Tom Reiss Quotes

My last two years of high school, I did work-study half the day, and I ran the restaurant. It was just this little restaurant, but it was just so cool. I had 35, 40 employees.

During one of his uncannily well-timed impromptu visits to my restaurant, Union Square Cafe, Pat Cetta taught me how to manage people. Pat was the owner of a storied New York City steakhouse called Sparks, and by that time, he was an old pro at running a fine restaurant.

When I set up my first restaurant, I was so inspired by Wolfgang Puck, who is also based in L.A. and is now a good friend of mine, and the way he would engage with his customers and greet them personally.

I haven't had vast amounts of ministerial experience - in fact, none at all. But I do have a lot of experience of people.

If a man can't manage his own life, he can't manage a business.

I'm sort of killing two birds with one stone here, getting to write for 'True Blood' and being able to put myself in a comic at the same time.

I always worked in institutions, I never had a restaurant of my own before, but I have opened over 30 hotels, restaurants and casinos. I understand what it takes to keep them running.

Twenty-eight years in business and you understand the importance of problem solving and the importance of efficiency, because if you don't become efficient, you don't run a business well, and you are out of business. And I think some of those principles could be applied to leadership in Washington.

A woman with organizing skills can run a construction company without ever picking up a hammer and nail.

To operate a company of the size of Sears Holdings or Wal-Mart or Target or Home Depot or Lowe's, you need a combination of skills, and each of those skills needs to be sufficiently strong.

There are certain skills that business people have that are - that are, in fact, helpful in - when it comes to being in political leadership.

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.

We have to think big. We have to imagine big, and that's part of the problem. We're letting other people imagine and lead us down what paths they want to take us. Sometimes they're very limited in the way their ideas are constructed. We need to imagine much more broadly. That's the work of a writer, and more writers should look at it.

Our managers need to have a strong integration of managerial skills and technical understanding. One cannot substitute for the other.

When I was a kid, I worked as a clerk at my parent's motel. From when I was eight or nine, I rented rooms, helped with laundry, folding tons of towels. And then I also worked at my dad's gas station more as a young adult and as an adult.

I've been an entrepreneur, a writer, a food correspondent. I might have been an architect - but I'm bad at maths.

I think if you want to be a successful president or a manager of a team, you need to understand what the business is all about because you have to deal with the business side of the game to be able to do what you need to do.

I have a business-running personality.

In high school, I interned at my mother's restaurant and learned the small-business ropes. It was really instructive and taught me to switch contexts quickly, as I contributed to everything from managing the reception desk to building their website.

I leave my career totally to the creative staff and Vince McMahon. Whatever they give me to do, I'll go in headfirst and I'll just perfect it and make it happen. I'm ready for whatever they have to throw at me.

Every manager must be prepared to face every situation.

I'm quite adept at writing two or sometimes even three stories at once. So if I get stuck on one story, I switch the next and let my subconscious work on unraveling any plot problems from another story.

It was Labor Day weekend in 1983, and Dad hired me to run Mick's Lounge, a bar he co-owned, for $200 a week. The business was nearly bankrupt. But I said, 'Dad, I can fix it.' It was the most natural thing I'd ever done. It just made sense to me.

As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation.

You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader.