25 Inspiring Quotes On Shipbuilding, Leading, Design and Happiness [From 8 Books]

From 8 of my favourite books comes these inspirational quotes. From shipbuilding to eating order, you’ll find a beautifully selected cross section of smart, inspiring and quotes that simply make you smile. Enjoy.

I love this quote because I think most people are driven to shoot for the moon. They’re told to have a modest life, sit in a row, do what your told, don’t talk out of line, and hopefully after 13 years of this they’ll want to work in a factory taking orders from people in big offices. Well it turns out that’s no fun, especially for those just starting at the bottom of the totem pole.

Have a vision, have a big hairy audacious goal, have something! Go on now, create your wild and crazy expectation.

Always remember, it’s easy to be a critic. It’s hard to find the positive side of people and situations and to focus on the positive. Negatively begets negativity.
Find and hold close people who bring you up. If you happen to come across a critic, kindly thank them for their opinion and then forget everything they just said.

Genius is hard, it’s risky, it’s out of your comfort zone. But in a constantly changing world, mediocrity is even riskier.
Choose your strategy wisely.

Our world needs more simplicity. It’s easy to make things confusing, just pick up any University marketing textbook. It’s really hard to simplify things so that everyone understands. If everyone doesn’t understand what your overall vision is there is no conceivable way they’re going to help you achieve it.

Stop trying to be right. It’s an ego thing. Being right feels good, but only for the moment. When you focus on just being right, you miss the rapore building with the people around you. The moment you realize you don’t need to be right about everything is the moment you can start being the person you truly are meant to be.

People prove things are possible all the time. People who use the words can’t, and won’t work, and impossible are small thinkers. They like to hold people back and they get pleasure out of flexing their authority muscle. But when you’ve had contrived power for a while it taints your decision making. You feel like you’re a better leader than reality would dictate. This is building someone up for a magnificent fall.
Be very careful when using the phrase, “that’s impossible”. You’ll most likely be proven wrong in time.

Chip and Dan Heath’s “Decisive” is a brilliant read that’ll help you make better decisions. From the author’s of “Made to Stick” and “Switch” comes a brand new book that yet again turns out to be incredibly practical to help ones’ life. I thoroughly enjoyed Decisive.

Two very common and unassuming mistakes we guilty of while making decisions. We’re guilty of confirmation bias almost daily, be very careful when you’re seeking out information to educate yourself on a topic. We’re drawn to information and sources who are similar to us in how will live, act and feel. Be aware of your own personal biases.

I recite this quote in my head regularly. All to often a leader doesn’t want to adopt a future mindset knowing that if they do they may work themselves out of a job.

The most powerful form of marketing has been and always will be word-of-mouth marketing. There’s nothing more powerful, there’s nothing more we trust than a friend or family members recommendation.

A lesson from Jonah Berger’s spectacular read, Contagious will go down as a must read for marketing and business leaders. It’s about how ideas spread, how we’re influenced and how marketers use our own brains against us. Jonah Berger is brilliant.

Some brilliant advice I found on Teresa Torres’s blog. This is a very important lesson for those of us who run experiments within strategy. Testing assumptions is where the learning happens.

A quote from Cognitive Surplus Clay Shirky’s book that was also a Ted talk that millions of people watched and now quote. A technology pioneer, Mr. Shirky has influenced thousands with his research on the internet and social media.

James Altucher is one of those brilliant minds that the history books in 50 years will be talking about. His book, awfully titled Choose Yourself couldn’t be further from mediocre. Packed full of practical advice, he writes like he’s just another guy, but by the end of the book you realize this guy is simply brilliant and you want to listen to everything he’s priorly said.

There’s nothing more important in your life than finding your own inner happiness. It’s not easy and takes time, but for those who seek to know themselves, will understand others even better.

Culture is how we’ll decide on which company is “cool” and who isn’t “cool”  in the future. Culture means a lot.

See the “Yes Man” movie wasn’t completely crazy, actually it’s quite brilliant. Saying yes more often leads to a happier life.

We always like what’s familiar. It’s your challenge to declare your bias before you start arguing your opinion. Admitting your bias shows confidence.

Creativity isn’t one brilliant act but many actions over time adding up to create something amazing.

Ready, Fire, Aim applies here. You don’t have time to plan anymore. You barely have time to execute. The sooner you put your idea out there, the sooner you’ll get feedback on how to improve it.

I think Steve Jobs would agree. Everything involves design. It’s the extremely subtle features we notice, the tiniest design elements matter the most. So the next time you’re creating something, don’t beat around the bush, hold a design meeting and determine in advance the feeling you’re trying to achieve.

An important lesson that’s becoming more and more apparent every day. Use all of your employees when it comes to decisions making. It’s never been easier to communicate with more employees, use that to your advantage.

Strategic planning sessions only happening in the C-suite is a huge mistake. The best ideas always come from the guy working the front lines. You have a vested interest in increasing the amount of ideas that are shared up the food chain. Difficult to implement, incredibly valuable when done properly.

I don’t think there’s a better way to sum up leadership than the title of Simon Sinek’s book. The Marines provide concrete example of why leadership is based on serving.

It’s not easy being a leader, and I mean a true leader. It’s easy to be a benevolent manager, anyone can be a dick. It’s hard to really strive to help those who are on your team as well as satisfy the investor’s appetite for ROI.

I also love the quote “no one wakes up every morning and says to themselves ‘gosh, I want to be managed today’, we either want to lead or we want to be led, nothing else.”

If you want all of these quotes in a downloadable presentation format see below: