Quotable Quotes: Maya Angelou
by Miki Saxon
Maya Angelou is well known as a poet and an activist, but I find what she says full of common sense and much of it applicable to the workplace, especially to entrepreneurs.
First and of great importance Angelou warns, “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” This refers not only to the obvious prejudices, but also the more subtle ones, such as schools, age (young if you aren’t and older if you are), neighborhood, etc.
The following seems focused directly on a large portion of Millennials, “There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”
Angelou also offers the same advice Steve Jobs did on how to be successful, “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.”
Creativity is something that every manager wants and being creative is something that every person is, whether they realize it or not, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
People talk all the time about “having it all” and “doing it all,” but, as Maya advises, “There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”
She also share some hard won wisdom that entrepreneurs and others in the work world would do well to remember, “I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.””
Finally, Angelou offers us the ultimate advice; definitely worth remembering, “Nothing will work unless you do.”
Flickr image credit: Adria Richards
