“I couldn’t afford luxuries like embarrassment.”
Andrew S. Grove
Swimming Across (Primary source)
Grove’s 2001 memoir chronicles his harrowing passage from Nazi-occupied Budapest—where he survived the Holocaust under false identity—through Hungary’s failed 1956 revolution, to his escape across the Austrian border and arrival in America. A stark testament to survival, displacement, and an immigrant’s transformation from refugee to titan of American enterprise.
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“The first telegram went to my parents, telling them that I had arrived and was safe. Then I started wording the telegram to Lenke, telling her I had made it out of Hungary and that I would like to come to America. For a moment, I felt strange about approaching people I’d never met with a request for help. But as I glanced back at the long line behind me in the telegraph office, the feeling disappeared. I couldn’t afford luxuries like embarrassment. I sent the telegram.”
Andrew S. Grove
“A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“Here I’d like to introduce the concept of leverage, which is the output generated by a specific type of work activity. An activity with high leverage will generate a high level of output; an activity with low leverage, a low level of output.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“Remember too that your time is your one finite resource, and when you say yes to one thing you are inevitably saying no to another.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary sourceMore quotes by Andrew S. Grove →
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Disputed“Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn’t be done.”
— Amelia Earhart Disputed“I once said that my aim is to leave out everything superfluous in order to allow the essential to come through.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary sourceEmbarrassment Luxury Courage Pride