article thumbnail

Powerful Quotes From The Book, Just Listen

Eric Jacobson

. - Thomas Merton Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Henry Ford To succeed in your career, it''s less important what you know or even who you know than who truly knows you and how they know you. Bill Gates Good management consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Merton 55
article thumbnail

Life is Luck — Here’s How to Plan a Career Around It

Harvard Business Review

Chance plays a much greater role in our careers than we might wish or even realize. But the downside — the thought of our careers as the playthings of fate — is almost unbearable. If you imagine a game of “career roulette,” you end up a starving artist 99 times for every time you end up a rockstar.

Career 8
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

The Comparing Trap

Harvard Business Review

Compared with my colleague, I had accomplished so little over such a long career; my two measly books were more like an embarrassment, given his output. Robert Merton was 46 when he won the award. Merton had the office on the other side of my office. You see the problem.

Merton 15
article thumbnail

Should You Gamble on Your Company's Leadership?

Harvard Business Review

The sociologist Robert Merton dubbed this "The Matthew Effect," where the rich (in every sense of the word, from money to status to fame) get richer just because advantages beget more advantages. Another key strategy is to match the person to the situation. Another key strategy is to match the person to the situation.

Company 15
article thumbnail

Three Times You Have to Speak Up

Harvard Business Review

I was thinking about that story by Thomas Merton during a recent board meeting. Early on in our careers, we might speak up without concern or context. It was said of Abbot Agatho that for three years he carried a stone in his mouth until he learned to be silent. The CEO and CFO were marching through their 112-slide presentation.

Merton 15
article thumbnail

What an Economist Brings to a Business Strategy

Harvard Business Review

Ask them if they apply much else from else from economics in their actual business careers, and you’re likely to hear “not much.”. They might be surprised at how certain economic notions have been directly applied in business, with largely positive results. Here a few notable examples.

article thumbnail

The Irish Banking Crisis: A Parable

Harvard Business Review

In slightly more formal terms, Id suggest that they were able to take on, at least in tiny part, five of Robert Merton and Zvi Bodies six standard functions of a financial system: settling payments, providing information, setting incentives, pooling resources, and transferring resources.

Banking 15