“Constantly seek criticism. … A well thought out critique of whatever you are doing is as valuable as gold.”- Elon Musk
and….
“If you do the simple math, if somebody else is working 50 hours and you are working 100, you’ll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company.”
“Just work like hell. You’ve gotta put in 80, 100 hour work weeks.” – Elon Musk
“Starting a business. Number 1 is having a high pain threshold.” – Elon Musk
“You are always going to buy the trusted brand unless there is a BIG difference.” – Elon Musk
“Constantly seek criticism. … A well thought out critique of whatever you are doing is as valuable as gold.” – Elon Musk
“Usually your friends know what is wrong. They don’t want to tell you because they don’t want to hurt you. … Usually your friends are right. …. You should take the approach that as an entrepreneur you are wrong. You want to be less wrong.” – Elon Musk
Part of the culture here at Schipul is to “Learn and share knowledge”, and one of our favorite ways to do that is sending a “Quote of the day” out to our entire office. In fact, we love quotes so much that we have an entire page dedicated to quotes. Sending out and make quotes a part of your company culture can lead to some quotes of your very own! Here are a few “Schipulisms” you may hear when you come to visit us:
“New guys don’t have names.”
Servant leadership is a key consideration when we hire at Schipul. In Ed Schipul’s article “What are People Paid for?” he talks about how doing small tasks relates to how someone will handle a large task. With that in mind, we affectionately refer to a new hire as “New Guy” as they learn the ropes and take on servant leadership style tasks.
Quoting around the office can also help instill core values. Here are some more Schipulisms that do just that:
“Security is #1”
“Trust, but verify.”
“Ease of use changes behavior.”
(As a side note, we never miss the opprotunity for a good “That’s What She Said” around the office 😉 )
Quotes can Inspire, Motivate, and Deepen your Understanding of the World Around you.
He has achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;
who has enjoyed the trust of pure women,
the respect of intelligent men
and the love of little children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty
or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the best in others
and given them the best he had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.
That inspires me. It encourages me to stop for a second and really think about what I am reading. How do I measure my success? Are my priorities in the right order to accomplish some of the beautiful truths laid out in this quote? I can confidently say that if I had not read that today, I may have not thought about these things.
How to Write a Good “Quote of the Day” Email
So, now that you’ve gotten inspired and are ready to craft an email that will inspire everyone around you, let’s take a look at some handy tips from our very own Ed Schipul about how to compose a great quote of the day email:
It should be positive.
It should be a concise encapsulation of a concept that helps people.
It should be able to stand alone without further explanation or editorial.
It should do good.
It should be simple in words, although frequently quite complex in thought.
It should be in the default font if possible to keep it consistent and emphasize the words, not formatting.
It can come from *anyone* within the company. Or even a friend outside.
Feel free to copy external people if you think it will be a positive thing for all.
It should be FUN and make you feel good sending it out.
Things to avoid, although this is hard, but try to avoid.
If you have to say “I am sending this quote out because….” or “xyz situation made me want to send this out….” then it is NOT a quote of the day. Those are emails with related quotes in them really, right?
Snarky and mean spirited humor is frequently quite funny, but it is NOT quote of the day material. Those are joke emails, not QoDs. OK?
Delete your footer. Anything that creates visual clutter is bad. So remove ALL text of the email except the quote, the author and perhaps link the author name to the source of the quote.
Here is an example:
—————————-
Subject: Quote of the Day – Resourcefulness
Body:
“The defining factor is never resources, it is resourcefulness.” – Tony Robbins
—————————-
Note the subject consistently starts with exactly “Quote of the Day” so people can create inbox rules to save or file them.
Note there are two spaces above and two spaces below the quote. This makes it stand out visually both when you open the email and on Outlook preview.
Finally, check out this presentation by Enjoy Work to get you started with some awesome quotes:
