Tom Peters Quotes

I considered going into business or becoming a lawyer - not for the money, but for the thrill of problem-solving.

I just started a business called HDNet. There never is one area that has a door open to everyone. Try to find an area with something you love to do and do it. It's a lot easier to work hard and prepare when you love what you are doing.

I don't work at something because I think it's important. I work at things that, to me, are interesting.

The truth is, when I got started in this business, it wasn't because I had a full understanding of the importance of the business, but because I thought it was fun. I found it exciting. It fulfilled me, whatever it was that I was looking for.

I'm pretty careful about making sure that when I choose to do something, it's for the right reasons and that I really connect with it and care about it. So if the right musical came along, yes, I would totally do it!

Because I don't see Virgin as a company but as a way of life and I fully enjoy it, I don't think I'll ever retire.

I've met a lot of people and happened to inspire a lot of people who I'm in conversation with about business. It's just how things are going for me and it's great, but music is always going to be number one for me.

Choosing a job or business is the same thing. I'm not the best one to advise someone how to make billions of dollars; I don't know how to do that. But what I do know is how to create something that you love, and once you do that, you will have success. You just will because you'll love working on it, and anything truly authentic, the universe blesses.

What is it that you like doing? If you don't like it, get out of it, because you'll be lousy at it. You don't have to stay with a job for the rest of your life, because if you don't like it you'll never be successful in it.

Whatever you like to do, make it a hobby and whatever the world likes to do, make it a business.

It's a business, but I play the game and I love it every day. That's what I'm going to continue to do.

I think young folks have a good sense of what they want to do.

As a general rule, I am very passionate about any business that I engage in.

I pursue the things I do because I'm interested in them.

To me acting is a hobby and I'm inspired by it. And if I'm going to spend time doing something that I'm not really inspired to do, then why am I doing it? I don't know if that sounds sort of new agey or whatever, but it's true. I've been lucky enough to have a musical career that has gone pretty good and acting is something I have always wanted to do.

The college kids should think hard about what they're doing. If you have a great idea for a company, there's no right time to start it, and it's often better to start it sooner rather than later. I went to Stanford undergrad and Stanford Law School, and if I had to do it over again, I might still do those things, but I wish I had asked the type of questions like, why I was doing it, was it just for the status and prestige, or was it because I was really interested in the substance of it.

Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital, so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.

I think rap was a better move for me but football's been my love since I learned how to walk. I was gonna be a running back or quarterback. That was my life. That was it but things happen for a reason. I wouldn't trade this in for nothing.

Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.

The closest I came to doing anything that I wanted to do was to try and check and see what industries were just starting out. There was plastics and television, and I figured television had to be more fun than plastics.

A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.

Business, life itself, is damned hard work if you wanna be good at it. Actually, that's precisely wrong. Business ceases to be work when you're chasing a dream that has engorged you. ("Work should be more fun than fun" - Noel Coward.) And if the passion isn't there. then biotech and plumbing will be equal drags.

Do what you think is interesting, do something that you think is fun and worthwhile, because otherwise you won't do it well anyway.

I often get offered things that are so similar to things that I have done, and life is too short. When you make a film or a show, as you get older, that's a lot of time to be doing something that you're not absolutely invested in or in love with.

The only way I can work is if I care and am passionate about a project, so the challenge is to find projects that I feel that way about.