If you're passionate about something, you can develop the abilities.
— Chris Gardner
Unfortunately, some of the best fathers are mothers.
Everybody got a dream. What's the plan?
I was blessed to have the guys at Bear Stearns as mentors. They taught me a lot, but most of all, they taught me that there's nothing wrong with selling if you're selling the right product to the right person.
Salespeople are the most important people in any organization. Until a salesperson gets an order, nobody in the company has a job.
One time, I was going to be in L.A. for 10 days for a business conference, and I took eight different pairs of sandals.
I've never been big on sports coats and pants. I'm a suit guy. It makes it clear who's in charge.
Passion is not something you have to talk about. People feel it.
Finding gainful employment to pay for housing is hard for any veteran experiencing homelessness. It's even more difficult for veterans who've also had encounters with police and stints in jail.
Veterans who are homeless may not have a home, but that doesn't mean they don't have diverse skills that could be put to use to meet the needs of an expanding job market.
Your net worth can fluctuate, but your self-worth should only appreciate.
I also often hear people say that the deck is stacked against them because of racism, sexism, or other oppressive 'isms.' But once you let go of the blame and excuses, you'll see that you can alter your position on your own.
You can blame outside factors or make excuses about why things didn't work out, but that doesn't change anything.
Just remember, you're never too old to have a hero.
When someone says, 'You can't,' what it really means is that they can't - so why should you get to?
My mom had to be resourceful. She grew up dirt poor in rural Louisiana.
If you're lucky enough to have a permanent position, don't feel entitled. Companies value longtime employees' institutional memory, but to be irreplaceable, you must stay invested. Take the initiative and assume new responsibilities.
Passion is the thing that won't let you sleep at night because you want to get up in the morning and go do your thing.
When you tell your kids they can be anything, you've got to be careful. I told my kids that, and I ended up with a music producer and an interior designer. But they're doing it.
I grew up without a father.
Business school professors don't take selling seriously because they don't know how to sell. It's easy to talk about business theory and production time and just-in-time development. Selling is much more difficult.
The people who care the most about the folks in your community are living in the community. They don't live in Washington, D.C.
I do one thing - I don't do it on purpose - but I always make other guys look underdressed.
I've created the life I wanted.
Be bold enough to find the one thing that you are passionate about. It might not be what you were trained to do. But be bold enough to do the one thing. Nobody needs to dig it but you.
Too many veterans are poor or near poor and homeless because of it.
My stepfather was fond of letting me know, quote, 'I ain't your... damn daddy.' That was something that was painful, to put it mildly.
My biggest hero was my mother. She told me every day that I could do or be anything. I knew it, I believed it, and I embraced it.
Sometimes we are so busy helping others that we forget about ourselves. Remember, it's okay to say no and to ask others to carry their own weight.
Don't wait for the perfect time to start making changes to your life; the time is now.
We can all learn something from people we admire.
If you're having a hard time recognizing your gifts, look to someone else you know who's been resourceful. You may be surprised by how your own strengths rise to the surface by watching someone else.
Most of us have heard the saying, 'Cleanliness is next to godliness.' That's a sentiment I value, but another virtue has inspired me to revise that saying. As far as I'm concerned, what's next to godliness is resourcefulness.
In order for you to find a job, people need to know you're looking.
A father is everything in the world.
Don't ever be afraid to hire people that are smarter than you. Just because they are smarter than you doesn't mean they have to make more money.
Racism is not new. It was not invented just for you. So get bigger than that stuff.
I've never considered selling anything other than profession, but it's more than that. It's one of the highest callings that you can aspire to. Not everyone can do it.
I've been saying to people for a long time, 'If you're not doing something you're tremendously excited about, and you're not feeling passionate about it, you're compromising yourself every day.'
I'm a Levi's guy.
I say to people all the time, it is OK to fail. Some of the greatest successes in the history of America started out as failures.
Passion is everything. In fact, you've got to be borderline fanatical about what you do.
Long before I achieved financial success and became the subject of a Hollywood film, I was a veteran, a single father, and a working person who was homeless.
What I love about AT&T is that they are just as passionate as I am about rebooting the American dream.
You're never too old to do something new.
Nine times out of 10, extenuating circumstances aside, I believe that people are where they are by some kind of choice on their part. You need to acknowledge that, 'Hey, I'm here because I steered my horse in this direction.'
We can all look to our friends, family, and those we admire for inspiration.
As long as you have a plan for how you'll live, don't let jealous people turn their insecurities into yours.
Your skills may not be anything out of the ordinary, but you can do miraculous things with what you've got. Maybe it's your parenting skills, or your compassion. It may be your curiosity, your imagination or unique style of fashion. Even if it seems to be no big deal, the lesson here is we all have unique abilities and talents.
When I was a kid, we played a jump rope game called double Dutch - where you had to jump over two ropes swinging in opposite directions. Picking just the right moment to jump in was a practiced art form.
