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The worst possible thing ... was to lie dead in the water with any problem. Solve it, solve it quickly ... If you solved it wrong, it would come back and slap you in the face, and then you could solve it right.
Thomas Watson, Jr.
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Avoiding problems only worsens the situation; addressing them promptly is crucial.

This quote emphasizes the importance of confronting and resolving problems quickly instead of ignoring them. Thomas Watson, Jr. suggests that though mistakes may happen in the process of solving issues, facing challenges head-on and learning from any missteps leads to better outcomes in the long run.

Themes

ProblemsSolutionCourageActionLearning

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can inspire a team during a brainstorming session to tackle challenges with urgency.

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Quote by Thomas Watson, Jr. | QuoteProject