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Quote by Charles Koch

“My father would always say "learn everything you can and whenever you can, because you never know when it'll come in handy."”

Quote by Charles Koch

Author

Charles Koch is an American businessman, born on November 1, 1935. He is the founder and CEO of Koch Industries, one of the largest private companies in the United States. Koch Industries operates in various industries, including oil, chemicals, and forest products, and is one of the largest private companies in the world. Koch has achieved great success in the business world, but is also a controversial political donor. more

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“The great thing about my parents is they didn't preach anything they didn't practice.”

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“If what you preach and what you do are inconsistent, your children will spot hypocrisy faster than anybody and do the opposite.”

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“I always wanted to be different and do things differently. I was a pain in the neck. I was challenging everything you wanted me to do and challenging people in school.”

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“They say your genetics are going to set your direction regardless of what happens, but I think there's more to it than that.”

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“I didn't think I was good at anything, didn't do well in school. And then in the third grade, I was going to a public school. And the teacher was putting math problems on the board. And I said to myself - it's amazing how you can remember certain incidents at any age that made an impression - I asked myself why is she putting those up when the answers are obvious. And then I saw it wasn't obvious to anybody else in the class. So I said, "Hey, I'm good at something."”

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“I think this is so important - what's not done well at education at every level - is helping kids find, as I discovered for myself, what I was good at. I was very lucky to find out that at an early age, which set my direction in life.”

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“Scientific discoveries and innovation come from combining different existing technologies and different perspectives in a unique way.”

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“The old idea that some genius pulls all of this stuff out of the air is ridiculous. As Ridley pointed out, the only way Edison could invent the lightbulb is because all the elements had been developed before. That's obvious it wasn't just his genius - 20 others developed it at the same time. And that's true for almost every invention and discovery.”

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“You'll remember Newton was furious at Leibniz, because he developed calculus at the same time. And he went to his death believing that he had copied him. And no, it's because all the elements were there, so it's almost inevitable that the next discovery - as long as people are free and allowed to experiment and try new things.”

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“If you're a leader at any level and your people aren't challenging you, you've got to change that or you can't be a leader here because you're not going to be using ideas, you're not going to have innovation, you're not going to fully develop your people. And if you're working in a group and you don't challenge, then you're not really doing your job.”

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