Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of "crackpot" than the stigma of conformity.
Thomas J. WatsonRead
Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?
Interpretation
Mistakes are learning opportunities, and firing someone who has been invested in can squander that growth.
In this quote, Thomas J. Watson emphasizes the importance of valuing the investment made in training an employee, even when they make costly mistakes. Instead of viewing the error solely in monetary terms, he suggests that such experiences provide invaluable lessons that contribute to an employee's development and future contributions to the organization.
In practice
During a leadership training session to illustrate the value of employee development.
Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of "crackpot" than the stigma of conformity.
If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.
If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.
To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart.
The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.
Every time we've moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.
The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.
I think over time I've learned to stop being a screamer and get interactive; otherwise, you get killed in Hollywood. I stopped being a screamer shortly after 'Blade Runner,' kicking doors and things like that, because I wasn't actually getting anywhere.
No one is innocent after the experience of governing. But not everyone is guilty.
Leadership is not a basket of tricks or strategies or skills that you pull out. Leadership begins with the quality of the person.
If you believe in a security strategy - a strategy of more friends and fewer enemies, a strategy of greater cooperation and a strategy of keeping America better at home as we grow more diverse - we have to build the minds and hearts to build this kind of world.
Leadership is seeing the possibilities in a situation while others are seeing the limitations.
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