Top 180 Tom Peters Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “The dominant culture in most big companies demands punishment for a mistake, no matter how useful, small, invisible...”

— Tom Peters

52. “Formula for success: Underpromise and overachieve.”

— Tom Peters

53. “Are you placing enough interesting, freakish, long shot, weirdo bets?”

— Tom Peters

54. “TRUST, not technology, is the issue of the decade.”

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

57. “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

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 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

60. “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

61. “Leaders do stuff that matters.”

— Tom Peters

62. “If you love your company and love what you do, you will serve your customers better-period!”

— Tom Peters

63. “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

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

66. “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

67. “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

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

71. “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

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

— Tom Peters

73. “Hire disrespectful people.”

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

77. “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

78. “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

79. “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

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

85. “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

86. “I am my clients. I am defined by who I do business with.”

— Tom Peters

87. “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

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

92. “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

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

— Tom Peters

94. “Without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of the excellent companies.”

— Tom Peters

95. “Companies have got to learn to eat change for breakfast.”

— Tom Peters

96. “How do you humiliate and demean someone and then expect him or her to care about product quality.”

— Tom Peters

97. “Who comes first? Don’t be silly, says King Hal; it’s employees. That is – and this dear Watson, is elementary – if you genuinely want to put customers first, you must put employees more first.”

— Tom Peters

98. “The good news – and it is largely good news – is that everyone has a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark.”

— Tom Peters

99. “The drive for control, or the perception thereof, is truly the strongest force in human nature.”

— Tom Peters

100. “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