CEOs say the darndest things. I don’t care what industry you’re in or how big or small the company, every CEO I’ve known has possessed the same two qualities: smart and quotable. Why that is, I don’t know. But funny, poignant, or insightful, you’re not likely to forget their pithy quips. You might even learn something.
Here are nine from my career that I’ll never be able to get out of my head. The quotes may not be exact - some of this occurred a long time and a lot of brain cells ago - but the meanings are accurate. If you like these, help me come up with a tenth quote and I’ll post the best ones and pick a winner:
- Jay Swent of Cyrix, after meeting with a distributor we didn’t exactly trust: “I feel like I should check to see if I still have my wallet.”
- “Our industry is made up of geniuses that act collectively like idiots.” - Bob Bailey, PMC-Sierra
- “Never use a laser pointer during a presentation,” said Gary Clow of Stac Electronics, “That way they can’t see your hands shaking.”
- “You don’t have to agree with me, but at the end of the day, I get 51 percent of the vote.” - Ray Farnham, OPTi
- “We’ve got more salesmen now than we’ve ever had before. We’ve got so many salesmen that I think they’re out there bouncing into each other and getting lost. I don’t think they know where the customers are, so maybe we should sit here and draw maps for them.” - Jerry Rogers, Cyrix
- “Most disagreements are the result of faulty assumptions.” - Geoff Tate, Rambus
- “A stealth company is like winking at a woman in a dark room.” - Bruce McWilliams, Tessera
- “There are two reasons why people don’t retire and both are tragic: either they can’t afford to or they have no other interests.” - Phil Dauber, Memorex
- “I don’t want to go to jail!” - Sorry, I can’t give away who said that, but it’s not like it sounds. Nothing illegal was going on. In fact, I thought he was overly concerned - even paranoid - about doing something illegal or unethical, but that’s better than the reverse, right?
Now it’s your turn: help me come up with a tenth CEO quote from your experience - I’ll post the best ones and pick a winner next week.
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