Satya Nadella came into the limelight when he was announced as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft in 2014.  Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer and is the third CEO of Microsoft, the software and cloud giant. He managed to increase the stock value of Microsoft during his tenure at a growth rate of 27 % and made some key acquisitions like LinkedIn, Mojang and GitHub, to name a few.

Satya Nadella made it to the top of one of the world’s biggest corporations and in the course of his inspiring journey, he has shared many words of wisdom.

Let us have a look at some of the inspiring quotes by Satya Nadella.

1. “Be passionate and bold. Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don’t learn.”

Learning is a constant process and there is always something new to learn, be it a new skill, a new language or a new subject.  Being in a state of learning will lead to a fulfilling life. Once the learning stops, there is no growth in an individual, which leads to a state of stagnation.

2. “You renew yourself every day. Sometimes you’re successful, sometimes you’re not, but it’s the average that counts.”

Each day is an opportunity to do something new.  Whether or not you are successful is unimportant, but every new trial contributes to the average output.  This offers the opportunity to learn from your mistakes and make the average better.

3. “I think playing cricket taught me more about working in teams and leadership that has stayed with me throughout my career.”

Cricket originated in England and spread to its colonies, where it is a popular sport.  Cricket is a team based sport and involves reliance on teammates, offering plenty of leadership opportunities.  Almost every team based sport offers a wealth of learning in terms of leadership and collaboration. In his book Hit Refresh, Satya Nadella mentions how he was taken out of the bowling attack because he was having a bad spell and was later recalled by the captain again to bowl.  That incident resonated deeply with Satya Nadella and he says, “Why did he do that?  He could have just broken all my confidence and thrown me off the team, but for some reason, he decided to give me the ball back. That ability, that sensibility of what leaders can do to bring teams along to do their best work—that’s what we can learn from team sport.”

4. “If you do not jump on the new, you do not survive.”

The world is constantly in a state of change in this age of digital communication, where technology is growing at a very rapid pace.  In order to stay ahead of the competition, it is important to constantly adapt to new things.  In a bid to compete with cloud product service giants Amazon and Salesforce, Microsoft released Enterprise Mobility security, which allows corporations and organizations to track and protect their mobile devices.  This product increased Microsoft’s gross revenue up by 67 % and drew praise even from the critics who predicted its failure, thereby proving the Company’s ability to innovate and survive against all odds.

5. “Success can make people unlearn the habits that made them successful in the first place.”

While success is a cause for celebration, it is important not to let it get to your head.  Success should pave the way for setting a new goal and aiming to achieve it.

6. “Our industry does not respect tradition. What it respects is innovation.”

The software and cloud industry is constantly evolving at a rapid pace, with innovations happening at a very quick rate, making the competition cutthroat.  The entire industry thrives on innovation and Satya Nadella aims to do the same during his tenure as the CEO of Microsoft. Some innovations under his tenure include the Xbox adaptive controller designed to give additional assistance to differently abled people, the HoloLens augmented reality headset and the surface laptop.

7. “We all know the mortality of companies is less than human beings.”

Companies are made by the customers who use their products.  Many big corporations shut down due to lack of demand from their customers, like Blockbuster, Thomas Cook, Compaq and Toys R Us.  It is important to be humble and constantly innovate to improve the quality of life of the customer. Microsoft released its operating system (OS) Windows 8 as a measure to push people towards using tablets over desktops and pushed needless updates.  This did not sit well with the people and they avoided using the OS altogether. Microsoft took the feedback into account and then rolled out Windows 10, which was more stable and compatible with desktops.

Which of these quotes by Satya Nadella inspired you the most?

Read more about motivational quotes by Sundar Pichai here: 7 Motivational Quotes By Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai