“If you’re wrong, you will die. But most companies don’t die because they are wrong; most die because they don’t commit themselves. They fritter away their momentum and their valuable resources while attempting to make a decision. The greatest danger is in standing still.”
Andrew S. Grove
Only the Paranoid Survive (Primary source)
Andrew Grove’s Only the Paranoid Survive stands as a seminal meditation on corporate survival in an age of relentless technological upheaval. Published in 1996, when the digital revolution was reshaping the very foundations of American economic life, the book distills Grove’s hard-won wisdom into a theory of what he termed “strategic inflection points”—those epochal moments when the fundamental rules governing a business undergo tectonic transformation.
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“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done.”
— 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 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 sourceMore quotes by Andrew S. Grove →
“So you have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don’t, you’re going to lose. And that’s as close to certain as any prediction you can make. You have to figure out where you’ve got an edge. And you’ve got to play within your own circle of competence.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Disputed“When you’re good to others, you are best to yourself.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“If you have time don’t wait for time.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary sourceIndecision Commitment Decisions