Quotes on Operational Excellence

I collect quotes for entrepreneurs, here are a set quotes on operational excellence. You can follow @skmurphy to get quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month. Enter your E-mail address if you would like have new blog posts sent to you.

Quotes on Operational Excellence

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Aristotle

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“Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity.”
Paul Goodman

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“It goes without saying that as soon as one cherishes the thought of winning the contest or displaying one’s skill in technique, swordsmanship is doomed.”
Takano Shigeyoshi

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“The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self-mastery.”
Reinhold Niebuhr

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“Not only has one to do one’s best, one must, while doing one’s best, remain detached from whatever one is trying to achieve.”
Janwillem Van De Wetering in “The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery” (1973)

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“The best, most efficient, most profitable way to operate a business is to give everybody in the company a voice in saying how the company is run and a stake in the financial outcome, good or bad …. A business should be run like an aquarium, where everybody can see what’s going on — what’s going in, what’s moving around, what’s coming out. That’s the only way to make sure people understand what you’re doing, and why, and have some input into deciding where you are going. Then, when the unexpected happens, they know how to react and react quickly.”
Jack Stack, “The Great Game of Business“

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“The maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters.”
Ralph Peters quoting “an old Army aphorism”

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“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.”
Steven Wright

Update Oct-25-2010 A comment left by Sanjay Asolkar reminded me of this quote:

“It’s no use saying, We are doing our best. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”
Winston Churchill