Alvin Toffler on survival and change

The first rule of survival is clear: Nothing is more dangerous than yesterday's success. 

~ Alvin Toffler

Heraclitus on change

The only constant in life is change.

~ Heraclitus

William Arthur Ward on adaptability

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

~ William Arthur Ward, American motivational writer

Andy Grove on corporate transformation

A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin.  Methods have to change.  Focus has to change.  Values have to change.  The sum total of those changes is transformation.

~ Andy Grove

John Kenneth Galbraith on change

Change comes not from men and women changing their minds, but from the change from one generation to the next.

~ John Kenneth Galbraith

James M. Meyer on change and the need for investors to adapt

As investors, you can’t afford to fall in love with everything you own.  While taxes may lock you in, staying with an old favorite in decline will cost you more money in the end.  In 1980, the top 10 of the Fortune 500 were (in order) Exxon, General Motors, Mobil, Ford, Texaco, Gulf Oil, IBM, GE, and Amoco.  Four have been swallowed, General Motors went bankrupt before recovering, and GE has been a well documented mess.  If I moved forward to 2000, the most notable addition would have been Walmart.  The only tech name was still IBM.  If I moved forward to 2020, the only name on all three lists is ExxonMobil.  You get the message.  Times change and investors need to change as well.  But pioneers and dreamers rarely rise to the top.  That’s what makes investing challenging.

~ James M. Meyer, Tower Bridge Advisors Market Commentary, April 21, 2021

Benjamin Franklin on change

When you are finished changing, you are finished.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin
1912-1914

Jeff Bezos on change

I very frequently get the question: "What’s going to change in the next 10 years?"  That’s a very interesting question. I almost never get the question: "What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?" And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two.

~ Jeff Bezos

(As quoted by Ryan Krueger in "Driving Around the Change Machine," Krueger & Catalano blog

Anonymous on flexibility

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

~ Anonymous

Charles Darwin on survival and adaptability

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

~ Charles Darwin