Based on reader reactions, last week’s wisdom quotes were a hit; as promised, here are the rest.

There are many wise words attributed to Chinese Proverbs and these certainly qualify, “A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.” These days, public opinion vies with “leaders” for the same followers—those who don’t want to bother thinking for themselves.

Bill Cosby has the right response to that, “A word to the wise ain’t necessary, it’s the stupid ones who need the advice.” Of course, they don’t listen, but that never stopped anyone from trying.

Following Gandhi’s teaching is a good way to move towards wisdom, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Now, that is really smart advice, ensures that you have a great past, a wonderful present, and is the closest you can come to guaranteeing the future.

Leo F. Buscaglia said, “We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t. Success often lies just the other side of failure,” and I think he’s on to something. As dark as things seem now we’re all going to emerge from this stronger.

Abraham Lincoln really understood that; he said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Too bad so many on and around Wall Street failed that test, but it does take us full circle to the proverb that started this week and a powerful motivation to make your own decisions.

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I think the greatest compliment anyone can receive is to have something they say be deemed ‘wise’ by those around them. It has happened to me a few times and, to be honest, blew me away.

So I went looking for quotes about wisdom and found so many good ones that I’ll post the rest next week.

The thing about wisdom is that it transcends street smarts and learning. As Sandra Carey says, “Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.”

Wisdom, like charity, begins at home; Gian Carlo Menotti put it this way, “A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.”

Anon clarifies that advice and takes it a step further, “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

Plato said, “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” Maybe that explains all those talking heads and sound bites that pass for wisdom these days.

Once you achieve even a modicum of wisdom you can’t count on it being permanent. Kahlil Gibran understood that when he said, “Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.”

But, as usual, at least for me, it’s Lao Tzu who really hits the nail on wisdom’s head, “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.” Sadly, it seems that the higher you go the fewer people take the time for enlightenment.

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I came across a neat little book of quotes today and thought I’d share some of them with you. Each quote is actually a postcard, but there’s no way I’ll ever tear the book apart and mail them.

A few I chose are fairly well-known, such as Eleanor Roosevelt’s comment, “Remember, no-one can make you feel inferior without your consent” and I’ll add that you should retract it every time you notice you did it.

Jane Austen said, “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery;” good advice, but we all have negative times in our lives.

When you do, remember Katherine Mansfield, who offered a wonderful thought when she said, “I am treating you as a friend asking you to share my present minuses in the hope that I can ask you to share my future pluses.”

Billie Holiday warns, “Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose,” which true, especially in the office.

Lily Tomlin is a woman after my own heart; she said, “If you can’t be direct, why be?” I’m always accused of being too blunt, so now I have a comeback.

We’ve all experienced the truth of Barbara Stanwyck’s comment, “Egotism: usually just a case of mistaken nonentity”

Which leads us to what Fran Lebowitz said, “Children give life to the concept of immaturity,” however, I’ve met quite a number of adults who animate the concept quite adequately.

And that brings us to our final quote from Suzanne Douglass, “To err is human, to forgive takes restraint, to forget you forgave is the mark of a saint.”

I suggest that we all do our best to achieve that mark!

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I love the pithy, brilliant one-liners that have come down through history. The old ones usually specify ‘man’ or ‘men’, because in the era they were said women were ignored—but that doesn’t change their validity, value or applicability to both sexes.

I don’t know how old this Japanese saying is, but it certainly is true if you’re in the wrong corporate culture—“The nail that sticks up gets hammered.”

The same bosses who make free with the hammers often love consultants, but the problem with many of them is beautifully summed up by Colin Powell when he said, “Experts often possess more data than judgment.”

Cardinal Newman said that “A gentleman is one who never knowingly inflicts pain.” Assuming that is true, we have a hell of a lot of folks walking around, on and off Wall Street, who aren’t gentlemen

A similar truth was stated by Pascal when he said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Sadly, we have millions of cheerful folks from every religion around the world doing their damnedest more completely than ever before.

Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.” Does that mean that all those people doing something to to those who disagree with them are good people?

Sadly, the one that makes the most sense, and probably answers my previous question, is a true jewel from George Bernard Shaw, who said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. All progress, therefore, depends upon the unreasonable man.”

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I want to share three comments from Jeff Bezos today, because tomorrow’s post is about him.

They all focus on the financial side and point up the great difference between Bezos and many other CEOs when it comes to money and stock.

If Bezos is anything he is pragmatic and real—no BS. And that is just as true when he is talking about entrepreneurial topics as about his business.

The truth in this comment has only increased over the years and will continue into the future. “Good ideas will always get funded, so that’s not going to be a problem. But you will see that it will be harder and harder for bad ideas to get funded.”

“It’s part of the territory with Internet stocks, that kind of volatility. It can be up 30 percent one month, it can be down 30 percent in a month, and a minute spent thinking about the short-term stock price is a minute wasted.” Obviously, Bezos never wasted any minutes on the subject.

If you’ve followed Amazon at all, you know that every time Bezos invested in better technology or added product lines Wall Street predicted its imminent demise. Even today, after a decade of success, the analysts question Amazon’s every move.

Bezos takes it in stride, still focusing on the long term and customer satisfaction, as he has all along.

“No. I’ve taken plenty of criticism, but it’s always been about our stock price and never about our customer experience. After the bubble burst, I would sit down with our harshest critics, and at the end of the meeting they would say, “I’m a huge customer.” You know that when your harshest critics are among your best customers, you can’t be doing that badly.”

Join me tomorrow for a look at Bezos’ approach to nonmarkteing.

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I’d never heard of Gerald W. Johnson when I came across this excellent quote, “The closed mind, if closed long enough, can be opened by nothing short of dynamite.”

It was so perfectly aimed, so true and so applicable that I went looking for what else he said.
There’s not a lot, but you’ll love what I did find. Johnson’s comments seem especially pithy and apropos for our world today.

Consider this, “No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility.” These days, the higher you go the harder it is to find anyone who has been saddled.

Of course, give it a few years—the economy will recover, the jail sentences will be over, and all those leaders who wouldn’t know a responsibility if it jumped up and bit them will be back taking risks and influencing right and left. This will happen because, as Johnson said, “Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what actually happened, but of what men believe happened.” Or what they choose to remember.

Heroes aren’t really in style these days, so I thought I’d bring the final quote up to date.

“Heroes Leaders are created by popular demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials.”

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When it comes to eloquent proverbs filled with insightful wisdom nobody comes anywhere near the Chinese, not in more than 4000 years.

This is especially true when it comes to learning.

Think about it, is there any question what is meant by “A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood” or any doubt about the truth of it?

Anyone who has ever expended effort in imparting their knowledge to another knows the truth of this saying, “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.”

Not just teachers, but every trainer worth their salt will agree with this sentiment, “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” It is why they use role-playing, why apprentice programs work and why there is no substitute for OJT (on-the-job training).

In today’s image conscious culture too often people avoid asking questions for fear of being laughed at or worse. I know there have been times I didn’t ask, usually on subjects that fell in the “any idiot knows that” only to find out later that the answer was neither well-known nor obvious. The Chinese call it ‘losing face’, but their ancestors knew the truth. “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.”

Last, but definitely not least, is the proverb that has been the basis of my life. It is what I’ve held onto every time my world has turned upside down—more times than I like to remember. “Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.”

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Last week when I was looking for Ted Kennedy quotes I ran across this one from Frank Dane, “Life is strange. Every so often a good man wins.”

I liked it so much that this week I went looking to see what else Dane said; I found other insightful comments, so tried to track down a bio on Dane—no luck.

More quotes, but nowhere could I find information on who he is or what he does.

I’m sharing the quotes anyway and if any of you know more about him please share your knowledge in the comments.

Obviously, Dane did not have a great respect for those in politics…

“Never vote for the best candidate, vote for the one who will do the least harm”

“The news of any politician’s death should be listed under ”Public Improvements.””

“Where the criminals cover their crimes by making them legal.” [On Washington D. C.]

However, he did have a wonder grasp on finances and success…

“Remember when $25, 000 was a success? Now it is a garbage collector.”

“A set of rules laid out by professionals to show the way they would like to act if it was profitable.”

“Blessed is he who talks in circles, for he shall become a big wheel.”

My favorite is his comment on us, us in any country, city or any conceivable grouping…

“Ignorance is never out of style. It was in fashion yesterday, it is the rage today and it will set the pace tomorrow.”

Who IS Frank Dane?

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Last Monday and Tuesday I hit a nerve when I described leadership as fertilizer and went on to say that the composted kind was better than that produced in a lab.

So today I went looking for good quotes about fertilizer. I only found two really good ones, especially the one from Rick Pitino

Since there aren’t more, I thought I’d invite you to make up you own. Read the posts (if you haven’t already) and share your fertilizer quotes in comments.

“Fertilizer does no good in a heap, but a little spread around works miracles all over.” –Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Failure is good. It’s fertilizer. Everything I’ve learned about coaching, I’ve learned from making “mistakes.” –Rick Pitino

“Spreading fertilizer on others juices your own growth.” –Miki

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Initiative is the most critical ingredient in any kind of success, whether individual or organization.

C. Northolt Parkinson said, “The man whose life is devoted to paperwork has lost the initiative. He is dealing with things that are brought to his notice, having ceased to notice anything for himself.” And sometimes he doesn’t even do that.

Initiative means doing, not just noticing; Henry Ford understood that when he said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”

Initiative is what moves you forward; it’s what gets you off your butt so you can accomplish whatever you choose.

Several hundred years ago Johann Wolfgang von Goethe put it this way, “Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” Or you can follow the less poetic version from Zig Ziglar, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” (Personally I prefer Goethe; beauty in words doesn’t dilute the meaning.)

Initiative doesn’t stay with one person, no matter the position, nor does it end when the original action is complete. As Lao Tzu put it 4500 years ago, “What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.” And butterflies go on to live another whole life.

All actions should be valued, whether great or small. After all, without the humble caterpillar there would be no butterfly.

But my favorite view of initiative comes from Holbrook Jackson when he said, “Genius is initiative on fire.”

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