The best time to expand is when no one else dares to take risks
Interpretation
Seize opportunities during uncertain times when others are hesitant.
This quote by Andrew Carnegie emphasizes the importance of taking bold actions and making investments when the market is uncertain and others are fearful. It suggests that there are often significant opportunities available during challenging times, and those who are willing to take calculated risks can achieve remarkable success while others hold back.
In practice
In a speech about innovation during tough economic times.
Give me the life of the boy whose mother is nurse, seamstress, washerwoman, cook, teacher, angel, and saint, all in one, and whose father is guide, exemplar, and friend. No servants to come between. These are the boys who are born to the best fortune.
To kill a man will be considered as disgusting [in the twentieth century] as we in this day consider it disgusting to eat one.
It is not the rich man's son that the young struggler for advancement has to fear in the race for life, nor his nephew, nor his cousin. Let him look out for the dark horse in the boy who begins by sweeping out the office.
You are what you think. So just think big, believe big, act big, work big, give big, forgive big, laugh big, love big and live big.
Speculation is a parasite feeding upon values, creating none.
Don't be content with doing only your duty. Do more than your duty. It's the horse that finishes a neck ahead that wins the race.
I do believe that my whole success goes back to that time I was arrested as a wayward boy at the age of thirteen. Because then I had to quit running around and began to learn something. Most of all, I began to learn music.
The biggest message I have for young women is, Don't start cutting off branches of your career tree unnecessarily early. Sometimes women say, I know I want to have a family or play in the local symphony, and they start pulling themselves out of their career path. You don't have to take yourself out of the running before you even start.
You get rich through luck. You get rich through crime. You get rich through fulfilling the needs of another. You can be as greedy as you like. If you can't do one of those three things, you ain't going to get any money.
Not even a collapsing world looks dark to a man who is about to make his fortune.
I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.
I'm not saying I'm something special. I might play a little better tennis than other people, but it is because I was given the chance, and not many people are.
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