You don't get points for predicting rain. You get points for building arks.
Interpretation
Taking proactive action is more valuable than merely recognizing or predicting challenges.
This quote by Lou Gerstner emphasizes the importance of being proactive and solution-oriented in the face of challenges, rather than simply foreseeing problems. It suggests that true value lies in taking concrete actions to address potential difficulties, akin to building an ark to prepare for a flood rather than just predicting that it will rain.
In practice
This quote could be shared at a team meeting to encourage proactive planning.
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.
You can’t mandate [cultural change], can’t engineer it. What you can do is create the conditions for transformation. You can provide incentives. You can define the marketplace realities and goals. But then you have to trust. In fact, in the end, management doesn’t change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture.
In the end an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.
If life was so easy that you could just go buy success, there would be a lot more successful companies in the world. Successful enterprises are built from the ground up.
If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.
You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. Enthusiasm is the spark in your eye, the swing in your gait, the grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of your will and your energy to execute your ideas. Enthusiasts are fighters, they have fortitude, they have strong qualities. Enthusiasm is at the bottom of all progress. With it there is accomplishment. Without it there are only alibis.
True, foolish risks can lead to difficult consequences. But having said that, don't be so scared of failure and disappointment that you fail to dream.
When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade.
If you wait until all the lights are 'green' before you leave home, you'll never get started on your trip to the top.
Always remember, there is more strength in you than you ever realized or even imagined. Certainly nothing can keep you down if you are determined to get on top of things and stay there.
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