Drew Houston Quotes

I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations.

I have never let gender get in my way. It has taken me over 30 years to get from a garage to the huge campus that we have today. And it's been a long journey.

Running helped me learn how to deal with failure, and failure is a big part of the Internet business.

If you are under the illusion that you can start a business and run it at your life's schedule, you are mistaken. The business is like a starving puppy - when it needs to eat, then it needs to eat regardless of what you have going on personally.

If I could set a world record, it would be that I have 150 business partners, all with thriving businesses of their own that started with nothing and I made the difference to make them all billionaires.

My parents started a business out of the living room of our home and, 30-plus years later, it was a multimillion dollar company. So, President Obama, with all due respect, don't tell me that my parents didn't build their business.

I've created tens of thousands of jobs over the years.

I tell people to look at me and understand that everybody first told me that I couldn't be a 6-foot, 9-inch point guard, and I proved them wrong. Then they told me I couldn't be a businessman and make money in urban America, and I proved them wrong. And they thought I couldn't win all these championships, and I proved them wrong there as well.

If you go out there and start making noise and making sales - people will find you. Sales cure all. You can talk about how great your business plan is and how well you are going to do. You can make up your own opinions, but you cannot make up your own facts. Sales cure all.

That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story.

Once you start a business, you have to grow it and grow with it - starting a business is not just for Christmas.

My parents grew that small business from one 18-year-old guarding a bingo to more than 125 employees in three states. And sure, there was help along the way. But my parents took the risk. They stood up. And you better believe they built it.

I never had a job. I bought my first house within a year of getting out of school, and I built a custom one four and a half years later. The Art Center didn't teach much about business, but I learned a lot from the Fortune 500 companies that were my clients.

My first venture was to trade bicycle parts and hosiery yarn. The initial days proved to be difficult, and I earned very little from my business. But I kept at it. Each day, when I retired for the night, I told myself that money would come in the next day.

I have my aluminum siding business, and that's going like a house afire.

My parents were European immigrants. They came to the States with $1,500, two suitcases, and me, and they managed to build a business, a family, and a future for their family. They didn't have any of the resources of people who have lived here for two or three generations.

QuickBooks - the very fact that we could even dream to make something in the business arena, and that it would then succeed - was a total revolution to me.

My first company failed completely. And it failed at about ten months old. I had about 12 months of savings, so when it failed I was thinking: 'Do I go back to work?' And at that point I believed so deeply in what I was doing that I couldn't imagine anything else other than trying to make this business work.

The only warning I'd give is - make sure you are strong enough and committed enough in your business pursuits. It is commitment and belief, not just the bottom line, that should drive you.

I'm proud of the fact that besides being known as a successful former football player, I've also worked hard to establish myself as a successful businessman, network broadcaster, sports & entertainment executive and philanthropist.

You've got to love this business. You have to be able to take rejection.

Money is always the least of the problems. It is finding the right business or growing the right business. You can't do that without the right people.

I have a mother who never took no for an answer when it came to her creative pursuits. She started a hair salon in her spare bedroom and four years later had 30 employees.

WeWork is my fifth venture. I failed in my first, second and third, had mediocre success in the fourth.

I started with shoes, and with hard work and discipline, the business prospered.