Top 113 Quotes & Sayings by Charles M. Schwab - Page 2

When you start in life, if you find you are wrongly placed, don't hesitate to change, but don't change because troubles come up and difficulties arise. You must meet and overcome and conquer them. And in meeting and overcoming and conquering them, you will make yourself stronger for the future.

Be friends with everybody. When you have friends, you will know there is somebody who will stand by you.

You can make up your mind to do one of two things: You can have a good time in life, or you can have a successful life, but you can't have both. You have got to make up your mind at the start which of the two you are going to have.

What little success I may have won in life I attribute to the loyalty I had for a dear old friend who was my first steel master, whom you perhaps have never heard of: Captain Bill Jones.

If you are going into any manufacturing establishment, don't go there by reason of any influence you may have. Start upon your own merits, and start in some lowly position, no matter what it is. Be a laborer, if you will. I don't know but that is the best way to start.

The aristocracy in the future is not one of wealth or university education, but the aristocracy of the men who have done something for themselves and their fellow men.

The men who miss success have two general alibis: 'I'm not a genius' is one; and the other, 'There aren't the opportunities today there used to be'.

I have always felt that the surest way to qualify for the job just ahead is to work a little harder than any one else on the job one is holding down.

The thing that most people call 'genius' I do not believe in.

Don't be reluctant about putting on overalls!

If you must be a glutton, be a glutton for work.

Every one's got it in him, if he'll only make up his mind and stick at it. None of us is born with a stop-valve on his powers or with a set limit to his capacities, There's no limit possible to the expansion of each one of us.

The real test of business greatness is in giving opportunity to others.

Looking to the future I see in the further acceleration of science continuous jobs for our workers. Science will cure unemployment.

The man who has done his best has done everything. The man who has done less than his best has done nothing.

I am not a believer in large salaries. I hold that every man should be paid for personal production. Our big men at Bethlehem seldom get salaries of over one hundred dollars a week; but all of them receive bonuses computed entirely on the efficiencies and the economies registered in their departments.

I am sure that few successful men are so-called 'natural geniuses.'

Bare hands grip success better than kid gloves.

Many of us think of salespeople as people travelling around with sample kits. Instead, we are all salesman, every day of our lives.

I didn't take up shorthand with any idea of becoming a professional at it. It merely appeared to me to be a good thing to know - something that might come in handy.

The man who counts his hours and kicks about his salary is a self-elected failure.

For my own part I am more interested in my work than its mere money value.

Keeping a little ahead of conditions is one of the secrets of business; the trailer seldom goes far.

When you go into your customary barber shop, you will wait for the man who gives you a little better shave, a little trimmer hair-cut. Business leaders are looking for the same things in their offices that you look for in the barber shop.

You can never really get away - - you can only take yourself somewhere else.

I disagreed with Carnegie's ideas on how best to distribute his wealth. I spent mine!

In my own house I rigged up a laboratory and studied chemistry in the evenings, determined that there should be nothing in the manufacture of steel that I would not know. Although I had received no technical education I made myself master of chemistry and of the laboratory, which proved of lasting value.

The man who attracts attention is the man who is thinking all the time, and expressing himself in little ways. It is not the man who tries to dazzle his employer by doing the theatrical, the spectacular.

If more persons would get so enthused over their day's work that some one would have to remind them to go out to lunch there would be more happiness in the world and less indigestion.

We have reached in this country an amazing degree of general prosperity, with American business on the whole no longer facing an uphill climb.

Good morning! Remember: A person can succeed at almost anything for which they have unlimited enthusiasm.

Don't be afraid of imperilling your health by giving a few extra hours to the company that pays your salary!

I have yet to hear an instance where misfortune hit a man because he worked overtime. I know lots of instances where it hit men who did not.

One of the most successful men I have known never carried a watch until he began to earn ten thousand dollars a year.

Spending creates more wealth for everybody.

The captains of industry are not hunting money. America is heavy with it. They are seeking brains - specialized brains - and faithful, loyal service. Brains are needed to carry out the plans of those who furnish the capital.

I thought and dreamed of nothing else but the steel works.

It may be in seemingly unimportant things that a man expresses his passion for perfection, yet they will count heavily in the long run.

Work hard. Hard work is the best investment a man can make.

The truth is that we have hitherto made no genuine effort to produce forged steel working parts of automobiles of the highest quality. That is one of the reasons why our automobiles have not ranked with those of foreign make.

The difference between getting somewhere and nowhere is the courage to make an early start. The fellow who sits still and does just what he is told will never be told to do big things.

What we must seek is a plan by which the men will receive high wages when the employers are receiving high prices for the product.

Young men may enjoy dropping their work at five or six o'clock and slipping into a dress suit for an evening of pleasure; but the habit has certain drawbacks.

The man who fails to give fair service during the hours for which he is paid is dishonest. The man who is not willing to give more than this is foolish.

A factory can be closed down, its chimneys smokeless, waiting for the worker to come back to his job, and all will be peaceful. But the moment workers are imported, and the striker sees his own place usurped, there is bound to be trouble.

Be friends with everybody. When you have friends you will know there is somebody who will stand by you. You know the old saying, that if you have a single enemy you will find him everywhere. It doesn't pay to make enemies. Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to every one about you, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will live.

Nothing is more fatal to success than taking one's job as a matter of course.

In my wide association in life, meeting with many and great men in various parts of the world, I have yet to find the man, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism.

The inventor, the man with a unique, specialized talent, is the only real super-genius. But he is so rare that he needs no consideration.

A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination. He must see things in a vision, a dream of the whole thing.

There is not a man in power at our Bethlehem steel works today who did not begin at the bottom and work his way up.

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband, while a man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

American industry is spilling over with men who started life even with the leaders, with brains just as big, with hands quite as capable. And yet one man emerges from the mass, rises sheer about his fellows; and the rest remain.