Business Facts 101

The road to success is always under construction. (thanks to Michael Barlow) 

A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and hours are lost. 

If you tell your boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire. 

The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with. 

When you try to prove to someone that something won't work, it will. 

As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold. 

Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking about. 

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. 

Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand. 

The opulence of the front office decor varies inversely with the fundamental solvency of the firm. 

The attention span of a computer is only as long as its power cord. 

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing. 

Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget. 

The first myth of management is that it exists. 

A failure will not appear until a unit has passed final inspection. 

To err is human, to blame somebody else shows good management skills. (thanks to Jordan) 

New systems generate new problems. 

A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make. 

Nothing motivates a man more than to see his boss putting in an honest day's work. 

Some people manage by the book - even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book. 

The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the manufacturer and impossible for the serviceman. 

To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and will cost the most. 

After all is said and done, more is said than done. 

Any design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are still under development. 

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. 

If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number. 

Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable. 

If you can't understand it, it is intuitively obvious. 

The more cordial the buyer's secretary, the greater the odds that the competition already has the order. 

If it's not in the computer, it doesn't exist. 

If an experiment works, something has gone wrong. 

When all else fails, read the instructions. 

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. 

Any simple theory will be worded in the most complicated way. 

Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it. 

The degree of technical competence is inversely proportional to the level of management. 

A difficult task will be halted near completion by one tiny, previously insignificant detail. 

There is never time to do it right, but always time to do it over. 

The remaining work to finish in order to reach your goal increases as the deadline approaches.