The best minds are not in the government. If any were, business would hire them away.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
It is the customer, and the customer alone, who casts the vote that determines how big any company should be…. The regulations laid down by the consuming public are far more potent and far less flexible than any code of law, merely through the exercise of the natural forces of trade.
—Crawford Greenewalt (1902–93) American Engineer
Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Comedian, Radio Personality
Make a decision. It doesn’t have to be a wise decision or a perfect one. Just make one.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
The happiest time in a man’s life is when he is in the red hot pursuit of a dollar with a reasonable prospect of overtaking it.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Every business and every product has risks. You can’t get around it.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
There’s a lot more business out there in small town America than I ever dreamed of.
—Sam Walton (1918–92) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
People want economy and they’ll pay almost any price to get it.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
Business has only two functions—marketing and innovation.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
I must create a system, or be enslav’d by another man’s; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
You can hype a questionable product for a little while, but you’ll never build an enduring business.
—Victor Kiam (1926–2001) American Business Executive, Entrepreneur
A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
One way to think about running a successful business is to figure out what the least you can do is, and do that.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
If your business keeps you so busy that you have no time for anything else, there must be something wrong, either with you or with your business.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is test. If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
A vacation should be just long enough that you’re boss misses you, and not long enough for him to discover how well he can get along without you.
—Unknown
When you think that someone or something other than yourself needs to change, you’re mentally out of your business.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
He should be the owner of the land who rubs it between his hands every spring.
—Russian Proverb
Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your own family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out—either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don’t think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
You will never know a man till you do business with him.
—Scottish Proverb
In thousands of years there has been no advance in public morals, in philosophy, in religion or in politics, but the advance in business has been the greatest miracle the world has ever known.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.
—Tom Peters (b.1942) American Management Consultant, Author
Work is our business; it’s success is God s.
—German Proverb
Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
If you don’t do it with excellence, don’t do it at all! Because if it’s not excellent, it won’t be profitable or fun, and if you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?
—Robert C. Townsend (1920–98) American Businessman
People will buy anything that is ‘one to a customer.’
—Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer
He who looks daily after his field finds a corn.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Once you have permission to talk to someone, finding new products or services for them is a smart way to grow.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
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