H. Jackson Brown Jr. Quotes

Move fast. A sense of urgency is the one thing you can develop that will separate you from everyone else. When you get a good idea, do it now.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

We were in the market ahead of competition. We brought new products on the market ahead of competition. We rolled out our networks. We begged, borrowed, stole, put things out. And while they were never near perfect, they were first. And that gave us, to my mind, a lot of advantage.

We were the first multibrand platform for the customization of designer clothing. And it's great to be a first mover if you manage to pull it off. You can have a great competitive advantage. But if you're quite early, you're learning a lot: both learning as a company, and the customer is still learning.

Ideas reflect the moment, and so you have to use them. If you store ideas, they wither.

Good ideas have expiration dates. You need to act before they become dated, irrelevant or otherwise spoiled.

The most important step of all is the first step. Start something! What if that idea you have in the back of your head is a really good one, one that might end up helping tens of thousands of people? You owe it to the world ot act. Or maybe it will help only a few people: The same advice applies. If you don't do it, you are missing out on something big, and so are the people who could have been helped.

The world's not going to wait for you. If you have an idea, put some effort behind it and get it out there.

One thing I always think about in making a market, and it again is something I have learned from Sam [Palmisano] as well, he always says, "Be first and be lonely."

He who shoots first laughs last.

A good idea for a new business tends not to occur in isolation, and often the window of opportunity is very small. So speed is of the essence.

Be wise to-day; 't is madness to defer.

Never, never, never postpone following a prompting.

First mover Advantage doesn't go to the company that starts up, it goes to the company that scales up

We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose.....It's not just saying yes to the right products, it's saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones.

The choice is between acting with energy or losing by default.

The mark of an innovative company is not only that it comes up with new ideas first, but also that it knows how to leapfrog when it finds itself behind.

The second best decision in time is infinitely better than the perfect decision too late.

I’ve learned in a hundred ways that I rarely regretted acting but often regretted NOT acting fast enough.

The ability to recognize opportunities and move in new - and sometimes unexpected - directions will benefit you no matter your interests or aspirations.

My grandfather used to say 'Eat the biggest crabs first, that way you're always eating the biggest crabs.' In making a TV show, that means if you have a big funny or smart idea for an episode or a scene or a joke, go for it. Don't save it for another season or another episode, because you may not have the right time again. It's good advice for television, but truly stellar advice for eating crabs.

You'll never know how close you are to a million-dollar idea unless you're willing to listen.

It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem - which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday.

If you have a good idea, get it out there. For every idea I’ve realized, I have ten I sat on for a decade till someone else did it first. Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.

Entrepreneurial leadership requires the ability to move quickly when opportunity presents itself.