I like to share wise and pithy quotes on this site from time to time. Let’s admit it, we all love those kinds of quotes. We care what influential people said when it seems to capture some helpful advice or viewpoint.

The quote I was planning to use is one of Gretzky’s most famous:

Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.

This is great because it is a call to look to the future and not be bound to the past (or even the present?). However, as I was searching for the exact quote, I came across an article that correctly warns us about using pithy sayings without really thinking about them. I recommend the article.

The obvious question raised by the quote is how do we know where the puck is going? If I knew where the price of my favorite stock would be next month (whether up or down), I could make some money. In hockey, Gretzky honed his skills and worked with his teammates enough that he had a pretty good idea where it was going. In business, in personal decisions, and in life it is not quite like that for most of us. The future location of our metaphorical pucks is not always so clear.

I still really like the quote. We are all trying to make educated guesses on the future, but we should also be humble enough to admit that we don’t actually know where the puck is going.

Another takeaway for me is that it is also a good idea to think critically about famous quotes and to look for the complexity that is often masked by the genius of word-smithing.