Business Management Training Quotes

“When you work on something that only has the capacity to make you 5 dollars, it does not matter how much harder you work – the most you will make is 5 dollars.”
― idowu koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability

“You have to work on the business first before it works for you.”
― Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability

“If you are going to be in business, you must learn about money: how it works, how it flows, and how to put it to work for you.”
― Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability

“A business is like a living being. It needs to be cared for, loved, stewarded, nurtured, and led.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic

“In today's constantly evolving economy, business models cannot be static. The business model of each business must be consistently changing and evolving in order to stay relevant and to succeed.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Every business should own, at minimum, a general liability insurance policy. The business needs to protect itself and mitigate against risk.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic

“It's good to include playful and imaginative activities in business management. Managers of every business should be actively utilizing their imagination and directing that toward the advancement of the business. And incorporating playful activities into managerial routines is a good way to do that.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“Fifteen years ago, a business manager from the United States came to Plum Village to visit me. His conscience was troubled because he was the head of a firm that designed atomic bombs. I listened as he expressed his concerns. I knew if I advised him to quit his job, another person would only replace him. If he were to quit, he might help himself, but he would not help his company, society, or country. I urged him to remain the director of his firm, to bring mindfulness into his daily work, and to use his position to communicate his concerns and doubts about the production of atomic bombs.

In the Sutra on Happiness, the Buddha says it is great fortune to have an occupation that allows us to be happy, to help others, and to generate compassion and understanding in this world. Those in the helping professions have occupations that give them this wonderful opportunity. Yet many social workers, physicians, and therapists work in a way that does not cultivate their compassion, instead doing their job only to earn money. If the bomb designer practises and does his work with mindfulness, his job can still nourish his compassion and in some way allow him to help others. He can still influence his government and fellow citizens by bringing greater awareness to the situation. He can give the whole nation an opportunity to question the necessity of bomb production.

Many people who are wealthy, powerful, and important in business, politics, and entertainment are not happy. They are seeking empty things - wealth, fame, power, sex - and in the process they are destroying themselves and those around them. In Plum Village, we have organised retreats for businesspeople. We see that they have many problems and suffer just as others do, sometimes even more. We see that their wealth allows them to live in comfortable conditions, yet they still suffer a great deal.

Some businesspeople, even those who have persuaded themselves that their work is very important, feel empty in their occupation. They provide employment to many people in their factories, newspapers, insurance firms, and supermarket chains, yet their financial success is an empty happiness because it is not motivated by understanding or compassion. Caught up in their small world of profit and loss, they are unaware of the suffering and poverty in the world. When we are not int ouch with this larger reality, we will lack the compassion we need to nourish and guide us to happiness.

Once you begin to realise your interconnectedness with others, your interbeing, you begin to see how your actions affect you and all other life. You begin to question your way of living, to look with new eyes at the quality of your relationships and the way you work. You begin to see, 'I have to earn a living, yes, but I want to earn a living mindfully. I want to try to select a vocation not harmful to others and to the natural world, one that does not misuse resources.'

Entire companies can also adopt this way of thinking. Companies have the right to pursue economic growth, but not at the expense of other life. They should respect the life and integrity of people, animals, plants and minerals. Do not invest your time or money in companies that deprive others of their lives, that operate in a way that exploits people or animals, and destroys nature.

Businesspeople who visit Plum Village often find that getting in touch with the suffering of others and cultivating understanding brings them happiness. They practise like Anathapindika, a successful businessman who lived at the time of the Buddha, who with the practise of mindfulness throughout his life did everything he could to help the poor and sick people in his homeland.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World

“The first step out of the gate has to be knowing where you want to end up. What do you really want from your company?”
― Stan Slap

“Lack of confidence will always allow doubt, but strong self-confidence will build courage.”
― Mark Villareal, A Script for Aspiring Women Leaders: 5 Keys to Success

“We do need these two words, “public” and “relations”—and, of course, those words are still extremely important.
However, those 3 billion people who are social media users are all dealing with “relations,” and everything has become “public”!
With social media, everything has been “public” for quite a while now; there is nothing “nonpublic” anymore.”
― Maxim Behar, The Global PR Revolution: How Thought Leaders Succeed in the Transformed World of PR

“Sonnet of Human Resources

There is no blue collar, no white collar, just honor.
And honor is defined by character not collar.
There is no CEO, no janitor, just people.
Person's worth lies, not in background, but behavior.
Designation is reference to expertise, not existence.
Respect is earned through rightful action, not label.
Designation without humanity is resignation of humanity,
For all labels without love cause nothing but trouble.
The term human resources is a violation of human rights.
For it designates people as possession of a company.
Computers are resources, staplers are resources, but people,
Aren't resources, but the soul of all company and society.
I'm not saying, you oughta rephrase it all in a civilized way.
But at the very least, it's high time with hierarchy we do away.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“If I could teach aspiring managers only one concept, without question I would pick accumulating personal credibility. Credibility is something we earn. How? It’s amassed by successfully accomplishing tasks we’re assigned or which we volunteer to perform.”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“Learn the value of introducing proposals over time using masterful technique.... Deliver the message when the listener isn’t rushed or in an emotionally charged state.... Don’t unnerve your boss by dropping a crisis in their lap last-minute when you’ve had some warning yourself.”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“...don’t confuse managing your interactions with your superior (i.e., planting seeds) with manipulating them.... if you gain approval to proceed with an initiative and things don’t go as planned, deliver bad news in person. This permits you to respond to questions, assess how the message is perceived, provide clarification, obtain any direction, and most importantly to provide your well-conceived plan to correct the situation”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“If we want to be irreplaceable, we have to do our very best to make sure our contribution exceeds our pay by as much as possible. Seeking to understand what explicit impact our boss values about us can be part of the equation.... we should carry out the intent of our position which encompasses performing the job we’ve been hired to do and not just the portion of it we enjoy doing”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“You don’t want to be in a situation where you can’t justify your compensation.”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“When your manager is conducting a meeting or conference call and presents an idea or goal, they’re looking for commitment to tackle the task. If you start listing all of the reasons why it won’t work or argue unimportant details, your boss will see your effort as adversarial. You become a roadblock preventing everyone in the group from moving forward.... If you have a small concern or issue you want heard, save it for a personal moment later.”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“When faced with difficult decisions, painstakingly analyze the situation. Do your homework and be careful not to understate or overstate the impact of pertinent conditions. This includes researching possible consequences and deciding if the department, division, and company can live with them.”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“If upper management wants an issue to go away, they’ll allow us the opportunity to fix it. If we have a reputation for rectifying difficulties, they’ll want us to continue these efforts.”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“If we don’t have all of the facts at hand, we still need to let the interested parties know that we’re on top of the research but that it will take time. When that information is gathered, inform them in an expedient manner. If employing the solution falls within our authority, implement it as soon as possible. If approval is required, document a request swiftly so any lag time won’t be attributed to our inattention.”
― Ronald Harris, Concepts of Managing: A Road Map for Avoiding Career Hazards

“Don't tell all the people, just tell the right people... your business is your business.”
― Damon Thueson

“There is no CEO, no janitor, just people.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Designation without humanity is resignation of humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“You can manage a hotel, you can manage a business, but you don't manage people, you treat them like family.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament

“Call it skill resources, call it expertise resources,
but don't call it human resources. Because the term
‘human resources’ compares humans with commodity,
which is nothing but a new age slavery.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“I'm a car guy. Growing up, one of my favorite pastimes was working on old cars with my grandfather Daddy Bob. He taught me early on that no matter how complex a system is, it can always be reduced to a small handful of components. This is critical because when your car won't start, you need to be able to quickly identify which component is either most affected or responsible. Daddy Bob taught me that pretty much every internal combustion engine can be reduced to three components: air, fuel, and fire. Sure, there are other parts, but the whole system really comes down to those three areas. So when we were diagnosing an engine problem, Daddy Bob would ask, "OK, Robbie, where do you think the problem is : in the air, the fuel, or the fire?" Once we knew that answer, we could move on to fix the problem.”
― Robbie Poe, Private Practice MBA: A Step-by-Step Guide to Put Your Practice on Autopilot

“Leading is about people and their wellbeing the first foundation to the organisations wellbeing.”
― Janna Cachola

“The adaptability of our brain is remarkable. By simply adjusting our mindset, we can rewire our neural pathways, leading us to a more harmonious life-work balance.” - Marlene Gonzalez, Author of Brain Boost

“Your brain is an intricate maestro, orchestrating everything from your heartbeat to your decisions. It's pivotal in determining how you balance emotions with the demands of work and life.” - Marlene Gonzalez, Author of Brain Boost

“The brain's incredible ability for neuroplasticity reminds us that we can always learn, adapt, and find equilibrium in our work-life balance.” - Marlene Gonzalez, Author of Brain Boost

“While emotional intelligence and personality types offer insights into behavioral prowess, understanding how the brain functions adds depth, guiding us towards more effective leadership and a balanced life.” - Marlene Gonzalez, Author of Brain Boost

“Consider your brain as a trainable muscle. By nurturing it, you not only strengthen resilience against stress but also pave the way for a balanced life and work journey.” - Marlene Gonzalez, Author of Brain Boost”
― Marlene Gonzalez, Brain Boost: Developing Leaders Through Neuroplasticity

“The messy slow path is actually faster.”
― Brady Brim-DeForest, Smaller is Better: Using Small Autonomous Teams to Drive the Future of Enterprise