Book Excerpt: The 101 Greatest Business Principles of All Time

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The 101 Greatest Business Principles of All Time is a distillation of the wisdom of the greatest entrepreneurs, business leaders, economists, and inspirational figures of all time, in one handy and elegant volume. Read an excerpt here.

by Leslie Pockell and Adrienne Avila
ISBN: 0446576654
$10.00/U.S.
$14.00/CAN
128 pages
WARNER BOOKS
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Buy cheap, sell dear.
John Greenleaf Whittier

Only a fool holds out for top dollar.
Joseph P. Kennedy

Cut your losses, and let your profits run.
Anonymous

The engine which drives Enterprise is not Thrift, but Profit.
John Maynard Keynes

There are three secrets to real estate: Location, location, location.
William Dillard

If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.
Richard Branson

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Matthew 25:29

Every individual . . . intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

PARETO’S PRINCIPLE
Twenty percent of your products will generate eighty percent of your income. Twenty percent of your income will require eighty percent of your resources.
Vilfredo Pareto

There was an old owl lived in an oak, The more he heard, the less he spoke; The less he spoke, the more he heard. O, if men were like that wise old bird.
Punch

A dinner lubricates business.
William Scott, Baron Stowell

PARKINSON’S LAW
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
C. Northcote Parkinson

THE PETER PRINCIPLE
In a hierarchical organization every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
Lawrence Peter

MURPHY’S LAW
If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in catastrophe, then someone will do it.
Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

Do it fast, do it right, do it cheap. Pick two.
Anonymous

A camel is a horse put together by a committee.
Anonymous

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Don’t be afraid of going slowly. Only be afraid of standing still.
Anonymous

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
Benjamin Spock

Don’t be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small steps.
David Lloyd George

You can gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. . . . You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself.
Gloria Steinem

When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home.
Betty Bender

Copyright © 2004 by Warner Books, Inc.

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