Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction.

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.

To succeed in this world, you have to change all the time.

Communicate everything you can to your associates. The more they know, the more they care. Once they care, there is no stopping them.

You can't just keep doing what works one time, everything around you is changing. To succeed, stay out in front of change.

Exceed your customer's expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want - and a little more.

Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free and worth a fortune

Leaders must always put their people before themselves. If you do that, your business will take care of itself.

The way management treats their associates is exactly how the associates will then treat the customers.

Vampires did not avoid mirrors because they cast no reflection but because mirrors became so unflattering with the illusion of fuzzy focus wrenched away.

No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams.

I get pretty impatient with people who are able-bodied but are somehow paralyzed for other reasons.

writing is the loneliest job in the world. There's always that frustrating chasm to bridge between the concept and the writing of it. We're a harassed tribe, we writers.

All of civility depends on being able to contain the rage of individuals.

You must choose a road for yourself.

What I've noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it's so wonderfully fair.

I loved movies and went to see every movie I could in Finland.

My kid wants to be a prison warden when he grows up so he can put thumb tacks on the electric chairs.

When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep. So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.