Henri Bergson on change

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

~ Henri Bergson, philosopher

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

Andy Grove on business transition

Q: When a company goes through these periods of transition - I've heard you refer to it as going through the "valley of death."  Explain that metaphor. 

Andy Grove: I kinda have this little movie playing in my mind of people riding down one side of a mountain.  They know that there is another mountain out there someplace that they want to get up on top of, but they are stuck in the middle.  Think of a hazy Death Valley where you can't really make out the two sides.  You kind of ride in a particular direction and you start to get concerned about whether you know where you are going.  And in that situation the leader of the group of riders becomes far more important than at other times.  Because people look to him to stick his neck out and decide on a direction - which they have to decide, because if they don't they will start breaking up and debating which way they're gonna go and they will die of thirst.  The demand on this mystical leadership ability to drive toward a relatively ill-defined destination - and the need to instill conviction in the group to keep going - is greatest when you're in the middle of that valley, and you know that you can't go back where you came from, but you can't really see the other side that clearly.

~ Andy Grove, "Andy Grove's Rational Exuberance," Wired, June 1, 2001

Andy Grove on when a company begins to decline

There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance.  Miss that moment - and you start to decline.

~ Andy Grove

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

Thomas Sowell on "change"

People who talk incessantly about “change” are often dogmatically set in their ways. They want to change other people.

~ Thomas Sowell, tweet, August 6, 2020

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

Fortune cookie: "life is like a dogsled team"

Life is like a dogsled team.  If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

~ fortune cookie

Tony Robbins on change

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.

~ Tony Robbins, motivational speaker

Nelson Mandela on change

One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself I could not change others.

~ Nelson Mandela

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