Nearly three decades ago, Tom Peters co-authored a book that became one of the biggest-selling business books of all time: In Search of Excellence. One of its eight underlying excellence principles was: “Take Action.” In other words, Get Things Done.

Peters hasn’t slowed down a whit over the years. He’s still writing best-selling books, consulting on numerous topics, winning international awards, flying across the planet to give talks… Definitely a man on the go. The personal symbol he utilizes on his website and books—a fat red exclamation point—is quite apt.

Peters once put together a list of his 41 favorite quotes to help others “ruminate on where you’ve been, and where you might go.”

To start off the New Year, here are a lucky fourteen of Tom Peters’ treasures:

• “We have a ’strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.”—Herb Kelleher, Founder of Southwest Airlines
• “If you can’t state your position in eight words or less, you don’t have a position.”—Seth Godin
• “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”—Charles Darwin
• “We may not be interested in chaos but chaos is interested in us.”—Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century
• “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”—General Eric Shinseki, retired Chief of Staff, U. S. Army
• “If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”—Mario Andretti
• “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.”–-The Shawshank Redemption (Tim Robbins’ character)
• “You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.”—Isabel Allende
• “Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional.”—Mark Sanborn, The Fred Factor
• “Do one thing every day that scares you.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”—Mary Oliver
• “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”—Helen Keller
• “Make your life itself a creative work of art.”—Mike Ray, The Highest Goal
• “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”—James Dean

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© Suzanne Rodriguez
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