Category: Personalities

“We live and we die by time. And we must not commit the sin of losing our track on time.” — Chuck Noland

“Customers don’t measure you on how hard you tried, they measure you on what you deliver.” — Steve Jobs

I didn’t know this before, but apparently Dwight Eisenhower played over 1,000 rounds of golf in his 7 years in office. Staggering! Can you imagine a President doing that nowadays? I can’t.

Anyways, I liked how Golf Digest visualized his golf playing on a calendar.

To see a full size image, check out this PDF.

Honda created a commercial (probably aired online only) called Failure: The Secret to Success. Not only is this brilliant because it shows the human face of Honda, but it encourages its employees to try new things and not be afraid to fail. Genius.

I saw it on the teehan+lax blog.

Here’s a sweet idea! Make an annual report for yourself! Too bad it would probably take 20 hours just to produce a report this spiffy. Nicholas Feltron was recently shown holding his annual report in the Wall Street Journal.

View his annual report for 2007.

I’d wager that Mr. Feltron is the sort of person that wouldn’t spell his own name wrong, but for some reason the Wall Street Journal did. At least he got it right in his report, which is beautiful. I’d also guess that Feltron is the sort of guy that tracks his time — wise. Anyways, I thought it was cool and wanted to share.

I recently returned from 3 weeks in Italy and while visiting the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican I was struck by how quickly the ceiling had been painted. Only 4 years! It really made me think about how many people go about their lives hating their jobs, working for people they don’t like, and not really doing anything meaningful.

You know what’s most interesting? It was one of the first painting projects that Michelangelo had ever done. Yeah, seriously isn’t that amazing? Of course he was well known for his abilities with sculpture — a sculptor with little painting experience.

So the lesson to be learned is to always do what you love, and do your best.

Continue Reading:

• Sistine Chapel on Wikipedia
• Sistine set-up: the 500-year-old art mystery -– a sculptor with little painting experience.
• Michelangelo on Wikipedia

“It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.” — Henry Ford

Via Brian Shaler

“The key is to just get on the bike, and the key to getting on the bike…is to stop thinking about “there are a bunch of reasons i might fall off” and just hop on and peddle the damned thing. You can pick up a map, a tire pump, and better footwear along the way.”
— Dick Costolo, Founder of Feedburner.com

James Dyson created thousands of prototype vacuums over 15 years before he was satisfied with his product. In an aptly named article titled Failure Doesn’t Suck, Dyson recounts how he created the product and his thoughts on failure.

I made 5127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution. So I don’t mind failure. I’ve always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they’ve had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative.

— Sir James Dyson

I found this quote and had to share it:

Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.

— Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect. (1864-1912)