We love a good quote – one well-phrased sentence can live on for a long, long time.
With a formidable list of well-spoken businessmen, entrepreneurs and thinkers, our Successful Speakers team is a gold mine for wise words and powerful platitudes. We've come across many a great quote that would look great pinned to the wall of your office or written on the desktop of your computer.
Here's a collection of five of some of our favourite quotes from our team of keynote and guest speakers:
Former George Patterson boss and valued consultant Ian Elliot is never one to mince his words. His eloquence and straightforward style have been part of the arsenal of skills which have made him one of the most respected businessmen in Australia.
Part of his success in winning contracts and satisfying shareholders is built on an inverted perspective of business philosophy – staff before shareholders:
“Yes, shareholder responsibility is a priority,
but I’ve always worked on the premise that if I look after the staff,
they’ll look after the customers and the customers will look after the shareholders.”
Happy employees result in happy customers, and happy customers result in happy shareholders. Elliot's philosophy of employee care was ahead of its time, as major international businesses and new start-ups are now putting tremendous emphasis on the happiness and satisfaction of their employees through comprehensive benefits packages, community contributions, trusted interactivity and workplace environments.
You may remember Turia Pitt's story from our previous blog post in which we highlighted the principles behind the success of four of our conference speakers. Turia's body was burned more than 60 percent when she was trapped by a brushfire during an ultramarathon in 2011.
The athlete and author has fought her way back from the tragedy to inspire and influence many Australians with her narrative of courage and valour. During a recent interview, she talked about what it took to survive the near-death experience and thrive:
“This journey that I’ve been on has shown me that
it doesn’t matter how big your muscles are –
you need to have a big heart
and you need to have a strong attitude and mindset.”
It's all about the mentality, isn't it? Whether in business or in life, your ability to persevere and overcome may be your most valuable asset.
Former Wallabies front rower Dan Crowley led a unique life – not only was he a well-known rugby player, but he was also a Queensland Police undercover cop. When he wasn't busting up the competition on the rugby pitch, he was busting up drug rings on the streets.
One of three brothers, Dan was always known as the honest one. The brothers – Michael, Martin and Dan – had a saying they liked to recite:
"Michael did things wrong and got away with it.
Martin did things wrong and always got caught.
Dan did things wrong and confessed."
The Crowley brothers' saying reads like a poem, but it's meaning is significant because it revealed that, from an early age, Dan had a clear sense of right and wrong. That commitment to the truth was no doubt foundational as Dan sought to infiltrate and disrupt the Queensland drug trade.
It was hard to believe that Mark Donaldson, Australian Army vet and winner of the Victoria Cross, was once a devil-may-care teenager passing his time getting drunk and wasting his life. But that's exactly what happened to the decorated soldier. As an adolescent, his future was bleak.
But then he decided to change. Looking back on his career as a soldier and his rather uninspiring teenage years, Donaldson offered the following insight to a Financial Review interviewer:
“Thoughts become things, mate.
Choose the good ones."
While cryptic, the saying certainly hearkens to Donaldson's decision to turn his life around and do something significant, as well as to the way he's processed the things he experienced as a seven-tour veteran of the war in Afghanistan. Our thoughts influence our perception of life – better to focus on the good than dwell on the ugly.
Beloved comedian and popular presenter Anh Do is one of the brightest stars on our team of keynote speakers not only for his skill as an entertainer, but for his winsome personality and the glowing optimism he expresses despite the difficulties he faced as a child in an immigrant family who fled Vietnam.
At one point during his escape from Vietnam, he and his family were huddled together on a boat as a military patrol fired rounds at him. In his book, “The Happiest Refugee”, Anh wrote:
“There’s only two times in life,
there’s now and there’s too late.”
Anh's words are powerful not only because of the story behind them, but because the implications are far-reaching: from the way we handle our families, friendships and relationships to the way we approach our business decisions. The time is now – what will you do?
Plenty of Inspiration to Go Around
We love our keynote speakers' quotes because their words are what your audiences will carry with them long after your next conference or convention is over.
These insights into life and business have the potential to not only elicit goosebumps and emotions in the moment, but trigger thought processes and philosophical transformations that will have a positive effect on the individual lives of your organisation as well as the overall focus of your team.
Inspired? Good – that's what we like to hear. We choose our speakers based on specific criteria because we want their presentations to create the most impact possible. Click here to contact us about contracting your next Successful Speakers keynote speaker.
Photo Credit:
Ian Elliot Photo Credit: National Rugby League
Mark Donaldson Photo Credit: Australian War Memorial
Anh Do Photo Credit: AnhDo.com
