John P. Kotter Quotes

Originals are nonconformists, people who not only have new ideas but take action to champion them. They are people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. They're the people you want to bet on.

Great men are the modelers, patterns, and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass of men contrived to do and attain.

The great successful men of the world have used their imaginations.

For me, I always admire anyone that's entrepreneurs or inventors.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

The world needs many more dreamers. Unreasonable souls who fight the urge to be ordinary.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It's made up of pioneers, the beginners. That's where the action is.

America is full of entrepreneurs, inventors, and dreamers.

For us the great men are not those who solved the problems, but those whodiscovered them.

All great men are partially inspired.

Learning gives creativity Creativity leads to thinking Thinking provides knowledge Knowledge makes you great.

Men of great genius and large heart sow the seeds of a new degree of progress in the world, but they bear fruit only after many years.

I love what I do because I get to talk to the people who change the game: the influencers, visionaries who make things happen in music and culture. That's inspiring to me.

I think very often the boat-rockers turn out to be the people who are building the craft

There are millions of people who can get things done. There are very, very few people who will change the pattern in the whole field.

I wish HP nothing but the best. I think HP is an icon. Those of us who had their careers in the Valley think of Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett as role models. We would love to be half as good as they were.

I believe there are Steve Jobses all around us. Really, what is happening is that they're being edited out of importance.

No man was ever great by imitation.

Whether it be the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute.

The only thing Steve Jobs has ever asked me in all the years we've been together and have been partners, the only thing he has ever asked me is: 'Make it great.'

Successful people are the ones who think up things for the rest of the world to keep busy at.

I am a leader, so leaders always get heat. They're always going against the grain. Jimi Hendrix got heat; Bob Marley got heat; Miles Davis got heat. Every great artist got heat. Heat means you're doing something right.

Our job as leaders is to find those innovators and release their mojo - lean startup-style - to serve the American people better.

Organizations that can diminish fear are those that are able to motivate, create, and innovate.

Americans understand that one of our great national strengths is innovation. Great innovators - Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and others - are household names.