Thomas J. Watson

If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.

We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.

I’m competitive, and I love to create challenges for myself. Maybe that’s not always a good thing. It can make life complicated.

Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot have, but perseverance all can have.

I gave up the guitar in 1965. Didn’t want to see a guitar. I’d go out and get drunk. When I came out of the heart surgery, the doc said, “Promise me you’ll work hard.” I said, “I thought working hard is what got me here.” He said, “No, working is what will keep you alive.”

When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.

Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now.

One thing a lot of people don’t know about me is that I’m a driver… I love driving.. I’m driven.

I quit therapy because my analyst was trying to help me behind my back.

What shapes our lives are the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never think to ask.

I only work with the best.

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.

If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.