Tidbits & Quotes: December 2004

Strive for perfection in everything we do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.

We become what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit!

Private Joker is silly and ignorant, but he's got guts. And guts is enough.

Failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.

As a leader, you have the power to influence people and therefore their performance. If you believe in creating an environment where trust, optimism, enjoyment and personal growth are encouraged, then you will build a sustainable, high-performing team—and, in the process, create many new leaders.

Considering the marvellous complexity of the universe, its clockwork perfection, its balanced of this against that... matter, energy, gravitation, time, dimension, I believe that our existence must be more than either of these philosophies. That what we are goes beyond Euclidian or other 'practical' measuring systems... and that our existence is part of a reality beyond what we understand now as reality.

We're not going to stop fighting 'till hell freezes over! Then we're gonna fight on the ice!

Drei Wünsche

Sind Tatsachen nicht quälend und langweilig?
Ist es nicht besser drei Wünsche zu haben
unter der Bedingung daß sie allen erfüllt werden?
Ich wünsche ein Leben ohne große Pausen
in denen die Wände nach Projektilen abgesucht werden
ein Leben das nicht heruntergeblättert wird
von Kassierern.
Ich wünsche Briefe zu schreiben in denen ich
ganz enthalten bin -
wieweit würde ich herumkommen ohne Gewichtsverlust.
Ich wünsche ein Buch in das ihr alle vorn hineingehen
und hinten herauskommen könnt.
Und ich möchte nicht vergessen daß es schöner ist
dich zu lieben als dich nicht zu lieben

The time is always right to do what is right.

Ice Cube: Wars come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal.
Samuel Jackson: I like that. Who said it? Jefferson? Patton?
Ice Cube: 2Pac.

Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Anyone who criticizes others must have an alternative to offer to them.

Not every end is a goal. The end of a melody is not its goal; however, if the melody has not reached its end, it would also not have reached its goal. A parable.

Sometimes people have a beef against me, and part of that beef comes from being a little too direct in my feedback. To me, the other thing I'm rigorous about is intellectual honesty. To me, honesty is really, really important. That means when an entrepreneur is screwing up, I call him up and say, "You're screwing up. OK?" I'm not polite. I prefer brutal honesty to hypocritical politeness any time of the day. Because fundamentally, every time you're hypocritically polite in a situation where it matters, the outcome is going to be impacted, you hurt the company, the entrepreneurs, and all the people you have helped recruit.

Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement.

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart.