These past three weeks have been killer ones. PE firms are trying to make deals willy-nilly this time of year and that results in some later nights/earlier mornings than usual.
Ever since I started working, I like to keep a few post-it notes scattered around my desk with quotations of thinkers/leaders/businesspeople to keep my mind from wandering too far. If I space out for a moment at my desk, my eyes usually find one of these post-it notes and I at least ponder something semi-intellectual for a moment or two rather than thinking about the smokeshow I saw at the bar this past weekend. (Which, now that I write this, maybe doesn't seem like a bad idea after all)
Thought it would be fun to share the 10 post-it notes that are currently up on my desk and then for each monkey to share their favorite quotation from theirs. So here it goes:
1. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. – Charles Darwin
2. As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. In all affairs, it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted. – Bertrand Russell
4. Ut sementem feceris, ita metes (You reap what you sow) – Marcus Tullius Cicero
5. Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops. – Thomas Watson
6. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. Management is going things right; leadership is doing the right things. – Peter Drucker
8. There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. – Peter Drucker
9. When things go wrong, don’t go with them. – Elvis Presley
10. To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities – Bruce Lee
So you guys have any quotations/phrases posted up at your workstation to help you keep your eyes on the prize? Sound off below.
Thanks.
Fall down seven times, stand up eight. - Japanese Proverb
Kind of cliché, but it always reminds me that giving up is never an option, no matter how hard you fail.
Two that I feel apply to being a junior banker:
Illegitimi non carborundum (Don't let the bastards grind you down) - General Joe Stillwell (I know it's not real Latin)
Do the hard stuff first. Then you can go and do whatever you want to do. - Bruce Willis
You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help.
Damn that one just hit me hard. IDK why. Thanks
"Remember what matters" For perspective when I find myself getting unduly stressed out about the small stuff
"Do it right" To remind me not to f*ck up
“If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe.”
― Joe Rogan
rogan's got a few good ones
//www.youtube.com/embed/Iua_XU5KZNA
Life is about making choices. There are two types of people in this world: predator and prey. You can choose which one to be. - My Father
Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one - George Orwell
Well done for not saying "quotes", such a common fuck up.
"He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still" - Tao Te Ching
"Learn to tell your dollars where to go, not to ask where they went"
"Pigs get fat; hogs get slaughtered"
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now" - Chinese proverb
"We become what we think about" - Earl Nightingale
"Judge your success by what it took you to get there"
Dalai Lama had something similar - “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”
From Wes Swank, a portfolio manager at Kyle Bass' Hayman Capital who recently passed in a car crash: "I work every day with people smarter than me, who are better at their job than me. I go to the gym every day with people stronger than me. I spend time with friends and family whose values and quality of character I aspire to reflect. For all these reasons, I get a little better, every day".
good one
wow..
Great post, here are a couple from my post-its.
When I was younger a teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. I said happy. She told me I didn't understand the question, I told her she didn't understand life. -John Lennon
Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. -Roger Babson
Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools speak because they have to say something - Plato
"Creation seems to come out of imperfection. It seems to come out of a striving and a frustration. And this is where I think language came from. I mean, it came from our desire to transcend our isolation and have some sort of connection with one another. And it had to be easy when it was just simple survival. Like, you know, 'water'. We came up with a sound for that. Or 'Saber-toothed tiger right behind you'. We came up with a sound for that. But when it gets really interesting, I think, is when we use that same system of symbols to communicate all the abstract and intangible things that we're experiencing. What is, like, frustration? Or what is anger, or love? When I say 'love', the sound comes out of my mouth and it hits the other person's ear, travels through this Byzantine conduit in their brain, you know, through their memories of love or lack of love, and they register what I'm saying and they say yes, they understand. But how do I know they understand? Because words are inert. They're just symbols. They're dead, you know? And so much of our experience is intangible. So much of what we perceive cannot be expressed. It's unspeakable. And yet, you know, when we communicate with one another, and we feel that we've connected, and we think that we're understood, I think we have a feeling of almost spiritual communion. And that feeling might be transient, but I think it's what we live for."
Maybe just a tad too large for a post-it note.
The one post-it i have: A goal without a plan is a wish.
short, simple and keeps you on the right path when you envision getting a raise, bonus, car, house, vacation, etc.
Only one. "It Goes on. . .". Kind of puts life that I consider shitty into some perspective!
"I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good." - Napoleon
"sleep is for those who are broke." - 50 cent
"I've been thinkin' bout..all the 0's in my bank account." - a$ap
Wow great post! I really like the Bruce Lee one. Here's some others:
You can get anything in this world that you want if you help enough other people get what they want - Ziglar
We do now the things other people won't do so that later we do the things they can't do - Headmaster of my school
The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the chees - anon
When you see a good move, sit on your hands until you see a better on - Nimzovich
I am the creation of myself - ME
Man who walk through airport sideways surely going to Bank Kok - fortune cookie
FUCK YOU, PAY ME - Henry Hill
Most of the insanity wolf memes
I don't want to be the hater here - but other than a quick smile - does anyone actually get motivated by a quote?
If so, I guess I can see why self-help books do so well.
Fortune favors the bold.
“Procrastination is like masturbation; in the end you're just screwing yourself.” "You never know what someone is worth until they declare bankruptcy." "Who dares, wins." -British SAS
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