Quotes Archives - Page 16 of 17

Don Reinertsen: Priorities Are The Last Refuge of the Innumerate

Change Initiatives, Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / February 26, 2008

Don Reinertsen, co-author (with Preston Smith) of “Developing Products in Half the Time” and “Managing the Design Factory: The Product Developers Toolkit” has a great article about managing products “Priorities: Last Refuge of the Innumerate” Don Reinertsen: Priorities Are The Last Refuge of the Innumerate Priorities: Last Refuge of the Innumerate What is our highest product […]

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While We Pursue Our Dreams, They Can Pursue Us

Quotes, skmurphy, Spirit / By Sean Murphy / February 25, 2008

As entrepreneurs we pursue our dreams of improving the world. Sometimes I think our dreams can pursue us, that a vision of a better world can have the same effect as what the Scots call a geas. An obligation to use our talents in certain ways that unlocks their power if obeyed and punishes if

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Burn Your Boats But Not Your Bridges

Favorites, Quotes, Rules of Thumb, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / February 18, 2008

Burn your boats but not your bridges: commit to your startup but don’t do anything that damages relationships or would not allow you to build on prior shared successes with others.

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Some Days You’re The Potter, Some Days You’re The Clay

Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / February 8, 2008

Successful entrepreneurship is an ongoing self-improvement project. Some days you are the potter, some days you are the clay.

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Hello 2008

Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / January 1, 2008

Let’s say hello to 2008 and hope the year finds us all healthy, surrounded by loved ones, and living up to our potential.

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Entrepreneurial Innovation Comes More From Borrowing & Combining Than Invention

Books, Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / December 4, 2007

I came across a good quote on innovation and invention in a 2004 article in Fortune Magazine by Harold Evans called “What Drives America’s Greatest Innovators“ (emphasis added) [The] defining characteristic of the innovator: a determination to bring a brainwave into the bustle of the marketplace. […] More innovations come from borrowing and combining than

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Success for a Bootstrapper

Quotes, skmurphy, Startups / By Sean Murphy / November 23, 2007

Success for a bootstrapper is a startup with positive cash flow; this enables ongoing market exploration and additional investments in innovation.

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Understanding vs. Mastery

Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / November 19, 2007

Some quotes on the important distinction between understanding and mastery.

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A Good Idea is No Match for a Bad Habit

Quotes, Rules of Thumb, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / November 18, 2007

Some great insights from a column by Frank Hayes on “Conventional IT Wisdom” including: “A good idea is no match for a bad habit.”

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A World Built by Scientists and Engineers But Run by Salespeople

Blogging, Quotes, Sales, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / November 16, 2007

“We live in a world built by scientists and engineers, but salespeople run it.”

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Quotes on Operational Excellence

5 Scaling Up Stage, Favorites, Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / October 12, 2007

I collect quotes for entrepreneurs, here are a set quotes on operational excellence. You can follow @skmurphy to get quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month. Enter your E-mail address if you would like to have new blog

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Bob “GoDaddy” Parson’s Rules for Business Success

Founder Story, Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / September 30, 2007

Bob Parsons of GoDaddy blogged his “16 Rules for Success in Business (and Life in General)” in July of 2006. A question he received at a 2004 speaking event–“What advice do you have for someone who is just starting a business?”–kicked off an effort by the serial entrepreneur to codify the principles he was living

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Some Great Quotes Collected by Tim O’Reilly

Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / August 13, 2007

Tim O’Reilly had a great post yesterday, “Surprises on the Bookshelves of CEOs” that also included quotes for entrepreneurs that he has collected over the years.

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Ten Quotes To Help You Bring Order Out of Chaos

Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / August 7, 2007

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.

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Startups Are Hard Work and Require Planning

Quotes, skmurphy, TwoWeekSaaS / By Sean Murphy / August 6, 2007

Startups are hard work. Many fail in the first year and more than half within five years. Planning allows you to prevent problems, perseverance to overcome them.

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Nuts, Bolts and Jolts by Richard Moran

Books, Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / June 14, 2007

“Nuts, Bolts, and Jolts” by Richard Moran offers a well organized collection of business advice organized as bullet-length prescriptions.

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Cultivating Calmness in a Crisis

Quotes, Rules of Thumb, skmurphy, Startups / By Sean Murphy / May 18, 2007

To prepare for a contentious meeting I read Russell Ackoff‘s “The Art of Problem Solving,” over an early breakfast to cultivate calmness in a crisis.

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Julian Fellowes on Persistence, Getting Started, and Logical Consequences

Quotes, Rules of Thumb / By Sean Murphy / February 23, 2007

Commentary on Julian Fellowes answers to 3 interview questions about the need to get started, persist, and accept the logical consequences of your choices.

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Kierkegaard on the Art of Helping Others to Understand

Books, Favorites, Quotes, Rules of Thumb / By Sean Murphy / February 13, 2007

An excerpt from Soren Kierkegaard writing on helping others to understand. The key is to start from a deep understanding of the other person’s world view. This echoes Steven Covey’s fifth habit: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

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William Feather on “Perseverance Rewarded”

1 Idea Stage, Books, Quotes, skmurphy / By Sean Murphy / February 2, 2007

In “Perseverance Rewarded” William Feather offers some good advice for getting started. Many folks succeed because they don’t realize how hard it is to accomplish what they have set out to do (of course several orders of magnitude more fail).

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