Charlie Trotter Quotes

If I'm going to do something, I'll do it properly or not at all.

I find mediocrity hard. I find that whole area difficult. I'm a very passionate person; I care very much about what I do. I believe I give it a lot, so it's gotta be good; otherwise, what's the point?

Our father taught us such a work ethic that if there's something worth doing, it's worth doing well.

I can't permit myself to do things halfway; I never was like that.

The greatest business people I've met are determined to get it right no matter what the cost.

If I'm going to do something, I'm going to spend however long it takes to get it right.

It never entered my father's mind nor my mind ever to do a job othe than at one's best ability.

If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it well. That's just my character, that's just the way it is with me.

Someone will say, 'Well, that's good enough.' As soon as I hear 'Good enough,' it really bothers me. I spend as much time as I think I can on anything I do. I try to do that with the people that work with me. I try to get the best out of them.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

I push for what I think can be the best, and if I feel they're not going for the best, it kills me.

You have to be a professional in every single thing you do.

If you don't have that ambition you start to be sloppy and that is not what I like to be.

I work really hard. I'm a perfectionist.

I admire Hrithik Roshan for his work a lot. He has an edge over others because he is very hard on himself, he's never complacent, and he's still not happy with that. How much more perfect can you get than that?

Do it right or don't do it at all. That comes from my mom. If there's something I want to do, I'm one of those people that won't be satisfied until I get it done. If I'm trying to sing something and I can't get it, I'm going to keep at it until I get where I want it.

People I know who succeed don't mind working. Those who are competent seem to like doing things well -- not stopping because they haven't accomplished what they wanted to on the first go-round. They're willing to do it twenty times, if necessary. There's an illusion that the good people can easily do something, and it's not necessarily true. They're just determined to do it right. I was impressed by hearing one of the women at Radcliffe talk about writing a poem, how many revisions a single poem sometimes has to go through -- fifty or sixty revisions to come out with a poem sixteen lines long.

I've never done anything half-heartedly. It's the reason my comics did well. It's the reason my comics were drawn well. I can't do anything bad.

And here is the lesson I learned in the army. If you want to do a thing badly, you have to work at it as though you want to do it well.

Now it is a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. If you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other, you are very likely to get what you want.

There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance.

I wanted this, I wanted to do this, but my work is me, and it has to be right.

There is no room in the world, as you say, for second rate work.

Good is the enemy of great.

I love what I do. I take great pride in what I do. And I can't do something halfway, three-quarters, nine-tenths. If I'm going to do something, I go all the way.