Quotes I live by...

In 1988, I took a job managing a DEC Vax VMS Computer and supporting 180 future users. To put it another way, my new employer threw me into a computer-ignorant sea with only my wits and keyboard.

Here we had this lovely MicroVax II, "tons" of disk space, terminals on a third of the desks, and maybe ten users. It was a sad state of affairs. My mission, should I choose to accept it, get people using the computer...

The biggest barrier to use was lack of terminals. So with a bit of cash, we doubled the number of terminals. The naturally curious dove right in. The rest needed carrots and sticks.

More below the fold...

The stick: Teach the division manager how to do email. Build a CC list of his staff. Have this smart division manager decide, on his own, to us the CC list and send an email to his staff that said, "please respond to this email via email." You never saw senior managers do anything so fast. Fortunately, unlike economics, management depends on the trickle-down approach.

The carrot: A quote a day. Every morning, to make things interesting, I changed the log-in message for my users. I would post a new quote. I found these quotes in the paper, books of quotes, or just about anywhere. People even delivered them to me (I still have a paper file folder full of quotes from these days).

Now, almost 20 years later, I am still collecting quotes. I have collected enough quotes for a book. Many of them are funny. Most make you think. Some I run my life by.  Here are my favorites. Hopefully, you will find them as useful as I have.

Should you ever find yourself in an argument over unnecessary detail.

It is better to be roughly right than to be precisely wrong.
... John Maynard Keynes

(as suggested Keyens, attributions for all quotes are roughly correct :-)

Did you ever meet someone who tried to control every detail?

The sun will set without thy assistance.
... The Talmud

Here is recent addition to my collection but wonderful rebuttal to those who would cite theory. I'll never forget Rita, the Russian (USSR) women who worked for me back in 1988. I said, "Marxism is an interesting theory." In her heavy Ukraine accent she said, "Good theory that not work in practice, Bad theory."

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
... Yogi Berra

John Harvey-Jones is a "captain of industry" at ICI. This bit of wisdom is both funny and true. Planning is good, even if it is a pain.

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by a period of worry and depression.
... Sir John Harvey-Jones

You can't keep trouble from coming, but you don't have to give it a chair to sit on.
... New England Proverb

What can I say about this one?

Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first and the lesson afterwards.
... Anonymous

Ben Franklin gets credit for many quotes he never actually said. So what. This quote sums up Win-Win negotiations better than Roger Fisher and William Ury did in Getting To Yes:

Trades would not take place unless it is better to strike as good a bargain as one's bargaining position permits.

The worst outcome is when, by overreaching greed, no bargain is struck, and a trade that could have been advantageous to both parties does not come off at all.
... Benjamin Franklin

I am not sure why, but I love this quote. It must appeal to my ego.

I won't belong to any group that will have me as a member.
... Groucho Marx

So many people think they know everything. Jefferson knew what he knew, and recognized that knowledge space is infinite.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.
... Thomas Jefferson

Small things done consistently in strategic places create major impact.
... Anonymous

Trim tabs come to mind with this quote. What is a trim tab? Think of the Queen Mary. On the back edge of her rudder is a tiny, movable edge called a trim-tab. It is a miniature rudder. Moving the trim-tab requires almost no effort, yet once moved, it creates a force sufficient to move the ship's rudder. With little effort, you can adjust the course of an 85,000-ton ship.

No quote collection would be complete without one from Nicoli Machiavelli. Remember this as we work to put sensibility back in government.

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has enmity of all who would profit by preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.
... Machiavelli

Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.
... Alvin Toffler

I am a parent of triplets. Each child is unique. Every day is different. I will never be a professional parent because the rules of the game keep changing. Humbling.

Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courageous patience.
... Admiral Hyman Rickover

This is, to me, the most important quote of my collection. I have used it to help drive me while causing important changes.

Also, I both respect and despise Admiral Rickover. Rickover as a great leader, drove the Navy to new heights. However  he was also a complete ass. Having spent time in the nuclear power industry, I met many of his graduates and heard hair-raising stories about his mental intimidation of cadets. The division manager mentioned above was a graduate of Rickover's Nuke Navy program and dined with him once. His encounter with Rickover was tame in comparison to others I have heard.

As a management trainer, I take this "quote" to heart.

"I taught the material, but the students did not learn it."

Define the meaning of taught in the above sentence.
... Anonymous

To listen well is as powerful a means of communication as to talk well.
... Chief Justice John Marshall

While Justice Marshall said it best, my wife said it more powerfully (to me anyway), "I don't want you to solve my problem, I just want you to listen."

On a related note,

In Maine we have a saying that there's no point in speaking unless you can improve on silence.
... Edmund Muskie

Never forget your goal.

Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.
... George Santayana.

Sometimes wisdom comes in neat and compact packages.

Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand how little chance you have of trying to change others.
... Jacob M. Beaude

And sometimes it does not.

He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
... Abraham Lincoln

You just need to work at some things.

Quiet, calm deliberation disentangles every knot.
... W. S. Gilbert

Commentary on "Nike Management" (Just do it.)

Do it right the first time. It has a wonderful ring to it, but it helps nobody whatever to do a better job.
... W. Edwards Deming

You have to take risks.

Nothing ventured,
something lost.
... Neale Clapp

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
... André Gide

I always display these two quotes together. Do you want to be more creative? Go out and observe...

Nothing exists until it is observed.
... John Wheeler
Observation is a creative act.
... William S. Burroughs

The ability of people to deny is unmatched (even mine).

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.
... Winston Churchill

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
... Aldous Huxley

Greed will cost you a fortune. (Just Ask Duke Cunningham)

Fortunes are made by buying low and selling too soon.
... Baron N. M. Rothschild

DailyKos is demonstration of Conant's point:

Democracy is a small hard core of common agreement, surrounded by a rich variety of individual differences.
... James Bryant Conant

And some other governing related quotes

Bad officials are elected by good people who do not vote.
... George Jean Nathan

Every country has the government it deserves.
... Joseph de Maistre

Change is hard work

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
... Woodrow Wilson

Pick your battles

One of the most time consuming things is to have an enemy.
... E. B. White

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinion I have no respect.
... Edward Gibbon

Ignorance and incompetence beat out malicious intent almost every time (unless you are a Republican :-)

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.
... Henery H. Bauer

My own corollary on this:

Never underestimate the power of ignorance.
... ARB

If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: The rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
... Chinese proverb

You can't change the rules in the middle of the game. Well actually, you can, but you shouldn't.

To do is to be. - Plato
To be is to do. - Aristotle
Do be do be do. - Sinatra

And always laugh...