Gary Payton Quotes

At some point you realize, I have dreams. I would love to be working on wonderful roles, in wonderful films, with people I respect and admire. And that will come in its time. In the meantime, "Pay attention to your work. Get better at what you do." That's my job.

There were some jobs I wanted that weren't necessarily right for me at the time. The ones I thought I'd never get, I got. As long as I am doing the best work I can possibly do at any given time, I can't do any better than that.

Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.

I think when you're not in the NFL or when you're early in your career, you don't understand how hard guys work, especially the guys that play a long time and are successful.

I didn't make the Pro Bowl until my seventh year I think in the NFL. We continually got better.

I mean, I've definitely found my thing, what I'm good at. Certain things that guys do keep them in the NBA a long time, but I've found what I'm good at, and I'm only going to continue to get better at that.

My ambitions are just to keep working hard and, when I do get on, to make an impression.

We all work to succeed in whatever we choose to do in life, so every success only pushes me to do better and I am constantly trying to improve my craft as an actor.

One has no talent. I have no talent. It's just a question of working, of being willing to put in the time.

I really want to be good at what I do.

This is the essence of the American Dream - in the land of opportunity, if you have a good idea, create a solid plan, and work hard, you should be able to reinvent yourself and get ahead.

There's nothing wrong with being respected by your peers. There's nothing wrong with trying to do your best. There's nothing wrong with success. There's not even anything wrong with trying to get a raise. There's nothing wrong with that.

Who cares and remembers if my last film was a success? I need to work harder.

Your ambitions - don't limit them. Where do you want to go, and what would be required of you to grow into that? Put yourself together a plan, and develop the skills to get there.

The key to my perseverance was absolutely loving the craft of acting. I just figured that if I kept doing it, at the very least I would get better at acting. Even if I didn't become a tremendous success, as long as I knew I was improving and getting better, to me, that was success.

I literally worked from the bottom up to where I am now.

I've come a very long way, especially from my young career. From not always being the best guy on the team to just increasing my work ethic every single year, every single summer. Just seeing the hard work pay off, I think that's what's most gratifying for me.

It's a learning process, and now I know that even when you don't have a title, or you're not in a main event caliber program, you have to remain 'main event level' and always not allow anything to hinder that.

I was a sheet metal worker, then a metal engineer, then a Pontin's bluecoat, then a comedian. You can achieve anything you want if you put your mind to it.

Listen: God doesn't care whether or not you make your next jump shot. God will give you a lot of things in life, but he's not going to give you your jump shot. Only hard work will do that.

I've been lucky to have great coaching, great teammates, and a desire to keep getting better. That, slowly over time, helped me grow from an average high school player to the NBA.

That's what I've learned: you are always to improve whether you are a Hall of Fame quarterback or some rookie.

Whether you're playing sports, starting a business or anything else in life, you need to identify your talents. Your responsibility is to find what you do better than anyone else. Once you identify what that is, you need to put yourself in the best position to succeed.

I'm gonna have some nights when it's not gonna come. But if you keep playing natural, it's just gonna come. I'm gonna keep getting better, keep getting better, and one day, everything's gonna pay off.

I feel very blessed and lucky to have the opportunity to get out there and play. That's all you can ask for as a young guy trying to make it in this league.