Quotable Quotes: Accomplishment
by Miki Saxon
I seem to be on a roll around my house and garden getting all kinds of stuff that I’ve been procrastinating for months done leaving me with a giant sense of accomplishment. I love that feeling; I make task lists just to cross off the items and get that feeling of accomplishment.
So I thought that would be an apropos to see what others have to say about accomplishments.
There is an old saying that sums up why accomplishing stuff makes me feel good, “Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling, enduring, and accomplishing.”
Even though the lists help me get things done and make me happy, I’m heedful of the German Proverb, Who begins too much accomplishes little,” which, when you think about it, is why so many people end up accomplishing so little.
Obviously, accomplishment has a major place in business environment.
As Barry C. Forbes said, “Ideas are the raw material of progress. Everything first takes shape in the form of an idea. But an idea by itself is worth nothing. An idea, like a machine, must have power applied to it before it can accomplish anything.”
Power means people, not companies, but individuals working together. Colin Powell said it best, “Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.”
And while you are searching for the people who can accomplish the great deed, it’s wise to remember what Doug Larson said, “Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.”
Combine that with the words of Harry S. Truman and you have an unbeatable combination as well as the hallmark of a great leader/manager., “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Finally, Fred Allen offers us a kernel of wisdom inside a little bit of levity; read it carefully and if the shoe fits throw it out!
“A molehill man is a pseudo-busy executive who comes to work at 9 AM and finds a molehill on his desk. He has until 5 PM to make this molehill into a mountain. An accomplished molehill man will often have his mountain finished before lunch.”
Image credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/956033
