Russell Simmons Quotes

Any coach needs talent. You start with talent. Without talent, we're all in the soup.

Talent is like money; you don't have to have some to talk about it.

Yeah, I've had the privilege to know a lot of really talented people.

I have a good eye for talent, and my talent performs the best.

I've got a good set of eyeballs on me, so I can spot talent.

If people can spot talent rather than the talent having to come to us, then I think you might find that the quality of stuff goes up.

I think I'm happiest when there are really talented people around.

There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent.

I want to work with people who are good at what they do, and people who are passionate.

The secret of directing is working with really good people.

I think the mark of a good director is that they surround themselves with good people.

Unless you have spent your life doing something, you are not likely to be successful, so always partner with people who are smarter than you.

The best thing about my job is that I work with the best creative people in the business in their fields.

I like finding talent. That's what really turns me on, I suppose.

I think I have a good eye for talent. I think I'm smart enough to figure out what the mission is and achieve it. I achieve it by hiring good people.

That's kind of how I've based my career. I find talented people and beg me to let me work with them.

I'm dealing with very, very talented people, smart people, good people. And I think they will be competing. We still have a competition. I had great victory yesterday. South Carolina was amazing. New Hampshire was amazing. The size of the victories, I think, were incredible.

I have absolutely no complaints about my life. But people think I got handed everything, all this kind of fell in my lap, that I was just God-gifted with all this talent. I wanted people to realize it's a lot tougher than just waking up one day and you're in the NHL.

Making shots counts, but not as much as the people who make them.

When I started it [non for profit], I thought, I'm not smart enough to do this. I had no experience in management, no experience in administration, no experience in nonprofit; but then this phrase came into my head: I only have to be smart enough to find people who are smarter than me; I only have to be smart enough to recognize who knows more than me.

In the end it all comes down to talent. You can talk all you want about intangibles, I just don't know what that means. Talent makes winners, not intangibles. Can nice guys win? Sure, nice guys can win - if they're nice guys with a lot of talent. Nice guys with a little talent finish fourth, and nice guys with no talent finish last.

The only reason I was able to accomplish things is the great people willing to work with me. A company is a group of people organized to create a product or service, and that product or service is only as good as the people in the company - and how excited they are about creating it. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. Without them, I would have accomplished very little. I just happen to be the face of the companies.

One of the greatest talents of all is the talent to recognize and to develop talent in others.

I've had smarter people around me all my life, but I haven't run into one yet that can outwork me. And if they can't outwork you, then smarts aren't going to do them much good.

I would rather be hired solely for my talent, not just to fill a quota.