On why we do what we do

If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd --Edward de Bono, psychiatrist and author

Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen but understanding it for the first time -- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine

Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is? -- Frank Scully, writer and columnist

It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them; but on the contrary men dive for them because they fetch a high price. -- Richard Whateley, Introductory Lectures on Political Economy

The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. -- Edward Johns Phelps, Mansion House speech, 1889

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. -- Demosthenes, Greek orator & politician, 384-322 BC

There is nothing like a dream to create the future. --Victor Hugo, French poet, novelist and playwright

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas -- Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize-winning scientist

We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are -- Anais Nin, Avant-garde, Surrealist novelist

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty -- Winston Churchill, British prime minister

Act as if it were impossible to fail --Dorothea Brande

The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B --James Yorke, mathematics and physics professor

On business development in general

"Confidential information" means we only tell one person at a time -- anon

Act as if it were impossible to fail. -- Dorothea Brande

If you're going to be cannibalized, it's best to dine with friends. -- John Roth, former president of Nortel Networks

We are always 18 months away from failure --Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. co-founder and philanthropist*

The difference between contract and contact is the letter 'r' which stands for relationships. - Anon

Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win --Jonathan Kozol, American nonfiction writer and educator

On due diligence

Due diligence is akin to peeling away the kimono. -- Anon

There is less in this than meets the eye. -- Tallulah Bankhead, quoted in Alexander Woollcott's Shouts and Murmurs

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history. -- Santayana

On negotiating the deal

The real test of a successful alliance negotiation is not a signed contract with all desired terms agreed in full... ...it is whether the companies share a common vision, feel like the deal is fair, are contractually motivated to do what's right, and can work together over the long term! -- P&G Pharma Partnering Philosophy, 2006

Don't play cat and mouse if you're the mouse! -- Anon

Don't wrestle with a pig in a mudhole. You both get dirty and the pig enjoys it! -- Anon

If you are losing a tug of war with a tiger, give him the rope before you lose your arm. You can always buy a new rope -- Anon

On deal valuation

Why would you pay big money for an early stage drug? Over 90% of them fail ... I think these people are going to regret it. -- Jean-Pierre Garnier, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, Feb 2007

On completing the deal

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. -- Winston Churchill, Mansion House speech following the first major German defeat of the war at El Alamein, 1942

Any dope with a checkbook can buy a company. It's what you do afterward that matters. -- Henry Silverman, CEO of Realogy Group, 2006

You don't win on emotion. You win on execution -- Tony Dungy, NFL head coach, Indianapolis Colts

On alliance management

How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time -- Fred Brooks, software engineer and author

On raising money/investors

Never invest in a business you cannot understand -- Warren Buffett, American businessman

The business plan for your start-up is idiotic but I'm going to provide the venture capital funding anyway. We'll generate lots of media hype, go public and make millions by shafting greedy and ignorant investors. The latin word for "close your eyes and open your mouth" is "Prospectus". -- Dogbert in Dilbert Desktop calendar, by Scott Adams

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. -- Charles Mackay, in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, 1852

I’m fascinated with airplanes and the airline business, but every time I invest in them I regret it and lose money. I finally set up an 800 number, and every time I feel like buying an airline I call it, and it is a recording of me, telling me not to do it -- Anon, 2007

It's better to waste money, than it is to waste time. You can always get more money. -- Hal Sparks, actor and comedian

On business in general

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work -- Thomas Edison, American inventor

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened --Alexander Graham Bell, American inventor

Trust is the business word for love. -- anon

Too many people think only of their own profit. But business opportunity seldom knocks on the door of self-centered people. No customer ever goes to a store merely to please the storekeeper. -- Kazuo Inamori, founder of KYOCERA Corp, 2006

I say luck is when an opportunity comes along, and you're prepared for it. -- Denzil Washington, actor, 2006

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin, English naturalist

I know that half of my advertising is wasted. I just don't know which half. -- Lord Leverhulme, Unilever

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it. -- Stephen Leacock, Canadian economist and writer

One of the hardest tasks of leadership is understanding that you are not what you are, but what you're perceived to be by others. -- Edward Flom, CEO of Florida Steel

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense. -- Thomas Edison, inventor and businessman

The most effective way to do it, is to do it. -- Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer

If the horse dies, get off it -- Anon

I cannot give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody. -- Herbert B. Swope, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

I have a theory of relatives too -- don't hire 'em. -- Jack L. Warner, Warner Bros. co-founder

No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back. -- Turkish proverb

On success

If A is success in life, then A equals X plus Y plus Z. Work is X; Y is play; and Z is keeping your mouth shut. --Albert Einstein, German-born Swiss-American physicist

Contribute

Do you have an interesting or amusing quotes or pics related to dealmaking? If so, send it in together with the appropriate acknowledgement. If we agree, we'll publish it on this page.