Really Better Business Quotes & Sayings

My dad was in the restaurant business, but I didn't really think about following him. Had I done better at school, I don't know if I would have been a chef. — David Chang

People are bad at looking at seeds and guessing what size tree will grow out of them. The way you'll get big ideas in, say, health care is by starting out with small ideas. If you try to do some big thing, you don't just need it to be big; you need it to be good. And it's really hard to do big and good simultaneously. So, what that means is you can either do something small and good and then gradually make it bigger, or do something big and bad and gradually make it better. And you know what? Empirically, starting big just does not work. That's the way the government does things. They do something really big that's really bad, and they think, Well, we'll make it better, and then it never gets better.
Building Fast Companies for Growth, Inc. September 2013 — Paul Graham

I really don't think there is anybody in the business with better eyes than Elijah Wood. — Liev Schreiber

We need to think harder and smarter. What we really need is holistic analysis, not holistic media data. We need to make better use of what we have. We need to dig deeper and ask, 'Do you need to repeat the whole study or can you examine the bits that have changed and re-calibrate?' — Jenny Beck

In my line of business, there's no better feeling than having a real nice work that you're really satisfied with. — Gregg Allman

I moved my business to Mobile Insurance because they simply understand my business better than any other insurance agency. My prior agent didn't really understand my coverage. Mobile Insurance President Kurt Kelley came in and was able to explain those coverage issues in detail to me and my legal counsel. He also saved us money and found us better coverage. — Jeff Foote

For a moment, she let herself forget about the business at hand and smiled at him. "You know, Roarke, you're kind of cute." She realized it was the first time she'd really surprised him.
His head came up, and his eyes were startled - for perhaps two heartbeats. Then that sly smile came into them. The one that made her own pulse jitter.
"You're going to have to do better than that, lieutenant. I've got you in."
"No shit?" Excitement flooded through her as she whirled back to the screens.
"Put it up."
"Screens four, five, six. — J.D. Robb

You'd better have the technology knowledge. I really urge you not to think you can start a whole company and business with just ideas on paper, because you'll end up owning so few of those ideas. — Steve Wozniak

Business success depends on good business leadership, and that means hiring and partnering with only the people your business really needs. These are the smart, hardworking people who know your industry as well as, or even better than, you. — Kevin J. Donaldson

To this day, whenever people take it upon themselves to explore the divinity of Jesus, there is at the very least a tendency for the theme of God's kingdom, coming on earth as in heaven, to be quietly lost from view. It is as though a young man spent all his time proving that he really was his father's son and left no time or energy for working with his father in the family business - which would, actually, be one of the better ways of demonstrating the family likeness. The gospels don't make that mistake. It is by his inaugurating of God's kingdom, in his public career and on the cross, that Jesus reveals the father's glory. — N. T. Wright

Doesn't it feel great to have eight ideas you love written down and spread out on the table before you? I'll forgive you if you took a quick break from reading to do a little freestyle writing, but we really need to get back to business so you can discover your brand and move on to writing even bigger and better things. — Emlyn Chand

I don't know if there was really ever a golden age of the music business. Most of what was released has always been garbage and some has been able to get through and last. I don't know that it was much better thirty years ago. The music industry just wasn't as efficient. The music industry was more oddball guys who did it for fun and now they are huge corporations that have become more structured. — Adam Schlesinger

The fact of the matter is: when you're doing a project, you try to make it better every moment. And a lot of people get frustrated. But I surrounded myself with a good team of people and I'm really proud of the work we've all done. All I can say is - I've learned this in my business - don't let the process frustrate you; focus on the end. Because the end is pretty wonderful. Just fight it out. — Jon Taffer

In the beginning I was really, really lean. For the longest time I did it all. I played every hat. I was in the factory, doing the graphic design, the photography, the selling - literally everything. I saved money doing what I could myself. It was hard but I learned. I learned that nobody's better than you to get your business off the ground. The experience you get is priceless. — Lori Greiner

Step one: The CEO or owner has to open the door. The only way to do that is to admit that they don't know how. It's a moment of vulnerability. It's only one moment, but I've seen CEOs put it off for decades. All it is is this: "Hey guys, I really want to make this a great place to work. And, as you know, I've tried a lot of things over the years. But the truth is, even though the business has gotten better in some ways, when it comes to the culture - how people feel about coming to work here - I know it hasn't changed in the ways you need it to. I don't know how to change it but I want to start a new conversation with you about it. Okay? — Jonathan Raymond

Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans. — Ken Blanchard

All the books helped him in some way or another. Quenton Cassidy was not enthusiastically going about the heady business of breaking world records or capturing some coveted prize; such ideas would have been laughable to him in the bland grind of his daily lifestyle. He was merely trying to slip into a lifestyle that he could live with, strenuous but not unendurable by any means, out of which if the corpuscles and the capillaries and the electrolytes were properly aligned in their own mysterious configurations, he might do even better what he had already done quite well. He was trying to switch gears; at least that is how he thought of it. And though it was a somewhat frightful thing to contemplate for very long, he was really pulling out all the stops. After this he would have no excuses, ever again. — John L. Parker Jr.

America is full of businesses bearing old Christian names, but which are really owned and run by Jews. Most of them have been acquired in the manner I have just described, the way the Jew creates something out of nothing (slow strangling). The Jew, better than anyone else in the world knows how to dispossess the poor and the members of the middle classes. To fit this case, the old P.T. Barnum adage needs only a little changing. A gentile enters business every minute, with two Jews waiting to take him out of it. — Samuel Roth

After a while the business end of writing takes too much of the writing time. Better to pay someone ten percent and find that you're still more than ten percent ahead in the end. Which is true. My present agent says that he always feels that a good agent during the course of a year should earn back for his client at least the ten percent he takes by way of commission, so the client's really nothing out. And what he should ideally do is make him more money than the ten percent. — Roger Zelazny

If you want really great surge suppression, you need to move up to power conditioning. Your power lines take in all kinds of strange signals that have no business being in there, such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI). Most of the time, this line noise is so minimal it's not worth addressing, but occasionally events (such as lightning) generate enough line noise to cause weird things to happen to your PC (keyboard lockups, messed-up data). All better surge suppressors add power conditioning to filter out EMI and RFI. — Michael Meyers

There are men and women who make the world better just by being the kind of people they are. They have the gift of kindness or courage or loyalty or integrity. It really matters very little whether they are behind the wheel of a truck or running a business or bringing up a family. The teach the truth by living it. — James A. Garfield

During the day I negotiated buying mom and pop companies and incorporating them into our larger network. Sometimes we let the original owners stay on as consultants. Rarely, actually, if I'm being honest and, even when we did, it never usually lasted for very long. Mostly, those once proud owners would see the box store makeover of their businesses and decide that retirement in some warm locale really did seem the better option. Did I ever feel guilty looking at these hardworking people and taking everything they'd assembled? Not even a little. Would you feel guilty handing someone hundreds of thousands or, in some cases, millions of dollars to go do whatever tickles their fancy? — Mandy Nachampassack-Maloney

If you can make peoples lives a lot better, you've got a really good business. — Richard Branson

Today I said, 'I really don't care.' Yesterday, in a similar situation, I said, 'It's none of your business?' Before that, it was 'What the hell are you trying to say?' And before that, 'Leave me alone' ...Sometimes I spit out words like 'Shit!' 'Damn!' 'Jesus!' The air vibrates and roars. If you listen closely, you can hear flames of anger. It is like a dragon belching out fire. Whenever I spit out these words, I feel a little better, and it helps a little, if just a little, to put out the fire. — Yoshitomo Nara

I think healthy competition is good for business, and really at the end best for end-users. Just think about what Android would have been if it was not for iPhone - a better blackberry? — Jack Levin

To finish first you have to first finish. Don't get in a position where you go back to go. What's interesting is that some guy whose grandfather was a lawyer and a judge-hurriedly going to Harvard Law with a wave of veterans-I was willing to go into so many different businesses. I was constantly going right into the other fellow's business and doing better than the other fellow did. The reason it was possible? Self-education- developing mental discipline, big ideas that really work. — Charlie Munger

With McClure's support, Steffens embarked on an odyssey. For the better part of three years, he called on people in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland, and Madison. "My business is to find subjects and writers, to educate myself in the way the world is wagging, so as to bring the magazine up to date," he explained to his father. "I feel ready to do something really fine. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

That seems like stealing, doesn't it?" Simon pulled a cup toward him. He drew the lid back. "Ooh. Mochaccino." He looked at Magnus. "Did you pay for these?"
"Sure," said Magnus, while Jace and Alec snickered. "I make dollar bills magically appear in their cash register."
"Really?"
"No." Magnus popped the lid off his own coffee. "But you can pretend I did if it makes you feel better. So, first order of business is what? — Cassandra Clare

That was perfect, because Tracey knows Jon better than anybody, and what he might really want, and what he's capable of saying he wants. Plus, also, I think in the back of both my head and Stephen's was, if Jon is really pissed afterward, we can say, "Hey, Tracey said it was okay!"

STEPHEN COLBERT: Find somebody to throw under the bus - that's the first rule of show business. — Chris Smith

[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn't cross your mind until it's too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of tossing capers into just about everything but milkshakes before I came to terms with the fact that nobody really likes capers no matter what you do with them. Some people pretend to like capers, but the truth is that any dish that tastes good with capers in it tastes even better with capers not in in. — Nora Ephron

How should a prospective writer go about becoming an author?
First of all, realise that it's very hard, and that writing is a grueling and lonely business and, unless you are extremely lucky, badly paid as well. You had better really, really, really want to do it. Next, you have to write something. Unless you are committed to novel writing exclusively, I suggest that you start out writing for radio. It's still a relatively easy medium to get into because it pays so badly. But it is a great medium for writers because it relies so much on the imagination. — Douglas Adams

I think a much better use of time and resources is to really focus on your existing users or customers and figure out what changes can you make in the Web site, the service, the product, whatever, to get them to come back more often to generate that repeat business and once you kind of figure out that formula, then when you get new customers the whole thing just kind of grows exponentially. — Tony Hsieh

Little story that changed everything." "How so?" Nathan asked. "Well, the story changed the way I looked at change - from losing something to gaining something - and it showed me how to do it. After that, things quickly improved-at work and in my life. "At first I was annoyed with the obvious simplicity of the story because it sounded like something we might have been told in school. "Then I realized I was really annoyed with myself for not seeing the obvious and doing what works when things change. "When I realized the four characters in the story represented the various parts of myself, I decided who I wanted to act like and I changed. "Later, I passed the story on to some people in our company and they passed it on to others, and soon our business did much better, because most of us adapted to change better. And like me, many people said it helped them in their personal lives. "However there were a few people who said they — Spencer Johnson

NOBODY knows better than you what's right for you. NOBODY. Let me say what I really mean: NOBODY. Advice? Get some. Oracles? Consult them. Friends? Worship them. Actual gurus? Honour them. Final say? YOU. All you. No matter what. No matter how psychic that psychic is, or how rich the business consultant is, or how magical the healer, or bendy the yoga instructor. All that experts offer you is data for you to take into consideration. YOU are the centrifugal force that must filter, interpret, and give meaning to that data. — Danielle LaPorte

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

To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else. — Baltasar Gracian