Thomas J. Watson Quotes on Work & Career (9 Quotes)

If joining IBM was commitment, not employment, and the company engaged in something more than business, it had a right to demand of its men unconditional loyalty, Watson believed.

There is very little difference between the general manager, the sales manager, the factory manager, the office manager, the factory man, the office man and the salesman. We have different ideas and different work, but when you come down to it, there is j.

If a man goes to work in the right spirit, work is no hardship.

If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.

All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.

A message regarding the annual convention of the Advertising Federation of America in NYC, June 14-18, 1931. Advertising has illuminated the path of progress.... In building up desire, advertising has spurred new endeavors. It is their creative work, their dynamic presentations of products, their ability to teach and educate which have made each of us desire better things. And in the fulfillment of our desires, we have reached for and attained higher pinnacles in living standards and a clearer conception of the values of life itself.

'If you are loyal you are successful,' ruminated the company paper at one time. 'All useful work is raised to the plane of art when love for the taskloyaltyis fused with the effort. Loyalty is the great lubricant of life. It saves the wear and tear of making daily decisions as to what is best to do. The man who is loyal to his work is not wrung nor perplexed by doubts, he sticks to the ship, and if the ship founders he goes down like a hero with colors flying at the masthead and the band playing.'

Princeton Universtiy, October 13, 1928 In order to be a success in business, there is one thing you must do. You cannot be successful without it. That is WORK. I have not told you anything new. Everyone knows that you cannot be successful in anything without work. Why does not everyone work Because some lack the one thing that makes men want to work ENTHUSIASM. That is something no one can give you. You must acquire it yourself, and the only way that you can become enthusiastic about anything is to have a thorough KNOWLEDGE of it. You have never seen an enthusiastic man who was lazy.

Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops.