Angela Ahrendts quotes: one of the head honchos for both Burberry and Apple voices her thoughts.
“Dreams have no boundaries if you learn to read the signs of life.”
“We all control our careers. Those choices that you make are so critical.”
“Think of energy almost like emotional electricity—it has a powerful way of uniting ordinary people, their collective spirit to do extraordinary things.”
“Emotive energy transcends normal communication and rational ways of working. It inspires people to do and give more.”
“Trust your instincts and emotions.”
“All I have are my instincts. They’ve never failed me.”
“When you have trust and you get that trust in place throughout the company, people are empowered; people are free.”
“Don’t stop. Don’t slow down. Keep focused.”
“Intuition is the wisdom formed by feeling and instinct: a gift of knowing without reasoning. Belief is ignited by hope and supported by facts and evidence. It builds alignment and creates confidence. Belief is what sets energy in motion and creates the success that breeds more success.”
“Why is it that we value thinking over feeling? Why aren’t we taught to follow our natural inclinations, to protect the possibilities instead of just accepting the probabilities?”
“Without the dark clouds you don’t truly appreciate the bright day.”
“We live by what we believe, not by what we see.”
“Our greatest weakness is lack of self-confidence.”
“We cherish right and we cherish left, but more important, we cherish when you are able to use the whole mind that you were born with.”
“The basis for all human relationships and where we derive our greatest strength and power—trust is single-handedly the most powerful source of positive energy and, once in place, unlocks a freedom and peace to explore.”
“At their core, an influencer creates an empowering human connection.”
“An influencer, to me, is someone who shares their journey, the ups and downs—and their approach to their craft or the spark that ignites a new interest allowing people to do more and go further.”
“The sign of a great leader is knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t know.”
“I think that the larger and more complex the business gets, I have to listen twice as much as I speak.”
“Ask questions; don’t make assumptions.”
“I have learned to listen and to hone my instincts to be perceptive and be receptive to change, to constantly live in ambiguity.”
“Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first.”
“Unless I can come in in the morning and smile, walk in the lobby and say, ‘Good morning!’—if I am stressed—I am not going to do a good job. Everybody is watching us. They are feeding off of our energy.”
“Shared passion can unite and align all teams, in any organization.”
“A company’s success is predicated on you putting the right people in the right place at the right time.”
“Whether it’s countries or companies, it’s about putting the best person in the job who can unite people and create value.”
“I am not in favor of quotas. Just put the best person into the job. It is not about gender; it is about experience, leadership and vision.”
“It is one of the most important parts of my job, showing that you can’t do it all.”
“Brands have the power (and I would argue the obligation) to guide and create a higher sense of purpose.”
“Only by uniting more closely than ever can we keep pace with as fast as society is moving, exploring the blurring of the physical and digital worlds to continually evolve how we connect consumers to our brand.”
“People talk about the age and positioning of a brand, but hell, it’s not about that. The global language is digital, and we need to speak the language.”
“You have to create a consistent brand experience however and wherever a customer touches your brand, online or offline. The lines are forever blurred.”
“Great design: you won’t have a business today without great design.”
“Online, offline, it’s gotta be the same.”
“You have to do what’s best for the brand.”
“From the store windows, the store touch-points, the website, social media, or a magazine, it has to be one pure customer experience, not just to gain market share but to gain mind share.”
“The thing is, I don’t want to be sold to when I walk into a store. I want to be welcomed.”
“The main objective—our soul is our people. And our job is to enrich their lives, change the world. And so I think that’s the bigger pressure you put on yourself.”
“Great brands and great businesses have to be great storytellers, too. We have to tell stories—emotive, compelling stories—and even more so because we’re nonfiction.”
“Forget luxury; as a great company you have to keep evolving.”
“People don’t want to just make stuff. They want to make stuff with purpose.”
“On the digital revolution: there has never been more creative freedom and potential, or more opportunity to connect and learn. But the pace of change also presents challenges: feelings of fear, distrust and uncertainty are pervasive.”
“You’re going to see relationships with technology across anything that’s brand. I don’t care if that’s in home or what you wear. I just think it’s a new fact of life.”
“I believe it is imperative that great companies add greater social value. The larger the company, the larger the obligation.”
“I grew up in a physical world, and I speak English. The next generation is growing up in a digital world, and they speak social.”
“You have to create a social enterprise today; you have to be totally connected with everyone who touches your brand.”
“Technology has given us access to the world and its sea of content, allowing us to never speak to another person if we don’t want to.”
“I don’t care how advanced technology gets. I don’t think that there’s anything that can replace looking someone in the eyes, touching their hand, you know?”
“The more technologically advanced our society becomes, the more we need to go back to the basic fundamentals of human communication.”
“Remember, the universal language is not texted, emailed, or spoken. It is felt.”
“Work has never really been work for me. It’s been a natural extension of my life.”
“There are things about the fashion industry that I miss, but I went to Apple because I felt it was a calling to one of the greatest companies on the planet. I felt we could even do a little of what we did at Burberry: uniting people to do incredible things.”
“I have learned to feel my way through life, personally and professionally.”
On humility: my dad would always say, ‘When you look at a photo do you see yourself last?'”
“I think if I’m guilty of anything, I’m guilty of always being incredibly focused on the task at hand. So wherever I’ve worked, I’ve just always tried to do my best, achieve my best, build a great team around me.”
“I think when you’re empathetic, you’re putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes, right? It’s not about you.”
“On inspiring others: and if the end result is that someone, somewhere winds up believing they can do something out of the ordinary, well, then you’ve really made it.”
“I know it might sound weird, but empathy is one of the greatest creators of energy. It’s counterintuitive because it’s selfless.”
“You have to realize that I am the third out of six children, and I am raised with very strong core values and a very strong upbringing. I always put myself in other people’s shoes.”
“I learned to be the spectator and I learned to listen and observe and watch.”
“I’m not shy, but I have a job to do. I don’t need the notoriety.”
“‘Balance’ is a really big word for me.”
“I don’t want to be a great chief executive without being a great mum and a great wife.”
“I’m nearly always at home at the weekends; that’s important for every working woman today, not just me. I don’t encourage people to come in at the weekend and work; I encourage people to go home and create great families.”
“I know who I am. I know what I love.”
“As leaders of families, households, businesses and communities, we all know the power of uniting people around strong, simple, positive messages.”
“I don’t believe that you are ever done. Is life ever going to stop and stand still? We have to move as fast as the world is moving.”
