Initiative Quotes - Page 4

• Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit. Enthusiasm is natural; it is being alive, taking the initiative, seeing the importance of what you do, giving it dignity and making what you do important to yourself and to others.

  Gordon Parks

  Giving, Important, Alive

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• Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in ones favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

  W. H. Murray

  Inspirational, Moving, Commitment

  "The Scottish Himalaya Expedition". Book by W. H. Murray, 1951.

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• God alone can make a man a believer. Our part is to accept or reject his initiative.

  John Powell

  Men, Accepting, Believer

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• Nobody is too important to lead the initiative you say is important.

  Jack Welch

  Important

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• Personal initiative, competitive selection, the profit motive, corrected by failure and the infinite process of good housekeeping and the personal ingenuity-here constitute the life of a free society.

  Winston Churchill

  Infinite, Process, Profit

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• Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. Don't fall victim to what I call the 'ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome'. You must be willing to fire.

  T. Boone Pickens

  Life, Leadership, Fall

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• The strategic initiatives we propose to undertake as part of our plan over the next few years position us well to lead this evolution.

  Azim Premji

  Years, Next, Evolution

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• When we are placed in a set of circumstances where we have to take initiative and be creative, some of us find it hard to transition. Those people have been trained not to think but to obey orders. They are slaves to the training, unconsciously pledging allegiance to the average. Mentally they recite from the manual of mediocrity.

  T. D. Jakes

  Thinking, Average, Order

  T. D. Jakes (2014). “Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive”, p.57, Hachette UK

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• Perhaps the most promising trend in our thinking about leadership is the growing conviction that the purposes of the group are best served when the leader helps followers develop their own initiative, strengthens them in the use of their own judgment, enables them to grow, and to become better contributors.

  John W. Gardner

  Thinking, Leader, Groups

  JOHN W. GARDNER (1986). “LEADERSHIP PAPERS/3: THE HEART OF THE MATTER LEADER-CONSTITUENT INTERACTION”

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• A tremendous amount of the entrepreneurial initiative, if you want to call it that, comes from the dynamic state sector on which most of the economy relies to socialize costs and risks and privatize eventual profit. And that's achieved by, if you like, advertising.

  Noam Chomsky

  Risk, Cost, Want

  "Noam Chomsky on Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Haiti, Democracy in Latin America and the Israeli Elections". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, www.democracynow.org. April 03, 2006.

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• We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can...in the acquisition of a new habit, we must take car to launch ourselves with as strong and decided initiative as possible. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life.

  William James

  Life, Success, Strong

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• Let's make a dent in the universe

  Steve Jobs

  Positive, Being Positive, Universe

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• Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.

  Og Mandino

  Positive, Good Morning, Success

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• Some entrepreneurs have a bad habit of taking personal credit for all improvements and innovations at their startups. If you penalize or ignore employee initiatives, you can be certain that they won't be repeated, and motivation for more conventional performance will suffer.

  Martin Zwilling

  Motivation, Entrepreneur, Innovation

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.

  Robert Bresson

  Inspiring, Photography, Creative

  Robert Bresson (2016). “Notes on the Cinematograph”, p.38, New York Review of Books

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• If there is a trait which does characterize leaders it is opportunism. Successful people are very often those who steadfastly refuse to be daunted by disadvantage and have the ability to turn disadvantage to good effect. They are people who seize opportunity and take risks. Leadership then seems to be a matter of personality and character.

  John Viney

  Character, Successful, Opportunity

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• Imagination without initiative would more properly be called idle daydreaming.

  James Van Fleet

  Imagination, Action, Daydreaming

  James K. Van Fleet (1987). “Hidden Power: How to Unleash the Power of Your Subconscious Mind”, p.36, Penguin

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• Encourage members of your team to take the initiative and act on their own.

  Mike Krzyzewski

  Team, Members

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• We will not be dictated to by men with less intelligence, energy, initiative and ambition than we ourselves possess.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Ambition, Men, Energy

  Elbert Hubbard (2005). “Loyalty in Business: One and Twenty Other Good Things”, p.112, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills initiative. And it's essential that we have many people with initiative if we are to continue to grow.

  William L. McKnight

  Mistake, People, Essentials

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• Leaders are problem solvers by talent and temperament, and by choice. For them, the new information environment-undermining old means of control, opening up old closets of secrecy, reducing the relevance of ownership, early arrival, and location-should seem less a litany of problems than an agenda for action. Reaching for a way to describe the entrepreneurial energy of his fabled editor Harold Ross, James Thurber said" 'He was always leaning forward, pushing something invisible ahead of him.' That's the appropriate posture for a knowledge executive.

  Harlan Cleveland

  Mean, Opening Up, Editors

  Harlan Cleveland (1985). “The knowledge executive: leadership in an information society”, E P Dutton

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• Most nanny-state initiatives begin on a local level.

  David Harsanyi

  Levels, Nannies, States

  "Nanny State 911!". Interview with Nick Gillespie, www.reason.com. September 28, 2007.

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• The right man is the one who seizes the moment.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Leadership, Courage, Inspiration

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• The Clean Michigan Initiative has been and continues to be a success.

  John Engler

  Congratulations, Michigan, Cleanliness

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• Initiative without action is the same as having the mind to acknowledge a problem, but not having the heart to see it through.

  Suzy Kassem

  Heart, Mind, Action

  "Rise Up and Salute the Sun". Book by Suzy Kassem, 2010.

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