Great Quotes from Great Books

I estimate that the ratio of useless to relevant reading material is about twenty to one. With that in mind, my advice it to reduce the literary inflow to a maximum of two newspapers a day, two weekly magazines, and two publications in a specialized field. Get off distribution lists. The reward will be an opportunity to engage in that underappreciated occupation, contemplation.

It’s funny that almost everyone I know is running on nothing or drowning themselves in information. At what point does self-improvement stop paying off? At what point to you start relying more on what you read to make your decisions for you? At what point to you forget how to think for yourself?

Or… At it’s worst. At what point do you realize the world has changed while you weren’t paying attention at all.

To survive in modern times, a company must have an organizational structure that accepts change as its basic premise, lets tribal customs thrive, and fosters a power that is derived from respect, not rules. In other words, the successful companies will be the ones that put quality of life first. Do this and the rest—quality of product, productivity of workers, profits for all—will follow.

How can anyone ever really be motivated if they don’t believe that they are gaining ground in quality of life? Whether it’s for a salary, or a cause, or a hobby—it’s hard to do your best when you know you’re not creating a better life for yourself or your loved ones.

But when cards are held close to the vest, communication will be faulty, and anxieties, misunderstandings, insecurity, and eventually hostility will manifest itself. No amount of “we’re-all-in-this-together-because-we’re-all-one-big-family” sloganeering will compensate.

I think people with power in an organization often forget that they have to earn the trust of the people constantly. It’s easy to think that your “position” means something and you should “get what you deserve” without keeping everyone informed. It’s amazing how fast things go downhill.

Nothing is harder work than democracy, I keep telling myself… But I’ll gladly bite my lip when I disagree with a judgment made by consensus, because I believe that unfettered democracy is much more important (and even more profitable in the long run) than prevailing over our managers in a way that takes you back to the days in which seesaws and sandboxes were important parts of the world.

Unfettered democracy can very easily be seen as “design by committee” and bring out flashbacks of the torture scene in the movie Hellraiser. But the big difference is letting disagreements happen. Being accepting of disagreement in the group is better than watering down every idea to the point of uselessness.

If everyone in your next meeting expects to leave the room happy with the idea, you should probably just call in sick.

…then sometimes you succeed and sometimes you bomb—or maybe it’s somewhere in between—but in any case, you never, ever judge yourself based on the outcome. If you succeed you don’t take credit for it; if you fail you don’t blame yourself. The only thing you take credit for is the fact that you tried.

I’m guessing with that approach you end up trying more things, people will like working with you because you don’t hog all the glory, and you don’t get angry and emo when things don’t go your way. It’s strange sometimes when you realize the most effective path to success is probably the exact opposite of what “feels” right.

We don’t consider ourselves to be naive or idealistic—although others certainly may. We are pragmatists of the highest order: we believe there is nothing more eminently practical than looking at the world, asking “how can this be better?” and then holding ourselves accountable for getting it done.

You can have that “get yours first” perspective and fight for every dollar—and get very good at it. Or pick a place to make the world better and out the community created in that adventure find a team that helps you succeed. Then do it again, and again, and again. That’s momentum baby! Eventually you’ll be rockin’ the world just by getting up.