Benjamin Zander > Quotes

“In the measurement world, you set a goal and strive for it. In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold.”
― Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

“How often do we stand convinced of the truth of our early memories, forgetting that they are assessments made by a child? We can replace the narratives that hold us back by inventing wiser stories, free from childish fears, and, in doing so, disperse long-held psychological stumbling blocks.”
― Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

“...how absurd human beings are and how magnificent.”
― Benjamin Zander

“Life is revealed as a place to contribute and we as contributors. Not because we have done a measurable amount of good, but because that is the story we tell.”
― Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

“Mistakes can be like ice. If we resist them, we may keep on slipping into a posture of defeat. If we include mistakes in our definition of performance, we are likely to glide through them and appreciate the beauty of the longer run.”
― Benjamin Zander

“I have a definition of success. For me, it's very simple. It's not about wealth and fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me.”
― Benjamin Zander

“I settled on a game called I am a contribution. Unlike success and failure, contribution has no other side. It is not arrived at by comparison.”
― Benjamin Zander

“...the player who looks least engaged may be the most committed member of the group. A cynic, after all, is a passionate person who does not want to be disappointed again.”
― Benjamin Zander

“Right. So if the eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining? We can do that with our children, too. Who am I being, that my children's eyes are not shining? That's a totally different world.”
― Benjamin Zander

“The practice of giving an A transports your relationships from the world of measurement into the universe of possibility... This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.”
― Benjamin Zander

“It’s one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he’s leading to realize whatever he’s dreaming. Imagine if Martin Luther King had said, ‘I have a dream. Of course, I’m not sure they’ll be up to it.”
― Benjamin Zander

“He had realized that the labels he had been taking so seriously are human inventions--it's all a game. The Number 68 is invented and the A is invented, so we might as well choose to invent something that brightens our life and the lives of the people around us.”
― Benjamin Zander

“Would you think of somebody who you adore, who’s no longer there? A beloved grandmother, a lover — somebody in your life who you love with all your heart, but that person is no longer with you. Bring that person into your mind, and at the same time follow the line all the way from B to E, and you’ll hear everything that Chopin had to say.”
― Benjamin Zander

“There is no such thing as bad weather," he used to say, "only inappropriate clothing.”
― Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility

“Jednou z charakteristik leadera je, že nepochybuje o schopnostech lidí, které vede k tomu, aby uskutečnili to, co je v jeho představách.”
― Benjamin Zander