Malcolm Gladwell Quotes

I did the utility thing at first out of necessity to find a place on the team.

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.

I don't even know what a traditional producer is or does. I feel like the job is like being a coach, building good work habits and building trust. You want to get to a point where you can say anything and talk about anything. There needs to be a real connection.

I've been lucky enough to work with some of the best TV directors there are, and I've learned from how they had to handle when things don't go quite according to plan.

It took me a while to learn that certain people may have important skills that are not always blazingly apparent. Gradually I came to realize - slow as I may have been - that what mattered was performance, that sometimes people might have to be helped to develop, and that it takes all kinds to make an organization run properly.

I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that's a big deal. And if you're going to be a leader - if you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems.

I learn a lot from my experiences and collaborations. Most of my collaborations are meant for me to learn.

The great secret in life, I think, is to choose the right, people around you to do the job.

At the moment we need training for leadership.

Regarding managing people, I am lucky to be surrounded by good, smart friends, some of whom own their own companies or have worked in ones and can lend experience.

The most important thing I learned was the value of personal friendships and working cooperatively with your peers - the Academy has a saying, 'cooperate to graduate,' and that remains a very important central core in my thinking today.

If there's any secret to my success, it's that I just hire people who are smarter and more talented than I am.

We hope to encourage George and Charlotte to speak about their feelings, and to give them the tools and sensitivity to be supportive peers to their friends as they get older.

It's always been very important for me to be surrounded by people. It's never been enough for me to be successful alone. I want to be around people my own age who are also doing things I can learn from.

All of the directors I work with have their own unique gifts.

Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.

I do believe in teamwork, and I think it's very important, especially for a woman, because if you don't have a good team, then you cannot step out if you need to.

Directing? It's an appealing thought, but as far as I can tell, it's a lot of work. Producing is easier. You can tell someone else what to do and then go home.

I love to read. I'm still pen pals with my ninth-grade English teacher, Mr. Shanley. He tells me what books to read.

As I've gotten older, I've become much more effective at seeking and accepting help and bringing other people into the discussion. You start to understand that you can't control or fix everything on your own.

Pete Krause has become a bit of a mentor to me. If there's anything that I'm struggling with right away, I'll go to him and I'll ask him questions. We've formed a really great relationship.

I think probably the moments of failure have been when I didn't really understand that other people were around to actually help me. There were moments when I thought I had to solve everything on my own, and I didn't realize that I had resources.

I'm by no means an expert at coaching high school football. I'm doing the best I can in Year 1. But I've already learned a lot of lessons and I imagine I'll keep learning them.

A good director is not an expert in anything in particular. A good director just knows a little bit about everything.