Ziad K. Abdelnour Quotes
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Never explain yourself to anyone. The person who likes you will not need it. The person who dislikes it will not believe it.
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Great companies are formed by great people. It’s not about attracting great people; it’s about retaining them.
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You know you have a transparency problem when citizens of a democracy need to rely on WikiLeaks for details on changes to laws.
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If you have the guts to do anything,then you better save enough to face the consequences. Becoming bigger than life requires guts & instinct.
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A good bank is the one that does good to its community and a bad bank is the one that feeds the avarice of corrupt individuals. Very simple.
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The biggest threat to American power in the long run is the persistent decline in its middle class standard of living today.
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We always look for operators with a combination of guts, passion and genius.
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People aren't born good or bad. It's the way you live your life that matters and how many people you inspire and empower after you're gone.
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After analyzing our current crisis and studying well-established historical precedents, I must conclude that the global bankers have only three possible cards left to play. The first is admitting culpability and working to restore the American economic engine to its free-market potential. History has taught us that the ruling class rarely admits error and never concedes power. The second is to foment so much civil unrest and fear that the general population will be clamoring for a global dictator who will provide them food, shelter, and security in exchange for their individual freedom and sovereignty. I see the emerging militancy of the labor union movement playing right into this scenario. The final play is global conflict where they can try and control the outcome by means of funding both sides.
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There is something really good to say about humility. Being confident and humble is a great combination, maybe the best of all!
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Always remember: When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves.
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Your past mistakes are meant to guide you, not define you.
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Time decides who you meet in life, your heart decides who you want in your life, and your behavior decides who stays in your life.
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You are only going to be as good as the people you surround yourself with, so be brave enough to let go those who keep weighing you down.
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Some lessons are painful, some are painless.. but, all are priceless.
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What is the difference between a parasite and a liberal? The spelling!
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The trouble with school is they give you the answer, then they give you the exam. That's not life...
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We're taught by repetition but great innovators need to be great at doing the different.
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One of the advantages of living in a constitutional federal republic is that we have the ability, if not the duty, as citizens to repair or replace those acts of legislation under which we have agreed to live. We must act when it has become evident that said legislation no longer serves us as a people or advances the principles upon which this nation was founded, one of these being “the pursuit of happiness,” which may only be secured through wealth creation. If it burdens the debt obligation of the government, it cannot be creating wealth. If it does not advance the cause of regaining American competitive dominance in the global marketplace, it is not creating wealth. If legislation and regulation were proposed that taught people how to fish instead of providing fish, then the unemployed would find a way to create jobs for each other. Wealth creation is mankind’s natural objective when given the opportunity. and the tools.
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Start-ups fail for a lot of different reasons, but one I see repeatedly is ego. It presents as a dangerous sense of self-importance. Or the entrepreneur thinks they are the smartest person in the room who knows better than anyone else and either doesn’t seek out advice or doesn’t want to listen when it’s offered. Such know-it-alls delude themselves into thinking they have everything figured out, even though they don’t. For as hard as it is to elbow your way into the marketplace in ideal circumstances, it’s made exponentially harder when you don’t check your ego at the door.
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There are two things you should never waste your time on: things that don’t matter and people that think you don’t matter.
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The Lebanese banking system helps Iran, Syria & Hezbollah evade sanctions.
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I personally believe mavericks are people who write their own rulebook. They are the ones who act first and talk later. They are fiercely independent thinkers who know how to fight the lizard brain (to use Seth Godin’s term). I don’t believe many are born, rather they are products of an environment, or their experiences. They are usually the people that find the accepted norm does not meet their requirements and have the self-confidence, appetite, independence, degree of self reliance and sufficient desire to carve out their own niche in life. I believe a maverick thinker can take a new idea, champion it, and push it beyond the ability of a normal person to do so. I also believe the best mavericks can build a team, can motivate with their vision, their passion, and can pull together others to accomplish great things. A wise maverick knows that they need others to give full form to their views and can gather these necessary contributors around them. Mavericks, in my experience, fall into various categories – a/ the totally off-the-wall, uncontrollable genius who won’t listen to anyone; b/ the person who thinks that they have the ONLY solution to a challenge but prepared to consider others’ views on how to conquer the world &, finally, the person who thinks laterally to overcome problems considered to be irresolvable. I like in particular the third category. The upside is that mavericks, because of their different outlook on life, often sees opportunities and solutions that others cannot. But the downside is that often, because in life there is always some degree of luck in success (i.e. being in the right place at the right time), mavericks that fail are often ridiculed for their unorthodox approach. However when they succeed they are acclaimed for their inspiration. It is indeed a fine line they walk in life.
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People with higher ratios of positive to negative emotions are more likely to flourish in life.