The danger of not doing what you love, and other bits of wisdom.

Published 20060725 by Olivier Blanchard | E-mail this post

Call me lazy, but instead of writing something insightful for you guys today, I'm going to share some of my favorite finds from my morning's croissant-induced online browsing.

All quotations courtesy of Pulled Quotes.

On retaining talent:

"One of my favorite cliches is "there is no such thing as indentured servitude". I use that line to talk about the fact that talent can't be bought and sold. It must be retained with something more than money."

Fred Wilson

On finding out what works:

"I have no earthly idea what really works. I don't know if it's lunch or that powerpoint or the Christmas card I sent last year. But you know what? You have no clue what works either. I'll keep experimenting if you will."

Seth Godin

On why blogs work:

"Bloggers drive blogs, share price drives traditional media. Blogging is personal, traditional media is corporate."

Mark Cuban

On remembering what creativity really is:

"Creativity is an act of open disobedience against the norms. Creativity is an act of courage."

Chris Bailey

On innovation, grabbing life by the horns, and not pissing your life away:

“Do things that are gaspworthy.”

That was one of the main messages delivered by Tom Peters, the influential business thinker and management guru, in his speech yesterday at Epsilon’s Integrated Marketing Symposium 2006 at the Quail Lodge in Carmel, CA.

“Do cool stuff that make people gasp,” said Peters, who looked older and angrier than in his “In Search of Excellence Days” (the book he co-authored with Richard Waterman in 1982 that was hailed by NPR as one of the Top Business Books of the Century). “Don’t piss away your life.”

He changed his speech at the last moment after having learning this week that one of his best friends has a terminal illness, Peters said.

Also noted

"Innovation comes “not from market research or focus groups, but from pissed off people.”

DM News

On passion and work:

"Whether you are Jack Welch or the Dalai Lama, it is dangerous not to do what you love. If you don't have a level of passion that drives your thinking about what you're doing day in and day out, there will be others out there who are passionate who will overtake and outrun you. People who care will take the initiative away from those who are half-hearted. So loving what you do is a competitive imperative, not simply a nice thing to have."

Knowledge @ Wharton interviews Mark Thompson and Stewart Emery, co-authors along with Jerry Porras of Success Built to Last