“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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“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“The absolute truth is that if you don’t know what you want, you won’t get it”
— 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 →
“If you know that this life is all that you have, wouldn’t you make the most of it?”
— Ayn Rand Disputed“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Disputed“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“I don’t play in a game where the other people are wise and I’m stupid. I look for a place where I’m wise and they’re stupid.”
— Charlie Munger Primary sourceIndecision Commitment Decisions