Bill Gates Quotes

I'm in a business where no one cares about anything except how well your last collection sold.

Businesses increasingly have to differentiate themselves around their people, as much as their product, because thing are so replicable now.

I have always loved the competitive forces in this business. You know I certainly have meetings where I spur people on by saying, "Hey, we can do better than this. How come we are not out ahead on that?" Thats what keeps my job one of the most interesting in the world.

I'm a businessman. I work for business people. The kind of thing they say is: Now we've sold a lot of records, let's sell some more.

A successful business must have a sound knowledge of its market and work on how its product or service will be different, stand out and improve people's lives. If you can ensure it responds to a real need in the market place, your business can punch well above its weight.

Here's a good rule of thumb: don't worry about a competitor at all, until they're actually beating you with a real shipped product.

The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competition, is to do an outstanding job with information.

So my resolution this year is: I'm not a money guy, but I want to make our next product a commercial success, so that people will say, 'Hey, there's a huge market out there. If you make a high-quality games that can touch people, it's going to do great business.

A product is not a product unless it sells. Otherwise it is merely a museum piece.

Your competitive advantage must be perceivable, promotable, and something the market will pay for.

Focus on your business strengths and keep its weaknesses away from the competition or public.

Capital markets reward you for what you learn that other people have yet to ascertain.

In the United States businessmen often do not trust their colleagues. If you trust your colleague today, he may be your competitor tomorrow, because people frequently move from one company to another.

You must always be faster and better than the others.

Innovation keeps me ahead of my competition. It means that my foes must adapt to me, not the other way around.

We are on top at the moment, but not because of the club's financial power. We are in contention for a lot of trophies because of my hard work.

You're competing against people in a state of flow, people who are truly committed, people who care deeply about the outcome.

The primary thing that any technology startup must do is build a product that's at least 10 times better at doing something than the current prevailing way of doing that thing. Two or three times better will not be good enough to get people to switch to the new thing fast enough or in large enough volume to matter.

We always enter markets where the leaders are not doing a great job, so we can go in and disrupt them by offering better quality services.

The half-life of companies is shrinking. So in the same ease in which you can start a company today to disrupt an incumbent, you have to also realize that somebody will do that to you as well just as easily. So if you're not just going to get on top but stay on top, that will require a real prepared mind across many companies.

Benchmark your performance against your best competitors. Think how you can beat them next time.

If I am not playing at one hundred percent, it is going to be very difficult for me to win.

We find the instinct to shut out competition deep-rooted even among banks and corporations, among corner grocers and haberdasheries, among peanut vendors and shoeshine boys-and even among young ladies in search of a husband.

The whole idea is to get an edge. Sometimes it takes just a little extra something to get that edge, but you have to have it.

It's not whether the glass is half empty or half full, it's who is pouring the water. The key in business and success at any endeavor is doing your best to control your destiny. You can't always do it, but you have to take every opportunity you can to be as prepared as-and ahead of-the competition as you possibly can be.