The #1 guideline to success is you must be in business for yourself. When you work for someone else, you sell your time at wholesale to your employer, who then re-sells it at retail to the customer.
Interpretation
True success comes from being self-employed rather than working for someone else.
This quote by J. Paul Getty emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurship and self-employment as the key drivers of success. It suggests that when individuals work for others, they are undervalued and their true potential is not realized, as they only receive a fraction of the value they create. Instead, working for oneself allows one to fully capitalize on their skills and efforts.
In practice
During a motivational seminar on entrepreneurship, this quote can inspire aspiring business owners.
Today's dissenters mainly focus their attention and expend their energies on the most inconsequential of trivia. ...Allegedly serious intellectuals quibble endlessly over such ridiculous trivialities...In the meantime, the public is lulled into a perilous somnolence, spoon-fed pap, and palpable untruths, many of which are turned out by special-interest and pressure groups and well organized propaganda machines.
You must not only learn to live with tension, you must seek it out. You must learn to thrive on stress.
In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.
Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves.
There is only one way to make a great deal of money; and that is in a business of your own.
To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business.
You can't win if nobody catches the ball in the outfield. You're only as good as the team you have behind you.
I don't deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn't deserve that, either. So I'll keep it.
A product is something made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by the customer. A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique. A product can be quickly outdated; a successful brand is timeless.
Champions are pioneers, and pioneers get shot at. The companies that get the most from champions, therefore, are those that have rich support network so their pioneers will flourish. This point is so important it's hard to overstress. No support systems, no champions. No champions, no innovations.
I'm not trying to win a popularity poll. I'm trying to win football games.
When Doing becomes infused with the timeless quality of being, that is success
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