Dan Harmon Quotes

Well, the first quality of being a good leader is you have to be able to follow. See, a good leader can't just be the leader all the time, I have to be able to follow.

What I know about me is that, in order to lead, you also have to know how to follow.

I love to be the lead, but you can't always be the lead.

I came to believe that a leader isn't good because they're right; they're good because they're willing to learn and to trust.

The beauty of having your ego checked as many times as my ego was checked in Newark made me recognize how much I needed other people who were very different than me in order to get big things done.

A good leader needs to know how to follow.

You run a major risk when you assume that you alone have all the answers: You don't, and that's okay. You don't have to be afraid to admit there are certain things you either don't like to do or aren't any good at. You reach a goal by covering all your bases, and you cover all your bases by hiring good people.

But I don't bet the farm on any of those possibilities, either. I'm also preparing, intelligently, to walk away from this, and walk away from it happy to have had the experience.

Leadership does not depend on being right.

Launching a start-up, you need to get a lot done quickly. Every day is different. Everyone pitches in with everything. It's easy for the founding team to say, 'We're flexible. We all help out with everything!' But when it comes to making decisions - that flexibility can spell inefficiency and disaster.

I try not to have too much of an ego. I'll do anything.

I think team sports probably teach you more about giving - about being unselfish and being flexible.

I'm just not a purist. You set goals and you have to work with everyone to figure out how to get what you can.

I think one of my strengths is that I can always take advice, and I can delegate. I know a lot of people feel the need to do everything themselves, but I am not one of them.

You can't base an industry solely on one person. That's a very vulnerable business strategy.

Humility is becoming a lost art, but it's not difficult to practice. It means that you realize that others have been involved in your success.

I'm not really a control person, and I'm a big believer in collaboration. I like to have a friend.

My company survives because I've learned to respect the ideas of people younger than me and recognize when my wisdom is obsolete.

I'm smart enough to know to work with smart people.

I'm no Kenneth Branagh or Ben Stiller. I'm not that single-minded, 'I'm producing it, directing it, and starring in it' kind of person; that's not me.

There was a time in my career when my hackles would really get raised if someone came in and said, 'We need you to do this or that.' But the fact of the matter is, you're working in a shared universe, and all elements of the universe are, ideally, going to mesh and work together. That's my goal. I want to be on the team.

I'm somebody who doesn't feel the need to be in the driver's seat all the time. I appreciate the perspective of being in the passenger's seat sometimes, and I feel fortunate for that because I've learned a lot from that perspective.

Right now, you hear about teamwork, and it's defined as 50-50, and that is a falsehood. There's no such thing as 50-50. You know, you do whatever you have to do as part of the team.

I'm a collaborator. I know I don't know everything. I don't want to know everything.

It's really important to find a humble approach to your own creative work, your own business work. To recognize that you can't do everything yourself.