business

No business can be made easier to do than excuses are to make.

What would be the natural thing? A man goes to college. He works as he wants to work, he plays as he wants to play, he exercises for the fun of the game, he makes friends where he wants to make them, he is held in by no fear of criticism above, for the class ahead of him has nothing to do with his standing in his own class. Everything he does has the one vital quality: it is spontaneous. That is the flame of youth itself. Now, what really exists?""...I say our colleges to-day are business colleges__ale more so, perhaps, because it is more sensitively American. Let's take up any side of our life here. Begin with athletics. What has become of the natural, spontaneous joy of contest? Instead you have one of the most perfectly organized business systems for achieving a required result__uccess. Football is driving, slavish work; there isn't one man in twenty who gets any real pleasure out of it. Professional baseball is not more rigorously disciplined and driven than our 'amateur' teams. Add the crew and the track. Play, the fun of the thing itself, doesn't exist; and why? Because we have made a business out of it all, and the college is scoured for material, just as drummers are sent out to bring in business."Take another case. A man has a knack at the banjo or guitar, or has a good voice. What is the spontaneous thing? To meet with other kindred spirits in informal gatherings in one another's rooms or at the fence, according to the whim of the moment. Instead what happens? You have our university musical clubs, thoroughly professional organizations. If you are material, you must get out and begin to work for them__oach with a professional coach, make the Apollo clubs, and, working on, some day in junior year reach the varsity organization and go out on a professional tour. Again an organization conceived on business

Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value.

When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is INSUBORDINATION.

Businesses, like babies and books, need nurturing, time, energy, love, planning and, yes, money to develop, grow and prosper.

Cliché: "The MBA changed my life."What it really means: "A fantastic career, a great social life and a healthy bank balance...three of the things I had before I started the program.

Until you understand your customers - deeply and genuinely - you cannot hope to serve them

In Chinese business culture, humility is a virtue.

Never Underestimate. Just as in any other negotiation, watching before acting is as important as listening before speaking. It's doubly important in China, however, where customs are time-honored and breaches of protocol not so quickly forgiven.

While others were dreaming about it - I was getting it done.

As is often the case with children, the rule of __onkey see, monkey do_ plays out in the workplace. It__ hard to be good role model, and it__ one of the greatest challenges of leadership.

Social media isn't something that you "do", instead you have to "be" social.

Leaders must be good listeners. It__ rule number one, and it__ the most powerful thing they can do to build trusted relationships.

Publishing is a business and writing is an art. The two have to be crammed together despite the clearly different motivations behind them.

Fearful leaders side-step issues instead of dealing with them, cover up mistakes instead of owning up to mistakes; they skulk back into the shadows and hope that the crisis__hatever it is__ill somehow blow over instead of facing their fears. Worse, they resort to lies and deception to cover up the truth.

Pleasure and business, unlike oil and water, can sometimes be mixed.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

I want to live not for selfish gain, but for selfless devotion.