grand illusion

"For Balsillie, business is 5 per cent strategy, 95 per cent execution, so RIM focuses on execution in the full knowledge that most competitors cannot maintain a similar concentration. 'You never modulate, you just don't stop, you never give advantages, and you count on the other person blinking. They'll have to reorg, or they'll quit, or they'll be overaggresive, or they'll do something erratic. Methodical predictability with a high function, high trust, high execution-centric organization is an unbelievably effective strategy,' said Balsillie, who takes his work seriously but not himself. 'Do your best, live for the day, go to bed, and do it again tomorrow. Don't live with regrets, don't over-scenarioize and don't worry about the future. That's all there is. The rest of it is just a grand illusion.'"
- Rod McQueen, BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research In Motion, pg.305

"email on a belt"

According to Fortune, Research In Motion is the fastest growing company in the world.

on not being a victim

"Things happen. People get hit by cars. People can have health issues. You can have unfortunate things happen. I think the most important thing is to do the pragmatic thing and move on."

- RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie [born 1961] on a recent $600 million intellectual property settlement.

An earlier reference to Balsillie here.

in the moment

"You can double real quick and halve real quick."

- RIM cofounder Jim Balsillie [born 1961] on simplification and humility. Initial investors realized a 30,000% return.

And the Oscar goes to ...

Before co-founding RIM in 1984, Mike Lazaridis [born 1961] built hand buzzers for the teen quiz show Reach for the Top. In 1994, he won an Emmy for technical work in television, and in 1999 an Academy Award for developing an innovative film-reader. A profile of the Waterloo University drop-out here. Another profile of Lazaridis with his co-founder Jim Balsille [born 1961] here.

Some including Canaccord Capital now caution shareholders to unload their RIM positions because RIM's latest touch screen Storm product underwhelms in the fickle, fashionable, risky consumer electronics space.

An earlier reference to RIM here.