Ken Hendricks famous quotes

What is the most overrated skill for an entrepreneur? The most overrated skill is skill. Luck is more important. The entrepreneur gets credit for being this genius, when really he was just at the right place at the right time.
-- Ken Hendricks

#Skills #Entrepreneur #Luck

I would have shared with the banks my long-term vision and got them involved instead of just going to them when I needed money. I should have got them on my team right from the start.
-- Ken Hendricks

#Team #Long #Vision

If you were charged with fixing the U.S. auto industry, how would you do it? The guys who run the auto companies are out of touch with their customers and their employees. They ride to work in their limousines. They go up in their elevators and lock themselves in their offices. They don't walk out into the plants. They wouldn't even drive in the neighborhoods where their employees live. They give themselves big bonuses when the company isn't making any money. I'd make them get involved with the people who are building the cars. They've got to become real people.
-- Ken Hendricks

#Running #Real #Giving

Wrong location? Move it. Wrong people? Replace 'em. Wrong industry? I don't believe it. I've got a company in the machine tools industry, and we're doing great. I'd happily go into the coal business. It's how you look at something and how it's managed that make the difference.
-- Ken Hendricks

#Leadership #Moving #Believe

What has been the most rewarding moment in your decades of entrepreneurship? Our last annual managers meeting. I gave my motivational talk and then I asked, How many people here started as a forklift operator, a warehouse person, a roof loader, or a truck driver? We had 600 people and almost half of them stood up.
-- Ken Hendricks

#Business #People #Half

There are three sayings I live by, and one of them is 'The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.' That's what losing a job is like. That's why we have to bring them back.
-- Ken Hendricks

#Jobs #Men #Tragedy

At around 19 I realized that I really didn't have any skills other than making people laugh, so I should probably pursue it full-time.

Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.

Solve a real problem. You don't start a company because you want to be an entrepreneur or the fame and glory that comes along with it. You become an entrepreneur to solve a real problem.

I'm not a non-profit person. I think of myself as an entrepreneur who wants to work on global education.

Venture capitalists are like lemmings jumping on the software bandwagon.

As an entrepreneur, you have to be OK with failure. If you're not failing, you're likely not pushing yourself hard enough.

Don't kill the competition. Competition is healthy for businesses. It keeps you the entrepreneur on your toes.

Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour, He stood and counted them and cursed his luck; And then the clock collected in the tower Its strength, and struck.

An excellent weapon and luck had been on my side. To be successful, the best fighter pilot needs both.

Gilbert Jonas, painter, believed in his star.... His own faith was not, however, without its virtues because it consisted in admitting, in some obscure way, that he would obtain many things without deserving them.