You don't get points for predicting rain. You get points for building arks.
Interpretation
Taking proactive action is more valuable than merely recognizing or predicting challenges.
This quote by Lou Gerstner emphasizes the importance of being proactive and solution-oriented in the face of challenges, rather than simply foreseeing problems. It suggests that true value lies in taking concrete actions to address potential difficulties, akin to building an ark to prepare for a flood rather than just predicting that it will rain.
In practice
This quote could be shared at a team meeting to encourage proactive planning.
Vision is easy. It's so easy to just point to the bleachers and say I'm going to hit one over there. What's hard is saying, OK, how do I do that? What are the specific programs, what are the commitments, what are the resources, what are the processes we need in play to go implement the vision, turn it into a working model that people follow every day in the enterprise. That's hard work.
You can’t mandate [cultural change], can’t engineer it. What you can do is create the conditions for transformation. You can provide incentives. You can define the marketplace realities and goals. But then you have to trust. In fact, in the end, management doesn’t change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture.
In the end an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.
If life was so easy that you could just go buy success, there would be a lot more successful companies in the world. Successful enterprises are built from the ground up.
After the final no there comes a yes_x000D_ And on that yes the future world depends.
The essential support and encouragement comes from within, arising out of the mad notion that your society needs to know what only you can tell it.
Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.
I believe in myself like a five-year-old believes in himself. They say look at me, look at me! Then they do a flip in the backyard. It won't even be that amazing, but everyone will be clapping for them.
If you're looking to become an entrepreneur then don't waste your time going to university or business school - just get on and do it.
People often say motivation doesn't last. But neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily.
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