Sam Altman Quotes

The need for strong partners and employees persists throughout the life of a company, but it is especially important in the beginning.

A company is only as good as the people it keeps.

We just want to have great people working for us.

Now, I've never hosted a reality TV show, but I know the true mark of a successful businessman is not the number of times you say, 'You're fired.' It's the number times you say, 'You're hired.'

I have the best agents in the world.

Every job I've taken, I like to bring in some new faces.

You know, if I've done anything right, it has been hiring the right people.

You're only as good as the people you hire.

Again, talent is the real import of being in the business.

It's no wonder that new ventures such as The Daily look first to Gawker Media when staffing up. We should not wait for a poaching expedition to pay someone what they deserve. I apologize if that has been the case and will do better in 2012.

Talent is the No. 1 priority for a CEO. You think it's about vision and strategy, but you have to get the right people first.

You know, as most entrepreneurs do, that a company is only as good as its people. The hard part is actually building the team that will embody your company's culture and propel you forward.

You'll have to hire people to expand your business. But it's a good discipline to really question if you need each and every hire.

How do you make your company a good place to work in general? That's a really, really, really large and complex set of skills. A lot of it is on-the-job training, combined with excellent mentorship.

I'm really good at hiring good people.

Hire the best people, and trust what you hired them to do.

I've always been really internally focused. I tend to focus on hiring - ensuring that every person we hire is both a really good fit and really good - and also that everything we put out to our users is very high-quality.

People leave their manager; they don't leave companies.

I enjoyed the promotion with K9 on my introduction day.

Successful companies hire people.

As CEO of a big company, I have to be a kind of a champion of the interests of our people as insofar as their ability to do their job, to feel comfortable in their work environment, and to be able to fulfill their ambitions.

I think we are reluctant to move people out of an organization when there is not a good fit. It is typically not because someone is stupid or lazy or incompetent; it is a lot more subtle than that.

You can fire your revenues by firing your people.

I want Yahoo to be the absolute best place to work, to have a fantastic culture.

I'd like to see the word 'entrepreneur' knocked off its pedestal. Being 'entrepreneurial' is something I look for not only in founders to invest in, but also employees to hire.