Lupita Nyong'o Quotes

I could imagine, some number of years from now, starting my own company. But not yet. Not for a while.

Only when you are self-employed do you fully realize how much more efficient you become when your output directly correlates with how much money you make.

Artists, writers and people in creative fields are entrepreneurs by necessity. Nobody gives them a paycheck or picks up their medical insurance. The ones who succeed learn to think and act like 'independent operators.' I think people who are technically 'employees' have to think this way as well. The company is not looking out for you.

The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!

At the end of drama school, I made a contract with myself: I'd try acting for five years. I was 26. I had already spent eight years working in restaurants and gas stations. So I had seen enough small businesses to understand that that's what acting is: a small business.

I want to be able to manipulate and control my career from the creative side.

I've always done what I thought was good if I could live on what they were offering-and sometimes if I couldn't. So even when I was broke, my career didn't lack for interest.

I am always talking to students and telling them how you have to practice every day because you can't wait for someone to hire you. You need something you do for yourself, something that feeds your creative life.

I'm not of the mind where, 'It doesn't matter what you care about; you've got to have a safe reliable job and do the 9 to 5.' I obviously don't subscribe to that. There's nothing wrong with that, though, if that's what you want to do.

As a freelancer, as a writer, and running my company, people have always tried to negotiate me down. Some might think that I might accept their offers because they think I don't have many options. The truth is, I always have options available to me.

I think, always, with a new book, I get nervous. I think mostly it is because work is really important to me, and a book doing well is important because it buys you another one. Not because of the money but if you keep doing interesting work, work that people like, they will want you to do more, and offers that are interesting come in.

The biggest mistake I've seen people make with their careers is, when they're good, after two or three years - and they happen to be smart - they announce that they're going out to start their own firm.

I'm an entrepreneur. This is my life. This my career. This the way I eat.

I've always thought one of the tricks of being an actor for a long time is keeping yourself interested once you've figured out how to pay the rent.

A lot of times when people are released or, unfortunately, get fired, they almost scramble for what it is they are going to do next. I think when you are no longer working under a big, corporate umbrella, you have to be your own brand, your own enterprise. That was my thought process before I left.

When you're by yourself and not with WWE, you are your own business. And I was very successful in that business because of all the lessons I learned.

I've been able to become an entrepreneur and an independent artist.

I was freelance proof-reading, freelance editing, creating illustrated slides for doctors' presentations - just so I'd have enough money to take the time to write. That's how I got by.

I should have a better CV, and that's knocked me into believing that I have to grab these opportunities while I can.

You learn really quickly how not only to be an artist, but you also become all of a sudden the CEO and owners of a company that you have to make major decisions about that I don't think we were fully prepared for in the beginning.

Hopefully, comics will be enough to support me after I graduate.

I never had a job. I never saw myself working for corporate business.

I really would not be where I am today if I hadn't done those PUP videos. It just showed me so much. It taught me so much about music and acting and being your own boss.

If I ever want to get back into coaching I should be calling teams they shouldn't be calling me. That's when you know you really want to do it.

I didn't have the patience to wait to take a degree before starting work, because I wanted to run my own business.