Margaret Heffernan
Margaret Heffernan
Margaret Heffernan is an international businesswoman, author, interviewer, and TED speaker. She is currently settled in the UK in the city of Bath...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinesswoman
CountryUnited States of America
certain home spend time
If I have to spend a lot of time on planes, I try to think of this as time off. In certain ways, it's more restful than home: no Internet, no phones, no interruptions.
buy couple evidence families happy hear honest kids mind next stuff talk tense
I don't mind if the couple next to me is tense or the kids are whiny. I'd even be happy to hear an honest argument, evidence of thinking. I'd like to know these teeth-perfect families don't just buy each other stuff but just occasionally can talk to one another.
art engineering class
British innovation in design, in the creative arts, in engineering and manufacturing is world class.
hate people listening
I hate people walking down the street listening to the soundtrack of their lives which responds to them but not their setting. I hate the overspill of sound which metro and subway riders are oblivious to because they notice no one and nothing around them.
inspiration creativity risk
If the company depends entirely on you - your creativity, ingenuity, inspiration, salesmanship or charisma - nobody will want to buy it. The risk and the dependency are too great.
believe phones cliche
Phones and soundtracks and Muzak and fountains replace genuine and unpredictable human contact with a seamless soundtrack from a bad movie and a cliche that makes us believe we must all be happy.
data ideas giving
Big data will never give you big ideas... Big data doesn't facilitate big leaps of the imagination. It will never conjure up a PC revolution or any kind of paradigm shift. And while it might tell you what to aim for, it can't tell you how to get there
building stamina building-a-business
Building businesses takes tremendous stamina, and success isn't achieved without it.
problem acknowledge refuse
You cannot fix a problem that you refuse to acknowledge.
people care
When we care about people, we care less about money, and when we care about money, we care less about people.
silence language inertia
Silence is the language of inertia.
thinking people misuse
Words are how people think. When you misuse words, you diminish your ability to think clearly and truthfully.
people want pay
What do you want your business to do? Make money, of course. To pay for people and supplies, to be able to grow.
fate waiting
It is nobody's right to be waited on and nobody's fate to do the waiting.