Quotes by Watson, Thomas J.

"If you aren't playing well, the game isn't as much fun. When that happens I tell myself just to go out and play as I did when I was a kid."

Watson, Thomas J. on excellence   

"If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work."

Watson, Thomas J. on excellence
5 fans of this quote   

"Don't make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up."

Watson, Thomas J. on friends and friendship
9 fans of this quote   

"Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right. Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business."

Watson, Thomas J. on action   

"A manager is an assistant to his men."

Watson, Thomas J. on management   

"Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops."

Watson, Thomas J. on progress   

"Every time we've moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new."

Watson, Thomas J. on risk   

"Would you like me to give you a formula for... success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You're thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all... you can be discouraged by failure -- or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success. On the far side."

Watson, Thomas J. on success   

"The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm."

Watson, Thomas J. on success   

"You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart."

Watson, Thomas J. on business
3 fans of this quote   

"You don't hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news."

Watson, Thomas J. on business   

"THINK. Think about your appearance, associations, actions, ambitions, accomplishment."

Watson, Thomas J. on thoughts and thinking   

"The toughest thing about the power of trust is that it's very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and the customer."

Watson, Thomas J. on trust
7 fans of this quote   

"Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use."

Watson, Thomas J. on wisdom
5 fans of this quote   

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

Watson, Thomas J. on computers   

"Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of crackpot than the stigma of conformity."

Watson, Thomas J. on courage   

"Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous -- not just to some people in some circumstances -- but to everyone all the time."

Watson, Thomas J. on courtesy
4 fans of this quote