Kevin O'Leary famous quotes

Life is hard, money doesn't care, your tears don’t add value
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Life Is Hard #Tears #Add

Vision is nothing without a plan to execute it.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Vision #Plans

What are the most important qualities that make a successful entrepreneur? The ability to communicate. The ability to express your idea with certainty. That's how you become a leader-even if you are unsure, your ability to explain your vision and your direction is the attribute you need the most. ... Articulate your idea in 90 seconds or less.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Successful #Ideas #Entrepreneur

Business is war. I go out there, I want to kill the competitors. I want to make their lives miserable. I want to steal their market share. I want them to fear me and I want everyone on my team thinking we're going to win.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#War #Team #Winning

My partners... taught me that in order to create wealth, I needed to pair up with people whose strengths compensated for my weaknesses.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Order #People #Pairs

You may lose your wife, you may lose your dog, your mother may hate you. None of those things matter. What matters is that you achieve success and become free. Then you can do whatever you like.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Mother #Dog #Hate

Money is my military, each dollar a soldier. I never send my money into battle unprepared and undefended. I send it to conquer and take currency prisoner and bring it back to me.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Military #Soldier #Battle

The definition of leadership is that you have to find great people and ask them to do extraordinary things. I've been doing that my whole life.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#People #Definitions #Whole Life

I actually think being an entrepreneur is a state of mind. If you're going to be an entrepreneur, my thesis is that you have to sacrifice everything for some period in your life to be successful. You have to be myopic and completely focused and unbalanced in every way. Once you've achieved success, you're free to do whatever you like.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Successful #Sacrifice #Thinking

I'm not trying to make friends, I'm trying to make money.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Trying #Making Money

Money equals freedom.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#

I have had some great successes and great failures. I think every entrepreneur has. I try to learn from all of them.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Thinking #Entrepreneur #Trying

The road to riches is never straight and narrow. It can be riddled with financial land mines.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Land #Riches #Financial

So much of life is a negotiation - so even if you're not in business, you have opportunities to practice all around you.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Opportunity #Practice #Life Is

The only reason to do business is to make money; that's the only reason for doing business.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Making Money #Reason

Don't cry about money, it never cries for you.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Cry

Downturns are the best time to start businesses because you develop discipline that's very lean and mean in terms of how to spend money. And those habits serve you very well in good times.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Mean #Discipline #Good Times

Nobody forces you to work at Wal-Mart. Start your own business! Sell something to Wal-Mart!
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Force #Own Business #Sells

I never, ever, ever let emotion get in the way of an investment.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Way #Emotion #Investment

Being an employee is a bad outcome. You want to avoid that. Being an employee is never a good outcome. That's just an opinion.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Want #Outcomes #Opinion

The biggest mistake entrepreneurs can make is trying to do everything themselves. They usually blow up when they try. I did an inventory of every deal I've ever done and it turned out that every single deal I made money on was a partnership, and every colossal failure, where I lost millions, was something I tried to do by myself.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Mistake #Blow #Entrepreneur

We need physical exercise to prepare our brain for long periods of concentration
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Exercise #Long #Brain

I'm not a tough guy. I'm just delivering the truth and only the truth and if you can't deal with it, too bad.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Guy #Tough #Deals

If I were the president of the United States, I would make unions illegal. They no longer serve a functional purpose in democracy, in my view.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Views #Democracy #President

I have met many entrepreneurs who have the passion and even the work ethic to succeed - but who are so obsessed with an idea that they don't see its obvious flaws. Think about that. If you can't even acknowledge your failures, how can you cut the rope and move on?
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Moving #Passion #Cutting

A lot of people have said a lot of great things about Steve Jobs. And for good reason: he built the world's second-most valuable company, with billions in profits and products that have improved every aspect of our lives. But Steve didn't get there by being a soft, fluffy, Kumbaya-type leader.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Jobs #People #Leader

Until Americans feel that their core asset - their homes - are stabilized, they are not going to have the animal spirits and they will continue to have less buying power.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Home #Animal #Buying

Don’t let the dark clouds of greed confuse you
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Dark #Clouds #Greed

I'd rather invest in an entrepreneur who has failed before than one who assumes success from day one.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Entrepreneur #Assuming

Filming 'The Road to Riches' was surprisingly difficult for me. I learned that going back to career successes and failures can be emotionally exhausting as you are forced to revisit the euphoric highs and painful lows in high speed.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Careers #Riches #Painful

People are aware of what I stand for through television. Nobody gets rich on TV but you build brand. That's what I'm attempting to do.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#People #Television #Tvs

Do you want to be rich or not? Let's get focused on that, buddy
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Want #Rich #Buddy

When I start something I bring my A-game - I assume I'm going to win.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Winning #Games #Assuming

I want to go to bed richer than when I woke up. The pursuit of wealth is a wonderful thing, but the thing is you have to be honest about it, you have to tell the truth.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Bed #Want #Honest

You can't regulate a soul into a business.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Soul

I think a book is your calling card, your business card.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Book #Thinking #Cards

The practical reality of managing cars in the family - I do 36-month leases. I think they're horrible investments. And you want to give them back after their warranty is over.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Thinking #Reality #Giving

If you put Canada into $1.5 trillion in debt and interest rates go up just 200 basis points, you cannot provide the services to 36 million people that were guaranteed to them in the social contract they have with Canada. That's a very, very scary prospect. You can't burden this economy with that much debt. The risk you take on is insurmountable. You have to assume for the next 50 years that rates don't go up? That's insane. That's irresponsible. That's stupid.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Stupid #Years #People

All businesses require capital, management and labor, and business executives, wanting to grow and maintain profitable enterprises, have a strong incentive to keep costs, including labor, as low as possible.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Strong #Cost #Incentives

Trump has been very, very open and clear on what he's going to do. He's going to make the U.S. very competitive on taxes, corporate and personal. He's eliminating policy on carbon and the regulatory environment on shale and energy and pipeline development. These are all things that Canada has to do and we no longer have a competitive environment to do them in. It manifests itself in the slow grind of our economy.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Energy #Development #Pipeline

I do not own a single security anywhere that doesn't pay a dividend, and I formed a mutual-fund company with that very simple philosophy.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Philosophy #Simple #Pay

I like gold because it is a stabilizer; it is an insurance policy.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Gold #Controversial #Provocative

For whatever reason somebody can be convinced to buy a PC, it opens up a whole new market for all of us in the software business.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Reason #Software #Whole

Here's how I think of my money - as soldiers - I send them out to war everyday. I want them to take prisoners and come home, so there's more of them.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#War #Home #Thinking

Imagine how foolish you'd look if, like one clever salesman who once pitched to me, you tried to license your product to a big industry player without knowing they just launched a competing product. With the right background research, he could have avoided that and other landmines - and so can you.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Clever #Player #Knowing

When I turned 50, something clicked in my head and I said, 'I'm not going to live to 100. I'm half-cooked already.' I set the family down and I said, 'Listen everybody, we're now entering the decade of Daddy. We're going to start doing things that I want to do.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Daddy #Entering #Half

People say that I can't speak French. C'est pas vraiment placé. I'm getting better every day. I just have to keep practising. That's the truth.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Speaks French #People #Get Better

If a man could give birth it would be to a book - it's an 18-month gestation period.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Book #Men #Gestation Period

Once in a while, I see my fellow TV investors praise a business just because they like the entrepreneur behind it. That kind of thinking might make you feel warm and fuzzy inside - but let's get back to reality.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Reality #Thinking #Entrepreneur

Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Ideas #Monopoly #Good Ideas

I have great people working for me now. I surround myself with smart people.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Smart #People #Surround

I keep anywhere between 5-10 percent of my net worth in venture ideas.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Ideas #Venture #Percent

If you want a friend, buy a dog.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Dog #Want #Ifs

I'm ashamed of what has happened to Canada. And I'm not leaving a $1.5 trillion deficit to my kids. No chance in hell is that happening.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Kids #Leaving #Canada

Know everything about the companies and people you are going to be negotiating with. Insist on getting the names of everyone participating in the negotiations. Leave no stone unturned; find out as much as you can.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Names #People #Stones

I see negotiations as an honest attempt to reach a deal that's great for everyone at the table. But sometimes, for whatever reason, that's impossible. You need to accept that possibility-don't make a deal for the sake of making a deal. If you do, chances are it will fall apart later anyway, with costs and headaches for everyone involved. And once you walk away, don't come back.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Fall #Needs #Cost

There's only one side with me. You get the right side. You get the correct version of the facts.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Facts #Sides #Versions

I could have easily gone down the wrong path and dropped out of school, but I was given a second chance.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#School #Second Chance #Gone

The skies were blue when I was coming up. I want my kids to have the same opportunity, if not better, than I had.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Kids #Opportunity #Blue

Building fast-growing, globally competitive companies is tough.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Growing #Tough #Building

I look at Twitter as brand building.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Looks #Building #Brands

When you bring an idea that has no merit to me, and you ask me to comment on it, I'm going to tell you it has no merit.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Ideas #Merit #Ask Me

Let's not forget, there are three languages in Canada - English, French, and there's the language of jobs.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Jobs #Three #Canada

I'm starting to think about things that I want to do, things that are fun. One of them is driving a car like a Porsche. I've driven a lot of cars - sedans, trucks and big family vehicles all year long. But there's nothing like a four-wheel-drive Porsche.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Fun #Thinking #Years

I think every entrepreneur in Canada owes the next generation a road map of how to do it again.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Thinking #Entrepreneur #Generations

What I'm trying to do is immerse myself.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Trying

Don't call me, I'll call you... I'm out.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Call Me

If I don't deliver a majority mandate in 2019, fire me.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Fire #Majority #Mandates

Many blue-collar families struggling to pay rent would be happy to skip paying optional union dues.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Struggle #Blue #Would Be

Canada has always been ready for the truth. I think they actually appreciate a politician or anybody as a leader who tells the truth.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Thinking #Appreciate #Leader

(On soft launches) It allows you to test your assumptions and see which ones you got right, and more, importantly, which ones you got wrong. A big hard launch is expensive. Getting even one thing wrong can force you to go out of business.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Tests #Assumption #Bigs

Money has no grey areas. You either make it or you lose it.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Grey Areas #Grey #Areas

You'd rather own gold; not the miner
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Gold #Miners

There are a lot of idiot fund managers out there who add no value to the process at all.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Add #Idiot #Process

As far as I'm concerned, Twitter has wiped out Facebook. I'm done with Facebook.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Done #Concerned

When you come to 'Shark Tank,' the only person you should listen to is me, because you know you're getting the truth. I'll decide if it's worth it, and after I'm finished, the rest of the people can look into it.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Sharks #People #Tanks

There are a lot of impractical things about owning a Porsche. But they're all offset by the driving experience. It really is unique. Lamborghinis and Ferraris come close. And they are more powerful, but they don't handle like a Porsche.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Powerful #Unique #Ferrari

I have no baggage in politics. I've never been a politician. I don't owe anybody anything.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Baggage #Politician

Unions are about the collective leverage, the power of numbers versus the power of capital.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Numbers #Unions #Collectives

I'm not planning on giving my kids any of my wealth. They know when their education is over, I'm pushing them out of the nest. The bird you see dead under the nest is the one who didn't think about the future.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Kids #Thinking #Giving

You either make it illegal, in which case you support a huge underground economy or you tax it within the limits people can afford.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Marijuana #People #Support

Justin Trudeau is going to elect Kevin O'Leary. All he has to do is keep doing what he is doing.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Kevin #Justin

I'm not going to leave Canada, I'm going to fix it.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Canada

I'm alarmed at what's happening in Canada. I'm vested here.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Canada #Happenings

I want to spend my time at colleges and universities.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#College #Want #University

I don't think spending time in Ottawa is a good use of my time as the leader.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Thinking #Leader #Use

Trudeau motivated people between the ages of 18 to 35 to vote, and 82 per cent of them voted for him. That changed Canadian politics forever. If they stay motivated, and believe me, they are, no party can ever get a majority mandate again without winning at least 60 per cent of those voters. There hasn't been a Conservative candidate in 15 years that ever got on a campus anywhere here in any Canadian university and wasn't thrown stones at.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Party #Believe #Winning

You can't win a majority mandate unless you get back 60 per cent of the votes between the ages of 18 and 35. It's a fact.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Winning #Age #Majority

Basically, if you're a young Canadian now and Trudeau puts this country into $1.5 trillion in debt, you will never have the opportunity that I had as a young Canadian.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Country #Opportunity #Debt

Imagine bringing Canada into a trillion-and-a-half of deficit. That's insane.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Insane #Half #Canada

Steve Jobs had his critics. Some saw him as an egomaniac, and others, as a control freak.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Jobs #Saws #Egomaniacs

Protecting Americans from harm goes beyond police and national defense. It's imperative that we not destroy the commons, the physical environment on which we rely.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Police #Defense #Environment

All we do is bring the debate from both sides, and let you as a viewer decide where you want to end up on the issue. That's very important. That's exactly what happens in 'Redemption Inc.'
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Issues #Important #Redemption

My worst fashion faux pas: probably orange shoes with white pants. I thought I looked spectacular.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Fashion #Shoes #White

When you're travelling, your day is jam-packed. I just don't have time to whip out a PC all the time. But I can whip out a BlackBerry and tweet. I keep a constant diary of where I'm at and why I'm there.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Diaries #Jam #Tweet

Once Michigan stood proud. In addition to GM, Ford and Chrysler, it was home base for the United Auto Workers, a powerful escalator transporting hundreds of thousands of blue-collar workers into America's middle class.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Powerful #Home #Blue

I'm proud to be on the CBC and to see the management here represents both sides of every story. This is what's unique about the new CBC: you get a Kevin O'Leary on it when five years ago you wouldn't.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Unique #Years #Cbc

If you put a woman in prison for four years when she's young and make her pay her time in a horrible place and she wants to come out and work, and become a mother and be a contributor to society and pay taxes and you never give her that chance. There is something un-Canadian about that.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Mother #Years #Giving

I remember failing reading in school at a young age, and you just kinda get left behind and I felt helpless.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Reading #School #Age

Television is the most interesting hobby I've ever had.
-- Kevin O'Leary

#Interesting #Hobbies #Television