Sanford I. Weill Quotes

At 25, I made many companies. I was thinking more like a businessman or entrepreneur than a CEO. I created many companies, small companies, medium companies. I tried to be involved in many kinds of activities, in finance, in real estate, in mining.

I'm not into business at all.

How many times have you been out for a beer or dinner and people are coming up with business ideas? Everybody wants to think they've got that great business idea.

You've got to know business before you go to show business.

I see myself in business. I'm good with numbers. It's just something that interests me.

I love the business of business; I love the risk raking.

I have always been a business person.

To be a designer today is to be an entrepreneur. Whether you're a two-man operation in Shoreditch or a 3,000-person, vertically integrated brand, you need to have the wherewithal to run your business through investment, considering everything from start-up funds to your exit plan or what it takes to go public.

There's always something happening in the world that creates an opportunity to try to fix a business and build a business.

Small businesses, you can give them capital, but what they often need as much is mentoring, advice and help with their business plan.

I have a business background. I have always wanted to open my own business.

As the years passed, and I was nine, 10, 11 years old, it became obvious I was going to start up a business of some sort.

You cannot get into business for the fashion of it.

People come in with business plans and, I mean I know that no one is going to meet everything they say in a business plan but you got to have something to, to guide towards.

I don't really count myself as a very sophisticated businessperson. I'm a creative artist. All I know from business I've picked up along the way.

I'm going to start a lot of companies. These are not sham companies. These are great businesses.

I don't think I ever dreamt of going into business. No one in my family was in business.

There are companies with management and companies with money. You can always find money. Management is the key to success in any business.

An entrepreneur needs to know what they need, period. Then they need to find an investor who can build off whatever their weaknesses are - whether that's through money, strategic partnerships or knowledge.

Whenever you start a new business, the sheer number of variables at hand makes failure a constant possibility.

A lot of people want to start a business, and they're like, 'I wanna start a business, give me some money to invest.' Where is your business plan? Are you investing money yourself into your own business? How is this going to work? People think that they can just come to you with an idea and have money.

I consider myself a businessman, not a celebrity or a music star. When I'm getting involved with something I need to executive produce it or be a part of putting it together as an investor. I want to play both sides. That's more important to me than just being a celebrity.

There's no seminar in the world that will give you multi million-dollar advice on building a business from scratch!

My goal was to have a company off the ground by the time I graduated. But the worst-case scenario was I would have an MBA and a lot of opportunities ahead of me.

Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you're likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.