Eventually I left City College in my senior year, just four or five credits short of a sociology degree. This really upset my father who thought that I was a fool. Over and over he lectured me that the only way for a black man to make it was to get a degree and a job. For a while there I felt like I was a failure in my father’s eyes, which hurt alot, but promoting felt right in my gut. I knew that to be a man I had to follow my heart. My mother was always more open to Danny, Joey and me pursuing a more non-traditional entrepreneurial way…Early in my promoting career I lost all the money I’d saved on a show in Harlem no one came to. I came out to Hollis and no one would help me. My father just wanted me to go back to school and told me so. What could I say? I had no money. Then my mother went back in the house and came with $2,000 in crisp $100 bills from her personal savings. It was that money that kept me afloat until Kurtis Blow broke and I entered the record business. That act of love and faith, which is what kept me in business at a key time, is my favorite memory of her.
- Russell Simmons
Notable Quotables
We build dwellings and thereafter they build us.
- Winston Churchill
Fear is one of the worst things in business.
- Jack Nadel
I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.
- Oprah Winfrey
Hong Kong has gone through many ups and downs in the past. Unavoidably, one needs to go through the lowest point before reaching the peak again.
- Cheng Yu-tung
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
- John Wooden
Live an active life among people who are doing worthwhile things, keep eyes and ears and mind and heart open to absorb truth, and then tell of the things you know, as if you know them. The world will listen, for the world loves nothing so much as real life.
- Dale Carnegie
We want the brand to stand for the same thing all over the world
- Phil Knight
When you look at the dark side, careful you must be. For the dark side looks back.
- Yoda
There is an immutable conflict at work in life and in business, a constant battle between peace and chaos. Neither can be mastered, but both can be influenced. How you go about that is the key to success.
- Phil Knight
Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle…
- Napoleon Hill
There’s a belief that you’re supposed to be poor, and suffering, and show your humility. I just don’t see the Bible that way. I see that God came and Jesus died so that we might live an abundant life and be a blessing to others.
- Joel Olsteen
Bill Gates was in his 20s when he started with $50,000 and became the richest man in the world with $90 billion. It’s a good idea that he did not ask too many people for their ideas on what they thought was possible for his life.
- Robert Kiyosaki
I do limit my exposure to the public. You only have so much time.
- Donald Bren
I thought if I had a Twitter feed and say I had a following of a 100,000, that means 100,000 of them would be interested in my book. It was logical, but it didn’t turn out to be true. It turned out if I had a Twitter feed of a 100,000, four of them were interested in my book.
- Steve Martin
If we drive down the cost of transportation in space, we can do great things.
- Elon Musk
The era of cornucopian hope was relabeled as an era of crazed greed and declared to be definitely over.
- Peter Thiel
They must be plans for learning rather than plans for implementation.
- Clayton M. Christensen
Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes… but no plans.
- Peter Drucker
People are always coming up to me and saying, ‘I heard your dad’s speech, and it’s really great.’ And they’ll mention some place I didn’t even know my dad was going to.
- Bill Gates
I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I’m still fanatical, but now I’m a little less fanatical.
- Bill Gates
Said another way, the Entrepreneurial Model has less to do with what’s done in a business and more to do with how it’s done. The commodity isn’t what’s important—the way it’s delivered is. When The Entrepreneur creates the model.
- Michael Gerber
Another noteworthy aspect is the strong free cash flow of more than €2 billion. This enabled us to reduce net indebtedness to its lowest level since 2006.
- Elmar Degenhart
I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.
- Walt Disney
Every obnoxious act is a cry for help.
- Zig Ziglar
If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.
- Henry Ford
Well I think a lot of times we’re putting things off and I’m going to do it later. I’m going to break this bad habit or I’m going to pursue this dream or I’m going to treat my spouse better.
- Joel Olsteen
While 9:00 to 5:00 and what happens in the job is important… what happens from 5:00 – 9:00 while you’re off the job is INFINITELY more important.
- Zig Ziglar
We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.
- Winston Churchill
the ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability,” said John D., than for any other under the sun.
- Dale Carnegie
Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.
- Oprah Winfrey
Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ is my go-to song to pump myself up if I’m having a tough time or if I get really nervous right before a speech.
- Sara Blakely
We think when God speaks to us, there’s going to be a boom out of Heaven or we’re going to get some chill bumps, but I really believe God’s talking to us all the time. He’s talking to us right in here. I call it our heart, our conscience, but it’s the Holy Spirit talking to us.
- Joel Olsteen
Nobody kicks a dead dog.
- Dale Carnegie
On balance, I am a supporter of the minimum wage going up. We’ve got to be very careful what we wish for because some employers – and there could be a lot of them – will be scared away from hiring new people or creating incremental hours for part-time people as a result of that wage going up.
- Howard Schultz
Take the first step in faith, you don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.
- Zig Ziglar
One of my lifelong practices is to pay my obligations on time, especially my suppliers. Even in my early years as retailer, I didn’t delay my payments to suppliers, because I tell my kids that we have to be considerate to suppliers and think of their own hinyong or how they have to protect their sense of trustworthiness with others.
- Henry Sy
A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.
- George Soros
In my own experience as a C.E.O., I would find myself laying awake at 3 A.M. asking questions about my business, and there weren’t management books out there that could help me.
- Ben Horowitz
The definition of commerce is the activity between buyers and sellers.
- Jack Dorsey
I couldn’t figure out what to wear under my clothes. The body shapers were too thick at the time.
- Sara Blakely
When the economy does pick up, … so will … spending.
- John Chambers
Life is struggle.” I believe that within that quote lies the most important lesson in entrepreneurship: Embrace the struggle.
- Ben Horowitz
I’m short on New York, long on Silicon Valley.
- Peter Thiel
When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.
- Warren Buffett
The problem with pity parties is very few people come, and those who do don’t bring presents.
- Zig Ziglar
The greatest thing about being a comedian is knowing other comedians. And you get to talk to them. Its the most fun.
- Jerry Seinfeld
Keep Calm and Carry On.
- Winston Churchill
G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless. … We found that they don’t predict anything.
- Laszlo Bock
There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late.
- Og Mandino
The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.
- John C. Maxwell
I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom.
- Michael Bloomberg
Respect people’s wishes.
- Jack Dorsey
If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.
- Jeff Bezos
Guess Instead of Thinking.
- Napoleon Hill
Going the extra mile is the action of rendering more and better service than that for which you are presently paid. When you go the extra mile, the Law of Compensation comes into play.
- Napoleon Hill
Hong Kong has remained a strong financial centre. It has a solid business environment and geographically, it is well located, being next to China. During this time, there is no city that can match it.
- Lee Shau Kee
No leader enjoys making the tough decision. We constantly faced severe resistence from even the best people in our organization. I’ve struggled with this problem myself and have often been guilty of not being rigorous enough. Every impulse is to look the other way.
- Jack Welch
At the age of four, you were an artist. And at seven, you were a poet.
- Seth Godin
I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.
- John D. Rockefeller
Feel the force!
- Yoda
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
- Winston Churchill
Profit and growth are stimulated primarily by customer loyalty. Loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is largely influenced by the value of services provided to customers. Value is created by satisfied, loyal, and productive employees.
- Putting the Service-Profit Chain To Work - Ja
I’ve become an animal rights activist.
- Stephen Wynn
How we respond to the opportunities and challenges of the outside world now determines how much the outside world values us.
- Seth Godin
Velocity and drive comes from your desire to achieve.
- Jim Cathcart
Don’t live worried, frustrated or upset because of what somebody did or what didn’t work out. Come back to a place of peace. It’s not going to work against you; it’s going to work for you.
- Joel Olsteen
Life’s most soothing things are a child’s goodnight and sweet music….
- Thomas Edison
If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.
- Vince Lombardi
Remember—boredom is the enemy, not some abstract failure.
- Timothy Ferriss
Eighty-five per cent of the crowd is going to fall in love with me – they’re going to feel it, wow. But fifteen per cent are going to think, ‘This guy is obnoxious.’ I spend enormous time with them – every negative review of ‘Crush It!’ on Amazon has a response from me – and I can probably bring back ten of the fifteen.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
Had the people who started Facebook decided to stay at Harvard, they would not have been able to build the company, and by the time they graduated in 2006, that window probably would have come and gone.
- Peter Thiel
I like all kinds of music. I listen to Abigail Washburn, the Punch Brothers, and Marc Johnson, the great clawhammer player. I also listen a lot to Sirius Radio, there’s a lot of bluegrass there.
- Steve Martin
I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
- John D. Rockefeller
Progress really is possible.
- Michael Bloomberg
As a comedian, I found this thing, this profession, that suits my mind and life force. To drop it to do something else? I just don’t get that.
- Jerry Seinfeld
Anything that we have to learn to do we learn by the actual doing of it
- Aristotle
My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.
- Winston Churchill
Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.
- Zig Ziglar
Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures
- Sam Walton
I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.
- Oprah Winfrey
I support Democrats and Republicans. And I’m telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he’s gone, everybody’s going to be sitting on their thumbs.
- Stephen Wynn
No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it.
- Peter Drucker
My strength is programming. I also think my biggest strength is simplification. That’s what I love doing.
- Jack Dorsey
Winelibrary.tv was about building personal brand equity. It was a business move. Now, it was totally surrounded by a passion for wine, but I very much gave a lot of thought to doing a sports-video blog instead.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
About the only thing ordinary salespeople agree upon is the idea that you must sell yourself first.
- Jerry Vass
How was your day? If your answer was “fine,” then I don’t think you were leading.
- Seth Godin
True success is when you reach back and bring somebody along with you.
- Joel Olsteen
We must remember that our children are very much what we make them.
- Dale Carnegie
The guerrilla is obsessed with benefits. Whenever offering a product or service, she focuses on how it will benefit the consumer and builds everything—the product, the delivery, the marketing—around that benefit.
- Jay Conrad Levinson
Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.
- Zig Ziglar
On average, our total annual realized income is less than 7 percent of our wealth. In other words, we live on less than 7 percent of our wealth.
- Thomas J Stanley
Innovation is a good thing. The human condition – put aside bioterrorism and a few footnotes – is improving because of innovation.
- Bill Gates
A smart, motivational good manager can work what some outsiders call Wal-Mart magic with folks everywhere. It make take more time. You may have to sift through more people, and you may have to become more skilled with your hiring practices. But I truly believe that people anywhere will eventually respond to the same sorts of motivational techniques we use, if they are treated right and are given the opportunities to be properly trained. If you are good to people, and fair with them, and demanding of them, they will eventually decide you’re on their side.
- Sam Walton
Bush’s war in Iraq has done untold damage to the United States. It has impaired our military power and undermined the morale of our armed forces. Our troops were trained to project overwhelming power. They were not trained for occupation duties.
- George Soros
Windows 8 is key to the future, the Surface computer.
- Bill Gates
In our day Capital, Business Ability, and Manual Labor are the legs of a three-legged stool. While the three legs stand sound and firm, the stool stands; but let any one of the three weaken and break, let it be pulled out or struck out, down goes the stool to the ground. And the stool is of no use until the third leg is restored.
- Andrew Carnegie
Yields will rise with prices, and this will generate steady income.
- Lee Shau Kee
Only by believing in and looking for secrets could you see beyond the convention to an opportunity hidden in plain sight.
- Peter Thiel
