Champions are pioneers, and pioneers get shot at. The companies that get the most from champions, therefore, are those that have rich support network so their pioneers will flourish. This point is so important it's hard to overstress. No support systems, no champions. No champions, no innovations.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of support systems for innovators and pioneers in achieving success.
Tom Peters highlights that champions, or innovators, often face challenges and resistance as they pursue new ideas. To ensure that these pioneers succeed and contribute to innovation, it is crucial for them to have strong support networks. Without such support, champions may struggle or fail, leading to a lack of innovation. The quote underscores that for organizations to thrive, they must foster an environment that nurtures and protects their champions.
In practice
In a motivational speech about leadership and innovation.
My half-baked reading of history is that we continue to go through these waves of entrepreneurial explosion followed by merger mania and consolidation. Out of that come big sluggish companies that eventually collapse under the weight of what they've created, and are killed off by the next wave of entrepreneurs.
The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.
Nearly 100% of innovation-from business to politics-is inspired not by "market analysis" but by people who are supremely pissed off by the way things are.
Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders.
The little people will get even, which is one of a thousand reasons why they are not little people at all. If you're a jerk as a leader, you will be torpedoed. And usually it won't be by your vice presidents; it will be on the loading dock at 3am when no supervisors are around.
If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.
If you're lucky enough to have been rewarded in life to the degree that I have, there comes a point at which you have to decide whether to become a slave to your net worth by devoting the rest of your life to increasing it or to let what you've accumulated begin to serve you.
The giants of the race have been men of concentration, who have struck sledge-hammer blows in one place until they have accomplished their purpose. The successful men of today are men of one overmastering idea, one unwavering aim, men of single and intense purpose.
I did envisage being this successful as a player, but not all the hysteria around it off the golf course.
Nobody is an overnight success. Most overnight successes you see have been working at it for ten years.
I dumb down for my audience and double my dollars...
Success is terrifying. Like happiness, it is often appreciated in retrospect. It's only later that you place it in perspective. Years from now, I'll look back and say, ‘God, wasn't it wonderful.’
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