David Armstrong > David's Quotes

“Think of any product or service and beneath the surface you’ll see it’s just a value exchange.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“Products and services of every kind are really just platforms for value creation.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“Business is really an altruistic thing. Only by serving others can we serve ourselves.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“We live in a time of consistent and persistent change. As new technologies emerge and new sociology-political realities take form, the economy and the context of business changes also.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“Only by serving others can we serve ourselves. Only by improving other peoples lives can we acquire wealth as a result of them paying us or buying the products or services sold by our business.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“Think of all the kinds of businesses that have ever existed. They all had one thing in common. They sold something that people needed, wanted or desired at the time. They sold something that a group of people perceived as something that would improve their lives in some way.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“Capital must be stewarded - it must be acted upon with a spirit of responsibility.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“When we act upon capital as stewards, we not only retain it - we multiply it. We grow it. We expand it. And we perpetuate it to impact more and more lives in meaningful ways.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“I like to use things in nature as analogous to the way we should use capital in a business and economic sense.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion”
― Simone de Beauvoir

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”
― Elbert Hubbard

“People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief - WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us.

For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It’s not “integrity,” it’s “always do the right thing.” It’s not “innovation,” it’s “look at the problem from a different angle.” Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea - we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation.

Happy employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders—in that order.

Leading is not the same as being the leader. Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune or navigating internal politics. Leading, however, means that others willingly follow you—not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to.

You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.

Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. People are either motivated or they are not. Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you’ll be stuck with whoever’s left.

Trust is maintained when values and beliefs are actively managed. If companies do not actively work to keep clarity, discipline and consistency in balance, then trust starts to break down.

All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year.”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't

“If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”
― Simon Sinek

“Great companies don't hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them.”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress: Working hard for something we love is called passion.”
― Simon Sinek

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't

“You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.”
― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't

“The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen.”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“And when a leader embraces their responsibility to care for people instead of caring for numbers, then people will follow, solve problems and see to it that that leader’s vision comes to life the right way, a stable way and not the expedient way.”
― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't

“Let us all be the leaders we wish we had.”
― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't

“A star wants to see himself rise to the top.

A leader wants to see those around him rise to the top.”
― Simon Sinek

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
― Bob Marley

“Love the life you live.
Live the life you love.”
― Bob Marley