Somebody once told me, ‘Manage the top line, and the bottom line will follow.’ What's the top line? It's things like, why are we doing this in the first place? What's our strategy? What are customers saying? How responsive are we? Do we have the best products and the best people? Those are the kind of questions you have to focus on.
I always believe I can beat the best, achieve the best. I always see myself in the top position.
For over ten years, bombs rained down on every village and hamlet in South Vietnam, and no one budged. It took the coming of a Communist 'peace' to send hundreds of thousands of people out into the South China Sea, on anything that could float, or might float, to risk dehydration, piracy, drowning . . .
I think in any profession, in general, you always imagine yourself at the top of it. And I'm not trying to say I'm at the top of my profession, but I've seen what the top people do and what the top people live like. And that's definitely something I want to be a part of.
The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn't seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.
In the end, the best music will always rise to the top.
As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose,
Float in the garden when no wind blows,
Come to us, go from us, whence no one knows;
So the old tunes float in my mind,
And go from me leaving no trace behind,
Like fragrance borne on the hush of the wind.
Always have one possibility in mind and that is to go to the top, to be the best. Everything else should just be a means to that end.
The best place for a leader isn't always at the top position. It is the place where they can serve the best and add the most value to other people.
...if you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.
When I was a kid and my mom made tomato soup, she would cut buttered toast into squares and float them on top of each bowl.
I was kind of known as a ballad singer. People would send ballads. Some of them would go over my shoulder and float off the top of my head, and I just didn't feel anything. Then I would hear a song that would absolutely shake me.
Any top-level athlete, it's always the same. There's always that hint of arrogance there... It's hard to be humble when you're the best.
It's something I've always done - speak my mind - and it's not always in my best interest to do that. But if someone asks me a question, I'm always going to give my 100 percent honest answer, and that's the best I can do.
For the players, these top, top, top games or these top, top, top events - like a World Cup or a European Championship - are not common but, of course, something special.
I don't think I am the type of person who thinks, 'I dunno. Things are getting on top of me.' It's not that I think I'm any different to most people. I always make a big effort, to fight with all my strength, make the best of a situation, and always want to win.