Ricardo Semler

Instead of constantly talking about motivation, organizations should ensure that employees are occasionally delighted.

— Ricardo Semler

Everyone has a ‘reservoir of talent'. Intuition, interests and skills form the foundation of talents. These talents are indicators of your calling. The best way to ensure long-term job satisfaction is to act on that calling.

— Ricardo Semler

Ways to combat stress, such as playing golf before a conference call or taking a break on the beach during inventory, are essential.

— Ricardo Semler

I believe the old way of doing business is dying, and the sooner it's dead and buried the better off we all will be.

— Ricardo Semler

The opposite of work is idleness. But very few of us know what to do with idleness. When you look at the way that we distribute our lives in general, you realize that in the periods in which we have a lot of money, we have very little time. And then when we finally have time, we have neither the money nor the health.

— Ricardo Semler

And so, what we've done all of these years is very simple, is use the little tool, which is ask three whys in a row. Because the first why you always have a good answer for. The second why, it starts getting difficult. By the third why, you don't really know why you're doing what you're doing.

— Ricardo Semler

Companies think that they are modern because they have painted their walls in a bright colour or they allow people to bring their dogs to work. This is silly and millennial-washing. The idea is to bring in the mature generation and get them to mentor the co-work with the younger generation from a distance.

— Ricardo Semler