Mark McCormack Quotes

#1. Commit yourself to quality from day one ... it's better to do nothing at all than to do something badly.

Mark McCormack

#2. The mental game of business is understanding this Paradox: the better you think you are doing, the greater should be your cause for concern: the more self-satisfied you are with your accomplishments, your past achievements, your 'right moves', the less you should be.

Mark McCormack

#3. I am convinced that most companies don't maximize their barter possibilities. Instead of aggressively reducing costs by trading their services with those of their suppliers, they seem content to pay top dollar for everything.

Mark McCormack

#4. In our business, the windows of opportunity open and close with dazzling rapidity ... I constantly have to remind people to seize the moment.

Mark McCormack

#5. Today, if someone showed me a five-year plan, I'd toss out the pages detailing Years Three, Four and Five as pure fantasy Anyone who thinks he or she can evaluate business conditions five years from now, flunks.

Mark McCormack

#6. If new ideas are the lifeblood of any thriving organisation-and, trust me, they are-managers must learn to revere, not merely tolerate, the people who come up with those ideas.

Mark McCormack

#7. Round numbers beg to be negotiated, usually by counteroffer round numbers. Odd numbers sound harder, firmer, less negotiable.

Mark McCormack

#8. People don't plan to fail. They fail to plan.

Mark McCormack

#9. Fear of failure is at least as common as the desire for success. In fact, if harnessed properly, it can be the energy that drives the wheel.

Mark McCormack

#10. Short-term can be terminal.

Mark McCormack

#11. If Thomas Edison had gone to business school, we would all be reading by larger candles.

Mark McCormack

#12. Talk less-you will automatically learn more, hear more, see more-and make fewer blunders.

Mark McCormack

#13. To me, Arnold was a pioneer in the spirit of Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin, while Tiger is a pioneer in the spirit of Bill Gates.

Mark McCormack

#14. If you aren't afraid to fail, then you probably don't care enough about success.

Mark McCormack

#15. There are five top superstars in golf, 20 great stars, and 30 good ones. The rest should go and get jobs.

Mark McCormack

#16. All things being equal, people will do business with a friend; all things being unequal, people will still do business with a friend.

Mark McCormack

#17. People retire to do what I do every day.

Mark McCormack

#18. Anger can be an effective negotiating tool, but only as a calculated act, never as a reaction.

Mark McCormack

#19. Concentrate on each task, whether trivial or crucial, as if it's the only thing that matters.

Mark McCormack

#20. Every discussion in a meeting has a diminishing curve of interest. The longer the discussion goes on, the fewer people will be interested in it.

Mark McCormack