are built on trust and respect, cemented together with shared experiences. – Valerie Sokolosky
  206. Temper your candor with compassion and understanding. – Dr. Andrew M. Scibelli
  207. The people you hire determine your success. Take your time and make the right choices. – David Cottrell
  208. Before you can become a great leader to others, you must first understand yourself. – Vince Poscente
  209. The most important thing in business (and life) is to decide what is most important. – Lee J. Colan
  210. Keeping good people requires thought and strategies – most of which cost next to nothing. – David Cottrell
  211. Great success is always rooted in great expectations. – Lee J. Colan
  212. Live your life by choices…not by change. – David Cottrell
  213. When it comes to leading people, there is no problem that is unique to you. – David Cottrell
  214. The true measure of your leadership is the ability to look in the mirror and know that you had the courage to do what you felt was the right thing to do. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  215. Use words to change your situation, not to describe it. – Lee J. Colan
  216. Effective team performance begins with effective personal performance. High-achieving leaders start with themselves – Lee J. Colan
  217. Learning never ends for those who want to be successful. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell
  218. Tackling adversity means moving forward with the knowledge that some questions need action, not answers. – Christopher Novak
  219. Even if you are selling the finest product of its kind, good clients will eventually disappear if a positive customer service relationship is missing. – David Cottrell
  220. Make a clear, unequivocal decision to be the best, and don’t leave yourself any ‘outs’. Tell yourself, ‘I’m going to do it. That’s it. Period.’ – Billy Cox
  221. The more flexible you are in your job often determines how marketable you will be in the future. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  222. The five ‘Bs’ of e-mail presentations: Be brief, be clear, be simple, be prompt, be careful. – Tony Jeary
  223. Success is rehearsed long before it suddenly appears. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  224. There is a certain kind of comfort in knowing the truth…even if it is tough to face. – Stephen Krempl
  225. ‘B Players’ – the loyal, consistent, dedicated employees – are the foundation of an organization’s productivity. – Teri Kabachnick
  226. Learning to delegate is a good rule, but what you can never delegate is your accountability – Valerie Sokolosky
  227. You control the thermostat for the climate in which you work. – David Cottrell
  228. Spend more time living your legacy instead of worrying about leaving it. – Lee J. Colan
  229. Life should be a fulfilling journey, not just a struggle to survive. – Vince Poscente
  230. Integrity is never being ashamed of your reflection. – David Cottrell
  231. People support what they help create – involve them! – Lee J. Colan
  232. There are few – very few, if any – leaders who have not faced the same issues you are facing. – David Cottrell
  233. Measure everything! – Lorraine Grubbs-West
  234. If you accept responsibility and move forward, there’s a good chance that your team will follow your lead. When that happens, everyone wins. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  235. Values that are visible are viable. – Christopher Novak
  236. Fixating on the problem is not the solution. – Vince Poscente
  237. Ne Sim Oblex – May I never be an obstacle. – David Cottrell, Alice Adams
  238. Inspire your team through emotion. Never underestimate the power of emotion. – Vince Poscente
  239. A cluttered desk does not indicate genius. Au contraire! It signals confusion and creates stress. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  240. Customers want to do business with people who are extraordinary at what they do. – David Cottrell
  241. From all that I have seen, at least 90 percent of success derives from having a dream and knowing what you want. – Billy Cox
  242. If you have talents that exist beyond your current position, you’re cheating everyone by not pursuing advancement. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  243. You can’t multiply power until knowledge is shared. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  244. When managers restrict the flow of information throughout the organization, it has big problems – at every level. – Stephen Krempl
  245. Trustworthiness is the foundation for building understanding, support and acceptance. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  246. If you were to leave today, what would your team say? – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell
  247. Successful leaders relieve stress with excellent preparation, positive affirmations, personal confidence, and total concentration. – David Cottrell
  248. If the 80/20 Principle exists in your business, then the most profitable 1/5 of your business is 16 times more profitable than the remaining 4/5. – Lee J. Colan
  249. Today’s most sought-after job perk is integrity. – David Cottrell
  250. Without conflict there is no growth, and the most challenging conflict is within ourselves. – Vince Poscente
  251. The success of change is largely determined by your attitude about change. – David Cottrell
  252. It’s never too late to change. – David Cottrell
  253. When you invest in a mind, you engage it. – Lee J. Colan
  254. The way we act is the way we teach. – Vince Poscente
  255. It is the sum of kept promises, even small ones, that builds our credibility and effectiveness with colleagues. – Christopher Novak
  256. Introduce your positive thinking to unencumbered potential. – Vince Poscente
  257. Nothing destroys people or organizations more quickly than leaders with egos out of control. – David Cottrell
  258. Coaching begins with creating an environment where people want to be part of a winning team. You have the power to make that happen. – David Cottrell
  259. If you want a place in the sun, expect some blisters. – David Cottrell
  260. The more you think and talk about your goals, the more positive and enthusiastic you become. – Billy Cox
  261. Almost memorize the beginning of your presentation. Nervousness is most intense at the beginning of a presentation. Attack your nerves by having your introduction totally under control. – Tony Jeary, David Cottrell
  262. Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. – William James
  263. If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. – Olin Miller
  264. Ulcers are something you get from mountain-climbing over molehills. – David Cottrell, Mark C. Layton
  265. Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there. – Josh Billings
  266. Counting time is not nearly as important as making time count.
  267. By stretching yourself beyond your perceived level of confidence, you accelerate your level of competence. – Michael J. Gelb
  268. You don’t have to achieve success to get started, but you do have to get started to achieve success…then stick to it! – Lee J. Colan
  269. Tomorrow you will become what you choose today. – Lee J. Colan
  270. Your own beliefs have a much greater impact on your results than anyone else’s beliefs. – Lee J. Colan
  271. The things we focus on create a magnet for our lives. Focus on opportunities and doors seem to open. Focus on problems and obstacles are plentiful. – Lee J. Colan
  272. We become what we think about. – Earl Nightingale
  273. Whether said in love or anger, gratitude or envy, your words leave a lasting impression. – Lee J. Colan
  274. One person with a commitment is worth more than 100 people who have only an interest. – Mary Crowley
  275. Use your words to change your situation, not to describe it. – Lee J. Colan
  276. Tell people how you want to feel and it won’t be long before you do. – Lee J. Colan
  277. Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act. – George W. Crane
  278. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. – Winston Churchill
  279. Help is not help until it is given, so turn your intentions to help into acts of help.
  280. When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. – Helen Keller
  281. When you are in a bad mental state, think of your mind as a bad neighborhood. Don’t go in there alone.
  282. No dream comes true until you wake up and go to work on it.
  283. A life filled with positive attitude is also filled with positive impact. – Lee J. Colan
  284. When you become a ‘victim,’ you give up the right to create your future. – David Cottrell
  285. Don’t let your past consume your future. – David Cottrell
  286. The principal method of communication in most organizations is the observation of other people’s behavior. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  287. Do the right things rather than hammer on doing things exactly right. – Valerie Sokolosky
  288. The comfort zone is the greatest enemy of potential. – David Cottrell
  289. No lie is so small that it doesn’t matter. – David Cottrell
  290. Those who underestimate the intelligence of others tend to overestimate their own. – Lee J. Colan
  291. We live in a world of instant gratification, but we need to fight that pressure and remember that the worthiest goals take time and energy. – Vince Poscente
  292. Integrity is the commitment to do what is right regardless of the circumstances – no hidden agendas, no political games. Do the right thing, period. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell & Mark Layton
  293. Embrace change because when you stop changing, you stop improving. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  294. The hiring decisions you make are more important than the leadership techniques you demonstrate. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  295. We must adjust our expectations to accept the truth that life – and work – are not always fair and that even in this reality, we must excel. – Christopher Novak
  296. Having the wrong person in a role, or holding on to a poor performer because you don’t want to go through the hassle of hiring someone, will cost you in the end and at the bottom line. – David Reed, David Cottrell
  297. If you are waiting on perfect conditions before doing what needs to be done, you will never get anything done. – David Cottrell
  298. Not only are the lower performers not doing their jobs; they’re probably preventing the top performers from doing their jobs as well. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  299. Your ‘nice’ customers can absolutely kill your business. They can be so nice that they never complain and eventually fade without notice into the deadly category of ex-customers. – David Cottrell
  300. When you teach others how to succeed and duplicate themselves, you generate excitement in the organization. – Billy Cox
  301. Often the tiebreaker in the job-selection process is confidence and communication. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  302. The path to becoming a high-performing leader involves recognizing, naming and then walking through our fears. – Juli Baldwin
  303. Talk is cheap. It’s your actions that are most important – that’s what your team pays attention to. – Stephen Krempl
  304. If you can tear down the walls and understand more of what’s going on in other areas of your organization, it will destroy misconceptions of other departments, and teams can begin supporting each other. – Valerie Sokolosky
  305. Your success should be appreciated and enjoyed – while you do what is necessary to ensure future success. – David Cottrell
  306. A goal with a depth of meaning has an emotional buzz. – Vince Poscente
  307. Your job is not crisis management, and your people should not be firefighters. – David Cottrell
  308. Surrounding yourself with extraordinary talent is not just an important part of your job – it’s critical to your success. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  309. Integrity is the cornerstone of leadership. – David Cottrell
  310. If you want to earn more, you gotta learn more. – David Cox
  311. The longer the problem – any problem – is ignored, the bigger it gets. – David Cottrell
  312. For you to be successful, you and your boss must work together – no matter what. – David Cottrell
  313. Having the courage to say ‘no’ could be your most effective time-management tool. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  314. You will become like the five people you associate with the most. This can be either a blessing or a curse. – Billy Cox
  315. Most of the time the determining factor of a manager’s success or failure is how well the strategy was communicated. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  316. There’s nothing wrong with honestly saying, ‘I don’t know.’ – Valerie Sokolosky
  317. Don’t waste your energy solving problems without having the facts. – David Cottrell
  318. You don’t have to be great to get started, but you do have to get started to be great. – Lee J. Colan
  319. It doesn’t take long for morale and productivity to erode and finally disintegrate because of one performer. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  320. Hire people who can laugh at themselves. – Lorraine Grubbs-West
  321. You simply cannot ignore performance issues and expect your superstars to stick around for very long. – David Cottrell
  322. If your main thing is always changing, expect nothing but frustrated employees. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  323. When people go to work, they don’t leave their hearts at home. We may live in a high-tech world, but leadership is still a high-touch job. – Lee J. Colan
  324. Organizations thrive when our people can ‘see’ tomorrow as better than today because they are making it better. – Christopher Novak
  325. Successful people create a habit of positive enthusiasm. – David Cottrell
  326. Your greatest liability is the one you are unaware of. – Lee J. Colan
  327. People are watching and listening. Is your video in sync with your audio? – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  328. Personal commitment is inexpensive to offer but priceless in terms of trust and credibility. – Ken Carnes
  329. One of the key questions you have to ask – and answer – almost immediately is, ‘Would you buy from you?’ – David Cottrell
  330. Your entire life is a continuous process of communicating, persuading and influencing other people. – Billy Cox
  331. If you master all three connection skills…speaking, writing, listening…you will skyrocket in the stack ranking of the upwardly mobile within your organization. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  332. Practice your presentation so much that you can do it ‘on autopilot.’ That way, even if your brain freezes, your lips can keep moving. – Tony Jeary, David Cottrell
  333. Proactive reflection is the key to continuous improvement. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell
  334. Don’t stifle your career by limiting your knowledge. – David Cottrell
  335. The best decisions are normally made before you are in a crisis. – David Cottrell
  336. Against all odds, persevere. – Lee J. Colan
  337. People respond positively to people they know, trust and like. – Valerie Sokolosky
  338. If you do not take care of the little things over the long term, you won’t take care of the big things. – Lee J. Colan
  339. It takes courage to pursue employee commitment rather than settling for mere compliance. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  340. The most courageous journey you can take is the journey within. – Vince Poscente
  341. The power within, aligned with the power of the many, is equivalent to a tiny ant guiding a mighty elephant. – Vince Poscente
  342. A leader with focus and direction fills buckets. A leader who creates confusion and inconsistency has a dipper that drains people’s buckets. – David Cottrell
  343. The most effective leaders spend the majority of their time listening to their employees and customers…and acting on their suggestions. – David Cottrell
  344. Fair or not, people judge us on our actions, regardless of our good intentions…we have to walk our talk. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  345. As long as you keep your positive attitude and shoot straight with people, most will work hard for you because they’ll trust you. – Valerie Sokolosky
  346. Turn your opinions into questions. – Vince Poscente
  347. The biggest challenge for business leaders is not creating well-founded principles for leading an excellent company…it is the lack of disciplined application of those principles. – Lee J. Colan
  348. Extraordinary steps produce extraordinary results. – Vince Poscente
  349. Embrace the truths…not what you want to believe, but what is…and re-evaluate regularly. – David Cottrell, Alice Adams
  350. Press on! Your defining moment may arrive just when you feel surrounded by adversity. – David Cottrell
  351. You and your people will be much better served if you spend less time being a ‘boss’ and more time being a COACH. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  352. The reality is that people care less about working for a company and much more about working for a compelling cause. – Lee J. Colan
  353. The best way to earn respect is to help others succeed. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  354. People give as good as they get. – Lorraine Grubbs-West
  355. People are not mind readers. Understand exactly what you believe, and communicate those beliefs without hesitation. – David Cottrell
  356. We do more for those who appreciate us. – Lee J. Colan
  357. Perfection paralysis is expensive. Sometimes it is not worth the effort to make things ‘perfect’. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  358. Ignoring issues puts your own integrity at risk. – David Cottrell
  359. Customers scrutinize how you treat them after the sale as much as they evaluate you when they are making a decision to buy. – David Cottrell
  360. Your belief dictates your behavior. If you believe you will succeed, you will. If you believe you will fail, then failure is certain. – Billy Cox
  361. One of the best ways to improve speaking skills is to teach others what you know. The more you help others grow, the more you will grow. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  362. Confusion is a close cousin to boredom – and both could be deadly to your presentation. – Tony Jeary, David Cottrell
  363. What creates success or failure is our decisions, not the conditions. – David Cottrell
  364. Reduce stress…build relationships…build trust. – Stephen Krempl
  365. Involve people in major decisions. Listen to them – they often have the best ideas anyway. – David Cottrell
  366. Good news is never better than the moment it happens. Bad news over time only gets worse. Hit sticky issues straight on. – Valerie Sokolosky
  367. Integrity is the commitment to do what is right regardless of the circumstance. No hidden agendas, no political games – do what is right. – David Cottrell
  368. If you don’t love what you do, you have two choices: You can either change what you’re doing or you can change what you love. – Billy Cox
  369. When you write things down, you commit to doing them. If you simply tell me what you want to do, there is really no commitment to getting it done. – David Cottrell
  370. Communication is not about talking. It’s about sharing. – Christopher Novak
  371. People buy from people, not companies. – Lee J. Colan
  372. Our experiences are much less important than how we choose to think about them. – Lee J. Colan
  373. When you accepted your management position, you also accepted the fact that you can never NOT lead. Your actions follow you everywhere. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell & Mark Layton
  374. Take a close look at successful people…you will find them doing things that others don’t like to do. – David Cottrell
  375. Once you have a field that’s producing, don’t abandon it. – Ken Carnes
  376. The definition of profit is reward to risk. – David Cottrell
  377. The leadership you display and the decisions that you make contribute more to your success than all other factors combined. – David Cottrell
  378. A blurred company vision yields diffused employee efforts. – Lee J. Colan
  379. Make fear your friend, not your master. – Vince Poscente
  380. Value your team’s diversity and manage each person as the unique and valuable asset they are. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell & Mark Layton
  381. Seize each moment and passionately pursue life by being the very best you can be. No looking back. No regrets! – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell
  382. Successful people keep moving, even when they are discouraged and have made mistakes. – David Cottrell
  383. Conquering adversity is all about heart. Communication – the art of sharing what we feel – gives our heart a voice. We call it passion, and no winner lives without it. – Christopher Novak
  384. Management is reactive…leadership is proactive. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell
  385. When an organization’s strategy becomes predictable, they are a sitting target for their competitors. – David Cottrell, Alice Adams
  386. If there is a lack of clear direction, there’s a good chance there also will be chaos and inconsistency. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  387. Life is too short to deal with unpleasant people…more than once. – David Cottrell
  388. All superstars have a super attitude. – Billy Cox
  389. Clarity begins with simplification. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  390. Credibility is something that must be earned. It might be the result of hard work, but hard work in and of itself does not build credibility. – Tony Jeary, David Cottrell
  391. Your thoughts today create the results in your future. – David Cottrell
  392. Trust is the foundation of good communication. – Stephen Krempl
  393. The more buckets you fill, the more your bucket is filled. – David Cottrell
  394. Some people think differently from you and communicate differently. It doesn’t make your style right or wrong – just different. – Valerie Sokolosky
  395. There is nothing in your business or personal life that outweighs the negative consequence of sacrificing your integrity. – David Cottrell
  396. The difference between dysfunctional teams and high-impact teams is often an absence of chemistry formulated by timely and sincere communication. – Christopher Novak
  397. You have too much potential to be living Ground Hog Day over and over. – David Cottrell
  398. You don’t know what you don’t know. Open your mind to discover possibilities that may not be obvious at the time. – Vince Poscente
  399. A purpose is your team’s bridge to a brighter tomorrow…and you have to build it! – David Cottrell
  400. Don’t let your marketing department write a check that your front-line staff can’t cash. – David Reed, David Cottrell
  401. Courage is moving forward…even through the path of most resistance. – David Cottrell
  402. Hire ‘nice’, because you can’t train ‘nice’. – Lorraine Grubbs-West
  403. Life’s rewards go to those who let their actions rise above their excuses. – David Cottrell
  404. Success in any business requires a sense of urgency. – Ken Carnes
  405. There are reasons why hearses don’t have luggage racks! Your legacy will be what you leave others. – David Cottrell
  406. You cannot pick and choose what you want people to see and follow. You are always leading. – David Cottrell
  407. The most important conversation you will ever have is the one with yourself. – Lee J. Colan
  408. Be easy on yourself and everyone else…we are all works in progress. – David Cottrell
  409. Zero in on a goal that has a depth of meaning. The journey has to be worth taking. – Vince Poscente
  410. Competence builds confidence. – Lee J. Colan
  411. Your goal is to hire tough and make it an honor for someone to be on your team. – David Cottrell
  412. Engaging leaders appreciate their employees, not just their contributions. – Lee J. Colan
  413. It’s difficult to watch people leave your organization. It’s worse, however, if someone has already ‘mentally quit’ and you allow him or her to stay. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  414. Winners are committed to ‘hang in there’ long enough to win. – David Cottrell
  415. Customers don’t forget attitudes. – David Reed, David Cottrell
  416. We fear most the unknown. Defining moments of change occur when we choose to face our fears. – Lee J. Colan
    12/3/07-Okun, Peskoff, Pierson&Conant, Pinyuh, PioCosta, Pneuma, Point Gammon, Poole, Rcehler, Rodgers, Schacht, Selective Group, Shapiro, Sharkey, Spola, Waldele, Westville
  417. The more you teach, the more accountable you become to what you’re teaching. Teaching is good for you! – David Cottrell
  418. Reinforced behavior becomes repeated behavior. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  419. Your business is based on trust. When you lose a customer’s trust, there is really no basis for continuing the business relationship. – David Cottrell
  420. Good, better, best; never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is best. – Billy Cox
  421. Your mind is your personal computer. Scan and delete negative input regularly. – Lee J. Colan
  422. If you want to be around happier people…choose to be happy. It starts with you. – David Cottrell
  423. Be accountable and measure progress. – Stephen Krempl
  424. Your time is your responsibility. If you aren’t able to do the important things, only you can solve that problem. – David Cottrell
  425. Life is a team sport. You will need the help and support of others to reach your goals. – Billy Cox

1/14&1/15, 1/22, 1/25, 1/30/08: Pre-selection ltrs: McDowell, Melosh, Marcalus, Marcello, Marianthi, Markey, Marshall, Martin, Lookout, Lorber, Luing, Luzarraga, Lombardo, Littenberg, Q. Kennedy, Kroon, Knurr, LaBlanc, LaGrassa, Lipari, Joy Street, Keating Crawford, Keep the Faith, Knueven, Landsberger, S. Lang, Larini, Lautenberg, Lipper, Howe, Imbesi, Infinite Possibilities, It’ll Do, James Family, Marian Craig Leers, LFH, Clare, Coccia, Collins, D’Angelo, DePhillips, Doherty, Holmes, Kean, Liana, Alford, Almar, Barrett, Bartlett, Baus, Beane, Bergeron, Bocina, Boorujy, Brach, Brandywine, Bulova Gale, Canata, Capozzi, Caxton, Cesatam, Charles, Chippie, DRS Tech., Durso, Farris, Fr. Collins, Fr. John, Five G’s, Fournier, Frazza, Fruscione, Children in Americas, Gagnon, Galgano, Gallagher, Garcia, George, Gibson, Giordano

  1. There is no ‘grand conspiracy’ preventing you from accomplishing what you need to do. – David Cottrell
  2. Shift beliefs, attitudes and truths so they are aligned with your vision. – Vince Poscente
  3. If you want your ship to come in, you’ve got to go where the ships are. In personal improvement, the ships are in goals – specific, measurable and obtainable goals. – David Cottrell
  4. The more employees know how valuable they are, the more valuable they become. – Lorraine Grubbs-West
  5. The opposite of courage is conformity. – David Cottrell
  6. When customers have an issue, more than at any other time, you and your customers have an opportunity to develop a bonded relationship. – David Cottrell
  7. The Obvious Choice looks at the mountain as a bunch of molehills put together that have to be unraveled – deconstructed, one small piece at a time. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  8. For you to be the very best, you cannot allow yourself to become complacent in your comfort zone. You need to be reaching for improvement. – David Cottrell
  9. You earn trust when employees perceive you will be fair when there is no obvious right or wrong. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  10. We need to shift our thinking on how we must work across the organization – from west to east – rather than from the top down. – Valerie Sokolosky
  11. You cannot fake your desire to be a leader. Be true to yourself and your people. – David Cottrell
  12. What you reward, reinforce and train for is what you will get. – David Cottrell
  13. Success does not depend upon the brilliance of your plan, but upon the consistency of your actions. – Lee J. Colan
  14. Envision having the goal rather merely wanting the goal. – Vince Poscente
  15. When the customer is operating at top speed, we succeed. – Ken Carnes
  16. Accept constructive criticism as a gift…a learning tool that teaches us lessons throughout our life. – David Cottrell
  17. Successful leaders typically demonstrate the courage to remain optimistic and search for the best – even in times of stress and uncertainty. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  18. When facing adversity, we must move in a determined, motivated manner, even if the outcome of our actions is not well defined. – Chris Novak
  19. How an organization ‘recovers’ from a guest complaint or a service blunder is the single biggest factor that separates the average company from the exceptional. – David Reed, David Cottrell
  20. You are the Chief Bucket-Filler, and the best way to fill buckets is with excellent communication. – David Cottrell
  21. Deciding to be committed and doing something about your commitment are entirely different. Leaders must do more than decide…they must take action. – David Cottrell
  22. The signature of mediocrity is consistently changing directions. The signature of excellence is sticking to it. – Lee J. Colan
  23. If messengers are shot down for telling the truth, no truthful messengers will attend the next meeting. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  24. The best marketing tool available to you is your customer’s satisfaction after the sale. – David Cottrell
  25. If you want to reach the highest level of success, you have to learn to tap in to the amazing power of edification. – Billy Cox
  26. A real leader spends his time fixing the problem instead of finding who to blame. – David Cottrell
  27. Eventually a rut can become a grave because the only difference between a rut and a grave is in the depth. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  28. Every seed produces its own kind. Apple seeds do not yield oak trees. What seeds are you sowing? Sow positive behaviors to reap positive results. – David Cottrell
  29. Stay focused. Discover what is most important…then stick to it. – Lee J. Colan
  30. When you depend on another’s perceptions to match your expectations, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. – David Cottrell
  31. The number one reason employees are unhappy at work is that they do not know what is expected. – David Cottrell
  32. You are the same today as you’ll be in five years except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read. – Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
  33. Effective leaders are able to see beyond the obvious and focus on something greater than the current situation. – David Cottrell
  34. Integrity means doing the right thing, even when no one will ever find out what you’ve done. – Billy Cox
  35. Life is a series of presentations. Everywhere we go and in everything we do, we present ourselves to others. – Tony Jeary, David Cottrell
  36. All great things start as one small thing. – Lee J. Colan
  37. Keep the main thing the main thing. – David Cottrell
  38. Complacency is the root of mediocrity. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey

2/7/08 Preselection letters: Good, Grauer, Gravina, Green, H. Green

  1. People quit people before they quit companies. – David Cottrell
  2. Staff to your weaknesses so you can focus on your areas of strength. – Valerie Sokolosky
  3. Never take your eyes off your goals. – David Cottrell
  4. The paradox of change: The best time to do it is when it seems the least necessary. – David Cottrell
  5. High-achieving leaders hone their focus. – Lee J. Colan
  6. Experience the goal as though it were happening right now. – Vince Poscente
  7. Without your trust, very little a manager says or does will matter. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell
  8. Take the time to manage your boss the same way you manage your subordinates. – David Cottrell
  9. Overcoming adversity is exhausting, frustrating work but it is not stronger than our most determined efforts. – Christopher Novak
  10. Convert your turning points into learning points. – Lee J. Colan
  11. If you take care of your customers, they’ll take care of your business. – David Reed, David Cottrell
  12. Excellent leadership vision does not necessarily guarantee excellent results, yet leadership without vision does guarantee failure. – David Cottrell
  13. Perception is reality…only for the ignorant. – Teri Kabachnick
  14. Character is the ability to follow through with a goal, a commitment or a contract long after the excitement is gone or the money you earned has been spent. – Billy Cox
  15. Without a compelling cause, your team’s minds might be engaged but their hearts are not. Meaning precedes motivation. – Lee J. Colan
  16. Lighten up. Find humor in the absurdities of work and life. – David Cottrell
  17. Don’t paint stripes on your back if you’re not a zebra. Focus on building upon your unique abilities. – Lee J. Colan
  18. One of the ‘main things’ for a leader is to eliminate confusion. – David Cottrell
  19. No matter how much you voice mail, e-mail, memo or speak, if you are not addressing your followers’ needs you are not communicating. – David Cottrell
  20. Frequently ask yourself the number one time-management question of all time: What is the best use of my time right now? – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  21. Leadership has to be earned. The long and short of it…it takes time. – Valerie Sokolosky
  22. Show your gratitude consistently. – Vince Poscente
  23. There is never a good reason to sacrifice your integrity. – David Cottrell
  24. Complexity is the enemy of excellence. Keep things simple. – Lee J. Colan
  25. Disengagement begins when learning and development end. – Teri Kabachnick – – J Moskal, A. Thompson, N. Jermanowski,
    P. Paventa, R. Field
  26. The pain of tomorrow’s squandered opportunities lasts far longer than the pleasure of today’s complacency. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  27. People will go out of their way to avoid communicating with those they do not trust. Without trust, you are wasting each other’s time. – David Cottrell
  28. The longer a problem is allowed to exist, the more costly it will be to fix. Very seldom, if ever, does a problem solve itself and simply go away. – David Cottrell
  29. Earning trust sometimes takes years, but it can be destroyed in seconds by one simple action. — Ken Carnes, David Cottrell & Mark Layton
  30. It is not what we leave our kids; it’s what we leave within them that counts. – Valerie Sokolosky
  31. Avoid negative, cynical people whenever you can. The impact of negative people in your work group can be more damaging than the actions of your competitors. – David Cottrell
  32. Clarity is the friend of accountability; ambiguity is the enemy. – Lee J. Colan
  33. Frequently the difference between success and failure is the resolve to stick to your plan long enough to win. – David Cottrell
  34. You have to escape from management land and get in touch with your people. – David Cottrell
  35. Leaders see what’s possible, describe what’s possible, and pursue what’s possible. – Paul B. Thornton
  36. Teamwork is connected independence. – David Cottrell
  37. Mastery is not built in chunks. It’s a gradual process of layering. – Lee J. Colan
  38. Frustration will lead to negative thoughts. Negative thoughts add fuel to more negativity. This negativity can be a pattern that destroys confidence. – Vince Poscente
  39. We were meant to give our lives away. Focus on living your legacy instead of worrying about leaving it. – Lee J. Colan
  40. If you want to perform at the highest level, have fun! – Vince Poscente
  41. Your highest form of communication is your example. People hear what you say and how you say it, but people respond to what they see you do. – David Cottrell
  42. Build your vocabulary. A large vocabulary allows you to influence people to change. – Ed Zimmer
  43. Customers enjoy positive surprises. – David Cottrell
  44. Success is doing the right things long enough until you finally achieve your goals. – Billy Cox
  45. Your job is not to lower the bottom by adjusting for and accommodating the lowest-performing employees. You should be raising the top by recognizing and rewarding superstar behaviors. – David Cottrell
  46. Spending time improving where you are, instead of looking where you think you should be, is the key to your success. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  47. Criticism, even unjust criticism, is not to be ignored – listen with the intent to understand. – David Cottrell
  48. Know what the forest looks like before you chop down a tree. – Lee J. Colan
  49. Many top performers go to bed hungry at night – hungry for recognition from you. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  50. For profits, you need people who perform. Period. – Teri Kabachnick
  51. ‘Lagniappe’ – always give the customer a little something extra. – David Reed, David Cottrell
  52. As the leader of a team, people are watching you…they’re watching everything you do. The question is, what are they seeing? – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  53. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy – in fact, sometimes it’s really hard – but just remember that doing the right thing is always right. – David Cottrell
  54. No two thoughts can occupy the mind at the same time. Replace negativity with positive, confident thoughts. – Vince Poscente
  55. Courage is proactively attacking your fear. – Lee J. Colan
  56. The customer’s rule of reciprocity: When I enjoy doing business with you, I will spend more money with you. – David Cottrell
  57. Most things worth doing never go quite the way they were planned. The challenge is to ignore the distractions, overcome the obstacles and stay focused on the goal. – Billy Cox
  58. If you want to be around people who are positive and enthusiastic and eager to live, your attitude has to be the same. – David Cottrell
  59. Being a mom is a great school for managers. – Valerie Sokolosky
  60. It is difficult to worry when you are energetically working toward a plan! – David Cottrell
  61. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction so when you aim forward expect backward motions from time to time. – David Cottrell, Alice Adams
  62. Successful leaders play with class – win, lose or draw. They make no excuses and look forward to the next challenge. – David Cottrell
  63. Leaders generate ideas. They find easier, better ways to achieve the desired goals. – Mitch McCrimmon
  64. Your assumptions or view of the world will consistently predict your actions and the results you achieve. – Lee J. Colan
  65. Life rewards action…so dive in and get to work. – Lee J. Colan
  66. Unforeseen circumstances will arise. Expect the unexpected. Anticipate your response to challenges as well as your team’s. – Vince Poscente
  67. Be curious! Curiosity is a prerequisite to continuous improvement and excellence. – Mary Jean Thornton
  68. Like it or not, Coach, you are the team’s pacesetter. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  69. Working is still a poor substitute for living. People need to have lives outside work in order to enjoy their lives at work. – Christopher Novak
  70. The trailing edge prospers. You don’t always have to be the first to do something. Capitalize on the other guy’s hard work and improve on it. – David Cottrell
  71. The more you enjoy the people at work, the more you will enjoy your work. – David Cottrell
  72. Life and work cannot be separated into compartments. Managers must become more ‘professionally personal’. – Teri Kabachnick
  73. Attack procrastination! Do it now! – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  74. If you help your customers create value for their company, they will reward you with more business. It is as simple as that. – David Cottrell
  75. If you are convinced you have found your ‘gold mine’, keep digging. – Billy Cox
  76. The pain of regret for not being prepared for an opportunity will last far longer than the pleasure of today’s laziness. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  77. Expect troubles to invade your life. When trouble comes, look it squarely in the eye and say, ‘I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.’ – David Cottrell
  78. If you want to make big, lasting change, you’re going to have to create new habits. – Stephen Krempl
  79. You have no choice about being a role model for your team. The only choice that you have is which role you will model. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  80. The most important thing you do as a leader is hire the right people. – David Cottrell
  81. Effective leaders have the self-discipline to work long after their competitors have gone for the day. – David Cottrell
  82. To get passionate performance, you must give it. – Lee J. Colan
  83. When it comes to problems and conflict, people who bury their heads in the sand will find that their backsides are exposed. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell & Mark Layton
  84. Never lower your standards just to fill a position. You will pay for it later. – David Cottrell
  85. What in our adult world that’s truly important has no associated accountabilities or consequences? The answer is NOTHING. Importance and accountability go hand in hand. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  86. Celebration rescues us from exhaustion of fighting the good fight. It renews our energy, lifts our spirits, and keeps us afloat. – Christopher Novak
  87. Those who give the best of themselves get the best from others. – Lee J. Colan
  88. Your success is the result of making better choices…and recovering quickly from bad choices. – David Cottrell
  89. Great coaches invest in lifelong learning. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  90. When the time is right, just pucker up and say…’I’m sorry.’ – Vince Poscente
  91. Regardless of the past, your future will be shaped by your optimism about what is ahead. – David Cottrell
  92. Reaching the next level doesn’t just happen. It takes vision, discipline and action. – David Cottrell, Alice Adams
  93. Your success is based more on what your people do than what you do. Focus on people, not titles. – Lee J. Colan
  94. Being committed to a task means, in effect, being committed to the process of being committed. – Vince Poscente
  95. Change the way you look at things and things will change the way they look. – Lee J. Colan
  96. One of the major sources of stress, anxiety, and unhappiness comes from feeling that your life is out of control. – David Cottrell
  97. There are two performance end-states that cannot be tolerated in any organization: not getting results, and getting results the WRONG way. – David Cottrell, Eric Harvey
  98. Amid adversity, remember that positive outcomes are easier to see with your head up. – Christopher Novak
  99. Create your own brand, ‘Brand Me,’ and advertise it. – Ken Carnes
  100. What kind of results would we achieve if everyone imitated you? – David Cottrell
  101. Why wait for Thanksgiving to be thankful? Why wait for Christmas to be generous? Why wait for birthdays to be happy? Look for moments every day when you can show your team appreciation. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  102. The real prescription for success is to ACT NOW…because not everyone gets a second chance. – Stephen Krempl
  103. Customer loyalty begins with employee loyalty. – David Cottrell
  104. When things go wrong, don’t waste valuable time blaming others for what happened. Shift your attention from what is wrong to what the situation will look like in the future. – Billy Cox
  105. Successful people have the ability to make the right choices at the right time. – David Cottrell
  106. There will be more problems. There’s no escaping it – it’s a fact of life. The question is, are you going to be proactive and take action to avert a crisis, or are you going to do nothing and hope things turn out okay? – Stephen Krempl
  107. Leaders keep improving, especially when they are on top of their game. – David Cottrell
  108. Successful leaders have successful habits. They sacrifice today’s pleasures for tomorrow’s rewards. – Lee J. Colan
  109. Don’t allow adversity to steal your dream. Instead, use adversity to reveal to you the inner resources you didn’t even know you possessed. – Billy Cox
  110. Early response leads to easier resolutions. – Stephen Krempl
  111. Gratitude is the magic ingredient in the recipe for a fulfilling life. – Vince Poscente
  112. The comfort zone is full of people who are passed by others who make personal improvement a priority. – Ken Carnes, David Cottrell & Mark Layton
  113. If you want to make better use of your time, you need to be looking for the small increments of time…a minute here, five minutes there, etc. – David Cottrell
  114. Passion exposes possibilities. – Lee J. Colan
  115. Celebrate life. For all its imperfections, injustices and wrongs, life is still a beautiful gift. – Christopher Novak
  116. A successful recovery can turn an upset person into a loyal customer, which will more than pay back the cost of fixing the original mistake. – David Reed, David Cottrell
  117. The key to making your best decisions is to precisely understand your values. – David Cottrell
  118. Don’t be so busy making a living that you forget how to live. Work hard to be successful, but enjoy the journey. – David Cottrell, Mark Layton
  119. If you choose to ignore the voices and actions of your customers, the long-term health of your business is in jeopardy. – David Cottrell
  120. So much of life is about attitude and how we handle what life throws our way. – Bryan Dodge, David Cottrell
  121. If you are going to fulfill your destiny, you gotta get in the game, you gotta stay in the game, and you gotta follow the game plan. – Billy Cox
  122. Character is the foundation upon which one must build to win respect. Just as no worthy building can be erected on a weak foundation, so no lasting reputation worthy of respect can be built on a weak character. – R.C. Samsel
  123. Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself. – Harvey S. Firestone
  124. Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out. – John Wooden
  125. Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward. – Soren Kierkegaard
  126. The good old days were never that good, believe me. The good new days are today, and better days are coming tomorrow. Our greatest songs are still unsung. – Hubert H. Humphrey
  127. It is not what happens that determines the major part of your future. What happens, happens to us all. It is what you do about what happens that counts. – Jim Rohn
  128. Your past is important, but it is not nearly as important to your present as is the way you see your future. – Dr. Tony Campolo
  129. We are free up to the point of choice, then the choice controls the chooser. – Mary Crowley
  130. Life will be to a large extent what we ourselves make of it. – Samuel Smiles
  131. Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been. – John Greenleaf Whittier
  132. Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. – William Jennings Bryan
  133. A man carries his success or failure with him…it does not depend on outside conditions. – Ralph Waldo Trine
  134. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. – Theodore Roosevelt
  135. Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on. – Les Brown
  136. I used to say, ‘I sure hope things will change.’ Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change. – Jim Rohn
  137. Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is in the doing, not the getting – in the trying, not the triumph. – Wynn Davis
  138. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. – J. Martin Kohe
  139. Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by traffic from both sides. – Margaret Thatcher
  140. Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there. – Josh Billings
  141. I’m a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more of it I have. – Thomas Jefferson
  142. The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going. – David Starr Jordan
  143. The mind is a bit like a garden. If it isn’t fed and cultivated, weeds will take it over. – Erwin G. Hall
  144. It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well. – Rene Descartes
  145. If you want to be successful, know what you are doing, love what you are doing and believe in what you are doing. – Will Rogers
  146. Every beginning is a consequence. Every beginning ends something. – Paul Valery
  147. There is a time when we must firmly choose the course we will follow, or the relentless drive of events will make the decision for us. – Herbert B. Prochnow
  148. You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends. – Joseph Conrad
  149. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke
  150. The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. – Mae Maloo
  151. I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. – Bill Cosby
  152. I have found that the greatest help in meeting any problem with decency and self-respect and whatever courage is demanded, is to know where you yourself stand. That is, to have in words what you believe and are acting from. – William Faulkner
  153. Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always make you less than you are. – Malcolm Forbes
  154. L There is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience. – John Wooden
  155. Integrity is telling myself the truth, and honesty is telling the truth to other people. – Spencer Johnson
  156. Anyone who thinks they can go to the top and stay there without being honest is dumb. – Mortimer Feinberg
  157. There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy. – Anonymous
  158. If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the rest will take care of itself. – Frank Perdue
  159. Integrity is not a 90 percent thing, not a 95 percent thing; either you have it or you don’t. – Peter Scotese
  160. Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time. – Arnold Glasow
  161. Don’t compromise yourself; you are all you’ve got. – Betty Ford
  162. The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. – Norman Schwarzkopf
  163. There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. – Freya Stark
  164. If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room. – Dame Anita Roddick
  165. Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. Start where you stand and work with whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along. – Napoleon Hill
  166. Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity’s door if you ardently want to enter. – B.C. Forbes
  167. Now that it’s all over, what did you do yesterday that’s worth mentioning? – Coleman Cox
  168. Decisions without actions are worthless. – W. Clement Stone
  169. Progress always involves risk; you can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first. – Frederick Wilcox
  170. If you can’t win, make the fellow ahead of you break the record. – Charles L. Tiblom
  171. Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. – James B. Conant
  172. Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead
  173. In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. – Theodore Roosevelt
  174. The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work. – Mark Twain
  175. Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. – Will Rogers
  176. The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action. – Anonymous
  177. The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. – Mark Twain
  178. We must all suffer from one or two pains; the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weights tons. – Jim Rohn
  179. When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. – Franklin Roosevelt
  180. Failure is delay, but not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end street. – William Arthur Ward
  181. Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. – Dale Carnegie
  182. Success…seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. – Conrad Hilton
  183. Men’s best successes come after their disappointments. – Henry Ward Beecher
  184. Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill
  185. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas Edison
  186. You cannot measure a many by his failures. You must know what use he makes of them. What did they mean to him? What did he get out of them? Orison Swett Marden
  187. The most essential factor is persistence – the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come. – James Whitcomb Riley
  188. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. – Seneca
  189. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s OK to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing. – H. Stanley Judd
  190. Others can stop you temporarily – you are the only one who can do it permanently. – Zig Ziglar
  191. Failure is the only opportunity to more intelligently begin again. – Henry Ford
  192. The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn…and change. – Carl Rogers
  193. Failure is success if we learn from it. – Malcolm Forbes
  194. Your attitude – today, tomorrow and forever – is your choice. Choose wisely.
  195. An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out? – Michel de Saint-Pierre
  196. Some people are always grumbling that roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses. – Alphonse Karr
  197. Surround yourself with people who are optimistic and caring; it’s one time when being ‘surrounded’ is a good thing. – Al Lucia
  198. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. – Helen Keller
  199. Recipe for having friends: Be one. – Elbert Hubbard
  200. After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box. – Italian proverb
  201. One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything every night before going to bed. – Bernard Baruch
  202. Our rewards in life will always be in exact proportion to the amount of consideration we show others. – Earl Nightingale
  203. The golden rule is of no use whatsoever unless you realize that it is your move. – Dr. Frank Crane
  204. Relationships of trust depend on our willingness to look not only to our own interests, but also the interests of others. – Peter Farquharson
  205. Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind. – Henry James
  206. Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. – Albert Schweitzer
  207. Remember, if people talk behind your back, it only means you’re two steps ahead. — Fannie Flagg
  208. The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. – John F. Kennedy
  209. What you are afraid to do is a clear indicator of the next thing you need to do. – Anonymous
  210. In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. – Henry Ward Beecher
  211. Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it. – George Halas
  212. It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  213. When you share, the remainder multiplies and grows. – W. Clement Stone
  214. If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. – Mother Teresa
  215. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. – Mahatma Gandhi
  216. There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. – Edith Wharton
  217. We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. – Ben Sweetland
  218. We were meant to give our lives away. Focus on living your legacy instead of worrying about leaving it. – Lee J. Colan
  219. Y You can be bitter or better – your choice. – Jesse Jackson
  220. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo da Vinci
  221. The basis of leadership is the capacity of the leader to change the mindset, the framework of the other person. – Warren Bennis
  222. I knew then and believe even more firmly now – there is a simpler way to lead organizations, one that requires less effort and produces less stress than the current practices. – Meg Wheatley, Ph.D.
  223. No matter how complicated a problem is, it usually can be reduced to a simple, comprehensible form which is often the best solution. – An Wang, founder of Wang Labs
  224. Leaders do not need to have all the answers. They do need to ask the right questions. – Ronald Heifitz and Donald Laurie Harvard Business Review, February 2000
  225. All of life’s answers are available, if we just knew what questions to ask. – Albert Einstein
  226. Those who plan the battle are less likely to battle the plan. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
  227. What is impossible to do in one paradigm can be easy in the next. – Joel Barker
  228. Success produces success, just as money produces money. – Nicolas de Chamfort
  229. The success combination in business is: Do what you do better…and…Do more of what you do.
  230. The first and most important step toward success is the feeling that we can succeed. – Nelson Boswell
  231. Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. – Henry Ford
  232. Winning organizations not only fulfill their desired goals today, but they also continually redesign those goals as circumstances change and go on to meet those new goals. – Noel Tichy
  233. Leadership is making the complex simple. — Anonymous
  234. Arrogance is attitudinal. Check it at the door. – Benjamin Franklin
  235. Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them to become what they are capable of being. – Johann W. Von Goethe
  236. Unless he manages himself effectively, no amount of ability, skill, experience or knowledge will make an executive effective. – Peter Drecker
  237. One person can make a difference and every person should try. – John F. Kennedy
  238. Professionalism is knowing how to do it, when to do it…and doing it. – Frank Tyger
  239. Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything…except technology. – John Tudor
  240. Decide what your priorities are and how much time you will spend on them. If you don’t, someone else will. – Harvey Mackay
  241. If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people you might better stay home. – James Michener
  242. Tact is…giving the other fellow a sense of ease in one’s presence. – Gordon Lindsay
  243. The highest of distinctions is service to others. – King George VI
  244. In business the competition will bite you if you keep running. If you stand still they will swallow you. – William Knudsen
  245. It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. – Coach John Wooden
  246. Complaints are good! The only way you can make positive changes is by knowing what needs to be changed. – David Cottrell, Mark C. Layton
  247. If things go wrong, don’t go with them. – Roger Babson
  248. If you ignore dissatisfied customers and they go to a competitor, they have Elephant memory about their unpleasant experience…and they talk about it! – David Cottrell, Mark C. Layton
  249. A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pressure – Anonymous
  250. M The longer a problem exists without being identified or addressed, the more expensive and time-consuming it is to fix.
  251. Very seldom, if ever, does a problem solve itself and simply go away. – David Cottrell, Mark C. Layton
  252. Always do more than is required of you. – General George S. Patton
  253. There’s always room for improvement. It’s the biggest room in the house. – Louise Heath Leber
  254. The world is equally balanced between good and evil and your next act will tip the scales. – Rabbi Hillel
  255. We are living in a world of raplexity – a business environment that changes rapidly – and, as changes occur, they are more and more complex. – Valerie Sokolosky
  256. Today is another opportunity to go to work and have a positive impact on someone else’s life. – David E. Reed
  257. Choose to be a Difference Maker! – David E. Reed
  258. You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. – David E. Reed
  259. Your integrity will be valued by what you do when no one else is watching. Choose the correct path. – David E. Reed
  260. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
  261. The key to success on any team is to spread the work around, trying to take advantage of each person’s strengths while developing their weaknesses. – David E. Reed
  262. If you want to make yourself a valuable member of your team, take time to learn about your co-workers’ jobs so you are ready to jump in and help out when the need arises. – David E. Reed
  263. When you hear or see one of your co-workers doing a great job that results in a satisfied customer, celebrate and let others know about this success. – David E. Reed
  264. Doesn’t it make more sense to focus our time and talents on the things we can control…or at least influence? – David E. Reed
  265. The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. – Lady Dorothy Nevill
  266. Be a difference maker. Anyone can use their job and their daily tasks to make a positive difference in the lives of those they come in contact with. – David E. Reed
  267. Serve each other. Although it is rare and sometimes difficult, learn to serve your fellow team members and customers. Put each other’s needs ahead of your own and trust that those who do the right thing will win in the end. – David E. Reed
  268. Any human encounter can become a good one. – Simon T. Bailey
  269. Professional Paradise is a state of being – a state of mind backed up with intentional action. So often it’s not what happens at work, but how we perceive it, think about it and act on it that has a lasting impact. – Vicki Hess
  270. Happiness isn’t just a vague, ineffable feeling; it’s a physical state of the brain – one that you can induce deliberately. – Richard Davidson
  271. You don’t have to depend on others for your happiness or your paradise. You can create it yourself – on a regular basis – even at work! – Vicki Hess
  272. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. – Wayne Dyer, “The Power of Intention”
  273. If you don’t know the ending to a story, then why not create a happy one? – Vicki Hess
  274. If you don’t make things happen, then things will happen to you. – Robert Collier, “The Secret of the Ages”
  275. Intentionally choose your actions after objectively assessing the circumstances. – Vicki Hess
  276. Connections are at the heart of business, because little gets done without some degree of interaction or joining together with others. – Vicki Hess
  277. Misery has enough company…dare to be happy! – Volkswagen advertisement
  278. Be the change you want to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi
  279. Pay attention to the care and feeding of your brain. – Vicki Hess
  280. The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going. – David Starr Jordan
  281. The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. – Vince Lombardi
  282. Winners are committed to ‘hang in there’ long enough to win. – Lee J. Colan
  283. Passion exposes possibilities. – Lee J. Colan
  284. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. – George Carlin
  285. Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. – Norman Vincent Peale
  286. w Wisdom is choosing the purity of truth over popularity. – Lee J. Colan
  287. When you heart speaks, take good notes. – Anonymous
  288. Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything. You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets. – Clark Moustakas
  289. Courage is moving forward…even through the path of most resistance. – Lee J. Colan REPEAT OF #401
  290. Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spine of others are often stiffened. – Billy Graham
  291. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. – Andre Gide
  292. It’s not the size of the man, but the size of his heart that matters. – Evander Holyfield
  293. It’s not enough to be busy. The question is, what are we busy about? – Henry David Thoreau
  294. Happiness comes from following one’s passion. Success comes from work that you are passionate about. – Anonymous
  295. Difficulties do not control my life. I am responsible for my own success! – Charles Mallory
  296. Follow your dreams, not the path of others’ expectations. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  297. Values…know the, believe them, live them. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  298. Vision is the gift to see what others only dream. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  299. The past does not have a future, but you do. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  300. Step out…make the difference. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  301. Your best is yet to come. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  302. Success is a reflection of your commitment to excellence. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  303. The right attitude is the root of success. It enables us to stand strong and prevail. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  304. You must let go to grow. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  305. Greatness takes time to grow. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  306. Excellence is reflected in each of us. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  307. Your legacy is not what you leave, it’s how you have lived. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  308. Move forward…turn opportunity into reality. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  309. Our character is revealed while navigating life’s obstacles. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  310. Make excellence an everyday event. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  311. Life’s greatest rewards often appear in unexpected places. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  312. Courage is the inner drive to make progress regardless of the difficulty. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  313. For every person, there comes a time when you must step forward and meet the needs of the time. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  314. Regardless of whether your moment is now or sometime in the future, you must be ready. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  315. When you move forward…even through the path of most resistance…you gain the courage necessary to win. – David Cottrell & Lee J. Colan
  316. Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. – Benjamin Franklin
  317. Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. – Napoleon Hill
  318. The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
  319. Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever. – Keri Russell
  320. Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome. – Samuel Johnson
  321. Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. – Vincent van Gogh
  322. Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others. – Plato
  323. The choices we make, the words we say, and the actions we take not only impact our lives, but also the lives of those around us. – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  324. Do something wonderful, people may imitate it. – Albert Schweitzer
  325. Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans. – Peter F. Drucker
  326. My satisfaction comes from my commitment to advancing a better world. – Faye Wattleton
  327. Integrity: Doing the right thing; taking the high road; acting according to one’s values. – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  328. Choose to take the road less traveled. The path may be bumpier, the landscape plainer, the duration longer. But the destination will truly be worth the journey. – – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  329. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost
  330. Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential. – Winston Churchill
  331. Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible. – Lord Chesterfield
  332. Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears. – Gillian Anderson
  333. Optimism: –noun – a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.
  334. For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else. – Sir Winston Churchill
  335. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. – Helen Keller
  336. The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest. – Albert Einstein (LTRS TO: Bill McDonald, Tony Lombardo & Ted Wessel;
    MEMOS TO: Peggy Briant & Rita Kelly)
  337. Life is all about timing…the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable become available, the unattainable…attainable. Have the patience, wait it out. It’s all about timing. – Stacey Charter
  338. The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now. – Proverb
  339. To do something, however small, to make others happier and better, is the highest ambition, the most elevating hope, which can inspire a human being. – John Lubbock
  340. Allow the love for those things that you hold dear to inspire you to get involved, to support one another, to make a difference. – – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  341. I love you not only for what you are but for what I am when I am with you. – Roy Croft
  342. We can do no great things; only small things with great love. – Mother Teresa
  343. Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. – William Plomer
  344. Sometimes creativity just means the daily work of helping others to see a problem in a different way. – Joseph Badaracco
  345. Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist. – Thomas Disch
  346. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. – Mitch Albom
  347. The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others. – Albert Schweitzer
  348. Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day. – Sally Koch
  349. Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else’s life forever. – Margaret Cho
  350. It is important to give it all you have while you have the chance. – Shania Twain
  351. We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history. – Sonia Johnson
  352. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. – Marianne Williamson
  353. One idea, which is acted upon, can change us and those around us in unimaginable ways. – – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  354. Realize that by removing your self-imposed boundaries, you open yourself up to limitless possibilities. – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  355. Develop a mindset that will give you courage to go after your goals, rather than to feel overwhelmed by them. – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  356. Believe that it’s the small things that make a big difference. – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  357. Improve yourself and the world around you. – Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas
  358. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. – Helen Keller
  359. Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention. – Greg Anderson
  360. If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly in those moments. – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  361. Stay focused. Discover what is important…then stick to it. – Lee J. Colan
  362. Excellence requires laser-like focus. – Lee J. Colan
  363. When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves. – William Arthur Ward
  364. It does not matter whether customers are wrong or right; it matters how they feel when they hang up the phone. – Patti Wysocki
  365. It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up. – Babe Ruth
  366. Those who let things happen usually lose to those who make things happen. – David Weinbaum
  367. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle
  368. In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. – Yogi Berra
  369. A life filled with positive attitude is also filled with positive impact. – Lee J Colan
  370. A single act does make a difference…it creates a ripple effect that can be felt many miles and people away. – Lee J Colan
  371. Live your company values before you communicate them to your employees. – Lee J Colan
  372. Corporate culture is nothing more than a compilation of behaviors. So, culture change is really about behavior modification. – Lee J Colan
  373. Organizational change is just a concept that is brought to life by individuals who change. – Lee J Colan
  374. The old assertion that ‘the happy employee is the productive employee’ was refuted long ago. In fact, the reverse is true: the productive worker is the happy worker. Therefore we must change employees’ behavior, then their hearts will follow. – Lee J Colan
  375. More companies die from organizational indigestion than die from organizational expansion. – Lee J Colan
  376. Saying ‘Yes’ to one thing always means saying ‘No’ to something else. – Lee J Colan
  377. Measure what matters, then manage what you measure. – Lee J Colan
  378. High revenue growth forgives many sins. – Lee J Colan
  379. Leaders who manage growth most effectively force themselves to get off the treadmill of work in their business and step into the eagle’s nest to work on their business. – Lee J Colan
  380. The entrepreneur says, ‘The next deal is king,’ while the leader says, ‘The customer is king’. – Lee J. Colan
  381. Employees who are searching for answers typically fill in the blanks with the worse case scenario. – Lee J. Colan
  382. Frequently, the difference between success and failure is to resolve to stick to your plan long enough to win. – David Cottrell
  383. The problem with American business is not a lack of good ideas, but a lack of follow-through. – Mary Kay Ash
  384. Success does not depend upon the brilliance of your plan, but upon the consistency of your actions. – Lee J. Colan
  385. If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. – Laurence Johnson Peter
  386. The secret to success is constancy of purpose. – Benjamin Disraeli
  387. T Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
  388. I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. – Bill Cosby
  389. Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple. – C.W. Ceram
  390. If a man does his best, what else is there? – General George S. Patton
  391. Beware of no man more than thyself. – Thomas Fuller
  392. T The most important thing about goals is having one. – Geoffrey F. Abert
  393. Our goal can only be reached through a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. – Stephen A. Brennan
  394. Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. – Stephen Covey
  395. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  396. The most important conversation you will ever have is the one you have with yourself. – Anonymous
  397. The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. – Richard Bach
  398. Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes the ice melt, kindness causes misunderstandings, mistrust and hostility to evaporate. – Albert Schweitzer
  399. Communicate, communicate, communicate – until you are sick of hearing yourself. Then communicate some more. – Jack Welch, Former CEO of General Electric
  400. If you want to be successful, put your effort into controlling the sail, not the wind. – Anonymous
  401. You don’t have to be great to get started, but you do have to get started to be great. – Lee J. Colan
  402. Start a crusade in your organization – have the courage to learn, the vision to lead, and the passion to share. – Lee J. Colan
  403. If you love your customers to death, you can’t go wrong. – Graham Day
  404. If you don’t care, your customer never will. – Marlene Blaszczyk
  405. Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once. – Norman Vincent Peale
  406. Biggest question: Isn’t it really ‘customer helping’ rather than customer service? And wouldn’t you deliver better service if you thought of it that way? – Jeffrey Gitomer
  407. C Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong. – Donald Porter
  408. It’s what you say AND how you say it that counts. – Steve Ventura
  409. Research has shown that approximately 55% of all face-to-face communication is done through BODY LANGUAGE (facial expressions, posture, gestures). – Steve Ventura
  410. Here is a simple but powerful rule: Always give people more than what they expect to get. – Nelson Boswell
  411. If you are not serving your customer, you better be serving someone who is! – Jan Carlzon, former CEO of Scandinavian Airlines
  412. You are serving a customer, not a life sentence. Learn how to enjoy your work. – Laurie McIntosh
  413. Keep a grateful journal. Every night, list five things you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day…and your life. – Oprah Winfrey
  414. To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity. – Douglas Adams
  415. Giving what you expect to get from others is called “integrity.’ – Steve Ventura
  416. Expecting what you fail to give, yourself, is called “hypocrisy.” Don’t be a hypocrite! – Steve Ventura
  417. You hold in your hands the power to keep customers coming back – perhaps even to make or break the company. – Ron Zemke and Kristin Anderson
  418. Service is about doing things at the customer’s convenience, not the servers. – Steve Ventura
  419. A customer is not an interruption of our work; he is the purpose of it. – Leon Leonwood
  420. When you make commitments write them down, check your list often, do whatever it takes to make good on them. – Steve Ventura
  421. Learn from the best and the worst. – Steve Ventura
  422. Of customers who take their business their business somewhere else: 65% leave because of customer service. – The Forum Corporation
  423. As far as clients are concerned, you are the agency. – Ron Zemke and Kristin Anderson
  424. You hold in your hands the power to keep clients coming back – perhaps even to make or break this agency. – Ron Zemke and Kristin Anderson
  425. Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. – Albert Einstein
  426. Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. – Albert Einstein
  427. Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. – Albert Einstein
  428. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
  429. People judge your integrity by what they see you do everyday. – Anonymous
  430. If you don’t show people that you care they will reason that you don’t care. Then they will reciprocate. – Anonymous
  431. Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. – Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton
  432. It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – J.K. Rowling
  433. We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
  434. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates
  435. I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying. – Michael Jordan
  436. Never lose sight of the fact that the most popular yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people. – Barbara Bush
  437. A good exercise for the heart is to bend down and help another up. – Anonymous
  438. A true friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else. – Len Wein
  439. Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. – Lou Holtz
  440. The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort. – Colin Powell
  441. Fools live to regret their words, wise men to regret their silence. – Will Henry
  442. Be careful of your thoughts; they may become words at any moment. – Jara Gassen
  443. It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up. – Vince Lombardi
  444. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re right. – Mary Kay Ash
  445. One of the secrets in life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks. – Jack Penn
  446. Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don’t just stand there, make it happen. – Lee Iacocca
  447. There’s always room for improvement – it’s the biggest room in the house. – Louise Heath Leber
  448. What get celebrated, get repeated! – Eric Harvey and Al Lucia
  449. I It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages. – Henry Ford
  450. I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. – Abraham Lincoln
  451. The purpose of our value statements is to guide both our behaviors and our decisions. – Eric Harvey and Al Lucia
  452. Additional problems are the offspring of poor solutions. – Mark Twain
  453. An oak and a reed were arguing about their strength. When a strong wind came up, the reed avoided being uprooted by bending and leaning with the gusts of wind. But the oak stood firm and was torn up by the roots. – Aesop
  454. Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his nect out. – James B. Conant
  455. The hallmark of a well-managed organization is not the absence of problems, but whether or not problems are effectively resolved. – Steve Ventura
  456. Coaching isn’t an addition to a leader’s job. It’s an integral part of it. – George S. Odiorne
  457. All too frequently, employees do good work in spite of the organization and its leadership, rather than because of them. – Al Lucia
  458. Feedback is the breakfast of champions. – Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson The One Minute Manager
  459. Leaders who choose which rules to follow and which ones to let slide set a dangerous example for their people to follow. And they WILL follow! – Steve Ventura
  460. No one enjoys addressing others’ deficiencies. But failure to do so sends the message that people are on track when they really aren’t. And that may be the greatest disservice a leader can do to someone else. – Eric Harvey
  461. If leaders are careless about basic things – telling the truth, respecting moral codes, proper professional conduct – who can believe them on other issues? – James L. Hayes
  462. It’s critical that leaders ensure their departments and teams are about what the organization says IT is about. – Al Lucia
  463. Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility. In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility. – Michael Korda
  464. Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t. – Margaret Thatcher
  465. The best [leader] is the one who has sense enough to pick good [people] to do what [he/she] wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. – Theodore Roosevelt
  466. The quality of employees will be directly proportional to the quality of life you maintain for them. – Charles E. Bryan
  467. When people work in a place that cares about them, they contribute a lot more than duty. – Dennis Hayes
  468. Truly great leaders spend as much time collecting and acting on feedback as they do providing it. – Al Lucia
  469. Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed. – Peter F. Drucker
  470. If you don’t give people information, they’ll make up something to fill the void. – Carla O’Dell
  471. Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue – to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak. – Epictetus
  472. If you want to get the best from yourself, first give the best of yourself. – Lee J. Colan
  473. If you expect something in return for your help, your act of kindness is really an act of trading favors. Be a giver, not a trader. – Lee J. Colan
  474. Help is not help unit it is given, so turn your intentions to help into acts of help. – Lee J. Colan
  475. It’s not having what you want; it’s wanting what you’ve got. – Sheryl Crow
  476. Our relationships should be the place where we act our best and give our best. – Lee J. Colan
  477. Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. – Viktor E. Frankl
  478. Your attitude is something you can always control! – Lee J. Colan
  479. Tomorrow you will become what you choose today. – Lee J. Colan
  480. You are the conductor of your own attitude! Nobody else can compose our thoughts for you. – Lee J. Colan
  481. Our attitude is our personal boomerang to the world – whatever we throw out will come back to us. – Lee J. Colan
  482. Help a colleague and we will find a helping hand. – Lee J. Colan
  483. Our attitude toward life is the most importance choice we make! – Lee J. Colan
  484. Our ability to choose is a gift, but it is also a huge responsibility. – Lee J. Colan
  485. The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. – William James
  486. Your own beliefs have a much greater impact on your results than anyone else’s beliefs. – Lee J. Colan
  487. When you change the way you look at things, things change the way they look. – Lee J. Colan
  488. Nothing in life is so hard that you can’t make it easier by the way you take it. – Ellen Glasgow
  489. Get to know and spend time with people who have a positive outlook. – Lee J. Colan
  490. You are what you think, so control your input! – Lee J. Colan
  491. We become what we think about. – Earl Nightingale
  492. You are who you are today because of what you believed yesterday. You will become tomorrow who you believe you are today. – Lee J. Colan
  493. Whether said in love or anger, gratitude or envy, your words leave a lasting impression. – Lee J. Colan
  494. One person with a commitment is worth more than 10 people who only have an interest. – Mary Crowley
  495. Your attitude…reflects your past, describes your present and predicts your future. – Lee J. Colan
  496. Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act. – George W. Crane
  497. Do or do not. There is no try. – Yoda
  498. It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. – Decouvertes
  499. Your day goes the way the corners of your mouth turn. – Unknown
  500. If you don’t make things happen, then things will happen to you – Roman Virgil
  501. A life filled with positive attitude is also filled with positive impact. – Lee J. Colan
  502. You cannot always control your feelings, but you can control your thoughts, words and actions. – Lee J. Colan
  503. All great things start as one small thing. – Lee J. Colan
  504. Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. – Thomas Jefferson
  505. The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. – Winston Churchill
  506. The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest; but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. – John F. Kennedy
  507. The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished. – George Bernard Shaw
  508. Do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few. – Pythagoras
  509. I do not live to play, but I play in order that I may live and return with zest to the labors of life. – Plato
  510. The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence. – Robert J. Shiller
  511. Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way. – Daniele Vare, Italian diplomat
  512. Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia. – Charles Schulz
  513. The pessimist may be right in the long run, but the optimist has a better time during the trip. – Anonymous
  514. Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death. – Roadside church
  515. Do the thing we fear, and the death of fear is certain. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  516. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. – Leo Tolstoy
  517. An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity. – Winston Churchill
  518. It is good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while to make sure you haven’t lost the things money can’t buy.- George Lorimer
  519. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. – Chinese proverb
  520. The best way to predict the future is to create it. – Peter Drucker
  521. I never worry about what I will do if I win a battle, but I always know exactly what I will do if I lose one. – Napoleon
  522. Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. – Voltaire
  523. When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn’t the slightest intention of putting it into practice. – Otto von Bismarck
  524. The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas. – Linus Pauling
  525. A few simple things done consistently in strategic places produce big results. – Anonymous
  526. The greatest good you can do for another is not to share your riches, but to reveal theirs. – Benjamin Disraeli
  527. There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting. – Buddhist quote
  528. Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. – Plato
  529. In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. – Eleanor Roosevelt
  530. Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you NOTHING. It was here first. – Mark Twain
  531. There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. – Colin Powell
  532. The Lord gave us two ends, one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one we use the most. – Ann Landers
  533. T The road to success is lined with many tempting parking spaces. – Anonymous
  534. Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and ay out. – Robert Collier
  535. Whatever you can vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act on…must inevitably come to pass. – Paul J. Meyer
  536. It’s me who is my enemy – me who beats me up, me who makes the monsters, me who strips my confidence. – Paula Cole
  537. Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  538. There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories are full of hearts broken by love, but what really breaks a heart is taking away its dream – whatever that dream might be. – Pearl Buck
  539. Surround yourself with positive people, and you’ll become positive and self-confident. Surround yourself with negative people, and you’ll become negative and lose your confidence. – Bud Bilanich
  540. A cynic not only reads bitter lessons from the past, he is prematurely disappointed in the future. – Sidney J. Harris
  541. Mentor: Someone whose hindsight can become your foresight. – Author Unknown
  542. Be on brand in all that you do. People with strong personal brand ensure that everything they do and all that surrounds them communicates their brand message. – William Arruda
  543. People judge us by the way we dress. In all situations, business and social, our outward appearance sends a message. – Lydia Ramsey
  544. Ladies and gentlemen help people feel good about themselves. They don’t embarrass others. – Bud Bilanich
  545. When performance exceeds ambition, the overlap is called success. – Cullen Hightower
  546. Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong learning attempt to acquire it. – Albert Einstein
  547. Never tell anyone that you’re writing a book, going on a diet, exercising, taking a course, or quitting smoking. They’ll encourage you to death. – Lynn Johnston
  548. Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One person gets only a week’s value out of a year while another person gets a full year out of a week. – Charles Richards
  549. The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the age old problem of what to say and how to say it. – Edward R. Murrow
  550. My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way. – Ernest Hemingway
  551. It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time. – Wayne Burgraff
  552. Trust is the glue of life. It is the foundational principle that holds all relationships. – Stephen R. Covey
  553. Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment. – Lao Tzu
  554. Tyr to find a WIN-WIN solution, in which both sides benefit. In that way, conflicts are turned into opportunities. – Robert Allen
  555. Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of. – Socrates
  556. Be as you wish to seem. – Socrates
  557. False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. – Socrates
  558. It is not only living that matters, but living rightly. – Socrates
  559. Let him that would move the world first move himself. – Socrates
  560. The unexamined life is not worth living. – Socrates
  561. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. – Socrates
  562. True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us. – Socrates
  563. The time is always right to do what is right. – Marin Luther King, Jr.
  564. Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have. – Doris Mortman
  565. It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies. – Arthur Calwell
  566. It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. – St. Francis of Assisi
  567. In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson
  568. The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. – Benjamin Mays
  569. I would rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate. – George Burns
  570. To see what is right and not do it is cowardice. – Confucius
  571. It is surprising how much you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. – Abraham Lincoln
  572. There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. – John Andres Holmes
  573. Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. – Japanese proverb
  574. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. – Unknown
  575. Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. – Unknown
  576. In times of change, there is no incentive so great, and no medicine so powerful as the hope for a better tomorrow. – Unknown
  577. Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. – Alexander Graham Bell
  578. Blesses are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. – Anonymous
  579. G Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness. – Jean Vanier
  580. He who rejects change is the architect of decay. – Harold Wilson
  581. The man who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after. – Newton D. Baker
  582. Perfection does not exist – you can always do better and you can always grow. – Les Brown
  583. In teaching others, we teach ourselves. – Proverb
  584. Trouble is opportunity in work clothes. – W. Clement Stone
  585. When you blame others, you give up your power to change. – Anonymous
  586. If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results. – Jack Dixon
  587. Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. – Sign hanging in Albert Einstein’s office at Princeton
  588. The only source of knowledge is experience. – Albert Einstein
  589. There is nothing that is a more certain sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different. – Albert Einstein
  590. Measured objectively, what a man can wrest from truth by passionate striving is utterly infinitesimal. – Albert Einstein
  591. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction. – Albert Einstein
  592. Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. – Albert Einstein
  593. We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. – Albert Einstein
  594. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. – Albert Einstein
  595. Sometimes one pays the most for the things one gets for nothing. – Albert Einstein
  596. In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself. – Albert Einstein
  597. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. – Albert Einstein
  598. The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. – Theodore Roosevelt
  599. Respect others and others will respect you. – Confucius
  600. A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success. – Dr. Joyce Brothers
  601. We need to restore the full meaning of that old word, DUTY. It is the other side of rights. – Pearl S. Buck
  602. Own, admit to, fix, and learn from your errors. – Steve Ventura
  603. Cut complacency, not corners. – Steve Ventura
  604. Ask yourself this question: “Is my attitude worth catching?” – Source unknown
  605. Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. – Mother Teresa
  606. Choose being kind over being right and you will be right every time. – Richard Carlson
  607. We are made kind by being kind. – Eric Hoffereric
  608. No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. – Aesop
  609. Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness. – Seneca
  610. Forget injuries; never forget kindness. – Confucius
  611. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. – Kahlil Gibran
  612. Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. – Goethe
  613. A person’s true wealth is the good he or she does in the world – Mohammed
  614. Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. – Mother Teresa
  615. What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? – Rousseau
  616. Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into a flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light. – Albert Schweitzer
  617. If anyone is in need, just lend a hand and help them out. – Anonymous
  618. By doing kind acts it helps you to see good in yourself and bring the good out in others. – Unknown
  619. Never get tired of doing little things for others. Sometimes, those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts. – Unknown
  620. Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. It is indeed the only thing that ever truly has. – Margaret Mead
  621. For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. – Audrey Hepburn
  622. Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. – Ben Franklin
  623. Isn’t it amazing how often we can touch someone’s life and enrich our own by a very simple act? Kindness, pass it on…what a wonderful way in which to pattern our lives! – Unknown
  624. The value of kindness cannot be measured in human terms. An act of kindness enriches the heart of both the giver and the receiver. – Brother Arockiam
  625. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. – Dalai Lama
  626. Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing. – Quincy Jones
  627. The kindness planned for tomorrow does not count for today. – Unknown
  628. You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  629. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single minute before starting to improve the world. – Ann Frank
  630. One who knows how to show and accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession. – Sophocles
  631. The best portion of a good man’s life – his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. – William Wordsworth
  632. Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolutions. – Kahlil Gibran
  633. Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end. – Scott Adams
  634. I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. – Maya Angelou
  635. You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. – John Bunyan
  636. The happiest people are those who care more about others than they do about themselves. – Ted Turner
  637. There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher. – Henry Van Dyke
  638. It is by spending ONESELF that one becomes rich. – Sarah Bernhardt
  639. Real generosity is doing something for someone who will never find out. – Frank A. Clark
  640. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. – Leo Buscaglia
  641. The capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest meaning and significance. – Pablo Casals
  642. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others? – Martin Luther King, Jr.
  643. You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your pay, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you – Ruth Smeltzer
  644. When good people have a falling out, only one of them may be at fault at first; but if the strife continues long, usually BOTH become guilty. – Thomas Fuller
  645. It takes TWO to quarrel, but only ONE to end it. – Spanish Proverb
  646. Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow”. – Mary Anne Radmacher
  647. If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have tow mouths and one ear. – Mark Twain
  648. Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes. – Buddha
  649. I am only bone but still I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do. – Helen Keller
  650. The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot. – Michael Altshuler
  651. In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking. – Sir John Lubbock
  652. To do two things at once is to do neither. – Publilius Syrus
  653. One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other. – Chinese Proverb
  654. Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. – William James
  655. It’s not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. The bee is praised. The mosquito is swatted. – Mary O’Connor
  656. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. – Anonymous
  657. Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. – Anonymous
  658. Spend your energy searching for solutions, not excuses. – David Cottrell
  659. Discard “That’s not my job” and replace it with ”What can I do to help?” – Paul Sims
  660. The people with whom you work reflect your own attitude…if you are on your best behavior, you will bring out the best in the persons with whom you are going to spend most of your waking hours.” – Beatrice Vincent
  661. Behaviors that get reinforced bet repeated. – Eric Harvey
  662. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. – Zen saying
  663. The best leaders do their work in such a way that the people believe that they did it themselves. – Lao Tzu
  664. Look them in the eye. Explain specifically what they did well. Give them a great big “Thank You!” – Eric Harvey
  665. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. – Lewis Carroll
  666. Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement. – Spanish proverb
  667. The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get, but what you give. – Eleanor Roosevelt
  668. Who gossips with you will gossip of you. – Irish saying
  669. Opportunities are often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be listening. – Unknown
  670. Use the 4 W’s for greater clarity. When making assignments, describe Who needs to do What, by When…and Why. – Donna M. Long
  671. A customer who complains is my friend. – Stew Leonard
  672. When things go wrong you are always faced with two choices: 1) Try to make things better, or 2) Not try. Choose to try! – Donna M. Long
  673. A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more an hour of praise after success. – Unknown
  674. Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. – Booker T. Washington
  675. If nothing else, leadership is the earned consent of followers, consent that begins with the trust that, as leaders, we are who we say we are, and that even in the absence of guidelines, we will do what is right. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  676. If you care about people, you tell them the truth. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  677. Forget outside competition when you own worst enemy is the way you communicate with one another internally. – Jack Welch
  678. If people are going to follow you, they have a right to know where you stand. And “stand” means stands. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  679. Without trust, everyone operates at best deliberately, at worst protectively, and in either case, slowly. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  680. While handling broken trust isn’t fun, it is essential for building high-performance relationships and results. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  681. Nugget: Technology is good. Relationships are important. Neither is a good substitute for the other. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  682. People can’t possibly do their very best work if they don’t fully understand why their work matters. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  683. We apply familiar solutions to fresh problems and wonder why the patch didn’t hold. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  684. Let people you work with know what your information preferences are. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  685. Choose your battles wisely. Before you fight, ask yourself if the issue will still be important in six months. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  686. Bottom line, your skillfulness as an influencer is a critical leadership competency that shapes your own, your team’s, and your organization’s success. – Meredith Kimbell, Richard Hadden & Bill Catlette
  687. Out of sight, out of mind. Out of mind, out of importance. Out of importance, OUT OF PRACTICE. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  688. You have no choice about being a role model. You are one…it comes with the job. The only choice you have is deciding which role you will model. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  689. They expect you to lead by example…to stand for something good and noble…to walk the talk. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  690. Facts: Your actions determine your character. Your character determines your credibility. Your credibility determines your ability to lead. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  691. What job-related activity do leaders engage in the most? Communication! What job-related activity do leaders typically pay the least attention to? Same answer! – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  692. The best communicators are careful and caring. The worst are carefree and careless. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  693. Of all the activities you engage in as a leader, “catching people doing things right” – and recognizing them for it – needs to be one of your top priorities. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  694. Recognizing good performance gets you more of it. Why? Because whenever you recognize any behavior, you also reinforce it. And, with few exceptions,…reinforced behavior is repeated behavior! – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  695. Why does my leadership position exist? What is my ultimate purpose? Why am I here? (1) To support and advance the organization’s mission. (2) To help employees reach their potential for success. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  696. Oftentimes, what team members really need in order to be successful are a few extra sets of hands to help carry the load. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  697. Most employees can be much more successful than they are. And when it comes to that, as a leader, you’re either part of the solution…or you’re part of the problem. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  698. Doing what is right isn’t always easy – but it is always right. Make the tough calls! – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  699. Conflicts are workplace obstacles. Don’t let them get in the way of your team’s success. Dealing with them may not be pleasant. But having to repair the damage they can cause will be even worse. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  700. Courage is following your conscience instead of “following the crowd”. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  701. Courage is taking action against hurtful or disrespectful behaviors. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  702. Courage is sacrificing personal gain for the benefit of others. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  703. Courage is speaking your mind even though others don’t agree. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  704. Courage is taking complete responsibility for your actions…and your mistakes. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  705. Courage is following the rules – and insisting that others do the same. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  706. Courage is hiring and promoting people who are faster, smarter, and more talented than you are. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  707. Courage is challenging the status quo in search of better ways. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  708. Courage is facing setbacks and disappointments head-on – without losing your drive and spirit or adopting a victim mentality. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  709. Courage is telling others what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  710. Courage is doing what you know is right – regardless of the risks and potential consequences. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  711. If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  712. When ideas are left unspoken, everyone loses. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  713. Avoid “there’s only one way to do this” mindsets and you’ll open the door for new and innovative approaches. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  714. There’s only one thing you can accurately predict about the future: it will be different. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  715. A “boss” controls. A “leader” serves. Which will I be today? – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  716. Serve – verb – To work for; to labor in behalf of; to exert one’s self continuously for the benefit of; to promote, benefit, or be useful or beneficial to; to be of use; to answer a purpose; to suit; to be favorable. – Webster
  717. To lead is to guide, to guide is to help, to help is to serve. Remember that. Apply that. Strive to serve others. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  718. The Leadership Paradox: The people who work for you also are the people for whom you work! – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  719. Human Nature 101: Success is contagious and self-perpetuating. The more you have, the more you want. The more you want, the more you get. – Eric Harvey & Steve Ventura
  720. Believe in something big. Your life is worth a noble motive. – Walter Anderson
  721. I had one idea that never changed in my mind – that you should use your wealth to help people. – Chuck Feeney
  722. Don’t just start something. Start it right! – Anonymous
  723. Start. Start right. Start right now. – Anonymous
  724. You have a clean slate every day you wake up. You have a chance every single morning to be the person you want to be. Decide today’s going to be the day. Say it: “This is going to be my day!” – Brendan Burchard
  725. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. – Winston Churchill
  726. Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. – Ralph Marston
  727. Life’s ups and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine your values and goals. Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones. – Marsha Sinetar
  728. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination. – John Schaar
  729. Passion: the fuel that makes great things happen. – Scott V. Black
  730. When you live your lift like it matters, IT DOES! – Scott V. Black
  731. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. – Winston Churchill REPEAT OF #278
  732. I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. – William Penn
  733. If I can understand you a little better, and you can understand me a little better, doesn’t it make sense that we are in a position to have a better relationship? – Dr. Robert Rohm
  734. We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what’s wrong in your life, or you can focus on what’s right. – Marianne Williamson
  735. I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got! – Walter Cronkite REPEAT OF #154
  736. There is no such thing as a self-made man. You reach your goals only with the help of others. – George Shinn
  737. None of us is as smart as ALL of us. – Ken Blanchard
  738. The wise man in the storm prays God
    not for safety from danger,
    but for deliverance from fear.
    It is the storm within which endangers him,
    not the storm without.