Intelligent Leadership: 35 Motivational Quotes To Change A Life

By
Dinis Guarda
Intelligent Leadership: 35 Motivational Quotes To Change A Life

Intelligence is critical to manage life. What makes each one of us intelligent? A lot of things and specifically a bold way to manage the whole of one’s self in a proper way through its many changes and layers.

Being intelligent can be associated with a variety of things and it differs according to the angle one looks at the concept. Looking at the technical etymology, intelligent comes from the Latin language, and it stems from intelligēns, the present participle of intelligere, variant of intellegere to understand, that means literally. This word is close to be chosen between, the equivalent to intel– (variant of inter-) + –lig– (combining form of leg-), stem of legere to pick up, choose; cf. lection + –ent.

The word can be used as an adjective or as a noun. As an adjective, “Intelligent” is associated with being bright, therefore describing a given distinctive particular mental capacity. Being “Intelligent” often suggests a natural quickness of the ability of understanding: an intelligent skill. To be an “intellectual” implies not only having a high degree of understanding, but also a given capacity and taste for the higher forms of knowledge: intellectual interests. The word intelligent is also associated with attributes of personality such as: astute, clever, alert, bright, apt, discerning, shrewd, smart.

To be smart is something that Bill Gates defines as: “It’s an elusive concept. There’s a certain sharpness, an ability to absorb new facts. To walk into a situation, have something explained to you and immediately say, “Well, what about this?” To ask an insightful question. To absorb it in real time. A capacity to remember. To relate to domains that may not seem connected at first. A certain creativity that allows people to be effective.”

Bill Gates

Having a good understanding or a high mental capacity creates highly motivated people who tend to make better leaders of will and life. In business particularly, being intelligent is critical for success. Business comes associated with the right balance of business intelligence, a skill specially necessary for being a good leader, In addition to all of this, having a culture of learning, where development is valued is also essential and if you want to learn more about personal development and self development skills we have this great article for you.

Being intelligent, in regards to leadership is a long but rewarding journey, as to find the right balance, contributes to increase our capacity to be quick comprehending, and to have a better management. In this train of thoughts being intelligent can be associated with the following definitions:

the skill of displaying quickness of understanding, sound thought, or good judgement: for instance being able to an intelligent reply to a given challenge;
in the other hand the skill of having the faculty of reasoning and understanding something; possessing the right intelligence – contextual or emotional
it is skill associated with mathematics with something of pertaining to the ability to do data processing, being smart; also it is the virtue of having the right necessary understanding or knowledge at the right moment.

Intelligence is therefore a trait made up with the layers of one´s personality. It is a powerful emotional and cognitive capacity that lets us manage the human drive we all have inside, and it´s interaction with our ecosystems. Intelligence deals with various dilemmas, equations and solutions such as abstract thinking, right social integration in society, the sum of one´s values, personal and peer to peer understanding, and specially, a strong dose of self-awareness.

Intelligence deals with various dilemmas

Being intelligent is also associated with having sharp communication skills and capability to manage wisely our life long learning curve. In the end, being intelligent is above all having the right social and emotional intelligence, which is something critical to understand knowledge, behaviour, retaining, planning, and the best way to problem solving. It is a life progression happening through the ‘minimal effective dose.’ Taking small steps turns such steps into habits, and you’re less likely to skip it.

The right angle on how we manage intelligence affects the discipline of our own will and psychology, but the best way to do it is with harmony, and in a balanced way. By the end of the road intelligence has to do with a capacity to do something groundbreaking, pushing things forward step by step. But to do it, one needs to get out of the comfort zone.

The best way to look at intelligence is to survey how great minds have approached intelligence for their own motivational drive, their leadership, and how they dealt with it on their life´s time. The following selection of excellent intelligent motivational quotes can help in the process of changing a life one day at a time. Looking at what other great people said, their “powerhouse quotes” which can be understood as a synthesis of cognitivo-emotional data, can help us leading our lives.

I divided this list of quotes through elementary keywords, that are all part of the lexicon of intelligence, motivation and leadership. These are: vision, drive, change, failure, obsession, motivation, friends, attitude and goals. The quotes come from different personalities in different times and contexts: the Bible, Albert Einstein, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, Albert Camus, Salvador Dalí, Friedrich Nietzsche, Napoleon Bonaparte, Peter Drucker, Warren Bennis, Tony Blair, Zig Ziglar.

These have been helping me to change my life one day at the time.

Vision, Drive, Will, Change

1. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18

2. “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Albert Einstein

3. “It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.” Albert Einstein

4. “It’s not in the dreaming, it’s in the doing.” Mark Cuban

5. “An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. “Can they be brought together?” This is a practical question. We must get down to it. “I despise intelligence” really means: “I cannot bear my doubts.” Albert Camus

Quote by Albert Camus

6. “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” Salvador Dalí

7. “Of my mental cycles, I devote maybe ten percent to business thinking. Business isn’t that complicated. I wouldn’t want to put it on my business card.” Bill Gates

8. “Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do.” Mark Cuban

9. “The best Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” Peter Drucker

10. “Forget about finding your passion. Instead, focus on finding big problems.” Mark Cuban

11. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

12. “Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.” H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

Failure and Obsession

13. “People frequently fail when they try to do everything at once. They approach a massive project and quickly get discouraged. Taking small, but high-value steps takes less time, and you learn more in the long run.” Tim Ferriss

Quote by Tim Ferriss

14. “Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.” Mark Cuban

15. “In this business, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.” Bill Gates

16. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Jack Welch

17. “It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right once and then everyone can tell you that you are an overnight success.” Mark Cuban

18. “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” Zig Ziglar

19. “I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” Antonio Gramsci, Gramsci’s Prison Letters

Motivation

20. “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar

21. “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” Warren Bennis

22. “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar

Quote by Zig Ziglar

23. “There has never been a statue erected to honor a critic.” Zig Ziglar

24. “It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

25. “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.” Zig Ziglar

26. “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” Zig Ziglar

27. “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Friends, attitude and Goals

28. “If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.” Zig Ziglar

29. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon Bonaparte

30. “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” Zig Ziglar

31. “The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.” Tony Blair

32. “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” Zig Ziglar

33. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say Thank You. In between, the leader is a servant.” Max DePree

34. “The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgement.” Jiddu Krishnamurti

35. “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” Zig Ziglar

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