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.
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
Prayer is the golden key that opens heaven.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer
Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Shame
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.
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
Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Progress, Organization
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.
You work the first eight hours of each day for survival. Anything after that is an investment.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Survival
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: Problems, Thinking, Thought
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
A wicked man in prayer may lift up his hands, but he cannot lift up his face.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer
If you want to be a big company tomorrow, you have to start acting like one today.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Wisdom
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
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: Failure, Mistakes, Fail, Perfectionism, Mistake, Give, Success, Success & Failure
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: Safety, Security
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
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
Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Change
Every time we’ve moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Risk
Prayer is the soul’s breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer
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
Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Ability, Leadership
To sin because mercy abounds is the devil’s logic; he that sins because of God’s mercy, shall have judgment without mercy.—Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Mercy
The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Performance
Malice is the devil’s picture. Lust makes men brutish; malice makes them devilish—it is mental murder.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Wisdom is the power that enables us to use knowledge for the benefit of ourselves and others.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Wisdom
A manager is an assistant to his men.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Management
The Ediles among the Romans had their doors always standing open, that all who had petitions might have free access to them.—The door of heaven is always open for the prayers of God’s people.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer
Think. Think about your appearance, associations, actions, ambitions, accomplishment.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Thinking, Ambition, Thought, Thoughts
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