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Ivar Kreuger Quotes

25 quotes from Ivar Kreuger — Swedish industrialist known as the 'Match King' who controlled 75% of the world's match production and became one of th….

Three on a match means one will die soon.

Reportedly coined by Ivar Kreuger to promote match sales.Marketing

I have always believed that the best way to predict the future is to create it.

Innovation

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.

Perseverance

In business, the only thing that matters is the bottom line.

Business

The greatest risk is not taking one.

Risk

To succeed, you must first believe that you can.

Belief

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.

Success

Opportunities don't happen. You create them.

Opportunity

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

Doubt

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Opportunity

If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

Risk

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Success

To be successful, you must be willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.

Leadership

The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

Passion

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.

Courage

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.

Motivation

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Dreams

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

Fear

There is plenty of room in this country. The people are hard but they give one a chance. At home everyone talks about his love affairs, but here people discuss their business prospects. That suits me. I can breathe here.

Ivar Kreuger, letter to his parents, c. 1902

He had absolute confidence in his ability to achieve a monopoly, and he was equally sure that he would then be able to repay his huge debt with handsome profits all around.

Anders Jordahl, recalling a dinner with Kreuger in 1913

Everything in life is founded on confidence.

Ivar Kreuger

You can flatter a man so much that you'll be ashamed of yourself, but never enough to make him ashamed of himself.

Ivar Kreuger, to his partner Paul Toll

Maybe the greatest financial intelligence of his time — he deemed it his task amid postwar chaos to create a canal between the countries with abundance of capital and those in bitter need of it, until he was crushed in between the icebergs of this frozen world.

John Maynard Keynes, on Kreuger

We discovered exactly what Kreuger owed several banks in Sweden. His position was very definitely not what a careful banker would call a sound one.

Jacob Wallenberg, head of Enskilda Bank, Stockholm

He is on the most intimate terms with the heads of European Governments. Gentlemen, we are fortunate indeed to be associated with Ivar Kreuger.

Percy Rockefeller, to fellow board members of International Match

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