You're missing it. This is not a one-man show. What's reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there's a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they're not losers. What they didn't have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.
A companion that feasts the company with and mirth, and leaves out the sin which is usually mixed with them, he is the man; and let me tell you, good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.
I've interviewed people where their response was literally one word for everything I asked. This didn't help me get to know them, nor did it sell me on their skill set to help my company achieve its goals. I got nothing from them, which meant I had no way of knowing if they were really a good fit in the company.
I always tell people, good coaches are a dime a dozen. Good coaches that are good people, good husbands, good fathers, that love their players and are passionate about doing things in a way that I believe is important, that pool gets real small.
The culture war is between the winners and those who think they're losers who want to become winners. The losers think the only way they can become winners is by banding together all the losers and them empowering a leader of the losers to make things right for them.
Well, the people I've known I must say are extraordinary. When I think about some of them, I can't believe that I knew them all. And I think the reason I knew most of them at the beginning was because they were of Bogie's generation, 25 years my senior, not mine. But they were the most talented people of all.
People don't do good work when they feel like losers and are second class citizens within their own company.
People don't do good work when they feel like losers and are second-class citizens within their own company.
I have been competing against IBM my whole career. It's a good company, with good management and a good team.
I think MySpace is doomed, I give them about two more years.... I think Facebook is the next Microsoft in both the bad and the good senses. That's an amazing company that is going to do a lot of good and bad things.
The guys that go into the Hall of Fame are the winners, and the losers are the ones who put them in there, and I would like to see some of the great losers through the years be in the Hall of Fame. I know that that's probably impossible, but you've got to give those losers credit, they made the winners.
I started my first company when I was in my college dorm as a senior with two of my really good friends. We started a company that became SparkNotes.com. You know CliffsNotes? SparkNotes is a modern-day version of that.
I put myself around good people, including my assistant coaches. A lot of head coaches are intimidated by their assistant coaches, they'd rather get people that are far less talented than them because it's not threatening.
Take a company like GM. For years, people were warning its execs that the company was too dependent on big SUVs and trucks, that it was falling behind other companies in innovation. A lack of knowledge wasn't the problem. And mothers and fathers everywhere try to warn their kids that maybe a giant tattoo isn't such a good idea. Good luck in that fight, Knowledge.
I have lived much of my life among molecules. They are good company. I tell my students to try to know molecules, so well that when they have some question involving molecules, they can ask themselves, What would I do if I were that molecule? I tell them, Try to feel like a molecule; and if you work hard, who knows? Some day you may get to feel like a big molecule!
I look at my yesterdays for months past, and find them as good a lot of yesterdays as anybody might want. I sit there in the firelight and see them all. The hours that made them were good, and so were the moments that made the hours. I have had responsibilities and work, dangers and pleasure, good friends, and a world without walls to live in.
Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good plays, good company, good conversation - what are they? They are the happiest people in the world.