Thomas Watson- "Develop your initiative. Do something no one else has done. "
It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all.
Thomas Watson
Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker.
Thomas Watson
Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of “crackpot” than the stigma of conformity.
Thomas Watson
Think. Think about your appearance, associations, actions, ambitions, accomplishment.
Thomas Watson
Education is the foundation of our progress. Research is the advance guard of our progress.
Thomas Watson
Cooperation means to give just as much as you get.
Thomas Watson
We have proved the worth of our machines to the world, and I feel it is now our obligation to plan so that this business may go on for all time. I want all of you to get the same kind of vision and belief in IBM.
Thomas Watson
Learn to supervise yourself.
Thomas Watson
The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.
Thomas Watson
To visualize the future of IBM you must know something of the past.
Thomas Watson
The forces that produce success are manpower and brain-power.
Thomas Watson
Develop your initiative. Do something no one else has done.
Thomas Watson
Pioneering must never cease. Yesterday we pioneered for today; today, we are pioneering for tomorrow.
Thomas Watson
I have made a good many predictions about the future of our business and I have been wrong every time because I have always underestimated its possibilities.
Thomas Watson
It is better to aim at perfection and miss it than to aim at imperfection and hit it.
Thomas Watson
You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.
Thomas Watson
Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business.
Thomas Watson
There is no such thing as standing still.
Thomas Watson
You cannot stay in one place: you either go forward or go backward.
Thomas Watson
We must never feel satisfied.
Thomas Watson
Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
Thomas Watson
A man is known by the company he keeps. A company is known by the men it keeps.
Thomas Watson
The IBM spirit, the IBM heart and the IBM language were the same in all tongues and in all countries.
Thomas Watson
A manager should regard his position as one that gives him a splendid opportunity to render assistance.
Thomas Watson
A manager is an assistant to his men.
Thomas Watson
It is impossible for any man, I don’t care how able he may be, to do the work and attend to all the details of a business – to accomplish anything – without the support of his entire organization. This business is such that neither I nor any executive staff can run it alone. It is too big. Our company has grown each year and succeeded because everybody has been contributing to its success.
Thomas Watson
Every manager’s first duty is to help the men under his direction…Listen to the man below you as well as the one above.
Thomas Watson
Our aim is higher every year and we always reach our mark. We must never think that what we have today will satisfy the demand ten years from now.
Thomas Watson
Analyze the past, consider the present and visualize the future.
Thomas Watson
Plan for the future… Have faith in the future.
Thomas Watson
Resolve to stand for something big and fine outside of your business life.
Thomas Watson
Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right.
Thomas Watson
Every time we’ve moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.
Thomas Watson
Too many people are waiting for someone else to give them a push. We have tried to develop self-starters in IBM.
Thomas Watson
Your success will be determined by the manner in which you use the tools you have been given to work with. When practicing the art of selling use all your talents. Put everything you have into your efforts; above all put your personality into them. Never copy anybody. Be yourself.
Thomas Watson
All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.
Thomas Watson
What every business needs is more people who think.
Thomas Watson
Knowledge creates enthusiasm.
Thomas Watson
You must guard constantly against those who lack vision. You must guard against the reactionary mind. Always cultivate and associate with persons of vision and with persons who believe that things are going to be better. When you do this, you take on the kind of vision, backed by the right kind of inspiration that you need if you are going to grow in this business or any other business.
Thomas Watson
Good design is good business. Design must reflect the practical and aesthetic in business but above all…good design must primarily serve people.
Thomas Watson