Top 180 Tom Peters Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “The widespread availability of information is the only basis for effective day-to-day problem solving, which abets continuous improvement programs.”

— Tom Peters

102. “Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.”

— Tom Peters

103. “Effective listening is a professional achievement-achieved only through hard work.”

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

105. “Lists simplify, clarify, edify.”

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

108. “Skill at creating, exploiting, and exiting crucial alliances beats ownership of fixed assets.”

— Tom Peters

109. “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

110. “Business is about people. It’s about passion. It’s about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.”

— Tom Peters

111. “A while back, I came across a line attributed to IBM founder Thomas Watson. If you want to achieve excellence, he said, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”

— Tom Peters

112. “Musing on the phrase ‘waste of time.’ So much more complex than it appears. Many ‘wastes of time’ small talk, daydreaming are imperatives.”

— Tom Peters

113. “Advantage comes not from the spectacular or the technical. Advantage comes from a persistent seeking of the mundane edge.”

— Tom Peters

114. “In the great city of San Francisco, where I used to live, at 2 in the morning every other Victorian house has somebody who is writing the great American novel. And the city is not loaded with James Joyces or Virginia Woolfs. But entrepreneurship is about distorted views of reality.”

— Tom Peters

115. “They say plan it. I say do it.”

— Tom Peters

116. “The best kept secret in the global economy today is this: When your service is AWESOME you get so stinking rich you have to buy new bags to carry all the money home.”

— Tom Peters

117. “Bold botches are to be cherished.”

— Tom Peters

118. “Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about it. I haven’t got a theory and I haven’t got a framework.”

— Tom Peters

119. “Who, precisely, are your Dreamers? Are their Dreams in Technicolor? Do you allow their most Outrageous Dreams to be seen in public?”

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

121. “We cannot innovate without opening the door to havoc.”

— Tom Peters

122. “You have to stand out if you want to move up.”

— Tom Peters

123. “OLD: Be No.1 or No.2 in Your Market. NEW: Find a Niche, Create Something New.”

— Tom Peters

124. “One simply cannot pay tribute to Stephen Covey without saying at the outset that he was a lovely human being.”

— Tom Peters

125. “Accept change as a friend. And don’t take yourself too seriously.”

— Tom Peters

126. “The number one premise of business is that it need not be boring or dull. It ought to be fun. If it’s not fun, you’re wasting your life.”

— Tom Peters

127. “If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti, race-car driver.”

— Tom Peters

128. “All white-collar work is project work. The single salient fact that touches all of our lives is that work is being reinvented.”

— Tom Peters

129. “Organize as much as possible around teams, to achieve enhanced focus, task orientation, innovativeness, and individual commitment.”

— Tom Peters

130. “The company’s most urgent task is to learn to welcome, beg for, demand – innovation from everyone.”

— Tom Peters

131. “OPPORTUNITY is not “knocking.” It is pounding on your door.”

— Tom Peters

132. “Every managerial act must be seen as an unequivocal support for urgency in pursuit of constant testing, change, and improvement.”

— Tom Peters

133. “And remember: Everything in business is a paradox. To be excellent, you have to be consistent. When you’re consistent, you’re vulnerable to attack. Yes, it’s a paradox. Now deal with it!”

— Tom Peters

134. “Are Your Customers saying WOW?”

— Tom Peters

135. “The day firing becomes easy is the day to fire yourself.”

— Tom Peters

136. “Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don’t get it, prune.”

— Tom Peters

137. “Treat the customer as an appreciating asset.”

— Tom Peters

138. “It doesn’t matter what product or service you’re offering; there is unlimited ability to improve the quality of anything.”

— Tom Peters

139. “The race will go to the curious, the slightly mad, and those with an un-satiated passion for learning and dare-deviltry.”

— Tom Peters

140. “Excellence comes from human beings doing things of value that customers find memorable.”

— Tom Peters

141. “Don’t let the vision be shot through with holes, but be damn sure some of your best and brightest are shooting at it – with bazookas as well as sniper’s rifles.”

— Tom Peters

142. “The most important and visible outcropping of the action bias in excellent companies is their willingness to try things out, to experiment. If you wait until you believe you are safe, sure to be without occasional foolish feelings, you’ve most likely waited too long.”

— Tom Peters

143. “I think economics is about passion. Economic progress, whether it is a two-person coffee shop or whether it is Netscape, is about people with brave ideas. Because it is brave to mortgage the house, when you’ve got two kids, to start a coffee shop.”

— Tom Peters

144. “Screw-ups are the mark of excellence.”

— Tom Peters

145. “Forget loyalty. Or at least loyalty to one’s corporation. Try loyalty to your Rolodex-your network-instead.”

— Tom Peters

146. “Unless you walk out into the unknown, the odds of making a profound difference in your life are pretty low.”

— Tom Peters

147. “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

148. “Rewards should go to teams as a whole.”

— Tom Peters

149. “He who makes the quickest, coolest prototypes reigns!”

— Tom Peters

150. “Design is so critical it should be on the agenda of every meeting in every single department.”

— Tom Peters