Thomas J. Watson Quotes

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.

Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?

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

All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.

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.

Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.

Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.

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

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

A manager is an assistant to his men.