What’s the best business advice you’ve received?

I am member of a health industry leaders LinkedIn group that recently asked this question. The responses were revealing about what each executive values: staff, growth, profit, success, personal time, etc. Finding the best business routes can be similar to a military strategy. It’s essential that the leader understands the terrain of the battlefield, the opponents they will face and how best to position themselves for success.

To find the armor and weapons for today’s business world, I like to glean wisdom from successful business leaders who are “battle tested”. So much can be learned from both achievements and failures but it takes bravery to share both. I encourage all business leaders to join in similar conversations, allowing each of us to contribute and gain hard-fought wisdom from our experiences.

So, what is the best business advice you’ve been given? I’m still pondering my favorite, but for now here are a few good ones with the names of the leaders who submitted them:

 
•    “You are not here to create better followers, you are here to create more leaders.” - Lew Chipp, Experienced GM and Customer Support Executive

•    “Do what you love.” - Justan Brandt, On-Hold Marketing Creative Director and Freelance Journalist

•    “… The single biggest way to insure that change is perceived as successful is training and communication.  The better a constituent is at exploiting the benefit of change, the more they’ll like it — and the more successful it will be perceived, and the more successful it will be.” - Tom Figert of Info Tech

•    “Spend the Company’s money like it was your own!” - Steve Santacroce, Operations Leadership

•    “Hear everybody out… think & analyses by your mind… and decide by your heart, you will never go wrong. Our mind is like a parachute. Both work best when they are open.” - Abhishek Verma, Vice President & Head-Europe at Essar Global Ltd.

•    “Know yourself. Know your biz. Know your people. Set clear goals and priorities. Be realistic.” - Giovanni Berselli, Managing Director at Nautilus

•    ‘“Organizational transformation starts with the personal transformation of the leaders. Your first step is to become a viable and independent entity.’ These words changed my life.” - Phil Clothier, CEO of Barret Values Centre

•    “Whatever one does, doing it passionately yields better results than doing it out of compulsion.” - Goutham Reddy, Director at Emerging Orissa

•    “… Be ‘brutally honest’ about all business matters.” - Steven Lam, COO and CFO at Steiner Sports

•    “What gets measured gets done.” - Gord Hooker, CEO at Fractional Executive

•    “Three times measure, cut once.” - Dusan Satric, CEO at Freerunner Eastern Europe

•    “Doers find a way, losers find a reason.” - Jose Carlos Cunha, Country Manager at CPM Telecom Portugal

•    “As a leader, inspire people to ‘want to’ as opposed to ‘have to’.” - Tony Giovaniello, General Manager at Solutions Design

•    “Manage from the bottom up. The people who actually do the detail work generally know their area better than anyone, and have ideas on how it can be done better, more efficiently and more profitably. Great ideas come from all levels. Listen first.” - Randy Miller, Financial Executive

•    “Never allow the fear of making a mistake prevent a decision.” - Peter Rush, CEO at bCODE Middle East Africa Holdings, Ltd.

•    “People buy solutions to problems, not products!” - Kevin J. Poulton, Managing Director

•    “Surround yourself with people smarter than you.” - Carlos Acosta, General Manager at BPS International

•    “Be willing to invest in whatever resources you need to grow your business — it may be financially painful to begin with, but you will usually reap the benefits later if you spend your money wisely.” - Kris Cavanaugh, Speaker and CEO at Catalyst

•    “Never sacrifice your integrity, for I will ultimately bring you success and respect. Additionally, you can’t get it back, once you’ve given it away!” - Sam Miseri, Director of Business Development Air Force One

•    From my daughters: “Be yourself because everybody else is taken.” - Ousmane Ba, Owner of International Business Automation

•    "'Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.' Thomas Edison coined this, but I’ve used it many times to illustrate what’s missing to less successful colleagues with clean hands.” - Terry Hanahan, Owner of TD3 Products

•    “The difference between where you are today and where you will be five years from now will depend primarily on the books you read and the people you choose to hang out with, so choose both wisely!” - Charley ‘Tremendous’ Jones

•    “Focus on what the customer needs, not what you do…” - Blake Melnick, Senior Partner/Chief Knowledge Officer at The KM Group

•    “When hiring people, look for attitude and aptitude.” - Sanjay Kumar Das, Chairman and CEO at Melange Healthcare

•    “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” - LD Williams, President at Peak Executive Search LLC

•    “A leader has an enormous passion for something; find your something.” - Joanne Moretti, SVP of Sales and Marketing

•    “Make ten mistakes a day — just not the same ten mistakes — and never repeat them.” - Ken Lukins, President/Principal at Emblem Associates

•    “FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Successful.” - Michael Breitman, CEO at ActionCOACH of Metro New York

•    “If at any time, a CEO/Owner is satisfied with being ‘normal’ in their industry, the competition will eventually and undoubtedly surpass them.” - Carrie Nicolini, Founder and Certified Business Coach at CN Coaching

•    “Impact is all about results and not efforts.” - Nikhil Dabhole, Head of Resource Management Group UK & Ireland Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd.

•    “NO success is permanent, NO defeat is final.” - Akhilesh Vashist, Head-SCM at S. Tel Pvt. Ltd.

•    “Experience is what you get if you didn’t get what you wanted and at the end, it’s the most valuable thing you’d have to offer.” - Srikanth RS, Regional Head in South India

•    “Strategy before tactics…Do right things, right.” - Bob Viney, Franchise Owner and Business Coach at ActionCOACH Business

•    “Focus on the right Leading Indicators and the right Lag Measures will follow.” - David Sandberg, Strategy Execution Consultant at Focus&Execute

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[Tom Myers]

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