Top 180 Tom Peters Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Formula for success: Underpromise and overachieve.”

— Tom Peters

52. “The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.”

— Tom Peters

53. “Communication is everyone’s panacea for everything.”

— Tom Peters

54. “Develop a respect and reverence for the principle of variation: the idea that the message ain’t in the mean, the mode or the median – it’s in the differences that occur throughout a population.”

— Tom Peters

55. “The ‘value added’ for most any company, tiny or enormous, comes from the Quality of Experience provided.”

— Tom Peters

56. “If silly things were not done, intelligent things would never happen.”

— Tom Peters

57. “Life is too short for non-WOW projects.”

— Tom Peters

58. “An ability to embrace new ideas, routinely challenge old ones, and live with paradox will be the effective leader’s premier trait.”

— Tom Peters

59. “The dominant culture in most big companies demands punishment for a mistake, no matter how useful, small, invisible...”

— Tom Peters

60. “Forget all the conventional ‘rules’ but one. There is one golden rule: Stick to topics you deeply care about and don’t keep your passion buttoned inside your vest. An audience’s biggest turn-on is the speaker’s obvious enthusiasm. If you are lukewarm about the issue, forget it!”

— Tom Peters

61. “The selfish leader will attempt to lead others for their own gain and for the detriment of others.”

— Tom Peters

62. “The new idea either finds a champion or it dies. No ordinary involvement with a new idea provides the energy required to cope with the indifference and resistance that change provokes.”

— Tom Peters

63. “Quite simply, no matter how hard you try, no matter how “open” you are, you’ll end up surrounded by “yes people.” It’s hard not to believe people who are repeating your own ideas. Resist the temptation.”

— Tom Peters

64. “The dumbest mistake is viewing design as something you do at the end of the process to ‘tidy up’ the mess, as opposed to understanding it’s a ‘day one’ issue and part of everything.”

— Tom Peters

65. “Leadership is about tapping the wellsprings of human motivation – and about fundamental relations with one’s fellows.”

— Tom Peters

66. “It’s relatively simple. If we’re not getting more, better, faster than they are getting more, better, faster, then we’re getting less, no better or more worse.”

— Tom Peters

67. “In today’s economy there are no experts, no ‘best and brightest’ with all the answers. It’s up to each one of us. The only way to screw up is to not try anything.”

— Tom Peters

68. “Don’t settle for less than is possible.”

— Tom Peters

69. “Hire disrespectful people.”

— Tom Peters

70. “Leaders do stuff that matters.”

— Tom Peters

71. “You are who you go to lunch with! Break bread with cool and you will become more cool. Conversely: break bread with dull and well, you can figure it out.”

— Tom Peters

72. “Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills.”

— Tom Peters

73. “If you’re a leader, your whole reason for living is to help human beings develop – to really develop people and make work a place that’s energetic and exciting and a growth opportunity, whether you’re running a Housekeeping Department or Google. I mean, this is not rocket science.”

— Tom Peters

74. “Entrepreneurs have no memories. They take on the world with a completely fresh view.”

— Tom Peters

75. “But there’s no substitute for getting smarter faster. And the way you get smarter is to screw around vigorously. Try stuff. See what works. See what fails miserably. Learn. Rinse. Repeat.”

— Tom Peters

76. “Perception is all there is. If the customer think he’s right, he’s right.”

— Tom Peters

77. “Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead.”

— Tom Peters

78. “Swipe from the best, then adapt.”

— Tom Peters

79. “Champions are pioneers, and pioneers get shot at. The companies that get the most from champions, therefore, are those that have rich support network so their pioneers will flourish. This point is so important it’s hard to overstress. No support systems, no champions. No champions, no innovations.”

— Tom Peters

80. “If your company has a clean-desk policy, the company is nuts and you’re nuts to stay there.”

— Tom Peters

81. “The greatest difficulty in the world is not for people to accept new ideas, but to make them forget old ideas.”

— Tom Peters

82. “Vision is dandy, but sustainable company excellence comes from a huge stable of able managers.”

— Tom Peters

83. “Innovation comes only from readily and seamlessly sharing information rather than hoarding it.”

— Tom Peters

84. “Something mysterious happens to a curious, fully engaged mind – and it happens as often as not, subconsciously. Strange little sparks are set off, connections made, insights triggered.”

— Tom Peters

85. “Remember: You are the only human being in the world who can help this particular customer at this particular moment in time.”

— Tom Peters

86. “To sell is above all to master the art and science of listening.”

— Tom Peters

87. “Mastery is great, but even that is not enough. You have to be able to change course without a bead of sweat, or remorse.”

— Tom Peters

88. “The workplace revolution that transformed the lives of blue-collar workers in the 1970s and 1980s is finally reaching the offices and cubicles of the white-collar workers.”

— Tom Peters

89. “Listen while you can, so that you can lead when you must.”

— Tom Peters

90. “The difference between great and average is, mostly, having the imagination and zeal to re-create yourself daily.”

— Tom Peters

91. “If timing ain’t everything, it’s damn close.”

— Tom Peters

92. “All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.”

— Tom Peters

93. “Effective visions are lived in details, not broad strokes.”

— Tom Peters

94. “Knowing when to take your losses is an essential part of eventual success.”

— Tom Peters

95. “I believe in the age of the Internet, Facebook and Twitter, that relationships are everything.”

— Tom Peters

96. “I don’t know what it means to manage the human imagination, but I do know that imagination is the main source of value in the new economy. And I know we’d better figure out the answer to my question-quick.”

— Tom Peters

97. “Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.”

— Tom Peters

98. “South Africa has all the tools to compete in the new global village – an eager workforce, ready to take on any challenge.”

— Tom Peters

99. “Creating in all employees the awareness that their best efforts are essential and that they will share in the rewards of the company’s success.”

— Tom Peters

100. “Change is not so much about being the first one to embrace a new idea, but being the first to forget an old one.”

— Tom Peters