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" Unlike people, companies outlive their founders and their leaders. "
Ursula Burns
Founders
People
Leaders
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" I went to an all-girls Catholic high school. The three things that they focused on were reading, writing, and arithmetic. My goodness, this is a novel idea in this modern society. I was really good at all three of these things. I was particularly good at math. "
Ursula Burns
Good
Reading
School
" Xerox manages the infrastructure of E-ZPass for a large number of states. So when you say E-ZPass, and get some bill from E-ZPass, or call and ask a question about E-ZPass, you're talking to a Xerox person. "
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Say
Talking
" My perspective comes in part from being a New York black lady, in part from being an engineer. I know I'm smart and have opinions worth being heard. "
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Perspective
Smart
" I'm less concerned about whether being a good corporate citizen burnishes a company's reputation. That's just an added benefit. I believe it's a responsibility, and there is no negotiating on responsibilities. "
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I Believe
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" I'm a black lady from the Lower East Side of New York. Not a lot intimidates me. "
Ursula Burns
New
Side
Black
" The world is full of opportunities - every day there's something new that you can do. For example, you could make dirty water potable. Why does anyone not have potable water? Because it's a problem that hasn't been solved yet, but it can be. "
Ursula Burns
You
Opportunities
Water
" My mother was amazing. I guess, in our community, if you wanted to get by you had to work hard. So she cleaned offices. She did everything that you could imagine. We were really poor. But she would say, 'Where you are is not who you are.' "
Ursula Burns
You
Mother
Work
" Race and gender definitely came up, occasionally, in my life at work. But the bigger challenge that I had was age. I took roles earlier in my career than people expected, and so a lot of what I got was, 'Do you actually know enough to do this?' "
Ursula Burns
Life
Know
Challenge
" My mother raised us to think that if we worked hard, and if we put our end of the bargain in, it would work out OK for us. "
Ursula Burns
Think
Mother
Hard
" I've had many mentors, but the one that has the most impact was my mother. "
Ursula Burns
Mentors
Many
Impact
" Admiration takes on a whole new level when you appreciate just how complex it is to run a modern business. "
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Run
You
Appreciate
" As I've progressed in my career, I've come to appreciate - and really value - the other attributes that define a company's success beyond the P&L: great leadership, long-term financial strength, ethical business practices, evolving business strategies, sound governance, powerful brands, values-based decision-making. "
Ursula Burns
Business
Success
Strength
" If you go to Norway, Finland, Russia or Australia, you'll see Xerox or Fuji-Xerox people, not just the name on the door. We have human beings who live and work and serve customers everywhere around the globe. "
Ursula Burns
Door
Live
Name
" The best way to change it is to do it. Right? And then after a while you become it, and it's easy. "
Ursula Burns
Change
You
Way
" I don't think paper will go away. I do believe that the value of paper will change, and Xerox is working on changing that value. Consider a color page. Actual life is in color, but you keep reproducing it in black and white. You remove value. It's a bad thing to do. "
Ursula Burns
Life
Value
Black And White
" Impatience is a virtue. "
Ursula Burns
Impatience
Virtue
" I want to stop transforming and just start being. "
Ursula Burns
Want
Stop
Start
" Long time ago, people would make the Bible, right? The guy said it, somebody wrote it down. And then if you wanted another copy of it, another human being wrote another one. It took a long, long time. Somebody created this thing called mimeograph paper and so you said, 'OK, we'll do it that way.' And so you could get three of them. "
Ursula Burns
You
Long
Bible
" Find something that you love to do, and find a place that you really like to do it in. I found something I loved to do. I'm a mechanical engineer by training, and I loved it. I still do. My son is a nuclear engineer at MIT, a junior, and I get the same vibe from him. Your work has to be compelling. You spend a lot of time doing it. "
Ursula Burns
Loved
Love
Son
" I realized I was more convincing to myself and to the people who were listening when I actually said what I thought, versus what I thought people wanted to hear me say. "
Ursula Burns
Me
Thought
People
" CEOs resign when the internal dynamics of the company and the external dynamics of the company actually come together to say it is appropriate. When the internal dynamics ask you whether you have a replacement. I think the transition from CEOships have also become cartoonish. "
Ursula Burns
Together
Think
Say
" Kids are pretty resilient. You don't have to be at every volleyball game. We can't guilt ourselves. "
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Pretty
Every
Game
" My mother was pragmatic, focused and extremely, exceedingly practical, and she was the ultimate self-determining person. "
Ursula Burns
Focused
Mother
Person
" Xerox is really good at managing documents, and we're definitely good at managing through a process. "
Ursula Burns
Managing
Really
Through