Favorite Quotes During This Time Of Taxation

Well I’ve been overwhelmed with getting some work done on my taxes (the really bad part of being self employed you know what I mean if you’re self employed too), so I haven’t had as much time to spend on the blog.  But what I will do is take this opportunity to share some of my favorite quotes that sum up a great deal of my philosophy about this business and life in general:



  • I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done. Henry Ford
  • All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure. Mark Twain
  • Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.  – Chinese proverb
  • Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.  –  Albert Einstein
  • Whoever wills the end, wills also the means. Immanuel Kant
  • Well done is better than well said.  –  Benjamin Franklin
  • The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Benjamin Franklin
  • A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for? Robert Browning
  • He who fails has no friends. Turkish proverb
  • You must attack the laziness, weakness, and complacency of your peers and lead by example. Richard Marcinko
  • How soon “not now” becomes “never”. – Martin Luther

Maybe I’ll sit down one day and write a blog about how each one of these quotes should be applied to this industry, or give examples of how some currently are.  But first, I have to pay Uncle Sam his due.


What are your favorite quotes?  Write an email and tell me which ones and why.


And stay tuned, there are some good articles blowing in the wind…

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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