Early Career Quotes & Sayings

Yes, that's a brilliant idea. Choose the career path most likely to lead to an early, painful death, and you're sure to find job satisfaction. — Seanan McGuire

The many sounds of Memphis shaped my early musical career and continue to be an inspiration to this day. — Justin Timberlake

I didn't have any extra money. But I can't say that I had a hard early career. — Dabney Coleman

My whole career from the early 70s on has been mind-blowing. I didn't imagine in my life that I would ever be considered a guitar player first of all because I started off as a singer. — George Benson

I have no control over people's perceptions of me at all and that's one of the things I decided very early on is that I can't control the way other people think of me. All I can do, especially when it comes to my career is go out there and do cool unique kinds of things. — Macaulay Culkin

I think in the early part of my career, the roles were so disparate that it never gave anybody an opportunity to understand my essence and what I would be good at doing, as opposed to what I would not be good at doing, so these little moments of beautiful things that were happening to me were consistent, but very few and very far between. — Ron Perlman

When I landed in L.A. in early '89, William Morris decided to take me on to see if I could get any jobs. I was cast in a TV movie called Protected Surf, and made $30,000 in four weeks, and I decided I needed to take acting seriously, because I had never made that much money in a year, much less four weeks. That's when I decided I thought I could make a career out of it. — Thomas Haden Church

In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington. Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so. John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. — Zell Miller

In my early career I was like a goldfish. Rejection didn't affect me; I'd just forget how bad it was and keep going back for more. — Emily Watson

I am really passionate about my career and my music and I am so lucky to be able to do what I do for a job, so for all the early morning starts and long days, I could never trade it all in. — Rachel Stevens

I was critical of race-based affirmative action early on in my career and I've changed my mind. And I've publicly acknowledged that I was wrong. — Alan Dershowitz

I always encourage people in the early parts of their career to focus on writing. If you can communicate clearly, if you can articulate a thought, if you can write a great story, then you're going to be successful. — Steve Capus

I learned early in my career, where you get so wrapped up and so excited, that all of a sudden you don't think. So I worked very hard to keep myself suppressed. And that's one of the reasons I wasn't gregarious with the gallery. — Jack Nicklaus

I became convinced that the whole essence of the computer revolution is interactivity. That was very early in my career. At the time I did that it was heresy. — Chris Crawford

I think it's a great handicap to be discovered at an early age. I didn't have that burden of early success. I had the much more livable and durable career where success comes late, and comes slowly, and you ease into it. So by the time it comes, you're ready to deal with it. — Philip Glass

Paul Bearer was very influential in the early stages of my career. He constantly hounded me and I just think he realized the potential that was there. He convinced me that I was in the right place and doing the right thing. — John Cena

When I stopped touring in the early '80s for a few years, it was a mistake looking back. I lost touch with my audience in a way and I think that was a bad career move. — Bryan Ferry

It wasn't until I moved to Nashville that I realized what an amazing community it is. It's the thing I've been missing my whole career, the feeling of being able to sit around with a guitar and have people know each other's songs and know songs from people who've influenced all of us. When I moved here pretty early on Vince Gill started calling me to do guitar pulls, and I thought, gosh, this is just like heaven on earth down here. — Sheryl Crow

Persistence trumps talent.
What's the most powerful force in the universe? Compound interest. It builds on itself. Over time, a small amount of money becomes a large amount of money. Persistence is similar. A little bit improves performance, which encourages greater persistence which improves persistence even more. And on and on it goes.
Lack of persistence works the same way
only in the opposite direction.
Of course talent is important, but the world is lit erred with talented people who didn't persist, who didn't put in the hours, who gave up too early, who thought they could ride on talent alone. Meanwhile, people who might have less talent pass them by.
That's why intrinsic motivation is so important. Doing things not the get an external reward like money or a promotion, but because you simple like doing it. The more intrinsic motivation you have , the more likely you are to persist. The more you persist, the more likely you are to succeed. — Daniel H. Pink

For me, I was able to make that statement of faith early on when my career began, so there weren't really a lot of surprises. People around me knew where my husband Ray and I stood as far as my faith went. — Jodi Benson

Early in my business career I learned the folly of worrying about anything. I have always worked as hard as I could, but when a thing went wrong and could not be righted, I dismissed it from my mind. — Julius Rosenwald

I think every single point will be important, .. I think more than anything, I'll just have to be able to compete better. When you're playing Serena Williams, you have to compete better than her. I got a lot of tricks from Serena just watching her. She inspired me so many times. I also got motivated by her in the early part of my career, and even now. I just have to compete better, bottom line. — Venus Williams

That taught me how to work harder. I learned all about mental toughness on the practice field. If things weren't working out for me in high school, in college, early in my pro career, my solution was always to work harder and internalize. That way, whenever I got an opportunity, I was always prepared. See, there are a lot of guys who are all talk. They say they want to work harder and be the best, but they never pay the price. I love paying the price. — Tom Brady

Although the terms teaching and learning are typically paired, those of us who teach know that students don't always learn. When I complained about this early in my teaching career, a colleagues chided me: "Saying 'I thaught the students something, they just didn't learn it' is akin to saying 'I sold them the car, they just didn't but it'". — Elizabeth F. Barkley

The thing early on that you think is 'wrong' with you, that makes you not fit in with everyone else, becomes the key to your career as an actor. Start embracing it. — John Lloyd Young

Prada is such a huge company, and it was an honour to work with them and so early on in my career. — Ymre Stiekema

I was labeled as a tricky player early on and have been regarded as tricky throughout my whole career. It was said that I was able to pull out tricks from nowhere. — Judit Polgar

It's funny, because in drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters. — Lance Reddick

I had the offer to write books plenty of times during the early stage of my career, and I always kind of just pushed back because it wasn't the right time. — Tim Howard

MY FATHER was a brilliant man, a true iconoclast, fiercely self-reliant, a dark genius, cruel, selfish, and eternally optimistic. Early in his sales career, a boss called him an "independent son of a bitch," which Dad took as the highest compliment he'd ever received. He wanted me to be the same way. Dad had no hobbies, no distractive activities. He didn't do household chores, wash the car, — Chris Offutt

One of my earlier films is 'Quigley Down Under.' That was early on in my career, and that was horsey. — Ben Mendelsohn

Early in my career, I was disappointed that psychoanalysis was not becoming more empirical, was not becoming more scientific. It was primarily concerned with individual patients. It wasn't trying to collect data from large groups of people who have been analyzed. — Eric Kandel

I learned not to go in the sun early on in my career. A tan lasts for a week or two before it fades, and the sun is so damaging - it's not worth it. I put sunscreen on my kids every day before school and before they play outside. They know the routine. — Heidi Klum

Early in my career, people wanted to pigeonhole me as the bad guy because I'm of Italian-American descent, which they often were when I started out. You have to fight against it. One of the things that helps is the ability to do comedy. — Stanley Tucci

I can't say enough good things about my band. I feel very fortunate that I found them when I did, very early in my career. Not only are they just great, nice guys; they're some of the best musicians you're likely to find. They do everything from gangsta rap to polka music and every genre in between. It's amazing. — Al Yankovic

I built my [early] career on negative reviews. There was a cultural war going on, the '60s was going on. All the film critics were square. They hated my movies. You could never have that happen today. Critics are way too hip. — John Waters

I think early on in my career, I was heavily inspired by bands like Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept, and films of David Lynch, for example, where the soundscape plays a very important role in the listening experience. — Trent Reznor

My advice to young people is to get something that's growing because that's how you get career opportunities thrown at you that you don't deserve, if you will ... that come at you early because the firms need you. — Hamilton E. James

I've realized that my ... let me call it 'destiny' or some force that has pushed me to identify looking for your comfort zone as a kind of limitation. And everybody has a tendency to fall into the comfort zone. I did that in the early stage of my career. — Irrfan Khan

Like all soul singers, I grew up singing in church but sometimes I would leave early and sit in the car listening to gospel band, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Hearing their lead singer Clarence made me connect the idea of church and show business and see how I could make a career singing music that stirred the soul. — Daryl Hall

Early in my career, I was involved with engineer-led projects, where designers came in late in the game and were expected to put lipstick on an existing code base. This almost never works. — Ryan Holmes

Nobody taught me to play bottleneck. I just saw it and taught myself. I got an old bottle and steamed the label off, put it on the wrong finger, I basically did everything wrong until I met some of the Blues legends early in my career who taught me another way. I didn't have anyone to tell me women didn't play bottleneck. — Bonnie Raitt

As America knows, Obama turned down the lucrative career path guaranteed to the first African-American president of The Harvard Law Review to pursue the missions of service and teaching instead. The potential rewards for our country, now that that early choice has led him into the White House, are enormous. — Frank Rich

It's a strange thing to be a so-called alternative cartoonist, because in the early part of my career, I was really tethered to the superhero world. — Adrian Tomine

Early in my career, I decided not to do sequels. I know that children enjoy them, but I valued the feeling that this was the only time I would write about these characters. I felt it gave me an added incentive to do my best by them, to tell readers everything I knew, to hold nothing back. — Betsy Byars

Early in my school career, I turned out to be an incorrigible disciplinary problem. I could understand what the teacher was saying as fast as she could say it, I found time hanging heavy, so I would occasionally talk to my neighbor. That was my great crime, I talked in school. — Isaac Asimov

My priorities have always been God first, family second, career third. I have found that when I put my life in this order, everything seems to work out. God was my first priority early in my career when I was struggling to make ends meet. Through the failures and success I have experienced since then, my faith has remained unchecked. — Mary Kay Ash

I accomplished so many things, so early in my career. — Brett Favre

A good part of my leadership skills is crafted from learning from experiences early in my career that were not positive experiences. — John Lasseter

The habits of mind Roosevelt developed early in his academic career would serve him well throughout his life. As soon as he received an assignment for a paper or project, he would set to work, never leaving anything to the last minute. Preparing so far ahead "freed his mind" from worry and facilitated fresh, lucid thought. During — Doris Kearns Goodwin

I often say the last role I played that really touched me and where I was able to access what I really am was Bonnie, which is kind of sad when you think how early in my career that was. — Faye Dunaway

I realised quite early on that, although I wasn't trying to make a career speciality of it, I was playing slightly asexual, sociopathic intellectuals. — Benedict Cumberbatch

A lot of the physical flirtation with fear I did early on in my career, when I was a much younger person - stuff I wouldn't do now. But I was very interested in the mechanics of risk and fear in those days. And I found out fear pretty much always feels the same, whether it's doing a rock climb or speaking in front of an audience. — Tim Cahill

I think I can bring a lot to the triangle offense. Derek Fisher wasn't the tallest guard, but what he did is succeed and have a great career. I'm looking forward to learning from him. I've never played in the system, so I want to get there early. — Shane Larkin

I think now that I'm in the autumn of my life, and I'm getting a chance of having an overview and looking at the shape of how things happen, when things happen, why things happen, I think it was fitting that I spent most of my early career doing mask work, because I just don't think I was that comfortable in my own skin. — Ron Perlman

I decided very early that I wanted to write. But I didn't think of it as a career. I didn't even think of it as a profession ... It was the most exciting thing, the most powerful thing, the most wonderful thing to do with my life. — Mary Oliver

Early in her career, Muse engaged her skills for technical purposes, such as document translation and schematic visualizations for government entities. She continued to write and paint poetically, in secret, using her pen name, Muse. An inner compass is evident in her work. Pieces reflect both past and present dilemmas; while showcasing her victories in overcoming these obstacles ~ all from her faith based perspective. Light touches of modernism play hand in hand with old world strokes, offering highly visceral readings. — Earl M. Coleman

She had lost her innocent vision of justice early in her career, and had come to understand that the laws had not been created to resolve problems but in order to prolong quarrels indefinitely. — Paulo Coelho

I learned my lesson early in my career that it's not helpful to go and look at what other people's opinions are. — Jenny Slate

Because I have a passion for the play. My father was a chess teacher, and I learned the play of him as a small child. Occasionally I made another career; but now I have again the possibility of maintaining the passion of my early youth days. — Carmen Kass

Superstar was made so early in my career I had nothing to do with it at all. The first time I saw it was the opening screening. — Andrew Lloyd Webber

I often say my naivete early on in my career worked in my favor. — Sophia Amoruso

I sent the first half of the dissertation to Rudolf Bultmann [major figures of early 20th century biblical studies and a prominent voice in liberal Christianity] as a courtesy with an invitation to respond to any points in my analysis and critique if he wished. I was speechless when I received a long letter from Bultmann, who had diligently examined the details of my arguments. His letter became a featured part of the publication in 1964 by Westminster Press of Radical Obedience: The Ethics of Rudolf Bultmann: With a Response by Rudolf Bultmann.
That book, more than any other , launched my career as a serious theologian. But it also led to my reputation as a situation ethicist, ironically just about the time I was beginning to disavow situation ethics. — Thomas C. Oden

I HAD learned early in my career that one can do wrong against one's will, and before long I also learned that one can do wrong without ever discovering what one has done or why it was wrong. There were sins that were too subtle to be explained, and there were others that — George Orwell

There was once a merchant. An eager, industrious young man. His business ... required him to rise early and thus to bed early. But one evening ... he stayed awake past his usual hour ... and in so doing he heard the wondrous singing of something he'd never heard before: a nightbird. The next night, he managed to stay awake later ... to hear more of the bird's song. And the following night. He became so ... so intoxicated with the nightbird's voice that he thought only of it during the day. Came the time when he spent all the night listening to that song. Could not carry out his business during the sunlit hours. Soon he turned his back altogether on the day, and gave himself over to the nightbird's beautiful voice ... much to the sad end of his career, his health ... eventually his life. — Anonymous

Slayer fans are unforgiving. Early on in the career, if something changes, it's accepted. But 30 years down the road, in my opinion, they would rather see us do a three-piece than even try to replace Jeff, in a sense. — Tom Araya

Throughout my early career, I would write from five to ten in the morning every day before going to my office, a habit that has stayed with me since. — Warren Adler

Early in my career, I had no consistency. Now I'm the most consistent player on the tour. It feels pretty good. — Roger Federer

In the early days all I hoped was to make a living out of what I did best. But, since there's no real market for masturbation I had to fall back on my bass playing abilities. — Les Claypool

I grew up writing. It was very natural in my household. My father was a poet, and his mother had been a novelist back in Hungary. I don't think I really thought about it being my career until high school, which is still pretty early, but it was a while there of just assuming this was something everyone did all day long. — Rebecca Makkai

Early in my career ... I had to choose between an honest arrogance and a hypercritical humility ... I deliberately choose an honest arrogance, and I've never been sorry. — Frank Lloyd Wright

I learned from Mr. Wrigley, early in my career, that loyalty wins and it creates friendships. I saw it work for him in his business. — Ernie Banks

Losing your faith in a world where God is all around you is a precarious business. When God shows his face on a daily basis to your friends and neighbors, it is, on some level, impossible to stop believing in Him. Instead i felt that God chose to exclude me from His world. Since i was the only one to lose faith, to stop hearing Christ's voice, i thought perhaps it was my fault that Roy had left us. I thought i was being punished for some unknown sin. I had learned early in my Catholic career that one could sin silently in one's heart. One could even sin without ever discovering what one had done or why it was wrong. What had i done, i asked myself, to make God disappear and take Roy with Him. — Alison Smith

Elon came to the conclusion early in his career that life is short that if you really embrace this, it leaves you with the obvious conclusion that you should be working as hard as you can. — Ashlee Vance

Right, well I am, I was a career diplomat for 37 years from 1960 until 1997 during the early 1980s from 1981 to 1985 I was the United States Ambassador to Honduras. — John Negroponte

I had known that I'd wanted to be an actor from a very early age, but I had always known that I wanted to have a dual career. I wanted to be an actor, and I also at that time wanted to be a rock star. — Billy Burke

As a driver, you always dream of winning a F1 race, and to win so early on in my career was very special. — Pastor Maldonado

One thing I learnt early on my career is that personal gratification takes second place. — Brian O'Driscoll

Demos are something you do in the early stages of your career, but when you get going, you just go in and record the song. — Mark Kozelek

Having spent all my life among academics, I can tell you that hearing how wrong they area is about as high on their priority list as finding a cockroach in their coffee. The typical scientist has made an interesting discovery early on in his or her career, followed by a lifetime of making sure that everyone else admires his or her contribution and that no one questions it. There is no poorer company than an aging scientist who has failed to achieve these objectives. — Frans De Waal

What is the purpose of my writing about the various experiences of my life? It is not for publicity, but with the hope that the reader, especially my descendants, may plan a career to which they are naturally best adapted. Most children are born with a gift or talent which can be noticed in early childhood and should be encouraged and directed in the right way. Solomon said, 'Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.' Train does not mean compel, or to compare him with other children, but to encourage him in that for which he has a natural tendency. The boy who will become proficient in a lawful trade or profession, other things being favorable, will be a value to society and remunerative to himself and others. — Ernest Albert Law

It is a well known fact that most artists produce their best work early in their career. They may refine what they do but you usually get the measure of what they are about on their first outing. — Bill Drummond

I like the cold; I don't have problem with cold, and I don't have problem with rain either, as long as people are smiling. You know, early in my career, I used to wonder about this fan frenzy, but now I realize that there is genuine love, respect and affection, which makes me very proud to be an actor. — Boman Irani

I think the only reason I've had the career life that I've had is that someone told me some secrets early on about living. You can do the very best you can when you're very, very relaxed, no matter what it is or what your job is, the more relaxed you are the better you are. That's sort of why I got into acting. I realized the more fun I had, the better I did it. And I thought, that's a job I could be proud of. It's changed my life learning that, and it's made me better at what I do. — Bill Murray

Fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez was a major part of my early career. — Andre Leon Talley

Early on in my career I had the kind of anxious where you couldn't sleep at night. That anxiousness is like a virus we all have in us. Some you can deal with but some will wipe you out. — Bernard Hopkins

I am honored to be selected as the 2012 Miss Golden Globe. It's very exciting to be a part of an awards show like the Golden Globes so early on in my career. — Rainey Qualley

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s peaceful, determined struggle for social justice, and Sargent Shriver, who launched the Peace Corps, were early heroes. A career of public service was the ultimate aspiration. — Queen Noor Of Jordan

Lagos has also had a particular effect on my career. I was there early, and although it was a courageous step to go there and invest on this scale - I went there maybe 20 times - it's also been also super-controversial. There's an old school of thought that somebody like me has no place to go there.Because of colonialism and so on. — Rem Koolhaas

Early in her career at Langley, Dorthy Lee was interviewed for the Daily Press, in all probability by Virginia Biggins, the female reporter assigned to Langley beat. "Do you believe," she was asked, "that women working with men have to think like a man, work like a dog, and act like a lady?" "Yes, I do," Lee said, who was mildly mortified to read her words in the Sunday paper. — Margot Lee Shetterly

My father died. It is still a deep regret to me this day that in choosing acting as my career I was forced to hurt him. He died too early to see I had done the right, the only thing. — Conrad Veidt

I'm really lucky. I never really felt like LA was the Mecca, that you "made it" if you made it somewhere else. I've been a journeyman actor for my whole career. I just sort of went where I was invited. I worked the early part of my career in Canada before I had the luxury of doing an American series, which brought me down to LA. — Kristin Lehman

The Madingley paper56 represented a kind of closure for me, a climax to the first part of my scientific career, beginning in my early twenties and ending in my early thirties. At this point, I took off in an entirely new direction, never to return to those youthful mathematical pastures. That new direction, which was to define the rest of my career, and approximately the second half of my life, opened up with the publication of my first book, The Selfish Gene. — Richard Dawkins

Life and career are the same thing. Every life has to have a plot and a plan. You have to recognize this early and be quite cold-blooded in the discovery and articulation of that plot. — Iain Sinclair

I got very lucky to work with Wes Craven, very early on in my career, and continued to work with Wes for almost 19 years. I learned so much from him, and about his sense of story and his sense of horror, and that was great to be a part of. — Patrick Lussier

I used to dye my hair different colors and have crazy periods, especially early in my career when I played in Italy. — Marko Jaric

Yeah I grew up in the public eye. I became a man in the public eye, which is kind of a bizarre thing to come to terms with. Now I'm in my late 20s and I was in my early 20s when I became recognizable. But I think 'Moneyball' represents a very strong shift in my career and becoming an adult and a man. — Jonah Hill

And I was victim to that very early in my career, where I would go into auditions, and I'd be wearing a big T shirt, a big baggy T shirt and loose jeans. You know, to try and show people that there was more to me than just that. — Charlize Theron

For me it was sort of career suicide to work in color, but I did it because I perceived myself from an early stage to be interested in seasonality - the changing of the seasons - that's what I deeply loved. — Joel Sternfeld

It's been great. I've been very lucky to work with more experienced actors early on in my career because I get a chance to learn from them. There is so much you can learn from them. You can just follow them and you'll be pretty safe. — Katrina Kaif