If you do everything that everyone else does in business, you're going to lose. The only way to really be ahead, is to 'be different'.
Interpretation
Success in business requires originality and innovation rather than conformity.
Larry Ellison emphasizes the importance of differentiation in the business world. He argues that simply following what others do will lead to failure, and that true success comes from being unique and innovative in your approach.
In practice
This quote could inspire a team during a brainstorming session on new marketing strategies.
All you can do is every day, try to solve a problem and make your company better. You can't worry about it, you can't panic when you look at the stock market's decline. You get frozen like a deer in the headlights. All you can do is all you can do.
All you can do is every day, try to solve a problem and make your company better
When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.
The things that caused problems for me in school are the same things that help me succeed in the world.
Both my mother and I were determined that we weren't going to stay on welfare. We always worked toward doing better, toward having a better life. We never had any doubts that we would.
Everyone thought the acquisition strategy was extremely risky because no one had ever done it successfully. In other words, it was innovative.
To be recognized for making the contributions I did, along with the others who are part of the Hall of Honor, it really is humbling. Particularly when you grow up in Pittsburgh and know what the Steelers mean to the city. To me, as a little boy growing up watching the Steelers, this means a lot to me. It's special.
One of the things young people always ask me about is what is the secret to success. The secret is there is no secret. It's the basics. Blocking and tackling.
Vision is easy. It's so easy to just point to the bleachers and say I'm going to hit one over there. What's hard is saying, OK, how do I do that? What are the specific programs, what are the commitments, what are the resources, what are the processes we need in play to go implement the vision, turn it into a working model that people follow every day in the enterprise. That's hard work.
As you become more successful, the gender barrier disappears. The credibility challenges you have during your growing up years starts disappearing when you start demonstrating success.
I want the last cheque I write to bounce.
It's easy to be famous today. People pay a million dollars to be recognized, but nobody cares about them. They cared about me because I did things other men were afraid to do. That's why my fans identified with me. They were mostly working-class.
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