Michael Chiesa Quotes

A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning.

Focus is about saying, No. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.

Football is still fun, but it's not so much fun when you're losing, especially when you prepare as hard as you can, you go out and have four targets, two catches and 10 yards.

I admit I'm choosy. That's because I like to concentrate on what I'm doing.

I'm tired of hearing all this talk from people who don't understand the process of hard work-like little kids in the back seat asking 'Are we there yet?' Get where you're going 1 mile-marker at a time.

I just take everything one at a time and make sure everything I do is the best.

I learned the value of focus. I learned it is better to do one product well than two products in a mediocre way.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

Our job is to find a few intelligent things to do, not to keep up with every damn thing in the world.

It's not about having it all. It's about having what you value most.

If you'd have asked me two years ago, I'd have been like "No, anything and everything. Go for it." Now, I want to focus on doing the best I can each time. But I think it's hard for me to only put out one record a year. Because I get too antsy. But it's good I'm learning to do that, because each record counts. And you should make it count.

I don't have time for any nonsense.

When I started, I decided to devote my life to it and not get sidetracked by all the other bullshit life has to offer

What you decide not to do is probably more important that what you decide to do.

If I stop to kick every barking dog I am not going to get where I'm going.

Activity is not achievement. It is not enough to rush about beginning a lot of things and keeping busy. A well-spent life is one that rounds out what it has begun.

... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you; you know fires in a day.

Discipline enables you to think first and act second.

Keep the best, forget the rest.

You mature as far as your understanding of what it's going to take, and you increase your stamina. You don't let frustration overtake you when you're looking for change.

It is not worth while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.

We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose.....It's not just saying yes to the right products, it's saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones.

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.

Strategy is choice. Strategy means saying no to certain kinds of things.

It takes an extraordinary amount of attention to manifest any ambition. But life intervenes - distractions and obligations pull us away from the ambition we originally had.