When most investors, including the pros, all agree on something, they're usually wrong.
Carl IcahnRead
CEOs are paid for doing a terrible job. If the system wasn't so messed up, guys like me wouldn't make this kind of money.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the disparity in corporate pay based on performance and systemic issues.
Carl Icahn's quote reflects the frustration with the corporate pay structure, suggesting that CEOs often receive excessive compensation despite their poor performance due to systemic flaws in the industry. It raises questions about accountability and the criteria used to reward leadership in business, ultimately critiquing the disconnect between executive pay and company success.
In practice
To emphasize the flaws in executive compensation during a business meeting.
When most investors, including the pros, all agree on something, they're usually wrong.
When friends and acquaintances are telling you [that] you are a genius, before you accept their opinion, take a moment to remember what you always thought of their opinions in the past.
A company shouldn't get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn't last.
The most common cause of low prices is pessimism - some times pervasive, some times specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.
If you go to a venture firm, what you're doing is you're buying money from them in exchange for equity. They have a commodity that they're selling and they have to differentiate themselves.
As a company, we have to be very transparent. We are in a business very related to finance, and I want this company to last long, and I want this company to be audited by everyone.
Of all the things that your company owns, brands are far and away the most important and the toughest. Founders die. Factories burn down. Machinery wears out. Inventories get depleted. Technology becomes obsolete. Brand loyalty is the only sound foundation on which business leaders can build enduring, profitable growth.
You know, if you make a customer unhappy they won't tell five friends, they'll tell 5,000 friends. So, we are at a point now where we have all of the things we need to build an important and lasting company, and if we don't, it will be shame on us.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.