Business Challenges Quotes

When we got Tesla going at the very beginning, if you asked me what I thought the odds of success were, I would have said less than 50%. I would have said that failure is the most likely outcome.

With whom is one supposed to do business in this country?

I think that it is important that one grows a thick skin fast in this business, and I think we have done that.

I had never gone to college. I was not from a politically connected family. I had no money of my own. Who is going to do business with you?

Every business makes big mistakes along the way.

There's a couple of universal principles in life. One is, don't ever open a restaurant. One out of every two fails.

I was terrified the first time that I had a big problem in my business. I was obviously terrified when they diagnosed me with cancer in 1994. I was terrified when my son used to drive too fast. But I do believe in the fact that fear is not an option, so I always try to face it and not be afraid.

Are there challenges? Absolutely. But in aggregate, this is a very strong and valuable company.

I think small business is struggling in New York City. It's a fantastic market, it's a very appealing market, there's lots of opportunity, at the same time it's a very difficult place to build a small business.

Managing a business, small or large, today requires an extremely disciplined, thoughtful approach with regard to the pressure that people are under.

Running a real business is exacting, daunting, repetitive work. Even in Silicon Valley.

We actually created Twitter and Odeo at the same time. When we realized we didn't really want to be running Odeo anymore we looked around for anyone who wanted to buy Odeo, but not acquire us as a technology. But people aren't as interested in that.

Whether you were talking about Pillsbury, Burger King, Godfather's, the National Restaurant Association, in each one of those situations, I had a daunting problem that I had to solve. And I used the same business principles to approach the problem and, more importantly, solve the problem in every one of the situations.

The Obama administration made it illegal for me to loan any money to anyone in the military. I have one compliance guy just for a pawn shop. It's everything from Homeland Security, FBI, the local police department, IRS - all these regulations I have to keep an eye on constantly, and it's just overwhelming for a small business.

Starting a business is a huge amount of hard work... You had better enjoy it.

Business is a string of seemingly impossible problems looking for solutions. Each problem you solve creates a new barrier to entry for your next competitor.

When you've dealt with real-life issues, dealing with business issues is not that hard.

In a difficult business, no sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces - never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen.

The best discussion of trouble in boardroom and business office is found in newspapers' own financial pages and speeches by journalists in management jobs.

Designing is so easy - it's the business that is hard. That's why you really have to respect Ralph Lauren - look at what he's done. Anybody who can sustain themselves should be applauded.

I really always felt that I was going to be an actress. I had a lot of confidence in the fact that I would do well from a very early age. I didn't know how tough the business is.

You need that hunger no matter what, because eventually the honeymoon period wears off. Somewhere between printing your business cards that say 'founder' on them and everything else you have to do, you realize, 'Oh, actually this is a ton of work.'

I think every brand in the world has gone through ups and downs.

There are three rules for running a business; fortunately, we don't know any of them.

I've had many challenges - every entrepreneur does - it's the nature of the beast.