Quotes by Thomas Watson

• Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops.
• You don't hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news.
• Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.
• Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
• The way to succeed is to double your error rate.
• The toughest thing about the power of trust is that it's very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and the customer.
• Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous - not just to some people in some circumstances - but to everyone all the time.
• Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.
• Design must reflect the practical and aesthetic in business but above all... good design must primarily serve people.
• The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.
• All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.
• If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.
• Don't make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.
• Every time we've moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.
• Good design is good business.
• If you aren't playing well, the game isn't as much fun. When that happens I tell myself just to go out and play as I did when I was a kid.
• If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.
• A manager is an assistant to his men.
• The bigger the obstacle, the greater glory in overcoming it.
• Success is simple: double your rate of failure and triple your attempts!
• Failure is just success in progress; it’s like trying to learn to ride a bicycle – you might wobble a lot, but eventually, you coast.