Strategy Quotes

"The best startups might be considered slightly less extreme forms of monopolies. Scaling is about capturing that value."

"Crossing the chasm is the most difficult part of scaling from early adopters to the mainstream."

"Crossing the chasm is the hardest part of scaling. You have to move from early adopters to the mainstream market without losing your soul."

"Scaling is what you do when you need to grow really, really quickly. It is the science and art of building up a company to service a large, usually global, market, with a very fast rate of growth and under conditions of uncertainty."

"The flywheel effect is the key to scaling. Each turn builds upon the previous one until the momentum becomes unstoppable."

"In a world of abundance, the most successful people are those who can find win-win solutions in every interaction."

"The goal isn't to be the best, it's to be the only one doing what you do."

"The best projects are those where everyone wins."

"Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest."

"The dip is the secret to success. Only the obsessed make it through."

"The best way to win a repeated game is to be 'nice' initially, but provocable if the other player defects."

"Play long-term games with long-term people."

"In an iterated game, your reputation is your most valuable asset because it determines who will play with you next."

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."

"Never take your eyes off the cash flow because it’s the lifeblood of business."

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."

"Retirement is worst-case-scenario insurance."

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him."

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

"Plans are nothing; planning is everything."

"Invest in preparedness, not in prediction."

"If you win the morning, you win the day."

"Think small. To do great things, you have to break them down."

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."

"Small wins are exactly what they sound like, and are part of how giant companies and social movements achieve victory."

"Ponder and deliberate before you make a move."

"In a world of short-termism, the long-term view is a competitive advantage."

"The big money is not in the buying and the selling, but in the waiting."

"If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people."

"To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."

"There are only two ways to make money in business: One is to bundle; the other is to unbundle."

"Hard work isn't enough. You can work hard digging a hole, but if it's in the wrong place, you're just digging a hole."

"Plan all the way to the end."

"Control the options: Get others to play with the cards you deal."

"Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others' experience."

"Make other people come to you - use bait if necessary."

"Discover each man's thumbscrew. Everyone has a weakness."

"Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit."

"Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead."

"Crush your enemy totally."

"Conceal your intentions."

"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."

"The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."

"I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over."

"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things."

"Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward."

"Always say less than necessary."

"It's okay to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket."

"If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion."

"It's OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket."

"Self-talk and visualization are the keys to my success."

"Escape competition through authenticity."

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Direction matters more than speed."

"Impatience with actions, patience with results."

"Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage."

"A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to do great things in this world."

"The direction you’re heading matters more than how fast you move."

"Spend more time making the big decisions. There are basically three really big decisions you make in your early life: where you live, who you’re with, and what you do."

"Work as hard as you can. Even though who you work with and what you work on are more important than how hard you work."

"Identify your specific knowledge and apply leverage to it."

"Hard work is really over-rated. How hard you work matters much less than what you work on and who you work with."

"Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach."

"Anticipation is the ultimate power. Losers react; leaders anticipate."

"People who succeed at the highest level are not lucky; they’re doing something different than everyone else."

"Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in two or three decades."

"Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles."

"Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do."

"For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation."

"Pick one thing and do it. It’s better to be the best in the world at one thing than to be mediocre at ten things."

"It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor."

"Everybody thinks this is a tough man's sport. This is not a tough man's sport. This is a thinking man's sport."

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

"Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out."

"Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession."

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

"Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket."

"The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time."

"Never ever compete on prices, instead compete on services and innovation."

"You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die."

"When you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength."

"Forget about your competitors, just focus on your customers."

"As an investor, I look for a company that has the potential to capture a large share of a small market."

"Winning is better than losing, but everybody loses when the war isn't one worth fighting."

"Moving first is a tactic, not a goal."

"Content is king, but context is God."

"Business is an infinite game. There is no such thing as winning business."

"Trust me, setting things up right from the beginning will avoid a ton of tears and heartache."

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see."

"Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under't."

"When in doubt, tell the truth."

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."

"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps."

"Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front."

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

"Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less chary of the latter than of the former; space we can recover, time never."

"You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war."

"It is not best to swap horses while crossing the river."

"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"

"You have to have models in your head. And you've got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models."

"There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second."

"We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details."

"Maintain a firm grasp of the obvious."

"Complaining is not a strategy. You have to work with the world as you find it, not as you would have it be."

"What makes a decision great is not that it has a great outcome. A great decision is the result of a good process."

"A bad plan is better than no plan."

"What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important."

"Begin with the end in mind."

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

"Our patience will achieve more than our force."

"To do the impossible, you need to ignore the popular."

"Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across."

"Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a detached view of close things."

"Innovation is the only way to win."

"The suckers think you cure a flaw with a fix. The professional knows you cure a flaw by making the system more robust."

"The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you're trying to create."

"The best entrepreneurs I know aren't risk-takers. They are risk-mitigators."

"Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different."

"Everything depends on how you use your time. Use it to gain more power, or it will be used against you."

"Your task as a strategist is to keep your mind from becoming rigid."

"Pose as a friend, work as a spy."

"All warfare is based on deception."

"Play a sucker to catch a sucker - seem dumber than your mark."

"To build a life you love, you must first build the career capital required to buy it."

"The direction you are heading is more important than how fast you are going."

"Success is not just about grit; it's about knowing when to stop doing the wrong things."

"Work like a lion, not a cow. You sprint, you rest, you eat, and you repeat."

"Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship."

"In strategy your spiritual bearing must not be any different from normal. Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm."

"Operational effectiveness is not strategy."

"When you show yourself to the world and display your talents, you naturally stir all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity."

"Our strategy is to put the customer first. If we do that, we'll be successful."

"Good strategy requires leaders to make explicit choices about what the organization will and will not do."

"You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain."

"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak."

"The best rule of thumb is that if it’s for everyone, it’s for no one."

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

"Strategy is the craft of the warrior."

"Think of yourself as a strategist, not a victim."

"In the world of power, you must learn to be a master of appearances."

"Boldness is a psychological weapon."

"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."

"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."

"If your strategy is the same as your competitor's, you don't have a strategy."

"The essence of strategy is not just about competing, but about creating unique value."

"Never outshine the master."

"Strategy is about creating a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities."

"A goal without a plan is just a wish."

"Do nothing which is of no use."

"The goal of a decision is to find the path that has the highest expected value, not the one that is guaranteed to work."

"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."

"You don't want to win an argument. You want to win."

"Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter."

"Working hard is important, but working on the right things is more important."

"Focus on systems instead of goals. Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results."

"Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers."

"The goal of strategy is to find a position in the industry where the company can best defend itself against these competitive forces."

"If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution."

"Cover and Move. It is the most fundamental tactic on the battlefield."

"The purpose of a business is to create a customer."

"When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different."

"Focus on the long term. Short-term thinking is a distraction."

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

"Schedule every minute of your day. This isn't about being a drill sergeant; it's about being a strategist."

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast."

"Strategic planning does not deal with future decisions. It deals with the futurity of present decisions."

"To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy."

"Strategy is a hypothesis about the future."

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."

"To lead people, walk behind them."

"Strategy is a journey, not a destination."

"If you find yourself in a fair competition, you are already losing."

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

"Being able to quit things that don't work is integral to being a winner."

"If you find yourself in a fair competition, you’ve already lost. You want to find an unfair advantage."

"Concentrate your forces."

"Different is better when it is more effective or more fun."

"The greatest victory is that which requires no battle."

"Wait for the enemy to make a mistake. But don’t wait for them to make a mistake. Make them make a mistake."

"Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate."

"Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior."

"I'm as proud of many of the things we haven't done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things."

"Quit the wrong stuff. Stick with the right stuff. Have the guts to do one or the other."

"Every organization must prepare for the abandonment of everything it does."

"Focusing is about saying no."

"Sound strategy starts with having the right goal."

"The only way to go from where you are to where you want to be is to have a plan."

"When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move."

"Most people fail in life because they major in minor things."

"If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business."

"Life is poker, not chess. Chess contains no hidden information and very little luck."

"The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do."

"The strategist is a person who focuses on what is not changing."

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

"The worst error in strategy is to compete with rivals on the same dimensions."

"Prioritize and execute."

"To lead effectively, you must understand the incentives of every person in the room."

"Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems."

"The direction you are heading in is more important than how fast you are going. Don't spend your life running in the wrong direction."

"Strategy is not a matter of being better at what you do; it's a matter of being different at what you do."

"Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim."

"A goal properly set is halfway reached."

"Business is a game of making fewer mistakes than your competitors."

"The greatest danger you face is your mind growing soft and your eye getting dull."

"The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer."

"The quality of our lives is the sum of decision quality plus luck."