Ross Perot quotes: politician turned business billionaire, here are Ross Perot’s most powerful quotes.
“Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.”
“The most successful people in the world aren’t usually the brightest. They are the ones who persevere.”
“The best way to make money is not to have money as your primary goal. I’ve seen great people come into the business world primarily motivated to make money. Almost without exception they failed.”
“Most new jobs won’t come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We’ve got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality.”
“When you’re on top you tend to be vulnerable. When you don’t have to hunt anymore, some kids knock you off. Keep yourself in shape by climbing the mountain.”
“Failures are like skinned knees – painful, but superficial.”
“Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they’re going to make mistakes.”
“Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.”
“It is the individual’s ability to deal with the unexpected that characterizes the difference between success and failure.”
“Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment.”
“Get up in the morning and look in the mirror. You’re your own job security.”
“Life is never more fun than when you’re the underdog competing against the giants.”
“Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.”
“Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written, and to write what is worthy of being read.”
“I want people who are smart, tough, self-reliant, have a history of success since childhood, a history of being the best at what they’ve done, people who love to win.”
“When building a team, I always search first for people who love to win. If I can’t find any of those, I look for people who hate to lose.”
“Life is like a cobweb, not an organization chart.”
“If someone as blessed as I am is not willing to clean out the barn, who will?”
“I’m a product of this country and I feel I have an obligation to the American people to do all I can to make this a better country – not just build a personal empire.”
“When you have been as fortunate as I have been you certainly can contribute more than people who are just trying to make ends meet. You bet.”
“Making all this money is partly an accident. I could have put the same amount of energy into a corporation that made steel forgings, but I would have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had an opportunity to be in the right place, and I have an obligation to do something creative.”
“I want to put my money where my intentions are.”
“A man is never more on trial than in a moment of excessive good fortune.”
“Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You’d be amazed how many companies don’t listen to their customers.”
“You don’t have to be the biggest to beat the biggest.”
“So many people spend their lives chasing money and end up as the richest men in the cemetery. I don’t want to be like that.”
“Never ask anyone to do what you haven’t done before and wouldn’t do again. That’s a pretty fundamental rule in leadership. Treat them like you treat yourself. Things you don’t like, they don’t like.”
“The American dream. Those three short, simple words encompass the hopes and aspirations of all the peoples on earth. The words are not only short and simple. They are also fragile.”
“Money is the most overrated thing in the world.”
“On people being confused on how many billion dollars he was worth, one number is as good as another. When you get that high what difference does it make?”
“When I came to Dallas, everything I owned was in the trunk of the car and I feel personally that I have always been rich in the things that count. I’ve had wonderful parents and I have a magnificent wife. I have great children. That’s real wealth. Young people who make their money their God are inevitably in for a big disappointment.”
“Anything that is excellent or praiseworthy stands moment by moment on the cutting edge and must be constantly fought for. Well-placed priorities always sit on the edge.”
“The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.”
“Talk is cheap. Words are plentiful. Deeds are precious.”
“Don’t run your life by what’s legal or illegal. Run your life based on what’s right or wrong.”
“In plain Texas talk, it’s ‘do the right thing.'”
“We in Texas have to decide. Do we want our kids to entertain us on Friday nights at football games, or do we want them to be winners for the rest of their lives?”
“We have to succeed, so we will.”
“One of the great blessings is that nobody taught me how to manage people. Instead, for four years I was taught and shown by example how to lead people. There is a fundamental difference.”
“I’m not a living legend. I’m just a myth.”
If you enjoyed the quotes above, you’ll enjoy Dick Cheney’s too.
