Posts filed under 'Quotes'
February 28th, 2010
“When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.” William Wrigley Jr.
“Your brand is the promise that you keep.” Kristin Zhivago
“Plans are made, unmade, revised, and recast through action and interaction with others on a daily basis.”
Saras Sarasvathy
“Ask for input only if you plan to do something with it or about it.”
Richard Moran “Nuts, Bolts, and Jolts”
“Simple ain’t easy.” Thelonious Monk
“One competitor to customer development is a co-founder’s belief that product development, in and of itself, creates value.” Sean Murphy
“Sometimes I am blocked by things I can see, other times by things I cannot. Too often, it’s just my fear of the unknown.” Sean Murphy
“At a distance big companies look like aircraft carriers, but close up you see they are really a thousand canoes.” Rick Munden
- “From a distance you look like an aircraft carrier, but as you get closer it becomes clear you are really a thousand canoes. ” Rick Munden recounting a vendor’s description of TI
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison
“The surest way to be cheated is to think oneself cleverer than other people.” La Rochefoucauld
January 31st, 2010
Get them while they are hot on http://www.twitter.com/skmurphy
“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”
G. K. Chesterton
“No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future.” Ian E. Wilson
“Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean the market cares any longer.” Seth Godin “Learning from Groucho Marx”
- “Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean the market cares any longer. It’s extremely difficult to repair the market. Find a market that will respect and pay for the work you can do. Technology companies have been running this race for years. Now, all of us must.
“To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak.” C. Kent Wright
- This is from the introduction to his book “Unaccustomed as I am…“ an anthology of quotes for “after dinner speakers.” He offers it as item 6 in a list of 7 “don’ts.”
- 6. Don’t in any circumstances read your speech, but speak from notes if you must. To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak.”
“How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways, gradually and then suddenly.”
Ernest Hemingway “The Sun Also Rises”
“It is not written anywhere that raising money is the first step in starting a company. Or any step at all.” Venture Hacks
- This was a tweet from their twitter feed that is not attributed and doesn’t appear on their site. I assume that it is original with Nivi or Naval.
“I’m not happy. I’m cheerful. There’s a difference. A happy woman has no cares at all. A cheerful woman has cares but has learned how to deal with them.” Beverly Sills
“A million man years has been spent on Artificial Intelligence.”
Monica Anderson in “Could AI Be Easy?”
“On average you have to earn 2.5X to be as happy working for someone else as working for yourself.” Scott Andrew Shane in “The Illusion of Entrepreneurship: the Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By”
- Full quote “There’s another reason that people aren’t necessarily foolish when they start businesses, despite the poor financial performance of the average startup. Entrepreneurship provides a very important non-financial benefit: it makes people happier. [...] In fact, studies show that to be as satisfied when he is working for others as he is when he is working for himself, the average person needs to earn two-and-a-half times as much money!”
- What makes entrepreneurs more satisfied:
- Flexibility to work and care for small children at the same time
- Working in a small organization where they can interact directly with everyone in the company
- the autonomy, flexibility, and greater control over their lives
- By implication, if entrepreneurs can offer flexibility, interaction with everyone on the team, autonomy they can compete more effectively for employees.
“We don’t encourage people to quit their jobs, gainful employment is a legitimate funding vehicle in this financial market.” Adeo Ressi of the Founder Institute in “Silicon Valley’s New Sport: Extreme Bootstrapping”
“The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-Interest.”
J. Michael Straczynski
“In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 people”
Momus (Nick Currie) in “Pop Stars Neine Danke“
“I have been described as ‘impatient for action, but patient for results.’”
John Bogle in “On Leadership”
January 1st, 2010
I had the privilege to hear Andrew Grove address the Churchill Club on November 6, 2001 at a dinner meeting in San Jose. His autobiography “Swimming Across” had recently been published and he recounted some key events in his life in the course of his talk.
After he escaped from Hungary following the collapse of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 he made his way to New York in 1957 and associated with a group of fellow Hungarians.
He remarked that the emigres divided into two camps. Those that lamented what had been left behind in Hungary and the way of life that had been lost and those that looked to future opportunities now that they were in America. He resolved to join he second group.
This was only a few weeks after 9/11 and I found this observation personally very moving. I later came across a quote by Helen Keller from “We Bereaved” which was a succinct encapsulation:
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
It’s New Year’s Day, the start of a new year and a new decade. Join me in making the effort to see new opportunities.
December 31st, 2009
Quoting myself a lot this month, evidence for something. I will have to look back in a year and see how many are still useful. Quotes are streamed at http://www.twitter.com/skmurphy and collected at the end of the month in a blog post.
“Facing a mirror you see merely your own countenance; facing your child you finally understand how everyone else has seen you.” Daniel Raeburn from “Vessels”
- Hemingway’s shortest story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
- Raeburn’s is as heartbreaking: “Irene Raeburn: born December 28, 2004, died December 24, 2004.”
“Lots of guys came and went who had way more talent. Talent doesn’t matter all that much. You gotta show up.” Gregory Sullivan in “Carpenter Poets”
- Context and full quote: “We were the opposite of the stereotype. We weren’t frustrated musicians working menial jobs waiting for our big break in music. We liked our day jobs and played music for a little money and some laughs. Only the contractor types were worth a damn anyway, as far as music. A real music job is very much like a building contract. You have to plan, and show up on time, and stay sober, and understand the logistics of the equipment. You have to be able to set up and repair your broken tools on the spot. You have to work closely with others. You have to figure out in advance what the customer wants, and deliver it skillfully. [...] We had lots of guys come and go that had way more talent than many of us that stuck. Talent don’t matter all that much. You gotta show up.
“Startups survive by doing less with less. They live on the scraps of a market that larger competitors ignore.” Sean Murphy
“Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.” Hugh MacLeod (hat tip to http://twitter.com/jnash )
“Pay close attention to the short descriptions of your product that early customers offer others. This is your ‘elevator pitch.’” Sean Murphy
“What The Cloud provides is opportunity–a way to reduce the cost and risk of trying out service innovations.” Bob Lewis
- What The Cloud provides, for companies with the wit to see it, is the opportunity to reduce the cost and risk of trying out service innovations. Focusing on IT’s ability to manage it … to control it … is a great way to make sure only your competitors take advantage of what it has to offer.
“Customer Development proceeds in parallel with Product Development, and informs it.” Sean Murphy
- Full quote from a comment I left on Steve Blank’s blog
As soon as you can clearly articulate your hypotheses about the customer’s problem you should get out of the building and start having serious conversations. Customer Development proceeds in parallel with product development and informs it. One piece of paper with a prospect’s name and a few questions can communicate that you care about their perspective and have given some thought to making it a productive 10-20 minute conversation (if they want to talk longer you should let them, but you should be able to finish a short conversation in ten minutes or so).
“You don’t get to say who you are, your behavior speaks for you.” The Last Psychiatrist (pseudonym)
“Startups should leverage their size by promising intimacy and delivering it in every relationship with prospects and customers.” Sean Murphy
“Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway.” Mignon McLaughlin
“The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” Lin Yutang
- Full quote: “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”
“The novice can see things an expert overlooks, he is not afraid of making mistakes or appearing naive.” Abraham Maslow
- Full quote from Eupsychian Management “I have learned the novice can often see things that the expert overlooks. All that is necessary is not to be afraid of making mistakes or of appearing naive.
November 30th, 2009
Baked fresh on http://www.twitter.com/skmurphy and collected into a blog post at the end of the month.
“Progress does not replace one theory that is wrong with one that is right, but one that is more subtly wrong.”
David W. Hawkins
- Full Version: “Hawkins Law: Progress does not involve replacing one theory that is wrong with one that is right, rather it involves replacing one theory that is wrong with one that is more subtly wrong.”
- Hat Tip to Nick Gall and his “Hawkins Law” post.
“In an always on world presence is meaningless: who and what are you available for is the issue.” Yori Nelken
- Full quote: “In an always on world presence is meaningless. Of course you are on-line, who and what are you available for is the issue.” Yori Nelken, Founder and CEO Timebridge
“The future is an abstraction, all change is happening now.” Marcelo Rinesi
“Everything can look like a failure in the middle.” Rosabeth Moss Kanter
“Financial news is valuable to smaller audiences: paywalls work for niche financial sites (WSJ, FT, Economist)”
Clay Shirky in “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom to Replace Newspapers; Don’t Put a Paywall Around a Public Good.”
- This is a summary of “…because financial news is not valuable the larger the audience is. It’s, in fact, valuable the smaller the audience is. I don’t want my mom reading what I know about IBM until I get my trades in. And so, a paywall is — a paywall damages general news and benefits financial news. And it is no accident that the three great models of pay walls — The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and The Economist. Because although they have general interest sections, they are all, at base, niche publications for traders and business people.”
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.” Steve Wright
“Robert L. Forward had a unique levitas, an anti-gravity field that lifted the spirits of everyone he met.” Mark Zimmermann
- Full Quote: “He had a unique levitas, an anti-gravity field that surrounded him and lifted the spirits of everyone he met.” said of Robert L. Forward by Mark Zimmermann in “Faster Forward“
- In “Welcome to 2009” I mentioned that I read Zimmerman’s zhurnal: “I recommend it wholeheartedly for entrepreneurs even though it’s written by a physicist with a Zen frame of mind who has taken up marathon running in his 50’s. He is thoroughly committed to mindfulness and self-improvement, two goals any entrepreneur should strive for.”
“A new broom sweeps clean, but an old one knows the corners.” Irish Proverb
“Useful advice is rarely relaxing.” Merlin Mann from twitter
- Merlin Mann changed direction in September of 2008 with a blog post entitled “Better” where he re-committed to excellence.
- I wonder if the name “Merlin” imposes a geas on a child to be relentlessly creative or otherwise wizardly his entire life.
“Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.” Shakespeare (Othello)
“Illness isn’t the only thing that’s contagious – wellness is too.” Jen McCabe
- tagline from Contagion Health’s “What We Believe” (read the whole thing)
- More to come on the entrepreneurial opportunities in health (broadly defined).
October 31st, 2009
Posted as I find them on http://www.twitter.com/skmurphy and then collected into a post at the end of the month.
“Some mornings in the shower I remind myself ‘This is the life that I have chosen’ because it’s never easy and it’s never dull.”
“The recognition and understanding of the need was the primary condition of the creative act.” Charles Eames
- “The recognition and understanding of the need was the primary condition of the creative act. When people feel they had to express themselves for originality for its own sake, that tends not to be creativity. Only when you get into the problem and the problem becomes clear, can creativity take over.” Charles Eames
“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” Milton Friedman
“A ‘window dressing’ advisory board is often as phony as an undersized glass eye that spins randomly with every blink.” George Grellas in Hacker News
- The “window dressing” variety of advisory board is often as phony as an undersized glass eye that spins randomly with every blink. This often involves the so-called industry luminaries used to make the startup look much more impressive than it really is. In essence, such advisors hire out their names…
- Full Quote in “George Grellas on ‘Insightful’ vs. ‘Window Dressing’ Advisory Boards“
“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except for what you’re going to do right now and do it.” William Durant
“Capital is not wealth pure and simple, but wealth considered from the point of view of future as opposed to present use.” Sir Alfred Zimmern
“Use your intuition to ask questions, not to answer them.”
John Ousterhout in “Favorite Sayings”
“It’s not even a jobless recovery; it’s a recovery with more job losses.”
Lee Ohanian
- “It’s not even a jobless recovery; it’s a recovery with more job losses,” said UCLA economist Lee Ohanian. “The idea of having essentially no net job creation after a remarkably severe recession is a real pathology for the U.S. economy.” in “Experts See Rebounding Economy Shedding Jobs“
“Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.”
Soren Kierkegaard
“There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” Norwegian Proverb
October 17th, 2009
I saw a quote by C. Kent Wright “To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak” and decided to purchase one of his quote collections “Nectar in a Nutshell.” It was first published in October of 1944 and my copy is the “fifth impression” from 1945. In his introduction he explains that he has been collecting quotes for years in different note-books:
This little anthology owes its existence to the casual application of Captain Cuttle’s famous maxim: “When found, make a note of.” I acquired the habit of jotting down odd quotations during my schooldays, and it has now developed into something akin to a vice. In some ways it is a tiresome habit, because it often means the interruption in the reading of an enjoyable and exciting passage.
This really resonated with me, although my own habit of collecting quotes didn’t start until my thirties. One quote from W.E. Henley in his introduction is such a funny image that I had to share it here: “As for So-And-So collecting his thoughts, as he threatens, a cat might as well collect the sparks from it’s back when it’s fur is stroked in frosty weather.”
He included two quotes that I have seen attributed to many folks who were not alive in 1945–or at least not adults–I include them here just for accurate sourcing:
- “The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition.”
Dwight Morrow
- “I divide the world into three classes: the few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have not idea of what happens.”
Nicholas Murray Butler
We are in the midst of preparations for our workshop next Saturday and I found these two particularly useful advice:
- “I became increasingly convinced that it is not knowledge, but the means of gaining knowledge, which I have to teach.” Arnold of Rugby
- “The general principles of any study you may learn by books at home; but the detail, the color, the air, the life which makes it live in us–you must catch all those from those in whom it lives already.” Cardinal Newman
A number of entrepreneurs have a certain amount of issues with attention deficit (I normally follow Hallowell’s advice from “Driven to Distraction” work with teammates who are afflicted with Attention Surplus Disorder so that between us we average out). What’s interesting is that conflict and stress normally allow people with ADD to focus much more effectively. I thought these two quotes about “the English” were also applicable to many effective entrepreneurs (see also “Cultivating Calmness in a Crisis“)
I have written about the value of jotting your thoughts on 3×5 cards, but here is more encouragement:
One of our clients is starting to wrestle with growth and the need to formalize policies and procedures. I found this quote a nice summary of the challenge inherent in writing a good guideline (e.g. for expense reimbursement, allocating sales compensation, or compensatory time off for exempt employees).
- “It is a very easy thing to devise good laws; the difficulty is to make them effective.”
Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)
It’s a funny thing about money and happiness. I have written about entrepreneurial motivation and affluenza as well as the fact that we don’t encourage individuals to found a startup. I found the following very relevant to discussions of money and happiness.
- “There is a taint about money earned by honest work. By the time one has earned enough of it one has got into such a habit of work that one does not know how to idle.” Robert Lynd
- “It costs a lot of money to die comfortably.” Samuel Butler
- “Happiness consists of intense activity in congenial surroundings”
Harold Nicolson
- “Happiness, I have discovered, is nearly always a rebound from hard work.”
David Grayson (pen name for Ray Stannard Baker)
- “The cause of most discontents is rust: rusty hands, rusty minds. Make what you can, be it symphonies or pullovers, epics or mince pies–and sweet content will be yours.” Francis Brett Young
I have blogged about the value of partners and how successful entrepreneurship is an ongoing self-improvement program. I found this quote very appropriate for entrepreneurs.
- “The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened. It is only the middle-aged who are really conscious of their limitations.”
Saki (pen name for Hector Henry Munro)
September 30th, 2009
New quotes posted on http://www.twitter.com/skmurphy
“We procrastinate when we have forgotten who we are.”
Merlin Mann in “Inbox Zero Notes” (see also InboxZero)
“Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.”
John Updike
“For one thing, creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity; the ditchdigger, dentist, and artist go about their tasks in much the same way, and any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better.” John Updike “On Creativity” in December 1968 Playboy
When people say something is “not marketing,” it’s pretty much always “marketing.” Merlin Mann
“Driving a car at night you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” E L Doctorow
“You can’t waste time and you can’t save time; you can only choose what you do at any given moment.” James Gleick
“Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos.
Before a brilliant man begins something great, he must look foolish in the crowd.”
I Ching
“Remember. But move forward, too. Light a candle, yes. But also drive a rivet.”
James Lileks looking back on 9/11 in 2004 (See also “Take a Minute to Remember 8 Years Ago, Part 2“)
“I can look at a problem, figure out approximately what is wrong, and do rapid research for usable information.”
Justin James in “Why It’s Impossible to Become a Programming Expert”
All too often, an expert programmer is the person who is adept at using a variety of reference tools and documentation to find out how to achieve their goals. This is my secret sauce. I am really good at looking at a problem, figuring out approximately what is wrong, and being able to quickly find the solution. [...] My real talent is knowing how to rapidly research and turn my findings into usable information. [...]
For now, the “sampler platter approach” has been working well for me at the professional level, although I find it quite frustrating at the personal level. I miss learning things in depth. I miss the sense of satisfaction from attaining a level of expertise. I miss getting to explore obtuse and obscure areas of knowledge. But it simply does not match the reality of my work or that of most other programmers.
“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
“We’re now on the verge of a Sesame Street recovery: economists aren’t sure if it will be brought to us by the letter V, U, or W.”
Bob Lewis in “An Ounce of Metrics Can’t Be Weighed”
“I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline.” Duke Ellington
August 31st, 2009
Fired point blank on http://www.twitter.com/skmurphy
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill
“As I’ve said many times, the future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.” William Gibson
“Each prototype iteration tests your most pressing business assumption. Work back from your ignorance, don’t just trim features.” Kent Beck
“I am from the future and things work better there: abandon your ignorance and embrace what’s coming.” Unfortunately typical startup pitch, observation triggered by a DAC pitch from a vendor.
“Expectations create blind spots which conceal small errors that are growing and delay recognition of unexpected threats.”
Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe in Chapter 2: Expectations and Mindfulness of Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in the Age of Uncertainty
“All Successful Systems Attract Parasites” Tom Ray quoted in Kevin Kelly’s “Out of Control” Chapter 15
“People will abuse any unmanaged network to promote their financial livelihood.” Jason Moncur on “Social Media”
Remember that the fist spam e-mail was sent May 3, 1978 at the very dawn of the e-mail age, even though there was rule to only use it for education and research. People will abuse any unmanaged network to promote their financial livelihood. Google is an amazing tool to find information unless you are searching about something that is sold or made money from, and then the information is buried under tons of links that are really advertisements. People even create pages with the knowledge of how Google works in order to trick you into visiting. How long before we see companies manipulating tags and reviews to drum up business? Oh wait that already has happened.
“True learning involves figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go beyond what you already think.”
Jerome Bruner in In Search of Mind: Essays in Autobiography.
“Even those who learn from history are surrounded by those doomed to repeat it.” blogger Thomas Crown (pseudonym)
“Genius is born from a thousand failures. Constant, continuous, ubiquitous experimentation is the most important thing.” Greg Linden quoted in “The New Faster Face of Innovation”
“Genius is born from a thousand failures,” says Greg Linden, an entrepreneur who has been an innovator at both Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. “In each failed test, you learn something that helps you find something that will work. Constant, continuous, ubiquitous experimentation is the most important thing.”
“….as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.”
Arthur Schopenhauer in Parerga and Paralipomena
“Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.”
“Using empowerment, dialog, or engagement as a fig leaf for traditional marketing really, truly, deeply pisses people off.” Marc Danziger in “The Three Body Problem and the Axis of Moderation”
In my work life I caution clients about using community and the explicit promise of empowerment, dialog, and engagement as a fig leaf for traditional marketing. It really, truly, deeply pisses people off.
“Real-life networks are often very different from the ideal ones pictured in economics textbooks: exploit irregularities.”
Chris Dixon in “Six Strategies for Overcoming ‘Chicken and Egg’ Problems”
3. Exploit irregular network topologies. In the last 90s, most people assumed that dating websites was a “winner take all market” and Match.com had won it, until a swath of niche competitors arose (e.g. Jdate) that succeeded because certain groups of people tend to date others from that same group. Real-life networks are often very different from the idealized, uniformly distributed networks pictured in economics textbooks. Facebook exploited the fact that social connections are highly clustered at colleges as a “beachhead” to challenge much bigger incumbents (Friendster). By finding clusters in the network smaller companies can reach critical mass within those sub-clusters and then expand beyond.
“If they give you lined paper, write the other way.” e. e. cummings
July 31st, 2009
Follow http://www.twitter.com/skmurphy to get them as they are found.
“Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few.” Robert Heinlein “Notebooks of Lazarus Long”
“All the evidence of history suggests that man is indeed a rational animal but with a near infinite capacity for folly.” Robert McNamara
“Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first call promising.” Cyril Connolly in “Enemies of Promise”
“Conferences enable face to face conversation among knowledgeable people, fostering serendipity and structure in serious conversations.” Sean Murphy in “Opportunities for Serious Conversation at DAC 2009”
“A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Knowledge comes by taking things apart: analysis. But wisdom comes by putting things together.” John A. Morrison
“Some say better late than never; I say better never than late.” William Bosville
- From The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals. Volume 2
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.
“The work of an unknown good man is like a vein of water flowing hidden in the underground, secretly making the ground greener.” Thomas Carlyle
“Number of watchmen required to watch the watchmen watching the watchmen tends to double every 18 months.” Alan Moore’s Law comment by scalpod in “Intel Describes the Age of Equivalent Scaling”
- Hat Tip to Christopher Clee in “Moore No More“
- I think that there is a relationship between Moore’s Law and Alan Moore’s Law and that is automated checking begets quality. I quoted Howard Landman’s old signature in NuSym DeCloaks:
- Patterson’s Precept: Inexperience coupled with ambition leads to very large designs.
- Landman’s Law: In any sufficiently large design, if there is a type of error for which you have no automatic way of checking, then the final design will contain at least one error of that type.
- Landman’s Lemma: All designs are now sufficiently large. See Patterson’s Precept.
- Kevin Kelly recently wrote “Was Moore’s Law Inevitable?“ a long essay about Moore’s Law and a family of companion curves for magnetic medium, broadcast media bandwidth etc.. that “demonstrate the effects of scaling down, or working with the small. In this microcosmic realm energy is not very important. We don’t see exponential improvement in efforts to scale up.”
“If software development were entirely the application of existing knowledge it would be a manufacturing activity and we would automate it.” Phillip G. Armour “The Learning Edge”
“Ability is nothing without opportunity.” Napoleon Bonaparte
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