A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. Focus has to change. Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation.
Andy GroveRead
Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success can lead to overconfidence, which can ultimately result in failure if one is not vigilant.
In this quote, Andy Grove highlights the inherent risks associated with success. He suggests that achieving success can create a sense of complacency, making individuals or organizations less attentive and proactive. This complacency can lead to failure, as it fosters an environment where critical vigilance is diminished. Thus, he advocates for a mindset of paranoia or constant awareness to ensure survival and continued success in a competitive world.
Themes
SuccessComplacencyFailureParanoiaVigilance
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about workplace performance, you could use this quote to emphasize the importance of maintaining a proactive mindset.
More from Andy Grove
All quotes βAccept that no matter where you go to work, you are not an employee you are a business with one employee, you. Nobody owes you a career. You own it, as a sole proprietor.
Andy GroveRead
There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance. Miss that moment - and you start to decline.
Andy GroveRead
By the late '90s, those who were paying attention perceived the Internet as a 20-foot tidal wave coming, and we are all in kayaks.
Andy GroveRead
You need to plan the way a fire department plans: it cannot anticipate where the next fire will be, so it has to shape an energetic and efficient team that is capable of responding to the unanticipated as well as to any ordinary event.
Andy GroveRead
Congress will pass a law restricting public comment on the Internet to individuals who have spent a minimum of one hour actually accomplishing a specific task while on line.
Andy GroveRead
Similar quotes
I'll do whatever I can do to remain employed. I'm just not precious about doing comedy or doing drama. I never want to do something in order to prove to other people what I can do.
Steve CarellRead
There is a difference between broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary economic condition, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of your spirit, and you must vow to never, ever be poor again.
John Hope BryantRead
Itβs okay. Let your ego push you to be the initiator. But tell your ego that the best way to get something shipped is to let other people take the credit. The real win for you (and your ego) is seeing something get shipped, not in getting the credit when it does.
Seth GodinRead
There are only two words that will always lead you to success. Those words are yes and no. Undoubtedly, you've mastered saying yes. So start practicing saying no. Your goals depend on it!
Jack CanfieldRead
We worked personally with a lot of great VCs. They just work incredibly hard at supporting entrepreneurs and their companies.
Marc AndreessenRead
The satisfaction to be derived from success in a great constructive enterprise is one of the most massive that life has to offer.
Bertrand RussellRead