Quotes about company
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Bernie Sanders photo

“The stock prices of massive pharmaceutical companies tumbled because we are pushing to make health care a human right for every American. Corporate greed has no place in health care.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Twitter post, https://twitter.com/SenSanders (24 April 2019)
2010s, 2019, April 2019

Bernie Sanders photo
Henry David Thoreau photo
Kevin D. Williamson photo
Hugh Gaitskell photo
Thomas Sowell photo
William Quan Judge photo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez photo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez photo

“When we talk about the concern of the environment as an elitist concern, one year ago I was waitressing in a taco shop in Downtown Manhattan. I just got health insurance for the first time a month ago. This is not an elitist issue; this is a quality-of-life issue. You want to tell people that their concern and their desire for clean air and clean water is elitist? Tell that to the kids in the South Bronx, which are suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. Tell that to the families in Flint, whose kids have—their blood is ascending in lead levels. Their brains are damaged for the rest of their lives. Call them elitist… People are dying. This should not be a partisan issue. This is about our constituents and all of our lives. Iowa, Nebraska, broad swaths of the Midwest are drowning right now, underwater. Farms, towns that will never be recovered and never come back. And we’re here, and people are more concerned about helping oil companies than helping their own families? I don’t think so…This is about American lives. And it should not be partisan. Science should not be partisan. We are facing a national crisis. And if… if we tell the American public that we are more willing to invest and bail out big banks than we are willing to invest in our farmers and our urban families, then I don’t know what we’re here doing…”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

“Tell That to the Families in Flint”: AOC Demolishes GOP Claim That Green New Deal Is “Elitist”, DemocracyNow, https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/28/tell_that_to_the_families_in<BR> Video only: This is not an elitist issue: AOC on... inaction on climate change –video, Guardian News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5M8vvEhCFI (26 March 2019)
Quotes (2019)

Cyril Ramaphosa photo

“The US has been unable to imagine a better future that goes beyond four plus one G, where they have been unable to imagine what 5G has to offer. They are clearly jealous that a Chinese company called Huawei has outstripped them and because they have been outstripped, they must now punish that one company. We cannot afford to have our own economy being held back because there is this fight that the US is having.”

Cyril Ramaphosa (1952) 5th President of South Africa

As quoted by Peter Fabricius in Washington rejects Ramaphosa’s jibe that it is ‘jealous’ of Huawei’s 5G technology https://www.msn.com/en-za/money/technology/washington-rejects-ramaphosas-jibe-that-it-is-jealous-of-huaweis-5g-technology/ar-AAEckaI?ocid=spartanntp, Daily Maverick, 12 July 2019

Seneca the Younger photo

“The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.”

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter II: On discursiveness in reading

Ernesto Che Guevara photo

“Is it not true that our brotherhood transcends distances, different languages, and the absence of close cultural links, and unites us in the struggle? Ought not a Japanese worker be closer to an Argentine laborer, a Bolivian miner, a man working for United Fruit Company or a Cuban cane cutter, than to a Japanese samurai?”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Promoting proletarian internationalism in a September 1959 article published in the Mexican review Humanismo, as quoted in The Marxism of Che Guevara (1973), by Michael Löwy, p. 108

Kevin Plank photo

“Give it a chance, try to make it happen. This is our greatest asset as a nation and one that we have to continue to encourage. You don’t have to go broke, you don’t have to bet everything on it, but you can start one day at a time by taking a chance and seeing if you too can build a great company.”

Kevin Plank (1972) American entrepreneur and philanthropist

Social Growth Technologies Wins U-Maryland Cupid’s Cup Business Competition Under Armour’s Kevin Plank and BB&T Sponsor Fifth Annual Event https://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/news/social-growth-technologies-wins-u-maryland-cupids-cup-business-competition-under-armours-kevin, University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business (May 10, 2010)

Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax photo
Mary Robinson photo

“We have entered a new reality where fossil fuel companies have lost their legitimacy and social license to operate.”

Mary Robinson (1944) Former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Elders Chair Mary Robinson Uses UN Press Conference to Denounce President Trump, Canada Free Press, Joseph A. Klein (13 June 2019)

Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“When Machiavelli came to the end of his life, he had a vision shortly before giving up the ghost. He saw a small company of poor scoundrels, all in rags, ill-favoured, famished, and, in short, in as bad plight as possible. He was told that these were the inhabitants of paradise, of whom it is written, Beati pauperes, quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

After they withdrew, innumerable serious and majestic personages appeared, who seemed to be sitting in a senate-house and dealing with the most important affairs of state. Among them he saw Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Plutarch, Tacitus, and others of similar character; but he was told at the same time that those venerable personages, notwithstanding their appearance, were the damned, and the souls rejected by heaven, for Sapientia huius saeculi, inimica est Dei.. After this, he was asked to which of the groups he would choose to belong; he answered that he would much rather be in Hell with those great geniuses, to converse with them about affairs of state, than be condemned to the company of the verminous scoundrels that he had first been shown.
This account of Machiavelli's "Dream" was not published until a century after his death, in Etienne Binet's Du salut d'Origene (1629).
There is an earlier but more oblique reference in a letter written by Giovambattista Busini in 1549: "Upon falling ill, [Machiavelli] took his usual pills and, becoming weaker as the illness grew worse, told his famous dream to Filippo [Strozzi], Francesco del Nero, Iacopo Nardi and others, and then reluctantly died, telling jokes to the last.".
The "Dream" is commonly condensed into a more pithy form, such as "I desire to go to hell, and not to heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings, and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks, hermits, and apostles".
Disputed
Source: Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Source: The wisdom of this world is the enemy of God
Source: [Estienne, Binet, Du Salut D'Origene, 1629, Paris, Sebastien Cramoisy, 359-361, French, https://books.google.com/books?id=1yjDNfQatgQC&q=Plutarque&f=false]. Original French: On arrive à ce detestable poinct d'honneur, où arriva Machiauel sur la fin de sa vie: car il eut cette illusion peu deuant que rendre son esprit. II vit un tas de pauures gens, comme coquins, deschirez, affamez, contrefaits, fort mal en ordre, & en assez petit nombre, on luy dit que c'estoit ceux de Paradis, desquels il estoit ecrit: "Beati pauperes, quoniam ipsorum est regnum cælorum". Ceux-cy estans retirez, on fit paroistre vn nombre innombrable de personnages pleins de grauité & de majesté, on les voyoit comme un Senat, où on traitoit d'affaires d'estat, & fort serieuses, il entrevid Platon, Aristote, Seneque, Plutarque, Tacite, & d'autres de cette qualité. II demanda qui estoient ces Messieurs-là si venerables, on luy dit que c'estoient les damnez, & que c'estoient des ames reprouuées du Ciel, "Sapientia huius sæculi, inimica est Dei". Cela estant passé, on luy demanda desquels il vouloit estre. II respondit, qu'il aymoit beaucoup mieux estre en enfer auec ces grands esprits, pour deuiser auec eux des affaires d'Estat, que d'estre auec cette vermine de ces belistres qu'on luy auoit fait voir.
Source: [Lettere di Giovambattista Busini a Benedetto Varchi, Italian, Giovanni Battista, Busini, Gaetano Milanese (ed.), Florence, Felice le Monnier, 1860, 84-85, https://books.google.com/books?id=d5EKAAAAIAAJ&q=%22queste+pillole%22#v=snippet&q=%22queste%20pillole%22&f=false]. Original Italian: Ammalato cominciò a pigliar di queste pillole, ed a indebolire ed aggravar nel male; onde raccontò quel tanto celebrato sogno a Filippo, a Francesco del Nero ed a Iacopo Nardi, e ad altri, e cosi si morì malissimo contento, burlando.
Source: [The Last Words (real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and Women, Frederic Rowland, Marvin, 178, Revell, 1902, https://books.google.com/books?id=SrEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA178&dq=Hell+Heaven+%22enjoy+the+company+of+popes%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7x9SZzdDJAhUE-2MKHaO_CBkQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false]

James C. Collins photo

“This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary market insights. Nor even is it about having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies.”

What is a visionary company? Visionary companies are premier institutions -- the crown jewels -- in their industries, widely admired by their peers and having a long track record of making a significant impact on the world around them. The key point is that a visionary company is an organization -- an institution. All individual leaders, no matter how charismatic or visionary, eventually die; and all visionary products and services -- all "great ideas" -- eventually become obsolete. Indeed, entire markets can become obsolete and disappear. Yet visionary companies prosper over long periods of time, through multiple product life cycles and multiple generations of active leaders.
Book abstract, as cited in: Joe Kelly, ‎Louise Kelly (1998), An Existential-systems Approach to Managing Organizations. p. 256
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, 1994

Vātsyāyana photo
Giovanni della Casa photo

“These kinds of habits, in good company, are so very nauseous and disgusting, that if we indulge ourselves in them, no one can be very fond of our acquaintance. So far from it, that even those, who are inclined to wish us well, must, by these and the like disagreeable customs, be entirely alienated from us.”

Giovanni della Casa (1503–1556) Roman Catholic archbishop

Those ill-bred people, who expect their acquaintance to love and caress them, with all their foibles, are as absurd as a poor ragged cinder-wench; who should roll about upon an heap of ashes, scrabbling and throwing dust in the face of every one that passed by; and yet flatter herself that she should allure some youth to her embraces, by these dirty endearments; which would infallibly keep him at a distance.
Source: Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners, p. 15

Joseph Strutt photo
Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar photo
Victor Villaseñor photo

“We were starving when we got to the Texas border! And we thought that once we got across all our troubles were over. But we were wrong! A new kind of war started for us of racism and prejudice. They treated us Mexicans worse than dogs! In Douglas, Arizona, I stole six dollars worth of copper ore from the Copper Queen Mining Company to feed my starving mother and sisters, and they put me in the penitentiary. I was only thirteen years old! They wouldn’t have done that to a gringo kid, but they did this to a Mexican kid to teach an example!”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Tears came to his eyes. “In prison those monsters tried to rape me, but I fought back so hard that they cut my stomach open from rib to rib,” he yelled, tearing his shirt open and showing me the huge scar that ran across his whole abdomen, going from his upper right side to his lower left side. “My intestines came out, and they left me for dead, but the guards found me and took me to the hospital. After a week I awoke, and, at the end of that month, I escaped with two Yaqui who’d gotten twenty years for eating an Army mule. Their familias had been starving! And they’d stolen the mule to feed them! “YOU’VE GOT NO RAGE COMPARED TO THAT, PENDEJO! There aren’t enough bullets for me to kill all the racist no-good sons of bitches I’ve met in the United States! But—and this is a big but— anybody can go around killing people! Any damn group of kids can get together and kill! That takes no guts! What takes guts is to have that rage, here inside,” he said, pounding his chest, “and decide to do something good with that rage. My revenge against this racist two-faced country of the United States is that I got rich and became a Republican! So now you come back to the United States, and you do something worthwhile, AND YOU DO IT RIGHT NOW, PENDEJO!
Crazy Loco Love: A Memoir (2008)

N. R. Narayana Murthy photo
Indra Nooyi photo
Nicolae Ceaușescu photo

“As if Ceausescu and company are to bring down imperialism!! If the world waits for the Ceausescus to do such a thing, imperialism will live for tens of thousands of years…”

Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989) General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party

Enver Hoxha (1986) The Artful Albanian, (Chatto & Windus, London), ISBN 0701129700
About Ceaușescu

George Stephenson photo
James Bolivar Manson photo
Sepp Dietrich photo
William March photo
David Ogilvy photo
Jon Postel photo
Richard Sherman (American football) photo
Cory Doctorow photo
Steve Jobs photo
Angelique Rockas photo

“The thing I like about having a company is the academic side. Then you forget about the academic side once you`ve done the administration and you start creating.”

Angelique Rockas South African actress and founder of Internationalist Theatre, London

On the academic side of producing
TA NEA (London) Interview (June 1983)

Angelique Rockas photo

“The first performance the company staged was Ford`s '`Tis Pity Shes a Whore.'”

Angelique Rockas South African actress and founder of Internationalist Theatre, London

It was well received. I like to choose the play, the directors, the designers.. it`s a total creative act.
On the production of Ford`s Tis Pity She`s A Whore`
TA NEA (London) Interview (June 1983)

Christopher Poole photo

“I can’t wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company”

Christopher Poole (1988) American Internet entrepreneur, founder of 4chan

Source: 7 March 2016 https://variety.com/2016/digital/news/google-hires-4chan-founder-chris-poole-moot-1201724308/

Marilyn Ferguson photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Ralph Nader photo

“America's Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution that never once uses the words "corporation," "company," or "political parties."”

Ralph Nader (1934) American consumer rights activist and corporate critic

Their use of language reflected their antipathy toward the domineering influence of empire and big business... If "We the People" are the sole subjects of the Constitution, why is it that we are ruled by large corporations and their largely indentured servants—the Republican and Democratic Parties... "We the People" have allowed these plutocratic forces to slowly siphon away our power.
Breaking Through Power (2016)

Benjamin Creme photo
Marianne Williamson photo
Glenn Greenwald photo
Langston Hughes photo

“I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

"I, Too", in the magazine Survey Graphic (March 1925); reprinted in Selected Poems (1959); it is also often referred to as "I, Too, Sing America"

Ken Thompson photo

“You can't trust code that you did not totally create yourself. (Especially code from companies that employ people like me.) No amount of source-level verification or scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code.”

Ken Thompson (1943) American computer scientist, creator of the Unix operating system

"Reflections on Trusting Trust" http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/360000/358210/reflections.pdf, 1983 Turing Award Lecture, Communications of the ACM 27 (8), August 1984, pp. 761-763.

H. H. Asquith photo

“...where we were obliged to part company with our friends was here—that we held and still hold that war was neither intended nor desired by the Government and the people of Great Britain, but that it was forced upon us without adequate reason, entirely against our will.”

H. H. Asquith (1852–1928) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the Liverpool Street Station Hotel, London (20 June 1901) on the Boer War, quoted in Speeches by The Earl of Oxford and Asquith, K.G. (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1927), p. 40
Opposition MP

Bulleh Shah photo
Neal Stephenson photo
Alvin C. York photo

“You know we were in the Argonne Forest twenty-eight days, and had some mighty hard fighting in there. A lot of our boys were killed off. Every company has to have so many sergeants. They needed a sergeant; and they jes' took me.”

Alvin C. York (1887–1964) United States Army Medal of Honor recipient

On how he came to be known as "Sergeant York" when he was still technically only a corporal, as quoted in Sergeant York And His People (1922) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19117 by Sam K. Cowan, Ch. I : A Fight In The Forest Of The Argonne.

“I feel as if you are with me,
When company I have none.”

Momin Khan Momin (1801–1852) Indian writer

Masterpieces of Urdu Ghazal from the 17th to the 20th Century, p. 182
Poetry, Couplets

Simon Sinek photo

“Great companies don't hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them.”

Simon Sinek (1973) British/American author and motivational speaker

Source: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Simon Sinek photo

“Average companies give their people something to work on. In contrast, the most innovative organizations give their people something to work toward.”

Simon Sinek (1973) British/American author and motivational speaker

Source: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Simon Sinek photo

“The opportunity is not to discover the perfect company for ourselves. The opportunity is to build the perfect company for each other.”

Simon Sinek (1973) British/American author and motivational speaker

Source: Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team

Kenneth Arrow photo
Cory Booker photo
Stephen Vincent Benét photo
Gordon G. Chang photo

“We can’t have two things at the same time. We can’t have businesses in China, and we can’t have a free marketplace of ideas in the United States. You can have one, but you can’t have both at the same time, and because we need to protect our democracy, I think we need to get our companies out of China.”

Gordon G. Chang (1951) American lawyer

Gordon Chang: NBA Controversy Shows China Is ‘Weaponizing Our Companies Against Us’ https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/10/08/gordon-chang-nba-controversy-shows-beijing-is-weaponizing-our-companies/ (8 October 2019)

Sufyan al-Thawri photo

“The king who seeks company of the ascetics is superior to that ascetic who seeks nearness of the king.”

Sufyan al-Thawri (716–778) Muslim Scholar and founder of Thawri Madhhab

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 29

Rose Wilder Lane photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“It was not a very original period of my life. I won’t say I fell in with bad company—I more hunted them down.”

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 11 (p. 231)

Henry Morton Stanley photo

“You can find it on almost any tree. As we made our way through the forest, it was literally raining rubber juice. Our clothes were full of it. The Congo has so many tributaries that a well-organized company can easily extract a few tons of rubber per year here. You only have to sail up such a river and the branches with rubber hang almost up to your ship.”

Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904) Welsh journalist and explorer

Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-8-0 ISBN 9789463962094 Stanley Points out to King Leopold II Of Belgium that the Congo free State which was a loss-making endeavor at that time that rubber extraction has a possibility to make the colony profitable.

William G. Boykin photo
Epictetus photo
Ralph Abernathy photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“Imagine if your local phone companies tried to edit or censor what you said. Social media companies have far more power.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2020-05-28
Donald Trump just used a ridiculous comparison to justify his social media crackdown
Chris Cillizza
CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/28/politics/donald-trump-twitter-facebook-social-media-executive-order/index.html
2020, May 2020

Yang Yuanqing photo

“We want to transform ourselves from a PC market-share leader into a PC-plus innovation leader. This will ensure we have sustained growth, profitability, and the strong foundation to build a great global company that can last for generations.”

Yang Yuanqing (1964) Chinese businessman

Thriving in a ‘PC-plus’ world: An interview with Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/thriving-in-a-pc-plus-world# in McKinsey & Company (1 June 2013)

Seneca the Younger photo

“My motto is very personal and may not fit anyone else or any other company. It is: Don't do anything that someone else can do. Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.”

Edwin H. Land (1909–1991) American scientist and inventor

As quoted in "The Vindication of Edwin Land" in Forbes magazine, Vol. 139 (4 May 1987) p. 83; this was later humorously altered:
Don't do anything that someone else can do. Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
Edwin Ladd, Department of Astronomy, Harvard University (August, 1990), as quoted by Lincoln J. Greenhill at Harvard University http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~lincoln/

Robert B. Reich photo

“Every company in America should require all workers to be vaccinated, period.”

Robert B. Reich (1946) American political economist

29 July 2021 https://twitter.com/rbreich/status/1420781860066582529

Mike Gravel photo

“The only way you’re going to pay for it is not by saddling business. All you do by forcing business to pay for health care or passing a law telling people they have to go buy insurance, which is a subsidy for the insurance companies, all these plans are going backwards.”

Mike Gravel (1930–2021) American politician; United States Senator

Huffington post Mash-up: 2007 Democratic Online Debate
Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mashup-transcript-mike-gr_n_64318

Brigitte Lin photo

“There were no agents, no companies and as actors we had to do everything by ourselves. I would do my own make-up, prepare my own outfits from home and bring them to set the next day.”

Brigitte Lin (1954) Taiwanese actress

On her filmmaking environment within the emerging Taiwanese cinema industry in "Brigitte Lin, a timeless national treasure" in Taipei Times (15 May 2018) https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2018/05/15/2003693091

Angela Davis photo
Bill Maher photo
Charles Stross photo

“Anxiety loves company almost as much as misery.”

Source: The Laundry Files, The Labyrinth Index (2018), Chapter 10, “Flight Plan” (p. 296)

Dan Hartman photo

“It seemed to be a natural period when I wanted to stop doing pop records; it came with a falling-out between my record company and me...There was a hole in my career. Instead of a valley, it became a peak to me. I decided I was going to do something that I hadn’t really had time to do.”

Dan Hartman (1950–1994) American singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, record producer

Source: On the career fugue that led him to create the album New Green Clear Blue in “Dan Hartman Manages to Turn a Career Valley into Peak” https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=943&dat=19890307&id=gGkLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OlMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6768,567004&hl=en in Mohave Daily Miner (1989 Mar 7)

Marissa Mayer photo

“I've heard both the founding stories of Google and Yahoo, and for both those companies, the founders didn't even have to get into a car. They could literally go to the law office, the venture capitalists, the bank... on a bike. It's all that close together.”

Marissa Mayer (1975) American business executive and engineer, former ceo of Yahoo!

Source: as quoted in: Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley (As Told by the Hackers, Founders, and Freaks Who Made It Boom), 9781455559015, Fisher, Adam, 10 July 2018 https://books.google.com/books?id=pwo5DwAAQBAJ&q=marissa#v=snippet&q=marissa&f=false,

Ire Aderinokun photo

“Most of the operations-related tasks. I don’t enjoy them, but I have to do them so that the company doesn’t implode.”

Ire Aderinokun (1991) Nigerian front end developer

Source: https://techpoint.africa/2020/10/19/how-i-work-ire-aderinokun/Ire Aderinokun speaking on what she dislikes and she still does, you don't necessarily have to enjoy doing somethings it is important to just do them.

Mateo Alemán photo
Angelo Vulpini photo

“I Think that one of the most important and precious things that we can give to others as humans, its just the feeling of company of a simple "I'm with you"”

Angelo Vulpini (2003) Venezuelan recording artist

Source: Posted on @angelovulpini, Instagram (May 31, 2019)

Julian Assange photo
Jay Samit photo
Jay Samit photo
Jay Samit photo

“Company mentoring programs are also a key tool in promoting diversity at the workplace.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

Jay Samit photo

“No one ever built a billion-dollar company without employees, investors, business partners, and customers.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

Jay Samit photo

“The best time to launch your new company was a year ago; the second-best time is now.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

Jay Samit photo

“School was designed to get you to fall in line and get a job in someone else’s company.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

Divya S. Iyer photo
Guigo I photo

“Prepare your mind to live in the company of evil people, with your mind unsullied; to do this is to live like an angel.”

Guigo I (1083–1136) Cartusian monk

#22
The Meditations of Guigo I, Prior of the Charterhouse

Max Barry photo

“What if we could make the company better? If we could change things…make it a better place to work. I mean, there are so many things we could do.”

Holly looks at him blankly. Freddy says, “Jones…you’re still new here People suggest ways to improve the company every day. Their ideas go into the suggestion box in the cafeteria—where the cafeteria was, I mean—and they’re never heard from again, except during all-staff meetings when Senior Management picks out the most useless one and announces a cross-functional team to look into it. A year or two later, when everyone’s forgotten about it, we get an e-mail announcing the implementation of something that bears no resemblance to the initial idea and usually has the opposite effect, and in the annual reports this is used as evidence that the company listens and reacts to its workers. That’s what happens when you try to make Zephyr a better place to work.”
Q4/2: November, pp. 208-209
Company (2006)

Max Barry photo

“Customers are vermin. They infect companies with disease.”

He says this with complete solemnity. “A company is a system. It is built to perform a relatively small set of actions over and over, as efficiently as possible. The enemy of systems is variation, and customers produce variation. They want special products. They have unique circumstances. They try to place orders with after-sales support and they direct complaints to sales. My proudest accomplishment, and I am being perfectly honest with you here, Mr. Jones, is not the Omega Management System and it associated revenue stream—which, by the way, is extremely lucrative. It is Zephyr. A customer-free company. Listen to that, Mr. Jones. A customer-free company. In the early days, you know, we tried to simulate customers. It was a disaster. Killed the whole project. When we started again, I cut every department that had external customers. It was like shooting a pack of rabid dogs. Now, I’m not claiming Zephyr Holdings is perfect. But we’re getting there, Mr. Jones. We’re getting there.”
Q4/1: October, p. 105
Company (2006)

Prevale photo

“A sublime moment is under the sheets, in the company of your other half, wrapped in the warmth of your own bodies.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Un momento sublime è sotto le lenzuola, in compagnia della tua metà, avvolti dal calore dei propri corpi.
Source: prevale.net