Ten Quotes To Help You Bring Order Out of Chaos

The following is a time capsule [Ed: more of a “tiny time pill” than a full capsule] from August 7, 2000. This was part of my personal home page in August of 2000 at Cisco. It was the height of the dotcom boom and bringing order out of chaos was a challenge.

I posted this as part of a personal home page on August 7, 2000 when I was working on a website for executive meeting agendas, presentations, and minutes in the Service Provider Line of Business. I was cleaning out some old files and thought most of these would actually be good advice for startup founders as well. I have added some links to earlier posts that have incorporated some of them as well as links to background on the authors.

Ten Quotes To Help You Bring Order Out of Chaos at Cisco

  1. Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.Paul Saffo
  2. “We must be the change that we wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
  3. “Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.” Russel Ackoff
  4. Do Something Small But Useful Now.” Bob Bemer (inventor of ASCII)
  5. “Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down.” Kobi Yamada
  6. Better Never Than LateRay Kurzweil
  7. “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.” John Gall in Systemantics
  8. “You can’t believe that a plan is real until you’re vaguely disappointed.” Rhett George
  9. “In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hoffer
  10. “The difference between a good career and a great career is the ability to leave some things unsaid.” Keith Herrmann

And across the bottom was a tagline quote from Kristin ZhivagoYour Brand is the Promise You Keep.

Other Time Capsule Blog Posts

Better Never Than Late

I originally attributed this to Ray Kurzweil because he used it as the title for an essay in Forbes ASAP, but subsequent research for my “Quotes for Entrepreneurs–July 2009” showed that is was much older.

“Some say better late than never; I say better never than late.”
William Bosville

William Bosville (1745-1813), called colonel, but really only lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, was a noted bon vivant, whose maxim for life was “Better never than late.” He was famous for his hospitality in Welbeck Street. A friend of Horne Tooke, he dined with him at Wimbledon every Sunday in the spring and autumn.
From The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals. Volume 2

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