Harvey Mackay

A mediocre person tells. A good person explains. A superior person demonstrates. A great person inspires others to see for themselves.

Employee loyalty begins with employer loyalty. Your employees should know that if they do the job they were hired to do with a reasonable amount of competence and efficiency, you will support them.

Most fears of rejection rest on the desire for approval from other people. Don't base your self-esteem on their opinions.

Don't equate activity with efficiency. You are paying your key people to see the big picture. Don't let them get bogged down in a lot of meaningless meetings and paper shuffling. Announce a Friday afternoon off once in a while. Cancel a Monday morning meeting or two. Tell the cast of characters you'd like them to spend the amount of time normally spent preparing for attending the meeting at their desks, simply thinking about an original idea.

It's only lonely at the top if you forget all the people you met along the way and fail to acknowledge their contributions to your success.

A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.

Don't wait for a funeral to pay a compliment. You may not make it in time.

You can't buy a good reputation; you must earn it.

When an employee asks why the company does things a certain way, and you can explain the logical reason, then the employee knows what she's doing is valid.

Pessimism doesn't grow your business or even maintain the status quo. The pessimists on your staff make the job harder for everyone around them. They make difficulties out of opportunities.

Just because an employee does things differently doesn't mean he or she won't do the job right or as well. If you establish expectations of the goal and the standards to follow, then methodology shouldn't be an issue.

It doesn't matter whether you are pursuing success in business, sports, the arts, or life in general: The bridge between wishing and accomplishing is discipline.

Expect to make some mistakes when you try new and different approaches. Sometimes colossal failures lead to spectacular successes.

The sooner you accept the fact that you will have both successes and failures, the easier it will be to get your business and personal life headed in the right direction.

When you have a dream that you can't let go of, trust your instincts and pursue it. But remember: Real dreams take work, They take patience, and sometimes they require you to dig down very deep. Be sure you're willing to do that.

If you want to double your success ratio, you have to double your failure ratio.