John S. Middleton Quotes

It's important my daughters learn from the hard work my wife and I put into this company. Who better to look out for your best interests than family?

All my kids have worked in the family business. I've been successful at that. My family knows how to work. We all started working very young.

I wouldn't sacrifice my business for no acting career because my business is something, ultimately, that I know I'm going to pass down to my kids, and that's most important to me than anything else in the world. I can't pass an acting career down to my children.

My whole family's been in the business. My whole family is crazy.

We all know far too many stories where the third generation just destroys everything that the first two have built up, and I certainly hope my family are different because I've worked too hard and my father has worked too hard for it to be given away.

The restaurant business had a profound effect on my future and that of my two brothers. When we were able to stand on a stool to reach the sink, we washed dishes, and later, when we could see over the counter, we waited tables and managed the cash register.

My dad was a great business guy, and he always taught us that his business acumen would put his workers' kids through school, and their great artistry... would put my brothers and me through school.

My father built a small business from scratch with years and years of sweat equity and many, many weeks away from home. He employed about 50 people, and by the end of his working years, the business was highly successful. He became a millionaire.

Both my parents ran small businesses and it undoubtedly made me the person I am today because I've only ever known them work incredibly hard.

My grandmother was divorced, and she had 10 children herself. She never finished high school. She started selling lace on the side of the road and then grew that into a multimillion-dollar business - a retail store selling mostly furniture and appliances.

There are lots of things about millionaires that make them pretty ordinary, but what's not ordinary is their ability to accumulate wealth, how hard they work, and what they do for a living.

I owe a lot to my dad, just for having provided the wrestling business for us to get into.

My parents started a business out of the living room of our home and, 30-plus years later, it was a multimillion dollar company. So, President Obama, with all due respect, don't tell me that my parents didn't build their business.

My family and I have been blessed with good fortune in the world of business. We've created quite a net worth. My children, two boys, have more money than they will ever need, and they aren't empire builders.

I am one of 40 grandchildren. What bothers me about the whole trust-fund thing is that it sort of presumes that everything is handed to you. And if there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking.

Passion gets an entrepreneur through the startup days and the enormous efforts it takes to build a business.

Every business decision I ever made I learned from my grandfather Papa Sam. He moved here from Russia when he was a boy. He worked his way up selling newspapers and ladies' handbags, and eventually, he became Cadillac Sam, one of the biggest car dealers in Chicago.

Knowing that my ancestry had all been quite wealthy and owned their own businesses probably left me with the ambition to replicate what they'd done.

People who build family businesses are not classically trained. They have to deal with an enormous amount of politics. You think corporate politics are tough? Go work for your dad or your mom.

The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.

I was just born into a business family. It is really a destiny.

I grew up in a family business... that really has provided the core of my belief in American small business, and in America's ability to grow and operate important businesses that can compete and be successful.

It's hard to tell with these Internet startups if they're really interested in building companies or if they're just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don't really want to build a company, they won't luck into it. That's because it's so hard that if you don't have a passion, you'll give up.

I wanted to prove that a son of a politician can be a successful businessman.

Finally, I do not believe that we should punish American families who have worked diligently to provide for themselves and want to pass along their success to their children and grandchildren.