Donna Strickland Quotes

I was one of those lucky people with only one talent. It is harder for people with many talents to decide what to do.

I think that what trips up a lot of great musicians is that they become involved with too many things that aren't where their strengths lie.

If I have any insight at all to contribute it is this: find out what you are really good at and stick to it.

I’d like you to know that almost all of the directors I have met over the years have been decent, likable and intelligent. Nevertheless, many of these good souls are people whom I would never have chosen to handle money or business matters. It simply was not their game. They, in turn, would never have asked me for help in removing a tooth, decorating their home or improving their golf swing. … We are all duds at one thing or another. For most of us, the list is long. The important point to recognize is that if you are Bobby Fischer, you must play only chess for money.

Just do what you do best.

I was a catastrophe at Science and Games, but the good thing about Quaker schools is that they encourage you in those subjects for which you show an aptitude.

You can't be perfect at everything.

I believe in doing what I am best at.

Perhaps I'm not a good actor, but I would be even worse at doing anything else.

Men and women succeed because they find a field of endeavor that matches their interests and abilities.

I was real good at music and real bad at everything else.

I can't add. I don't understand basic science. Or anything else. But I can read anything. I've always been able to, and I've always liked to. Even if I didn't understand it, I liked to.

Even if you can be the world's best at one thing, you'll be the world's worst at something else. Supermodels make pathetic sumo wrestlers.

You have to really concentrate on piano or acting. You can't do both.

No one intellect should ever strive for distinction in more than one pursuit. Those who boast of preeminence in many arts are either divinely endowed or utterly shameless or simply mad.

What your interests are has a lot to do with your natural abilities.

I was very good at math and physics. And that's all. I can't do music, art, so there was not a lot of choice for me. I think people should go with their strength and that was my strength.

I like Madonna's music but not her movies. She should stick to what she is good at.

I'm not good at very many things. The stuff I'm good at tends to be the stuff that people know me for.

There's not enough said about the beauty of being able to focus on what you do well.

Oh Lord, there it is again. The question;" What kind of business should I start?" Incidentially, it has a twin that also sets me off: "What should I specialize in during the second year of my MBA studies?" Sorry, but those are two of the most profoundly upsetting questions anyone can ask - upsetting because the answer should be obvious: Do what turns you on, not what the statistics say is best.

A man cannot be professor of zoölogy on one day and of chemistry on the next, and do good work in both. As in a concert all are musicians,-one plays one instrument, and one another, but none all in perfection.

Few people do business well, who do nothing else.

You win games with your strengths, not your weaknesses.

Only do the thing we are best at doing and enjoy most.