Excellence Quotes

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.

Behind a remarkable scholar we not infrequently find an average human being, and behind an average artist we often find a very remarkable human being.

The task is not to overcome opponents in general but only those opponents against whom one has to summon all one's strength, one's skill and one's swordsmanship-in fact to master opponents who are one's equals.

Mastery has been achieved when one neither makes a mistake nor hesitates in the performance.

I ask people to visualize the company five years from now. At that point, each of us should look around and say, "The standards are so high now-boy, I'm glad I got in when I did!"

Unrealistic beliefs on scope-often hidden and undiscussed-kill high standards.

Here's what we've figured out. Often, when a memo isn't great, it's not the writer's inability to recognize the high standard, but instead a wrong expectation on scope: they mistakenly believe a high-standards, six-page memo can be written in one or two days or even a few hours, when really it might take a week or more! They're trying to perfect a handstand in just two weeks, and we're not coaching them right.

A culture of high standards is protective of all the "invisible" but crucial work that goes on in every company. I'm talkingabout the work that no one sees. The work that gets done when no one is watching. In a high standards culture, doing that work well is its own reward-it's part of what it means to be a professional.

So, the four elements of high standards as we see it: they are teachable, they are domain specific, you must recognize them, and you must explicitly coach realistic scope.

AWS is customer obsessed, inventive and experimental, long-term oriented, and cares deeply about operational excellence.

The best customer service is if the customer doesn't need to call you, doesn't need to talk to you. It just works.

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.

Great companies are built on great products.

We try to, when you come to Google, fulfill that need that you have as quickly as possible.

Excellence matters, and technology advances so fast that the potential for improvement is tremendous.

You need to get one thing done well, or else you don't have permission to do anything else.

One hundred years from now, I expect the Tatas to be much bigger than it is now. More importantly, I hope the Group comes to be regarded as being the best in India.. best in the manner in which we operate, best in the products we deliver, and best in our value systems and ethics. Having said that, I hope that a hundred years from now we will spread our wings far beyond India.

Even if you flippin' fries at McDonald's, if you are excellent, everybody wants to be in your line.

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.

Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.