Cliff Burton Quotes

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."

The avantgarde are people who don't exactly know where they want to go, but are the first to get there.

We must be headlights and not taillights.

I just really love being the first to do something and that drives me to think, 'What are people not doing right now, and how can I be the best at it?'

I've realized that I've pioneered many things and have been a front-runner in a lot of things. I did many things ahead of time.

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.

We're kind of a guinea pig generation.

Pioneering is the work of individuals.

There are people that go ahead, that see problems before the rest, that take decisions before the rest.

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

I've been fortunate to come on places where the question isn't why did I do it? The question to me is always, why didn't anybody else do it before me? Those are the ones that I scratch my head about.

To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little.

There are three kinds of people in this world: people who make it happen, people who watch what happens, and people who wonder what happened.

Don't follow trends, start trends.

Never relinquish the initiative.

It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.

There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.

If you want to be promoted into the first league of carmakers, then you can't just follow suit.

Be first and be lonely.

Leaders are people who ‘walk ahead,’ people genuinely committed to deep changes, in themselves and in their organizations.

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.

You've got to be able to think on your own; you've got to be creative. You can't be willing to take a backseat.

The world is divided into three types of people in business: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.

Disruptors are the ones with a keen sense of how the world is changing and how to get in front of change, driven by curiosity. The disrupted - not so much.

There are always two kinds of people in the world - those who pioneer and those who plod. The plodders always attack the pioneers. They say that the pioneers have gobbled up all the opportunity, when, as a plain matter of fact, the plodders would have nowhere to plod had not the pioneers first cleared the way.