Martin Cooper Quotes

My rule is, if you want to build something that does all things for all people, it's not going to work real well.

All things to all people is nothing to everyone.

In the age of the specialist, the generalsit gets short shrift.

The idea of being all things to all people is a thing of the past.

I think people have problems sometimes when things are too general. In fact, they are not really general at all.

People are far more interested in what works than what's true.

Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.

Do not do that which others can do as well.

Common mission trap for companies: trying to be all things to all people at all times.

You got to learn to take what people are willing to give.

We must as second best, as people say, take the least of the evils.

During negotiations nothing is gained by attacking people's comfort zones.

If nobody ever worried about what was in other people's heads, we’d all be 33 percent more effective in our lives and our jobs.

We are much too much inclined in these days to divide people into permanent categories, forgetting that a category only exists for its special purpose and must be forgotten as soon as that purpose is served.

All the people I've met, many outside of cinema, knew everything perfectly about one thing or one subject or one area.

Compromise does not satisfy, but dissatisfies everybody; it does not lead to any general fulfillment, but to general frustration; those who try to become everything to all people end up by not being anything to anyone.

Of course, you're not making records in a vacuum. I'm not making them for myself. It would be nice if I could get more people to hear them. But if I have to sell my soul to the devil to do it, I won't.

By the eighteenth book, one has a sense of having bricked oneself into a niche, a roosting place for other people's pigeons. I wouldn't recommend it.

If you respect people, and you pay them well, they will do anything for you

Don't expect people to abide by your rules if you don't clearly communicate what they are. And don't expect them to live by your rules if you're not willing to compromise and live by at least some of theirs.

I can't stand those people, speakers in a room, they say this all the time, "If I can just help one person in this room, I've done my job." You have an audience of 500 people and your standard of success is one person? That's terrible. If you help one person in the room, you're an abject failure. You have to change something.

What's well begun is half done.

The best agencies understood the importance of routines. The worst agencies were headed by people who never thought about it, and then wondered why no one followed their orders.

For the young people here: practicality is a good thing. There are times where compromise is necessary. That's part of wisdom. But it's also important to hang on to what you believe.

You can listen to what people say, sure. But you will be far more effective if you listen to what people do.