Inspirational Quotes by Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (American Business Executive)

Inspirational Quotations by Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (American Business Executive)

Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) was an American business executive. As CEO of International Business Machines (IBM) 1914–55, Watson built one of the world’s most prominent corporations. As the world’s dominant manufacturer of business machines and computers, IBM led a revolution in the business world that ushered the information age.

Born in Campbell, New York, Watson joined the sales staff of the National Cash Register (NCR) Company in Dayton, Ohio, and he rose to the post of general sales manager of the company under the tutelage of its founder and president, John Henry Patterson.

In 1913, Watson joined a smaller competitor, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR,) a maker of electrical punch-card computing systems and other products. CTR soon grew into IBM. Watson gave pep talks, enforced strict dress code, and posted the now-famous slogan “Think” in company offices. He also introduced IBM’s famed sales culture—having been a salesman himself, Watson insisted that IBM salespeople know how to install and service products as well as sell them.

By the time he retired in 1955, Watson had turned around IBM from debt to having total assets of $630 million and from fewer than 4,000 employees to 41,000. In the ensuing decades, under Watson’s son Thomas, Jr., IBM came to dominate the emerging computer market, and control 80% of the U.S. market. IBM also became a paradigm for corporate planning, research, and customer- and employee-loyalty.

Thomas and Marva Belden wrote the biography The Lengthening Shadow: The Life of Thomas J. Watson (1962,) and William Rodgers, Think: A Biography of the Watsons and IBM (1969.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

You work the first eight hours of each day for survival. Anything after that is an investment.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Survival

Malice is the devil’s picture. Lust makes men brutish; malice makes them devilish—it is mental murder.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Mistake

Heat water to the highest degree, you cannot make wine of it; it is water still; so, let morality be raised to the highest, it is nature still; it is old Adam put in a better dress.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Morality

A man may read the figures on the dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes unless the sun is shining on it; so we may read the Bible over, but we cannot learn to purpose till the spirit of God shine upon it and into out hearts.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Bible

A wicked man in prayer may lift up his hands, but he cannot lift up his face.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer

Hope is like the cork to the net, which keeps the soul from sinking in despair; and fear, like the lead to the net, which keeps it from floating in presumption.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Hope

You don’t hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Business

Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous—not just to some people in some circumstances—but to everyone all the time.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Generosity, Courtesy, Manners

To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Success, Business

Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Wisdom

Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Friends and Friendship

Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Shame

If you aren’t playing well, the game isn’t as much fun. When that happens I tell myself just to go out and play as I did when I was a kid.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Excellence

Think. Think about your appearance, associations, actions, ambitions, accomplishment.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Thought, Thinking, Ambition, Thoughts

We hear of a silent generation, more concerned with security than integrity, with conforming than performing, with imitating than creating.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Security, Safety

The toughest thing about the power of trust is that it’s very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and the customer.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Trust, Customers

The bare knowledge of God’s will is inefficacious, it doth not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter sun, which hath no heat or influence; it doth not warm the affections, or purify the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God’s will, but he was a traitor.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Knowledge

Prayer is the soul’s breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer

Whosoever is afraid of submitting any question, civil or religious, to the test of free discussion, is more in love with his own opinion than with truth.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Excellence

It is better to aim at perfection and miss, than to aim at imperfection and hit it
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Change

Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right. Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Inaction

Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Progress, Organization

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Action, Risk, Mind, Courage

To obey God in some things, and not in others, shows an unsound heart.—Childlike obedience moves toward even command of God, as the needle points where the loadstone draws.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Obedience

A true saint is a divine landscape or picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth.—He hath the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will with Christ.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Saints

Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow,
Filling the sky and earth below,
Over the housetops, over the street,
Over the heads of the people you meet.
Dancing,
Flirting,
Skimming along.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Snow

Cheerfulness is a friend to grace; it puts the heart in tune to praise God, and so honors religion by proclaiming to the world that we serve a good master.—Be serious, yet cheerful.—Rejoice in the Lord always.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Cheerfulness

A manager is an assistant to his men.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Management

Prayer is the golden key that opens heaven.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Opposition

The books of Nature and of Revelation equally elevate our conceptions and invite our piety; they are both written by the finger of the one eternal, incomprehensible God.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Books

Within us all there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which are not suspected until emergencies arise. Then oftentimes we find that it is comparatively simple to double or triple our former capacities and to amaze ourselves by the results achieved.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Thought, Thinking, Problems

Would you like me to give you a formula for … success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure… You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all… You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Mistakes, Mistake, Success, Give, Failure, Perfectionism, Fail, Success & Failure

The way to succeed is to double your error rate.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Performance

The prayer that is faithless is fruitless.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer, Faith