If there’s one thing that’s certain in business, it’s uncertainty.

I was willing to accept what I couldn’t change.

A family shares hardships and a connected history.

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.

When I get down, I don’t waller around for long.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

The truth is you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

So, for example, a country was into recession right after I was sworn in, a dot-com bust had taken place. Then the attacks of September the 11th, and then of course the great financial meltdown in the -the fundamental question facing any presidency is how do you deal with the hand you’re dealt?

We get paid for bringing value to the market place.

Everybody could be an entrepreneur, but very few will become very rich entrepreneurs.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

In ‚Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education‘ and ‚Why A Students Work for C Students,‘ I reveal the secrets of the wealthy and what schools will never teach you about money.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.

If I have cash and I can’t figure a way to put it into real estate or my business, I hold it in gold and silver.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another.

There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.

Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.

For me, it’s about becoming a mogul, owning my own projects, and establishing myself as a funding producer. That’s what’s big to me. The movies and all that stuff are great, but the fact that I’m in a position to do what I want to do, however I want to do it and when I want to do it is bigger.

Mentally, the only players who survive in the pros are the ones able to manage all their responsibilities. Everybody struggles in different ways.

I like the city. I like the concrete. I like big business. I like being a CEO of my own company and having a lot of responsibilities. At the same time, when I can go off with a backpack or off on a surfboard or even off on a run somewhere in the woods – that’s where I’m really happy.

‚Mean‘ is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.

The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

Every successful businessman will have experienced set-backs and failures – they’re lying if they say they haven’t. Virgin has had some tremendously successful businesses and some that have not quite worked out. Virgin Cola springs to mind – the product wasn’t distinct enough from Coca-Cola.

‚Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.

If you look at my life, generally, I’ve been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

My life is a struggle.

If one dream dies, dream another dream. If you get knocked down, get back up and go again.

I had noticed that many of these successful people, historical and contemporary, shared certain common traits. They had a way of thinking that was exceptionally fluid; they could adapt to almost any circumstance; when confronted with problems, they could look at them from novel perspectives and solve them.

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.

In my entire life, any time I’ve ever lost something, I’ve gotten something even better going around the next corner. It’s like one door closes and another door opens. As long as I can walk through the produce section in every grocery store in this country and eat the grapes that they’re going to throw away, I know I can be fine.

The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.

What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

We cannot wish for that we know not.

It’s rare for a startup to make money immediately, so you need to make sure that you have enough saved or that you have another income stream that can support you.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

Put it this way: If I asked, ‚How’s business?‘ and you say, ‚Boomin‘ or ‚Amazing,‘ I already know the answer.

That’s when it becomes a business. When you’ve been public a long time, when it’s a career. You do certain films, you sell them.

I used to have a real problem with self-pity. Every time the devil would throw a pity party, I would attend.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

Man is not made for defeat.

Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn’t happen. If that’s the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.

You can’t have it all all at once. Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all, but in given periods in time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

There’s people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That’s not the sign of a champion.

I have ways of making money that you know nothing of.

Just because something didn’t work out your way, or somebody disappointed you, that does not change who you are.

When I was writing ‚Kitchen Confidential,‘ I was in my 40s, I had never paid rent on time, I was 10 years behind on my taxes, I had never owned my own furniture or a car.

There’s no point in starting a business unless you’re going to make a dramatic difference to other people’s lives. So if you’ve got an idea that’s gonna make a big difference to other people’s lives, then just get on and do it.

The only way round is through.

Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.