Fred DeLuca Quotes

I run great risk of failing. It may be that I shall encounter ruin where I look for reputation and a career of honor. The chances are perhaps more in favour of ruin than of success. But, whatever may be the chances, I shall go on as long as any means of carrying on the fight are at my disposal.

I'm a survivor in a business that constantly rejects you.

You will find that every successful entrepreneur has suffered many setbacks. These entrepreneurs just forget to mention these when they are doing interviews with the 'Wall Street Journal' or Bloomberg TV.

When you start something new, you can be sure that the first few years will be full of failures and disappointments.

There were so many lean years. A lot of lean years.

When I came back I had to realize that IC was not in a very good shape - all the much money that we had because of the huge Ideal success, was gone. I was very upset.

You don't drown by falling into water. You only drown if you stay there.

A game is not won until it is lost.

The couple of years before I was declared bankrupt were the roughest. The bank letters, the pressure, the stress was awful. You're in this twilight zone of not knowing where your life is going, and yet you're in Westlife. Everything was great with the band. I was earning money, and it looked good.

Difficult years lie ahead, patience is required.

There are no environments where you're only going to win, because life just isn't like that.

When I first decided to open a restaurant, I was turned down by several banks. It was the late 80's and many restaurants were failing. I refused to give up because I knew I had a good concept.

Starting a business isn't for everyone, and it's not what you should do if you aren't sure what else to do. It requires thick skin and the willingness to carry a great deal of stress, sometimes alone. It's more often a life of failure than a life of success, and the majority of successes came after a long road of disappointment, and often shame.

Poverty leads to hardship and failure.

Hard times always lead to something great.

We don't know what may yet happen to us, what military and political defeats we may yet have to face.

It's easy to walk away from risk, and you don't actually have to face it. Success is based upon overcoming the inherent risk you can't manage your way out of.

The truth is that most small businesses will not succeed and you need to be emotionally prepared for this.

To have a comeback, you have to have a setback.

I did just about anything to pay the rent for a while.

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

I lived below the poverty line when I was young and starting out as a writer. But my wife and I kept trying to do things better, as anyone with ambition does. But just because you're trying doesn't mean you're always going to succeed.

Going through economic hard times is something I know firsthand.

I've been in hard times.

Being an entrepreneur is probably the most lonely thing you can do.