Quality Quotes
Every weekday, ASQ features a different take on the world of quality.
If you have a favorite Quality Quote of your own, email it to us for consideration.
Week of August 12
Friday, August 16: "Believe you can and you’re halfway there." Theodore Roosevelt
Thursday, August 15: "Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once." Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox
Wednesday, August 14: "If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it." Jonathan Winters
Tuesday, August 13: "Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." Dale Carnegie
Monday, August 12: "I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." Thomas Edison
Week of August 5
Friday, August 9: "Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first." Frederick B. Wilcox
Thursday, August 8: "Creativity is, after all, lauded as the engine of business innovation." Matthew Walker, author and scientist
Wednesday, August 7: "The history of innovation is the story of ideas that seemed dumb at the time." Andy Dunn, CEO of Bonobos
Tuesday, August 6: "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." Steve Jobs
Monday, August 5: "Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." Jim Rohn, motivational speaker
Week of July 29
Friday, August 2: "If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out." Mark Zuckerberg
Thursday, August 1: "Failure is success if we learn from it." Malcolm Forbes
Wednesday, July 31: "Networking has been cited as the number one unwritten rule of success in business. Who you know really impacts what you know." Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest
Tuesday, July 30: "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." Alexander Graham Bell
Monday, July 29: "One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation." Arthur Ashe, American tennis player
Week of July 22
Friday, July 26: "Success is where preparation and opportunity meet." Bobby Unser, former American automobile racer
Thursday, July 25: "Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure." Confucius
Wednesday, July 24: "Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success." Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter
Tuesday, July 23: "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric
Monday, July 22: "Failures—repeated failures—are fingerposts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success." C. S. Lewis
Week of July 15
Friday, July 19: "Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another." Napoleon Hill, American self-help author
Thursday, July 18: "The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty." Zig Ziglar, American author and speaker
Wednesday, July 17: "Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success." Shiv Khera, Indian author and motivational speaker
Tuesday, July 16: "If you can push through that feeling of being scared, that feeling of taking a risk, really amazing things can happen." Marissa Mayer, former president and CEO of Yahoo!
Monday, July 15: "Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen." Wayne Huizenga
Week of July 8
Friday, July 12: "I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." Thomas Edison
Thursday, July 11: "For success, attitude is equally as important as ability." Sir Walter Scott
Wednesday, July 10: "The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it." Dr. Kalpana Chawla, NASA Aerospace Engineer
Tuesday, July 9: "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself—do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it." Bruce Lee
Monday, July 8: "Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." Benjamin Franklin
Week of July 1
Friday, July 5: "99% of failures come from people who make excuses." George Washington
Thursday, July 4: Independence Day (US Holiday)
Wednesday, July 3: "In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits." Lee Iacocca
Tuesday, July 2: "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." Colin Powell
Monday, July 1: "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." Henry Ford
Week of June 24
Friday, June 28: "Failure is the seed of success." Kaoru Ishikawa
Thursday, June 27: "Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life.” Dr. Mae Jemison, engineer, physician, and NASA astronaut
Wednesday, June 26: "That's what life is all about—timing." Lee Iacocca
Tuesday, June 25: "The wisest of the wise may err." Aeschylus
Monday, June 24: "It is the true nature of mankind to learn from mistakes, not from example." Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer
Week of June 17
Friday, June 21: "Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change." Unknown
Thursday, June 20: "We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." Marie Curie
Wednesday, June 19: "'Restore connection' is not just for devices, it is for people too. If we cannot disconnect, we cannot lead." Arianna Huffington
Tuesday, June 18: "Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears." Les Brown, motivational speaker and author
Monday, June 17: "Be first and be lonely." Ginni Rometty, chair, president, and CEO of IBM
Week of June 10
Friday, June 14: "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Walt Disney
Thursday, June 13: "It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up." Vince Lombardi
Wednesday, June 12: "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne Frank
Tuesday, June 11: "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." Bill Gates
Monday, June 10: "There is no substitute for knowledge." W. Edwards Deming
Week of June 3
Friday, June 7: "Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear." George Addair
Thursday, June 6: "Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay." Simone de Beauvoir, writer and social theorist
Wednesday, June 5: "Buckle up, and know that it’s going to be a tremendous amount of work, but embrace it." Tory Burch
Tuesday, June 4: "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Confucius
Monday, June 3: "Champions keep playing until they get it right." Billie Jean King
Week of May 27
Friday, May 31: "When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful." Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Prize laureate
Thursday, May 30: "Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes." Margaret Wheatley, writer
Wednesday, May 29: "I decided I can't pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it." Serena Williams
Tuesday, May 28: "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." Rosa Parks
Monday, May 27: Memorial Day (US Holiday)
Week of May 20
Friday, May 24: "Run to the fire; don’t hide from it." Meg Whitman, former CEO and President, HP
Thursday, May 23: "Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen." Brené Brown
Wednesday, May 22: "Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper." Julia Child
Tuesday, May 21: "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." Ida B. Wells
Monday, May 20: "Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations can never effect a reform." Susan B. Anthony
Week of May 13
Friday, May 17: "One good head is better than a hundred strong hands." Thomas Fuller
Thursday, May 16: "Everyone shines, given the right lighting." Susan Cain
Wednesday, May 15: "Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. And, when you stumble, keep faith. And, when you're knocked down, get right back up and never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on." Hillary Clinton
Tuesday, May 14: "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement." Helen Keller
Monday, May 13: "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it." Henry Ford
Week of May 6
Friday, May 10: "Small improvements are believable and therefore achievable." Anthony Robbins
Thursday, May 9: "Nature does not make jumps." Carl Linnaeus
Wednesday, May 8: "The job of management is not supervision, but leadership." W. Edwards Deming
Tuesday, May 7: "Quality leaders do not work longer hours. They do different things during the hours that they do work." Juran Institute, Inc.
Monday, May 6: "Man will err while yet he strives." Goethe
Week of April 29
Friday, May 3: "You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose." Indira Gandhi, first female prime minister of India
Thursday, May 2: "People do not just buy things, they also buy expectations." Albrecht and Zemke
Wednesday, May 1: "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, April 30: "The voice of the customer guides world-class leaders' every action and decision." Chang, Labovitz, and Rosansky
Monday, April 29: "Good companies tell you how they collect employee suggestions. Great companies tell you how they use them." Harvard Business Review
Week of April 22
Friday, April 26: “I wouldn’t ask anyone to do anything I wouldn’t do myself.” Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo
Thursday, April 25: "You cannot manipulate people into doing quality work." Townsend and Gebhardt
Wednesday, April 24: ""Great works are performed not by strength, but my perseverance." Samuel Johnson
Tuesday, April 23: "Patience is the companion of wisdom." St. Augustine
Monday, April 22: "There are no gains without pains." Adlai Stevenson
Week of April 15
Friday, April 19: "Wisely and slowly; they stumble that run fast." William Shakespeare
Thursday, April 18: "The man who does not get a certain satisfaction out of his day's work is losing the best part of his pay." Ford and Crowther
Wednesday, April 17: "Satisfied employees create satisfied customers." Capezio and Morehouse
Tuesday, April 16: "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." Carl Sagan
Monday, April 15: "Whatever humans have learned had to be learned as a consequence only of trial-and-error experience. Humans have learned only through mistakes." Buckminster Fuller
Week of April 8
Friday, April 12: "Whatever humans have learned had to be learned as a consequence only of trial-and-error experience. Humans have learned only through mistakes." Buckminster Fuller
Thursday, April 11: "By asking for the impossible we obtain the best possible." Italian Proverb
Wednesday, April 10: "The first problem for all of us…is not to learn, but to unlearn. We are filled with the popular wisdom of several centuries just past, and we are terrified to give it up." Gloria Steinem
Tuesday, April 9: "Theory is a window into the world." W. Edwards Deming
Monday, April 8: "Quality is the target. Education gives people the tools with which to take aim." Ernst & Young
Week of April 1
Friday, April 5: "I did not have the most experience in the industry or the most money, but I cared the most." Sara Blakely, CEO
Thursday, April 4: "Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day." Rory Vaden
Wednesday, April 3: "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default" J. K. Rowling, British novelist
Tuesday, April 2: "Problems are only opportunities in work clothes." Henry J. Kaiser
Monday, April 1: "Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking and using our potential." Liane Cordes
Week of March 25
Friday, March 29: “Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” Gloria Steinem
Thursday, March 28: "You've got to be willing to fail." James Burke, Johnson & Johnson
Wednesday, March 27: "If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than to get permission." Grace Hopper, US Naval Admiral
Tuesday, March 26: "The future struggles against being mastered." Latin Proverb
Monday, March 25: “Change is inevitable to a progressive society. Change is constant." Benjamin Disraeli
Week of March 18
Friday, March 22: “What separates finishers from quitters in any aspect of life is that finishers know how to silence the mind when it kicks up those demons of doubt.” John Joseph, Musician, Author, and Ironman Triathlete
Thursday, March 21: "One good head is better than a hundred strong hands." Thomas Fuller
Wednesday, March 20: "Marvels are many, but man is the greatest." Sophocles
Tuesday, March 19: "Those who see teams as a replacement for hierarchy are missing the true potential of teams." Katzenbach and Smith
Monday, March 18: "No matter how senior you get in an organization, no matter how well you’re perceived to be doing, your job is never done." Abigail Johnson, President and CEO, Fidelity Investments
Week of March 11
Friday, March 15: "The way you tell your story to yourself matters." Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School Researcher and Author
Thursday, March 14: “Each moment has the potential to be special and memorable.” Steven Redhead
Wednesday, March 13: "If you have an idea, you have to believe in yourself or no one else will." Sarah Michelle Gellar
Tuesday, March 12: “Luck is the residue of design.” Branch Rickey
Monday, March 11: "I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse." Florence Nightingale
Week of March 4
Friday, March 8: "The mere fact of being able to call your job your passion is success in my eyes." Alicia Vikander
Thursday, March 7: “Take the chair and sit at the forefront of your dreams. You are the chairperson at the center of affairs. Make it memorable; make an impact! Leave a legacy!” Israelmore Ayivor
Wednesday, March 6: “One cannot make a memorable catch without reaching out to catch the ball.” Jeffrey G. Duarte
Tuesday, March 5: “What makes your brand stick and tick is your ability to make it memorable” Bernard Kelvin Clive
Monday, March 4: "Differences can be a strength rather than a handicap." Condoleezza Rice
Week of February 25
Friday, March 1: “In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.” Les Brown
Thursday, February 28: "Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking and using our potential." Liane Cordes
Wednesday, February 27: “The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
Tuesday, February 26: "Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward." Hillary Clinton
Monday, February 25: “You have to be willing to act. You have to be willing to crash and burn, to fail, or you won’t get very far.” Steve Jobs
Week of February 18
Friday, February 22: "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear. Knowing what must be done does away with fear." Rosa Parks
Thursday, February 21: "It is not the mountains we conquer, but ourselves." Edmund Hillary
Wednesday, February 20: “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Jimmy Dean
Tuesday, February 19: "If you get, give. If you learn, teach." Maya Angelou
Monday, February 18: “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” Bill Gates
Week of February 11
Friday, February 15: "A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning." Billie Jean King
Thursday, February 14: “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” Eleanor Roosevelt
Wednesday, February 13: "I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship." Louisa May Alcott
Tuesday, February 12: "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." Babe Ruth
Monday, February 11: “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” Elon Musk
Week of February 4
Friday, February 8: "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected." Steve Jobs
Thursday, February 7: "Quality is free. It's not a gift, but it's free. The unquality things are what cost money." Philip Crosby
Wednesday, February 6: "The guiding principle should be make no small plans!" Joseph Juran
Tuesday, February 5: "The first concern of the company is the happiness of the people connected with it. If the people do not feel happy…that company does not deserve to exist." Kaoru Ishikawa
Monday, February 4: "The first step is to learn how to change." W. Edward Deming
Week of January 28
Friday, February 1: "Train minds as tools that can be used for a lifetime, inquiring minds, curious minds, seeking, constantly refueling their ideas and information." Eleanor Roosevelt
Thursday, January 31: ""Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision without action can change the world!" Joel Barker
Wednesday, January 30: "As is the case in everything we do, unknown or chance causes extert their influence." Walter A. Shewhart
Tuesday, January 29: "The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, January 28: "Make voyages! Attempt them! There is nothing else." Tennessee Williams, Camino Real
Week of January 21
Friday, January 25: "Vision is the art of seeing things invisible." Jonathan Swift
Thursday, January 24: "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wednesday, January 23: "Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way." Booker T. Washington
Tuesday, January 22: "The end result of a service is a feeling." Karl Albrecht
Monday, January 21: "There are no shortcuts for any place worth going." Beverly Sills
Week of January 14
Friday, January 18: "A little alarm now and then keeps life from stagnation." Fanny Burney
Thursday, January 17: "Those who begin many things finish but a few." Proverb
Wednesday, January 16: "Curiosity is one of those insatiable passions that grow by gratification." Sarah Scott
Tuesday, January 15: "The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice." George Eliot
Monday, January 14: "No one wants to learn by mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond state of the art." Henry Petroski, civil engineer
Week of January 7
Friday, January 11: "Self-trust, we know, is the first secret of success." Lady Wilde
Thursday, January 10: “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” Squire Bill Widener
Wednesday, January 9: "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tuesday, January 8: "There is only one proof of ability: action." Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Monday, January 7: "Slow and steady wins the race." Aesop
Week of January 2
Friday, January 4: "Few things are impossible to diligence and skill…Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance." Samuel Johnson
Thursday, January 3: "Well begun is half done." Aristotle
Wednesday, January 2: "Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it." Madeleine L'Engle
Happy Holidays!
ASQ Holiday Break December 25-January 1
Week of December 17
Friday, December 21: "Leaders who don't listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say." Andy Stanley
Thursday, December 20: "Men in the game are blind to what men looking on see clearly." Chinese proverb
Wednesday, December 19: "Every wall is a door." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tuesday, December 18: "There is no shame in not knowing. The shame lies in not finding out." Russian proverb
Monday, December 17: "You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses." Zig Ziglar
Week of December 10
Friday, December 14: "Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away." Elvis Presley
Thursday, December 13: "Let your net always be cast, and in the pool which you least expect, there will be a fish." Ovid
Wednesday, December 12: "It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps." American proverb
Tuesday, December 11: "Fear is the mind-killer." Frank Herbert
Monday, December 10: "Failure does not mean 'defeat'; it simply means 'delay'." Anonymous
Week of December 3
Friday, December 7: "To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence." Mark Twain
Thursday, December 6: "We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves." Galileo Galilei
Wednesday, December 5: "It is our imagination that transforms itself into reality." Helen Araromi
Tuesday, December 4: "Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for greater responsibilities." Napoleon Hill
Monday, December 3: "With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere." C.S. Lewis
Week of November 26
Friday, November 30: "The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thursday, November 29: "Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure." George Eliot
Wednesday, November 28: "Don't forget that some things count more than other things." William Saroyan
Tuesday, November 27: "There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather
Monday, November 26: "Nobody can give you fearlessness. You have to practice it yourself." Thich Nhat Hahn
Week of November 19
Friday, November 23: ASQ closed for holiday
Thursday, November 22: Happy Thanksgiving! (US Holiday)
Wednesday, November 21: “All good work requires self-revelation.” Sidney Lumet
Tuesday, November 20: "To assess the quality of thoughts of people, don't listen to their words, but watch their actions.” Amit Kalantri
Monday, November 19: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Will Durant
Week of November 12
Friday, November 16: "Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it." Madeleine L'Engle
Thursday, November 15: “Always do things right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Mark Twain
Wednesday, November 14: "We create our fate every day we live." Henry Miller
Tuesday, November 13: "Pressure makes diamonds.” General George S. Patton
Monday, November 12: “We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.” John Holt
Week of November 5
Friday, November 9: “A bad workman blames his tools.” Chinese Proverb
Thursday, November 8: "The secret joy in work is contained in one word: excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." Pearl S. Buck
Wednesday, November 7: “Surround yourself with a trusted and loyal team. It makes all the difference.” Alison Pincus, One Kings Lane
Tuesday, November 6: "If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away." Linus Pauling
Monday, November 5: "Success is not money or style, but the progressive realization of your own goals." Jim Rohn
Week of October 29
Friday, November 2: "Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway." John Wayne
Thursday, November 1: "Without a standard there is no logical basis for making a decision or taking action." Joseph M. Juran
Wednesday, October 31: "Awareness is the greatest agent for change." Eckhart Tolle
Tuesday, October 30: "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." Jon Kabat-Zinn
Monday, October 29: "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." Albert Einstein
Week of October 22
Friday, October 26: "Quality is conformance to requirements." Philip Crosby
Thursday, October 25: "I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.” Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM
Wednesday, October 24: “Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.” Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo
Tuesday, October 23: “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else." Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx
Monday, October 22: "Quality is everyone's responsibility." W. Edwards Deming
Week of October 15
Friday, October 19: "The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping stone in the pathway of the strong." Thomas Carlyle
Thursday, October 18: “True leaders understand that leadership is not about them but about those they serve. It is not about exalting themselves but about lifting others up.” Sheri L. Dew
Wednesday, October 17: "Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” Sheryl Sandberg
Tuesday, October 16: "Without passion, there is no genius." Theodor Mommsen
Monday, October 15: “Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.” Dianne Feinstein
Week of October 8
Friday, October 12: "Don't cling to a mistake simply because you spent a lot of time making it." Anonymous
Thursday, October 11: “Don’t waste a single second. Just move forward as fast as you can, and go for it.” Rebecca Woodcock, Cake Health
Wednesday, October 10: “As a leader, it’s a major responsibility on your shoulders to practice the behavior you want others to follow.” Himanshu Bhatia, Rose International Inc.
Tuesday, October 9: "Everyone must row with the oars he or she has." Dutch proverb
Monday, October 8: "A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be." Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady
Week of October 1
Friday, October 5: "We treat our people like royalty. If you honor and serve the people who work for you, they will honor and serve you.” Mary Kay Ash
Thursday, October 4: "My father had a simple test that helps me measure my own leadership quotient: When you are out of the office, he once asked me, 'Does your staff carry on remarkable well without you?'” Martha Peak, AMA magazines
Wednesday, October 3: “Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.” Margaret Wheatley, writer
Tuesday, October 2: “Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.” Mary D. Poole
Monday, October 1: “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.” Queen Victoria, Former Queen of the United Kingdom
Week of September 24
Friday, September 28: “If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are an excellent leader.” Dolly Parton
Thursday, September 27: "A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it." Chinese proverb
Wednesday, September 26: “My best successes came on the heels of failures.” Barbara Corcoran
Tuesday, September 25: "Wherever you are is the entry point." Kabir
Monday, September 24: "Strategic leaders must not get consumed by the operational and tactical side of their work. They have a duty to find time to shape the future." Stephanie S. Mead, CMOE
Week of September 17
Friday, September 21: "The only safe ship in a storm is leadership." Faye Wattleton, Alvarez & Marsal
Thursday, September 20: “We do not need magic to change the world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.” J.K. Rowling
Wednesday, September 19: "The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have." Sheryl Sandberg
Tuesday, September 18: "Your customers may not be always right, but sometimes they are always right." Douglas C. Krumm, Sr. Project Manager, Rockwell Collins
Monday, September 17: "The systems perspective tells us that we must look beyond individual mistakes or bad luck to understand important problems." Peter Senge
Week of September 10
Friday, September 14: "Partial understanding of and involvement in quality can produce only partial success or total failure." Townsend and Gebhardt
Thursday, September 13: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Jane Goodall
Wednesday, September 12: "We move families, not just furniture." Allied Van Lines
Tuesday, September 11: "Everyone wants better quality and lower costs, but just doing what comes naturally or what is recommended by some consultant may backfire." Rafael Aguayo
Monday, September 10: "There is no substitute for hard work." Thomas Edison
Week of September 3
Friday, September 7: “The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.” Iyanla Vanzant
Thursday, September 6: "Nothing happens unless first a dream." Carl Sandburg
Wednesday, September 5: "Quality cannot be copied; there is no step-by-step cookbook that applies equally to all company situations and cultures." Ernst & Young
Tuesday, September 4: “No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.” Martha Beck
Monday, September 3: Labor Day, USA
Week of August 27
Friday, August 31: "The problem of quality management is not what people don't know about it. The problem is what they think they do know." Philip Crosby
Thursday, August 30: "Hitch your wagon to a star." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wednesday, August 29: "You can't sell from an empty wagon." Charles Tandy, Tandy Corporation
Tuesday, August 28: "All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, August 27: "A 'problem' is the distance between where you are now and where you could be, no matter how good you are now." Townsend and Gebhardt
Week of August 20
Friday, August 24: "Little strokes fell great oaks." Benjamin Franklin
Thursday, August 23: "If you cannot solve the real problem, change it into one you can solve." Mark Kac, mathematician
Wednesday, August 22: "The key is to get into the stores and listen." Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart
Tuesday, August 21: "Changing the culture of an institution is a slow process, and one that is best not rushed. If the effects of TQM are to be lasting, people have to want to be on board." Edward Sallis
Monday, August 20: "If there is one consistent lesson from those who have led this effort [toward continuous improvement], it is that there is no universal strategy for success." V. Daniel Hunt
Week of August 13
Friday, August 17: "Effective statistical process control is 10% statistics and 90% management action." John Hradesky
Thursday, August 16: “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.” Tina Fey
Wednesday, August 15: "The best way to understand your customer is to become your customer and walk a mile in his shoes." Ian D. Littman
Tuesday, August 14: "There is one basic cause of all effects." Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher
Monday, August 13: "Great things are not done by impulse...but by a series of small things brought together." Vincent Van Gogh
Week of August 6
Friday, August 10: "The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none." Thomas Carlyle
Thursday, August 9: "Failure is simply a reason to strengthen resolve." John W. Gardner
Wednesday, August 8: "We can be creative in our approach but never compromising in our quality." Jim Nelson (Lonza)
Tuesday, August 7: "You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe.” Leymah Gbowee, Nobel laureate
Monday, August 6: “Everyone shines, given the right lighting.” Susan Cain, author
Week of July 30
Friday, August 3: "Error is always in haste." Thomas Fuller
Thursday, August 2: "Quality improvement at a revolutionary pace is now becoming simply good management." A. Blanton Godfrey
Wednesday, August 1: "Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." Theodore Levitt
Tuesday, July 31: "The first job in decision making is to find the real problem and define it." Peter Drucker
Monday, July 30: "Quality improvement is a fragile process. All major processes are." Edward Sallis
Week of July 23
Friday, July 27: "If you can’t go straight ahead, you go around the corner." Cher
Thursday, July 26: "To err is human, but to be paid for it is divine." H. James Harrington
Wednesday, July 25: "Fear always represents objects in their worst light." Livy
Tuesday, July 24: "If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more." Erica Jong
Monday, July 23: "A leader teaches with patience. A manager without patience is no leader." Rafael Aguayo
Week of July 16
Friday, July 20: "Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not." Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thursday, July 19: "One picture is worth more than a thousand words." Anonymous
Wednesday, July 18: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle
Tuesday, July 17: "Quality isn't expensive; it's priceless." Anonymous
Monday, July 16: “If you’re not making some notable mistakes along the way, you’re certainly not taking enough business and career chances.” Sallie Krawcheck
Week of July 9
Friday, July 13: "'The institutional leader...is primarily an expert in the promotion and protection of values." Philip Selznick
Thursday, July 12: "Two wrongs can never make a right." English Proverb
Wednesday, July 11: "The market is never saturated with a good product but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one." Henry Ford
Tuesday, July 10: "With the customer as a reference point, priorities become easier to set." Mary Walton
Monday, July 9: “The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves.” Barbara Corcoran
Week of July 2
Friday, July 6: "'What is our business?' is not determined by the producer but by the customer." Peter Drucker
Thursday, July 5: “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” Eleanor Roosevelt
Wednesday, July 4: Independence Day holiday (USA)
Tuesday, July 3: "No one knows what it is that he can do until he tries." Publilius Syrus
Monday, July 2: "Customer needs and satisfaction are constantly changing targets." Juran Institute, Inc.
Week of June 25
Friday, June 29: "Quality control is applicable to any kind of enterprise; in fact, it must be applied to every enterprise." Kaoru Ishikawa
Thursday, June 28: "Quality thinking is the same as profitable thinking in the long term." Wasi Asghar, Suminter India Organics
Wednesday, June 27: "The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas." George Santayana
Tuesday, June 26: "Consumers, by seeking quality and value, set the standards of acceptability for products and services by voting with their marketplace dollars." Ronald Reagan
Monday, June 25: “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” Coco Chanel
Week of June 18
Friday, June 22: "Manage from the left side of the brain; lead from the right." Steven Covey
Thursday, June 21: "Managers do things right, leaders do the right things." Bennis and Nanus
Wednesday, June 20: "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Tuesday, June 19: “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” Amelia Earhart
Monday, June 18: "I believe the leader's ultimate job is to spread hope." Bob Galvin, Motorola
Week of June 11
Friday, June 15: "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." Albert Einstein
Thursday, June 14: "Human beings are more alike than one would think at first." Abraham Maslow
Wednesday, June 13: "The biggest challenge in maintaining a quality management system is ensuring consistency in established practice, in a consistently changing business environment." Sng Yang Seng, senior manager, quality assurance, LSG ST Electronics
Tuesday, June 12: "In the best institutions, promises are kept no matter what the cost in agony and overtime." David Ogilvy
Monday, June 11: "The spirit of the thing lives in the details." Mies van der Rohe
Week of June 4
Friday, June 8: "He who runs his company on visible figures alone will soon have neither company nor visible figures to work with." W. Edwards Deming
Thursday, June 7: "It’s not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it. Sometimes you’ve got to blast through and have faith.” Emma Watson
Wednesday, June 6: "I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty." John D. Rockefeller
Tuesday, June 5: "Unless the problem is prevented from happening again, root cause is just a theory." Govind Ramu, Program Manager, Google, Mountain View, Calif.
Monday, June 4: "Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." John Steinbeck
Week of May 28
Friday, June 1: "Failure is a matter of self-conceit. Men don't work hard because, in their self-conceit, they think they are so clever that they'll succeed without working hard." Thomas Edison
Thursday, May 31: "It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." Alfred North Whitehead
Wednesday, May 30: “I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.” Estée Lauder
Tuesday, May 29: "Where is quality made? Quality is made in the boardroom." W. Edwards Deming
Monday, May 28: Memorial Day holiday (USA)
Week of May 21
Friday, May 25: "People learn most rapidly when they have a genuine sense of responsibility for their actions." Peter Senge
Thursday, May 24: "Wisely and slowly; they stumble that run fast." William Shakespeare
Wednesday, May 23: "It has been well said that the effective leader must know the meaning and master the technique of the educator." Philip Selznick
Tuesday, May 22: “A good compromise is one where everybody makes a contribution.” Angela Merkel
Monday, May 21: "There is no substitute for hard work." Thomas Edison
Week of May 14
Friday, May 18: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Jane Goodall
Thursday, May 17: "Quality is when customer satisfaction goes far north and when scrap and rework rates go way south." Paul Tang, quality and project manager
Wednesday, May 16: "The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question." Peter Drucker
Tuesday, May 15: "It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Monday, May 14: “Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” Golda Meir
Week of May 7
Friday, May 11: "Preaching quality won't help." Hammer and Champy
Thursday, May 10: "Our reputation for quality is only as good as our last machine or our last customer call." Frank Cary
Wednesday, May 9: "The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators." Edward Gibbon
Tuesdsay, May 8: "Organizational excellence is not about the management of quality. It is about the quality of management." Haim Berman
Monday, May 7: "I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty." John D. Rockefeller
Week of April 30
Friday, May 4: "Empowerment is all about letting go so that others can get going." Jack Welch
Thursday, May 3: "Plans are nothing. Planning is everything." Dwight Eisenhower
Wednesday, May 2: "I need to listen well so that I hear what is not said.” Thuli Madonsela
Tuesday, May 1: “When you’re through changing, you’re through.” Martha Stewart
Monday, April 30: "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" John Wooden
Week of April 23
Friday, April 27: "The price for ignoring the impact of design on service can be staggering." Davidow and Uttal
Thursday, April 26: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." English Proverb
Wednesday, April 25: "The secret to preparing for success is no secret at all." Robb E. Dalton
Tuesday, April 24: "Coordination and productive use of differences should be achieved by group decision making processes used skillfully throughout the company." Rensis Likert
Monday, April 23: "The team concept conveys the message that PQI (Productivity and Quality Improvement) is everybody's business." John Hradesky
Week of April 16
Friday, April 20: "My first message is: Listen, listen, listen to the people who do the work." H. Ross Perot
Thursday, April 19: "Only through the collective efforts of their individual members do companies change; companies are incapable of changing themselves." V. Daniel Hunt
Wednesday, April 18: "Despite what the textbooks say, most important decisions in corporate life are made by individuals, not by committees." Lee Iacocca
Tuesday, April 17: "One good head is better than a hundred strong hands." Thomas Fuller
Monday, April 16: "High-quality companies treat their human resource as a resource, not a commodity." Steven George
Week of April 9
Friday, April 13: "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it." Henry Ford
Thursday, April 12: "Compliance is an intended consequence of quality." Paula Burdick Parsons, CMQ/OE
Wednesday, April 11: "The most difficult problem to solve is employee indifference: people closing their eyes and choosing to do nothing." Katsuyoshi Ishihara
Tuesday, April 10: "If management thinks people don't care, it's likely that people won't care." F. James McDonald, General Motors
Monday, April 9: "What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing." Louis Pasteur
Week of April 2
Friday, April 6: "When we stop improving, we start to slip backward." H. James Harrington
Thursday, April 5: "Treat the small as great and the few as many." Lao-tzu
Wednesday, April 4: “Don’t live life in the past lane.” Samantha Ettus, American Author
Tuesday, April 3: "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." Anonymous
Monday, April 2: "He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator." Francis Bacon
Week of March 26
Friday, March 30: "All good things which exist are the fruits of originality." John Stuart Mill
Thursday, March 29: "Management's job is not to promote satisfaction with the way things are, but to create dissatisfaction with the way things are and could be." Edward M. Baker
Wednesday, March 28: "Quality is when the customer returns and the product does not." Tim Robertson
Tuesday, March 27: "We only get one chance to do it right the first time." Jeffrey S. Schiopota, Aspire Brands
Monday, March 26: "Develop a healthy disrespect for the impossible." Gene Hoffman, SuperValu Inc.
Week of March 19
Friday, March 23: "No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess." Isaac Newton
Thursday, March 22: "The mind is slow to unlearn what it has been long in learning." Seneca
Wednesday, March 21: "The new idea either finds a champion or dies." Edward Schon
Tuesday, March 20: "Some men see things as they are, and say, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were, and say, 'Why not?'" Bernard Shaw
Monday, March 19: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world." Albert Einstein
Week of March 12
Friday, March 16: "Most managers are reluctant to let their people run with the ball. But you'd be surprised how fast an informed and motivated guy can run." Lee Iacocca
Thursday, March 15: "Management's principal job is to get the herd heading roughly west." Peters and Waterman
Wednesday, March 14: "A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words." Thomas Huxley
Tuesday, March 13: "The best way to predict the future is to create it." Peter Drucker
Monday, March 12: "If you have to remind people that you are the leader, then you are not." Jorge Zegarra, Director, COS Training Resource Center
Week of March 5
Friday, March 9: "Quality control and standardization are extremely closely linked." Katsuya Hosotani
Thursday, March 8: "Quality needs to be constantly improved, but it is just as necessary to make sure that quality never deteriorates." Shigeru Mizuno
Wednesday, March 7: "Self-generated quality control is more effective than inspector-generated quality control." Thomas J. Peters
Tuesday, March 6: "The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher." Thomas Huxley
Monday, March 5: "The customers do not feel the average. They feel the variation." Tom Groark
Week of February 26
Friday, March 2: "There is no such thing as a perfect method. Methods always can be improved upon." Walter Daiber
Thursday, March 1: "An environment which calls for perfection is not likely to be easy. But aiming for it is always a goad to progress." Thomas Watson, Jr.
Wednesday, February 28: "Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things." Diderot
Tuesday, February 27: "That which we persist in doing becomes easier – not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Monday, February 26: "Do not let the tiniest problem escape your notice. Remember: little brooks grow into mighty rivers." Katsuyoshi Ishihara
Week of February 19
Friday, February 23: "Thee findeth a solution and I promise thee to findeth another problem to mull. . . ." Sameer B. Chougle
Thursday, February 22: "Running a company by profit alone is like driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror. It tells you where you've been, not where you are going." Rafael Aguayo
Wednesday, February 21: "Quality comes not from inspection but from improvement of the process." Mary Walton
Tuesday, February 20: "Effective solutions to any problem circumvent blame and begin with you." Amy E. Smith, reliability technician, Bayer HealthCare
Monday, February 19: "Some say, 'You only get what you measure.' I say, 'And that's all you get!'" A. Donald Stratton
Week of February 12
Friday, February 16: "The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have." Sheryl Sandberg
Thursday, February 15: "Quality improvement will result from people improving their processes and from management improving the system." Thomas Pyzdek
Wednesday, February 14: "Quality is not an act; it is a habit." Aristotle
Tuesday, February 13: "Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." Henry Ford
Monday, February 12: "I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have." Coleman Cox
Week of February 5
Friday, February 9: "The concept of managing the moments of truth is the very essence of service management." Albrecht and Zemke
Thursday, February 8: "No dream comes true until you wake up and go to work." Herbert V. Prochnow
Wednesday, February 7: "If change is to occur, it must come about through hard work within the organization itself." Gordon Lippitt
Tuesday, February 6: "In the USA, about a third of what we do consists of redoing work previously 'done.'" Joseph M. Juran
Monday, February 5: "We have 50,000 moments of truth out there every day." Jan Carlzon
Week of January 29
Friday, February 2: "To change is to risk something. That makes us insecure. Not to change is the bigger risk, but it seldom feels that way." Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
Thursday, February 1: "The only stability possible is stability in motion." John W. Gardner
Wednesday, January 31: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." Søren Kierkegaard
Tuesday, January 30: "No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come." Victor Hugo
Monday, January 29: "You've got to be willing to fail." James Burke (Johnson & Johnson)
Week of January 22
Friday, January 26: "The process of change (like charity) begins with the individual." Harry Forsha
Thursday, January 25: "Quality is the degree of excellence at an acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost." Robert A. Broh
Wednesday, January 24: "Continuous improvement is nothing but the development of ever better methods." Mary Walton
Tuesday, January 23: "Once you adopt and communicate a quality policy, stick with it, live it, and protect it. You get only one chance!" Thomas Berry
Monday, January 22: "The transformation to world-class quality is not possible without committed, visionary, hands-on leadership." Steven George
Week of January 15
Friday, January 19: "The only way to get people to adopt constant improvement as a way of life in doing daily business is by empowering them." Byham and Cox
Thursday, January 18: "To desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly." Confucius
Wednesday, January 17: "In considering quality, it is often necessary to turn your thinking upside down and to realize that quality and profit are not mutually exclusive." Shigeru Mizuno
Tuesday, January 16: "The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage." Arie De Geus, Royal Dutch/Shell
Monday, January 15: "In world-class organizations, working to improve quality is not an extracurricular activity. It is a minimum requirement." Chang, Labovitz, and Rosansky
Week of January 8
Friday, January 12: "Benchmarking means out-maneuvering your competitors." Allan Sayle, Quality Author
Thursday, January 11: "You can't learn anything when you're trying to look like the smartest person in the room." Barbara Kingsolver, Novelist
Wednesday, January 10: "Service is not a competitive edge, it is the competitive edge." Albrecht and Zemke
Tuesday, January 9: "Change begins at the top." John Hradesky
Monday, January 8: "Nobody will take his eyes off the income statement or put his heart on the line without constant demonstration of support from the top." Davidow and Uttal
Week of January 2
Friday, January 5: "There's no great success without great commitment." Tony Robbins
Thursday, January 4: "Quality is not a task done to products, services, processes, or people; it is what we collaboratively embrace, commit to, and present as an entire organization." Amy E. Smith, Reliability Technician, Bayer HealthCare
Wednesday, January 3: "Quality is a value and a method and both must be routine." Karen L. Hansen, Director of Quality Assurance and Compliance, Allied Community Resources
Tuesday, January 2: "Commitment is measured in terms of visible and tangible things, not in terms of rhetoric." Murgatroyd and Morgan
Monday, January 1: Happy New Year!