Qualities

"The qualities I most admire in women are confidence and kindness"

- Oscar de la Renta

Quality

People will pay the price for a quality product.

- Mel Leo Rhynie

Things to pass

Breathe.
And allow things to pass.

- Warren Buffet

Power

True power is restraint.

- Warren Buffet

Care

If your nervous, it's ok because that means you care.

Mehlum Sadriwala

Toward

Go toward the problem, not away from the problem...
( to conquer it)

- not sure who

Process

Process of writing for me is very emotional and spiritual...

- Jimenez

Oryema

His ashes were delivered to Anaka

- on Geoffrey Oryema's death in June 2018

Alive

Why do I keep coming back here? Because I have never felt more alive anywhere else in the world.

- Elisehanna on Chennai

Work and Life

You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.

A. Quindlen

Creature love

"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man."

- Charles Darwin

Grow

Surround Yourself with People Who Will Push You to Grow 

When it comes to planning our careers, we carefully choose our companies and jobs. But rarely are we deliberate about selecting the advisers and confidantes who help us succeed. Cultivate a support group for your career by thinking about whose advice and expertise you wish you had on speed dial. Consider who you feel inspired by, whether they're colleagues, senior leaders, or peers in your field. Seek these individuals out, and be candid about why you admire them and why you want to connect. Focus on building a relationship that will benefit both of you. As you get to know each other, don't be afraid to explore big life questions: What do you want to do with your life? What motivates you? What are you doing that you really don't like to do? Work together to become better versions of yourselves.

Slow down

Slow down. Think it through! Work the problem...

- Apollo 13, movie dialog

Interdependent

The idea that we are asking our young people to go out in the world completely alone and call themselves independent is crazy. We need to teach them how to be interdependent, which means teaching them how to have relationships.

- Paul Griffin
NYC possibility project

Learning

"He learned it by touching and feeling and doing it"
Maria about a German guy.

Right

You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

- Rosa Parks

Ali

"Champions aren't made in gyms.
Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."

- Muhammad Ali

Being Nice

You can be nice,
But you don't have to wear your niceness on your sleeve.

- Pramod Babu

Live

You should make a resolution to:
- Live without guilt
- Live without regret

—

- Pramod Babu

Things that matter

The things that do matter
Will always do it for you!

- Pramod Babu

For Life

"Sometimes you have to make the decision for life itself..."

- Pramod Babu

Luxury

"Luxury should be only enjoyed frugally"

- Pramod Babu

Associate

Human beings are free to associate with other humans beings. Sometimes the association ends. That's it.

- Pramod Babu

Action

Texting is a poor substitute for action

-lm

Color

Color shines and wants only to shine. When we analyze it in rational terms by measuring its wavelengths, it is gone. It shows itself only when it remains undisclosed and unexplained.

Heidegger
The Origin of the Work of Art

Essential and Enough

It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more. What difference does it make how much there is laid away in a man's safe or his barns, how many head of stock he grazes, or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another's and only counts what he has yet to get, never what he has already. You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.

- Seneca

who you are

When people don't know who they are, they can't possibly see the reality around them.

Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk

Jobs

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your job is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.

That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is - everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing. It's to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.

I think that's very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you'll want to change life and make it better, cause it's kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.

- Steve Jobs

Steady Early Parenting

Every life is difficult in its own way. But we do know that, in order to become self-confidant and capable adults, it helps enormously to have grown up with steady and predictable parents; parents who delighted in you, in your discoveries and explorations, parents who helped you organize your comings and goings and who served as role models for self-care and getting along with other people.

Extract from "The Body Keeps Score"
- Dr.Bessel Van Der Kolk

When the soup is ready, the soup is ready.

I would say one of my signature skills is making soup. I have learnt, as much in life, as in the art of making soup, the best results occur when letting things meld together, in its own sweet time. The best of time is not meant to be under estimated, pressured or forced. It will get the job done, but when it's simmered, savored, respected and then enjoyed, that's where the magic is! You know when things are naturally ready. Most of cooking is a keen sense of intuition and a practice of patience.

Bridget Bueche
Chef, California

Maeda

Four Things That I'm Thinking About Design In Tech

* Success is when Design receives the "Best Supporting Actor/Actress" prize instead of the award for the leading roles.

* If you agree with that thesis, then the art of partnering across an organization is the skill with the highest value by far for Design.

* And because Design is an inherently cross- and trans-disciplinary field, it's well positioned to succeed as the highest value-add partner.

* So in the proverbial 3-legged-stool of product-dev-design, it's better to think of design as more of a tail than a leg. Naturally, the tail adds balance and expression.

Exposure

Exposure and environment is the framework for the evolution of identity and cultivation of the self.

-lm

Tree

Can you make architecture that behaves like a tree?

Dr. Neri Oxman

Jay

I just like to see brown people being successful...

- Jay Shetty

Brain

The brain is a cultural organ - Experience shapes the brain.

- Ed Tronick

Lloyd

You never think about what you are owed. You always think about what you owe someone else..

Lloyd Blankfein

Sinek

The challenge of our unknown future is so much more exciting than the stories of our accomplished past.

Sinek 

Real revolution

The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.

- Will and Ariel Durant

Dreams and awakenings

Who looks outside, dreams;
who looks inside, awakes.

- Carl Jung

Action

Action is the foundational key to all success. 

- Picasso 

Process and the bigger picture

It's not all about the results. It's about process. It's about getting better. It's about the bigger picture.

- Rory Mcllroy
Liver of life and golfer

Her own mast

"Only someone tied to his or her own mast has the chance for a happy life, insofar as such a person will be happy in a philosophical sense by keeping to what falls within their own sphere of power, a life that has found refuge from temptation."

-Sloterdijk

Revelation

"The scene of the revelation is the memory. The related experiences do not constitute when they occur, revelation, but remain concealed... they only become revelation when conscious of their analogy in retrospect."

-Walter Benjamin

Wells

'Sometimes, you have to step outside of the person you've been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are.'

-H.G. Wells

Mystery

One ought to be a mystery, not only to others, but also to
one's self.

Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

Chuck Close

"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work."

-Chuck Close

Pope Francis

Peace is a choice: it cannot be imposed and it isn't found by chance.

Right

In life,
It does not need to make sense,
It just needs to feel right.

- Jayaa

Georgia O’Keefe

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing."

- Georgia O'Keefe

Brunelleschi

I do not know if even ancient builders ever vaulted so awesome space, but, calling to mind that this temple is sacred to God and to the virgin, I am confident that, since it is all done in memory of Him, He will not fail to instill knowledge where it is lacking and to increase the force and inventiveness of the man called to create such a structure.

Do not Judge

Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Matthew 7:1–5

Keep trying

Just keep trying things and things will evolve..

- Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry and the fly that stops the train

If you're relentless, you can make the fly that stops the train.

- Frank Gehry

Optimism and Responsibility

Approach every project with optimism and a sense of responsibility.

- Frank Gehry

Finding oneself

Enjoy finding yourself

- F Gehry

Responsive

We should be responsive to the needs of the world around us. Performance with purpose is our way of doing that.

- Indra Nooyi

Origin

Originality consists in returning to the origin...

- Antoni Gaudi

Baldwin

Not everything that can be faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed that is not faced.

- James Baldwin

The answer is today

If a turnaround is possible, it begins today.


- extract from an article on outcome health

Suffer

People who cannot suffer can never grow up, can never discover who they are.

-James Baldwin

Sensual

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice  in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.

James Baldwin

Life

My whole life is an interruption....

- overheard in a play

Roth

No optional striving

Expand the table

"Giving up is not an option.....I feel it's important to leverage myself in a way to help the voices of those that are less often heard ... and expand the table for everyone to have a seat."

Berlin
Valedictorian
Princeton 2018

Only way

The only way to cook is with love

Rawia Bishara

Pastrami

A lean pastrami sandwich is pastrami blasphemy..

MR. Levine

Knowledge

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin

Future

The futures depends on what you do today
- Gandhi

Magical

Something magical is going on, I don't know what it is..

-Meera paati on her plants

Friendships

Nothing in life is as important as your friendships.

Sorenson
CEO Marriott

Get to work

Get across the stage.
Get to work.

Sorenson
CEO Marriott

Expertise

Deep expertise will win the day

Sorenson
CEO - Marriott
Advice to lawyers

Diversity

Everyone who experiences diversity is better for it and appreciative of it..

- sorenson
CEO Marriott
Graduation speech

Leadership and Service

"Leadership and Service achievement"
Overheard at Priya's graduation ceremony
May 14 2018

Your best opportunities come from yourself

Be holistic and fair in thinking about yourself. Focus on what unique talents you bring to bear. Your best opportunities come from yourself and you derive benefit from what you're good at..

- Sheila Patel

Magic

In pursuit of magic

- on a pendant

Forgive

To understand all is to forgive all
- a french saying

Effort is maybe a kind of prayer

When you try very hard to do something, by the time you can do it, it is easy to do. So effort is maybe a kind of prayer.

- Diane Arbus

Practice

"Christianity is meant above all to be put into practice"

Pope Francis

Giving to give

I'm not giving to get.
I'm giving to give.

- Jayaa

Great things

When you wake up
And you show up,
Great things happen!

- lm
Reminiscing the morning of enrollment at comp Sci High, Bronx, NY

Alive

Alive
Observant
Conscious
At your element
Raw

Poets

The best prose writers are poets.
Their writings are inflamed by the
poetry that resides in their soul.

Loki Muthu
2005

Pirate

It's more fun to be s pirate than to join the navy.

-Jay Chiat

Painting

I love this painting.
I just want to jump in.

-maya admiring a painting in cracker-barrel

Language

Language isn't just a means of communication, it's a reservoir of memory tradition and heritage.

- Sinan Antoon

Liver of life

"Life loves the liver of it. You must live and life will be good to you"

- Maya Angelou

To feel free

Art - making it, contemplating it- remind us what it's like to feel free.

Zadie Smith

So good

He stared speaking, I had to adjust my seat, he was so good!!!
- Olu

Sent from my iPhone

Courage

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
- Anais Nin

Love

Love is a deep inexplicable connection
-lm

Possible

Anything that can be dreamed, is possible.


Lm
- on dreaming a world with no borders. On dreaming of a republic of humanity.

On the meaning of Abuse

"The moment you feel uncomfortable, it is wrong"

- Jayaa

Notes: what a revelation! What a powerful and most accurate statement!!

Right example

Sometimes, just seeing the right example in front of you is all it takes to pick up new behaviors...
Hbr

Work

You get what you work for 

Life’s best work

What does it take to do your life's best work? 

Leader

A leader is a Change Agent 

I have always had a problem interpreting the word leader. By definition, it suggests that:as there is a leader, so there is a follower. 

I am not sure how to think of follower?

 Who is a follower? 

I'd rather look at the core of the word stem from the action of the leader.

What does a leader do?

Who is a leader?

A leader to me is an agent of change. 

Gandhi was a creative agent of change.

I prefer this term to mean the essence of "leadership" or a better way to describe what a leader is all about... 

Mindset

My content is a mindset because I think the whole thing, life, business, entrepreneurship, is a one or zero, black or white. It's very binary. You're either optimistic and on the offense or your pessimistic and on defense.

Gary Waynerchuk

Key to happy life?

After we have given our best and once the final card is drawn, we should neither become too excited by what we have achieved nor too depressed by what we failed to achieve. We should simply acknowledge the result and move on. Maybe this is the key to a happy life.

Puzhong Yao

McCoy Tyner

What you put here for?

What's your reason for being here? 

Trane

I'm very lucky. 

I work with very fine musicians. 

They are very inventive. 

I don't have to tell anybody what to do. 

We have a great confidence in one another. 

That's essential. 

There with me in always wanting the band to move into new areas.

We don't believe in standing still. 

Sheshadri

Orwell says somewhere that no one ever writes the real story of their life.
The real story of a life is the story of its humiliations.

-Vijay Sheshadri

"Memoir"

About Nina

As I got older, I tried to look st her and I said...Wow she is from Another time.

But she was not at odds with the times; 

The times was at odds with her.

I think when a person moves to their own kind of clock, spirit, flow...

If we will were living in an environment that allowed us to be exactly who we are; you are always in congress with yourself.

The challenge is how do we fit in - in the world that we're around; but are we allowed to be exactly who we are?

Was Nina Simone allowed to be exactly who she was? 

- from

Nina Simone documentary 

Sent from my iPhone

Free

Now I'm Home; now I'm free

-Nina Simone 

One

We are all One. We are all the same. 

We just give each other different labels. 

- Jayaa 

Sent from my iPhone

Essentials and Perpetuals

The list of books to gift or leave behind 

Platon

Great design simplifies a very complicated world

Not making it

Sometimes, not making it in life is a blessing...

- Jayaa 

Barkley Hendricks

"I'm doing what I want to do. I paint because I like to paint. I paint because I'm motivated for a variety of reasons that I don't think are always necessary to blab about"