10 quotes to help you bring order out of chaos at your company

12/13/2010 12:27 PM EST

The following is a time capsule--more of a "tiny time pill" than a full capsule actually--from August 7, 2000. I posted this as part of a personal home page on August 7, 2000 when I was working at Cisco. I was cleaning out some old files and thought most of these would actually be good advice both for entrepreneurial engineers who were still working at larger firms or who had started something of their own. I have added some links to some other blog posts elaborate on them as well as links to background on the authors.

1. "Never mistake a clear view for a short distance." Paul Saffo
2. "We must be the change that we wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
3. "Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal." Russel Ackoff
4. "Do Something Small But Useful Now." Bob Bemer (inventor of ASCII)
5. "Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down." Kobi Yamada
6. "Better Never Than Late" Ray Kurzweil
7. "A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system." John Gall in Systemantics
8. "You can't believe that a plan is real until you're vaguely disappointed." Rhett George
9. "In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer
10. "The difference between a good career and a great career is the ability to leave some things unsaid." Keith Herrmann

And across the bottom was a tagline quote from Kristin Zhivago "Your Brand is the Promise You Keep."

Sean Murphy is CEO of SKMurphy, Inc, a consulting firm that offers customer development services for entrepreneurs with a focus on early customers and early revenue.