"To make headway, improve your head"
About this Quote
Progress is not just a matter of speed; it is a matter of navigation. Headway is a nautical term, the distance gained toward a destination. The quip yokes that image to the most important steering instrument we carry: the mind. Getting further in work or life depends less on pushing the oars harder and more on sharpening the judgment that chooses where and how to row.
B. C. Forbes, the Scottish-born financial journalist who founded Forbes magazine in 1917, built much of his writing around the idea that business success is rooted in character, clarity, and thoughtfulness. He wrote during an era of dizzying industrial expansion and financial upheaval, when hustle could look like a strategy. His counsel turns the spotlight from outward motion to inward improvement. Knowledge, reasoning, and perspective convert effort into effective effort.
Improving the head is not only about accumulating facts. It is learning how to think: building mental models, recognizing patterns, testing assumptions, and separating signal from noise. It is also about the habits that support clear thinking, such as focus, humility, and the willingness to revise a view when evidence changes. Emotional steadiness belongs here too; decisions are better when impulses are governed and goals are kept in view.
The line carries a quiet rebuke to the cult of busyness. More hours, more meetings, more emails do not guarantee forward movement. A person who invests in skills, judgment, and self-knowledge can outrun a busier rival because the map in the mind is better drawn. Over time, improved thinking compounds: better decisions lead to better opportunities, which lead to better learning, and so on.
There is also an ethical undertone. Forbes often argued that business is conducted by people, not abstractions. To improve the head is to cultivate discernment and responsibility. Progress, then, is not only faster; it is truer.
B. C. Forbes, the Scottish-born financial journalist who founded Forbes magazine in 1917, built much of his writing around the idea that business success is rooted in character, clarity, and thoughtfulness. He wrote during an era of dizzying industrial expansion and financial upheaval, when hustle could look like a strategy. His counsel turns the spotlight from outward motion to inward improvement. Knowledge, reasoning, and perspective convert effort into effective effort.
Improving the head is not only about accumulating facts. It is learning how to think: building mental models, recognizing patterns, testing assumptions, and separating signal from noise. It is also about the habits that support clear thinking, such as focus, humility, and the willingness to revise a view when evidence changes. Emotional steadiness belongs here too; decisions are better when impulses are governed and goals are kept in view.
The line carries a quiet rebuke to the cult of busyness. More hours, more meetings, more emails do not guarantee forward movement. A person who invests in skills, judgment, and self-knowledge can outrun a busier rival because the map in the mind is better drawn. Over time, improved thinking compounds: better decisions lead to better opportunities, which lead to better learning, and so on.
There is also an ethical undertone. Forbes often argued that business is conducted by people, not abstractions. To improve the head is to cultivate discernment and responsibility. Progress, then, is not only faster; it is truer.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Improvement |
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