Umair Haque Quotes & Sayings

...maybe strength in the 21st century isn't about dominance....it's about the capacity to evoke....the ability to spark the enduring bonds of shared values, intrinsic motivation, and mutually committed perseverance. It is, in short, not the power merely to command, subordinate, demean, insult - and then crow about it with impunity. It's the power to inspire, animate, infuse, spark, evoke - and then connect, link, and collaborate, to be a force multiplier. — Umair Haque

The direction worth going in isn't up, down, forward, or backward. It's towards. And beyond. — Umair Haque

There's nothing more fundamentally disruptive to the status quo than a new reality. — Umair Haque

We're richer, but that wealth doesn't reflect durable, authentic economic value - which is hitting fast diminishing returns. The growth that we're pursuing is neither sustainable - nor is it, in many ways, real growth at all. Boardrooms from finance to autos to energy to pharma to fashion have learned that the hard way. — Umair Haque

Leaders inspire us because they bring out the best in us. — Umair Haque

In the age of strategy, advantage flowed from owning resources. In the age of wisdom, it flows from seeding and connecting them. — Umair Haque

Follow your passion, we're often told. But how do you find your passion? Let me put it another way: what is it that breaks your heart about the world? It's there that you begin to find what moves you. If you want to find your passion, surrender to your heartbreak. Your heartbreak points towards a truer north - and it's the difficult journey towards it that is, in the truest sense, no mere passing idyllic infatuation, but enduring, tempestuous passion. — Umair Haque

It's probably your fiercest critics - not your compatriots - who have the sharpest, most resonant insights. — Umair Haque

Each and every one of us is a leader. Some of us just don't know it yet. — Umair Haque

The question you must answer isn't how to get ahead. It's how to go somewhere that matters. And have fun along the way. — Umair Haque

Leadership simply begins with the courage to be yourself. So everyone else can be, too. — Umair Haque

Let's summarize. What is awesomeness? Awesomeness happens when thick - real, meaningful - value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off. That's a better kind of innovation, built for 21st century economics. — Umair Haque

If you want to live a meaningfully better life, you're going to have to make the dangerous choice to dissent. A life lived meaningfully isn't denominated by digital friends, designer logos, or wads of paper notes. It's denominated by what you've lived, what it's worth to you, and what that's worth to humanity. — Umair Haque

Yes, business really does change. 400 years ago, corporations were formed by royal decree. 300 years ago, many countries were powered by slave labour, or its closest moral equivalent. 200 years ago, debtors didn't go bankrupt, they went to prison. 100 years ago - well, business is largely the same as it was a century ago. And that's exactly the problem. Business hasn't changed, but today's array of tectonic global shocks demands a different, radically better kind of business. Yesterday's corporations visibly cannot meet today's economic challenges. — Umair Haque

Confidence is this: Wearing your triumphs with humility, and wearing your scars with pride. Many of us do precisely the opposite. — Umair Haque

The social [media channel] isn't about beauty contests and popularity contests. They're a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. It's about trust, connection, and community. That's what there's too little of in today's mediascape, despite all the hoopla surrounding social tools. The promise of the Internet wasn't merely to inflate relationships, without adding depth, resonance, and meaning. It was to fundamentally rewire people, communities, civil society, business, and the state - through thicker, stronger, more meaningful relationships. That's where the future of media lies. — Umair Haque

I'm firmly of the belief that your youth should be spent pursuing your passion - not just slightly, tremulously, haltingly, but unrelentingly, with a vengeance, to the max and then beyond. So dream laughably big - and then take an absurdly huge risk or two. — Umair Haque

It's at the very moment you want to give up on your dreams that you must expand them until they move you again. — Umair Haque

You get one life. And if you make the mistake of choosing a profession that doesn't enrich anybody but you, you wont even live that one — Umair Haque

The biggest mistake you can make is listening to people who've given up on their dreams telling you to give up on yours. — Umair Haque

Remember to be awesome. — Umair Haque