Inspirational Quotes

[Dean Agnostic]

Experience - the best teacher

"You want to learn from experience, but you want to learn from other people's experience when you can." 

"When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience leaves with the money and the man with money leaves with experience." 

 

[Dean Agnostic]

3 Qualities to get hired or someone to hire

"In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity because if they don't have have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you." - Warren buffett

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Litigation 

"Litigation is a tool used by negotiators." Gerard Nierenberg

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Loneliness

"The day you become a leader, you will be very lonely. Even the second and third-in-command will find it difficult to understand you well...I'm willing to shoulder the responsibility of failure." - Jack Ma

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Authority Figure - Ph.D. 

Upon entering the meeting room, three heads of different companies distribute their books, and paper. In the paper says  'Proposed Project.....Very truly yours, Ph.D. Engineering, Ph.D. Architecture, Ph.D. Finance, etc...'  In that micro moment, the look on the customers' eyes says yes these are the right guys to execute on the project.

At the time, I didn't know what to say and do to compete. I Froze  . I was young and optimistic, but had no reputation so we lose the bid (8 months of work plus travel expenses)  arty-smiley-048:

@Dean Agnostic

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

These are not the droids I was looking for.

 

[Dean Agnostic]

We think like engineers

"We have lower due diligence expenses than anyone in America. I know of a place that pays over $200 million to its accountants every year, and I know we are safer because we think like engineers - we want margins of reliability..." - Charlie Munger

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Kinds of businesses concept

"There are two kinds of businesses: The first earns 12%, and you can take it out at the end of the year. The second earns 12%, but all the excess cash must be reinvested-there's never any cash. It reminds me of the guy who looks at all his equipment and says, 'There's all of my profit.' We hate that kind of business." - Charlie Munger

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Envy - the great driver

One investment bank can't stand some other investment bank being bigger and better. Even though the guy is making $5 million a year, he can't stand it. It's envy. And envy was in the laws of Moses, you couldn't even covet your neighbor's donkey. I mean, those old Jews really knew it would cause a lot of trouble even among sheep herders." - Charlie Munger

 

[Road Guy]

This is the 80s and I am down with the ladies

Tone Loc

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Clients

"Choose clients as you would friends." - Charlie Munger

 

[Dean Agnostic]

One of Warren Buffet's favorite Engineering Economics Equation (compounding interest)

FV = PV (1+r)^n 

FV = Future Value (unit: $)

PV = Present Value or Inital Cash Flow (unit: $)

r = rate of return (example: 5% = 0.05)

n = number of periods (in years)

 

[Bot-Man]

If you're the smartest person in the room then you're in the wrong room. - unknown

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Mistakes and hope

After some mistakes and probably more mistakes in the future, I learned to go into business only with someone whom I trust.

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Think, think, think  arty-smiley-048:

 

[Dleg]

I saw a good (bad) example of this recently:

"Now I think, speaking roughly, by leadership we mean the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it, not because your position of power can compel him to do it, or your position of authority. A commander of a regiment is not necessarily a leader. He has all of the appurtenances of power given by a set of Army regulations by which he can compel unified action. He can say to a body such as this, "Rise," and "Sit down." You do it exactly. But that is not leadership."

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at the Annual Conference of the Society for Personnel Administration, 5/12/54

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Negotiation

"The most difficult thing in any negotiation, almost, is making sure that you strip it of the emotion and deal with the facts." - Howard Baker

 

[Dean Agnostic]

:th_rockon:

 

[Dean Agnostic]

Thinking, waiting, thinking, waiting, thinking, waiting, thinking, thinking, thinking... 

 

[Dleg]

You on trial for something, Dean?