Professional Career Quotes & Sayings

The only thing I try to watch carefully is that I never lose the love for the instrument. That's also why I decided against a professional piano career when I was younger. — Nils Frahm

I don't think life owes me anything and the business doesn't owe me anything. The only way to approach it is by working hard and loving what you do. If you do that and have faith, maybe you will get lucky. I mean that sincerely and specifically. I truly believe that no professional career in the arts is capable without a healthy dose of luck. — Bryan Cranston

If you organize your life around your own wants, other people become objects for the satisfaction of your own desires. Everything is coldly instrumental. Just as a prostitute is rendered into an object for the satisfaction of orgasm, so a professional colleague is rendered into an object for the purpose of career networking, a stranger is rendered into an object for the sake of making a sale, a spouse is turned into an object for the purpose of providing you with love. — David Brooks

I come from a long line of teachers. Not only did I not go into the family business; I had an aborted law career and I played in bands. 'Disco Pigs' was my first professional acting experience. — Cillian Murphy

When men hold the greater majority of all professional positions of power, it is impossible for a woman to advance her career without the support of men. — Carol Roth

I don't think that I ever believed that poetry would be a career. I have always thought of poems as something more private than professional ... I would never introduce myself as a poet. I will always have some other thing that I am. — Dana Goodyear

And while I don't believe in mapping out each step of a career, I do believe it helps to have a long-term dream or goal. A long-term dream does not have to be realistic or even specific. It may reflect the desire to work in a particular field or to travel throughout the world. Maybe the dream is to have professional autonomy or a certain amount of free time. Maybe it's to create something lasting or win a coveted prize. Some goals require more traditional paths; anyone who aspires to become a Supreme Court justice should probably start by attending law school. But even a vague goal can provide direction, a far-off guidepost to move toward. With — Sheryl Sandberg

He stepped back, away from her. He shook his head in disbelief. "You know, I shouldn't try to go out with career women. You're all stricken. A guy can really tell what life has done to you. I do better with women who have part-time jobs."

"Oh, yes?" said Zoe. She had once read an article entitled "Professional Women and the Demographics of Grief." Or no, it was a poem: If there were a lake, the moonlight would dance across it in conniptions. She remembered that line. But perhaps the title was "The Empty House: Aesthetics of Bareness." Or maybe "Space Gypsies: Girls in Academe." She had forgotten. — Lorrie Moore

The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in each individual work. — Steven Pressfield

At Year Up, we have helped thousands of students rise from poverty into a professional career in a single year. — Gerald Chertavian

As a doctor, an educator, an innovator and someone who has dedicated his professional career to making things work better and to helping people - I am ready to lead. — Donald Berwick

I have always believed in the power of collaboration. Early on in my professional career, I realized that you can't develop all the competencies you need fast enough on your own. Furthermore, if you don't collaborate, your ideas will be limited to your own abilities. As a result, you will not be able to serve your clientele and thus can't achieve the anticipated impact. — Vishwas Chavan

How can you know if a college is prioritizing education and training rather than amenities or a bloated bureaucracy? One way is to look at the quality of the academic and professional resources (the buildings where classes are held, the classrooms themselves, the library, the laboratories, the career center, and so on) in comparison to the social and recreational amenities (the cafeteria, student union, football stadium, fitness center, and so forth). Go on a campus tour and see how the tour guide "sells" the college. — Alex Chediak

Roderick Lewis had a professional career, but he molested young girls. Zy — Nika Michelle

I don't think a professional agent or theatre manager would say my career had gone as well as perhaps it should have after that first 'Oliver!' success, but then again I was never really intending to have a career in the professional theatre in the first place. — Ron Moody

Fashion is really interesting to me, but I'm not a professional model, so I'm focusing my career on acting. — Rinko Kikuchi

Foch never for a moment thought about the easy ways of bringing his name before the public and the political world, or even about acquiring a reputation for military insight among the chiefs of the French army. He never posed as a central figure at public functions; he was never interviewed by the press; he made no use of the professional reviews to bring his name before military readers. Ile never published a line until his chiefs suggested the publication of his lectures at the Staff College. From the day when he received his first commission he was a hard-working student of war, patiently preparing himself to do his duty when the opportunity came, and meanwhile content to put all his energies into the work assigned to him. Success in the career of arms is not always associated with high personal character or with this modest pursuit of duty for its own sake. — Andrew Hilliard Atteridge

Coaching is my way of helping aspiring and professional writers get the kind of help and guidance that it took me years to piece together. I do workshops and coach people one on one. It's really fun and I'm happy that I can support artists who are looking to move ahead in their work and career. — Steven C. Harper

Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him. Resistance gets us to plunge into a project with an overambitious and unrealistic timetable for its completion. It knows we can't sustain that level of intensity. We will hit the wall. We will crash.
The professional, on the other hand, understands delayed gratification. He is the ant, not the grasshopper; the tortoise, not the hare ... The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in each individual work. He knows that any job, whether it's a novel or kitchen remodel, takes twice as long as he thinks and costs twice as much. He accepts that. He recognizes it as reality. — Steven Pressfield

Young girls today were more sensible, more sophisticated. Nowadays they worried more about their exam results and did their best to ensure they would have a decent career. For them, going out with boys was simply a game, a distraction based as much as on narcissism as on sexual pleasure. Later, they would try to make a good marriage, basing their decision on a range of social and professional criteria as well as shared interests and tastes. Of course, in doing this, they cut themselves from any possibility of happiness - a condition indissociable from traditional and transient emotions which are incompatible with the practice of reason - but in doing so they hoped to escape the moral and emotional suffering which had so tortured their forebears. — Michel Houellebecq

[I would like to be] one of [the first pop singers to perform in a free Cuba]. I know the list is huge. And it would be hard to pull off
I'd have a lump as big as a tostone [fried green plantain] in my throat. But oh my God, what a dream
it would be the height of my personal and professional career. — Gloria Estefan

The word career is a divisive word. It's a word that divides the normal life from business or professional life. — Grace Paley

I was pursuing the arts with theater in school, and I was doing after-school activities, but not in any real movement towards a professional career. — Uzo Aduba

But human deciding what to eat without professional guidance - something they have been doing with notable success since coming down out of the trees - is seriously unprofitable if you're a food company, a definite career loser if you're nutritionist, and just plain boring if you're a newspaper editor or reporter. — Michael Pollan

At 20, I realized that I could not possibly adjust to a feminine role as conceived by my father and asked him permission to engage in a professional career. In eight months I filled my gaps in Latin, Greek and mathematics, graduated from high school, and entered medical school in Turin. — Rita Levi-Montalcini

I certainly feel my career was a great career because it inspired so many many people, literally hundreds of people to follow a new kind of life and to realize that they could make out and advance their own professional and private and social lives. — Katherine Dunham

Let's face it. My career is now professional vampire. — Cassandra Clare

I learn from everyone by observing traits that makes them successful and traits that bring them down, and try to incorporate only the best traits into my professional career. — Olivia Stuck

So, through all that early professional career I would occasionally do a musical, a pantomime or a play with songs. The next stop would be a Shakespeare, or an Ibsen, or a play by a brand new writer who had never done anything in the theater before. — Trevor Nunn

Local markets for literary fiction remain underdeveloped; the metropolis often holds out the only real possibility of a professional writing career. — Pankaj Mishra

My parents paid me small amounts for cleaning my room or cleaning the dishes and stuff, but I never really had a real job before I started on my professional tennis career. — Caroline Wozniacki

My advice for achieving success is to make a career choice that reflects your passion. Then work your craft a little bit each day-even if someone's not paying you to do It. Try to balance your social life with your educational (or professional) life, and have patience. — Giancarlo Esposito

Because of the fact that being a professional actor is not a career that is widely pursued back home in the Cayman Islands, I never thought it was a viable profession. It didn't even cross my mind. So when I knew I wanted to do theater, I didn't think 'actress,' even though I loved to perform. — Grace Gealey

I feel different, better, about my personal life as well as my professional life. So much confidence comes simply because I have reached this very good age. Women my age today are forging new ground. Society stops defining us by our reproductive capacity, sexual attractiveness, or other traditional measures, so we become liberated from stereotype. We are freed to grow into our full selves.

I couldn't have allowed myself to feel so positive in the past. When I was at the height of my film career, I didn't have the kind of respect I now have from the theatrical community. I hadn't yet proved that I have the chops for the stage. But now I have a stature I've never before enjoyed.

Virginia Woolf herself observed that when her Aunt Mary left her enough money to live on, her financial independence meant she "need not hate" or "flatter any man." She said this was of even more value to her freedom and autonomy than the right to vote. — Kathleen Turner

If you asked my dad about selecting any kind of professional career, he'd tell you, "Don't make a date with a heart attack." Meaning: You've got to pace yourself and not forget to slow down. No job is forever. So relax and have some fun. — Chuck Palahniuk

I could describe my career in two words: who knew. I was on the path to becoming a professional baseball player, but I got injured in college. When I decided to move out to L.A. to try acting, nobody was betting on me, not even my family. But it's always been that way for me; nothing has come easy. — Shemar Moore

January 14, 2000, was my first time on stage, and I've been hooked ever since. I got discovered nationally in Seattle by the now-defunct HBO Comedy Festival, and that led to an appearance on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' and a path to a professional comedy career. — Hari Kondabolu

My practise as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world. And I should be a coward if I did not state my theoretical views in public. — John B. S. Haldane

It wasn't until after I received my education that I seriously looked at sports entertainment as a way to make a career for myself. And they've got to take it in stride. It's very much like acting or playing professional sports: One percent of one percent of the people who try out for it can actually say they make their living off of doing it. — John Cena

It would be easy, however, to exaggerate the havoc wrought by such artificial conditions. The monotony we observe in mankind must not be charged to the oppressive influence of circumstances crushing the individual soul. It is not society's fault that most men seem to miss their vocation. Most men have no vocation; and society, in imposing on them some chance language, some chance religion, and some chance career, first plants an ideal in their bosoms and insinuates into them a sort of racial or professional soul. Their only character is composed of the habits they have been led to acquire. Some little propensities betrayed in childhood may very probably survive; one man may prove by his dying words that he was congenitally witty, another tender, another brave.But these native qualities will simply have added an ineffectual tint to some typical existence or other; and the vast majority will remain, as Schopenhauer said, Fabrikwaaren der Natur. — George Santayana

I knew that I wanted to pursue acting as a profession during my sophomore year of college. One of my Professors (Karen Deacons-Brock) at N.C Central University assigned me to perform a one woman show for my final project and it was then, along with her encouragement, that it was time for me to move to NY in pursuit of a professional acting career. — April Parker Jones

I was really fortunate. I don't believe in luck so I was really fortunate. God really blessed me in terms of my health. I was really healthy. But I tried to do my part in terms of preparation, in terms of perseverance, to make sure that I was always ready to play and try to stay ahead of the game, to beat people with my mind. I wasn't the biggest or the one that jumped the highest, but I had a real high basketball IQ and I knew it. I was a student of game and tried to prepare and be professional and have a good attitude. All of those things helped me have a long career. — Avery Johnson

I never felt I could be a complete professional without having won the British Open. It was something you had to do to complete your career. — Arnold Palmer

To me writing was not a career but a necessity. And so it remains, though I am now, technically, a professional writer. The strength of this inborn desire to write has always baffled me. It is understandable that the really gifted should feel an overwhelming urge to use their gift; but a strong urge with only a slight gift seems almost a genetic mistake. — Dervla Murphy

My sense of humor was a tool for me getting past my mother and father separating, my older brother having cerebral palsy, and the bullies in the schoolyard. I had to make them laugh to keep them off my ass. I brought that to my professional career. — Tracy Morgan

All through my career I've written 1,000 words a day - even if I've got a hangover. You've got to discipline yourself if you're professional. There's no other way. — J.G. Ballard

This producer was a woman, a type I became acquainted with at the beginning of my stand-up career in Denver. I cared little for them: blondes in high heels who were so anxious to reach the professional level of the men they worshipped, fawned over, served, built up, and flattered that they would stab other women in the back. They are the ultimate weapon used by men against actual feminists who try to work in media, and they are never friends to other women, you can trust me on that. — Roseanne Barr

My practice as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world. — J.B.S. Haldane

The leg was sent to Robin,' Strike reminded him. 'There's as much chance that she's seen this woman previously as I have. She's my partner. We work the same jobs.'

Robin glanced sideways at Strike. He had never before described her as his partner to somebody else, or not within Robin's hearing. He was not looking at her. Robin switched her attention back to Wardle. Apprehensive though she was, after hearing Strike put her on equal professional footing with himself she knew that, whatever she was about to see, she would not let herself, or him, down. — Robert Galbraith

I'd always told people that I would have liked to pursue some sort of professional fight career. I don't know if I'm quite right for it, since I'm extremely prone to injury. I've been boxing for a couple years, and I've messed around with some Jiu-Jitsu, and I've always felt that there's such a passion in a real fighter's heart. — Matt Cohen

Professional success is only partial success. — Maddy Malhotra

For this very reason I refuse all the tricks of the trade and professional virtuosity which could make me betray my career. As soon as I find a subject which interests me, I leave it to the lens to record it truthfully. Look at the reporters and at the amateur photographer! They both have only one goal; to record a memory or a document. And that is pure photography. — Andre Kertesz

One of the laws of the professional jungle is that every dog has their day. Everyone gets a shot at the top and at some point someone else gets their turn. — Carla Harris

My professional life shouldn't be an influence on whether I spend time at home. My career is my whole life's blood. It's my calling. — Danielle De Niese

I have been blessed with a long and healthy career as a professional athlete and as I move forward into the next stage of my life, chiropractic care will continue to be an important part of my game. — Jerry Rice

Mentors provide professional networks, outlets for frustration, college and career counseling, general life advice, and most importantly, an extra voice telling a student they are smart enough and capable enough to cross the stage at graduation and land their first paycheck from a career pathway job. — Gerald Chertavian

Taking a song and bringing it to life in a professional recording studio can be an intimidating process at first; I know it certainly was for me. So to be able to offer support and guidance to an emerging singer-songwriter is a huge honor. I look forward to playing a role in such an exciting time of someone's songwriting career. — Colbie Caillat

Divorce can be a very destructive force and high powered, professional career women, like myself, don't have the luxury of time to fall apart. We want an alternative to months in therapy - something which will hold us together whilst helping us heal around our busy schedules that will also enable us to build healthy, future relationships which are drama-free. — Adele Theron

Kate was the best thing he'd done in his professional career, and he could handle anything so long as she didn't leave him. — Elizabeth Camden

My career came together very quickly. I only trained for four years before I became a professional, so I didn't have a lot of time to sit back and be inspired before I took my first ballet class. — Misty Copeland

The career of politics grants a feeling of power. The knowledge of influencing men, of participating in power over them, and above all, the feeling of holding in one's hands a nerve fiber of historically important events can elevate the professional politician above everyday routine even when he is placed in formally modest positions. — Max Weber

As a former career intelligence professional, I have a profound appreciation for the value of intelligence. Intelligence disrupts terrorist plots and thwarts attacks. Intelligence saves lives. — John O. Brennan

was speaking to hospitality associates at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami, Florida, when one very young, very skinny, and very brave associate stood up. He said, "I didn't have a father, so I don't know how to properly button my jacket. Do I leave the last button open? When I need help with things like this, I don't know where to look for answers." After that tug at my heart, I wrote this career reference book specifically directed at hospitality associates globally. Hospitality Management: People Skills and Manners On and Off the Job covers just about every area of the hospitality associate's professional and personal life. — Lyn Pont

Although I was not aware of it at the time, the experience of growing up during the Great Depression was to have a profound impact on my intellectual and professional career. — Lawrence R. Klein

Professional loyalty now flows "horizontally" to and from your network rather than "vertically" to your boss, as Dan Pink has noted. — Reid Hoffman

Jeremy Lin is the only Asian American in the NBA today and one of the few in any professional U.S. sport. His arrival is surely leading other talented Asian American athletes this week to contemplate a pro career. — Eric Liu

Many of us don't even know what it means to have a Christian perspective on our work. Oh, we know that being a Christian means being ethical on the job- as Saly put it, "no lying and cheating." But the work itself is typically defined in secular terms as bringing home a paycheck, climbing the career ladder, building a professional reputation. — Nancy Pearcey

I'm a professional geologist, an explorationist for oil. That's what I've done in my career, one that's culminated in - at least to this point - playing a part in finding the largest field in the last 40 years anywhere in the world. That's the Bakken field, which I believe will yield 24 billion barrels of oil in the decades to come, maybe more. — Harold Hamm

I don't have to assert my virility. I think my career has shown that I'm not exactly a pantywaist. But I do take pride in my work, even to the point of being the first one on the set in the morning. I'm a professional. — John Wayne

A considreable portion of my high school trigonometry course was devoted to the solution of oblique triangles ... I have still not had an excuse for using my talents for solving oblique triangles. If a professional mathematician never uses these dull techniques in a highly varied career, why must all high school students devote several weeks to the subject? — John G. Kemeny

Lack of opportunity breeds dreams of escape. But professionals and managers who have invested in their careers do not leave the work force as frequently as discouraged workers in lower status occupations. Instead, they keep working, but they escape emotionally by defining achievement in professional, not company, terms ... Thus, the potential for being stuck as career uncertainty grows takes its toll in weakening attachment to any particular employer. — Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Most professional women I know - myself included - long since gave up looking for a rulebook or a roadmap; we make it up as we go along. Every day presents a new choice, a new challenge, which makes long-term career planning seem like an especially abstract exercise. — Nancy Gibbs

'Party Down' was one of the most magical, special experiences of my professional career. Also special in my personal life, too. I made really good friends, and I had just a great time, and it was a great part. — Ken Marino

We want to christen every city that Kris has played in during his professional career. — Anna Benson

The major championships have always been a special focus in my career, and as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be. — Tiger Woods

Like the three points in a triangle, knowing your value, maintaining your value, and getting compensated for your value are essential in building professional stability and longevity. If the compensation or the opportunity sounds too good to be true - it probably is. Sooner or later, reality prevails over rhetoric. — Joe Jordan

I've met very few professional land surveyors who regret their career path, and even fewer, who are out of work, even during economic slowdowns. — Mark Mason

I've been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career I want to be true to myself. I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career. I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud, gay man. — Orlando Cruz

No one had more impact on my career than Gil Hodges. Playing for him was a
learning experience, and he was a tower of strength. Not everbody liked him, but
everybody respected him. He went about his job in a very professional manner,
and it caused me to do the same with my job. — Tom Seaver

I came out of my professional athlete career with a 450 credit score, no money in the bank to show for it, but I had an Ivy League degree. So I put that Dartmouth degree to good use and got a job on Wall Street. I hated it but used the time to make connections and become financially literate. — Brian J. White

What are your three most important business or career goals right now? What are your three most important family or relationship goals right now? What are your three most important financial goals right now? What are your three most important health goals right now? What are your three most important personal and professional development goals right now? What are your three most important social and community goals right now? What are your three biggest problems or concerns in life right now? — Brian Tracy

The daunting task of being a mother, a wife, and an independent career or professional person is really taxing. — Tom Brokaw

I did ballet, jazz and flamenco from when I was five years old. And my professional career started with dancing in musicals. — Jennifer Lopez

Who should have children? Those who are responsible and completely dedicated to the responsibility which is actually a very small percentage of humans. Being a parent should be a career. Whereas some people are engineers, musicians, or lawyers, others with the desire and the skills can be fathers and mothers. Schools can be eliminated if the professional parent is also the educator of the child. — Paul Watson

I was a judo athlete, while taking modeling as my side job, before I eventually quit my professional sports career over a knee injury. — Joe Taslim

Due to a big bust in Cuba, my father's business suffered badly, so I was free to choose my own career. I became a professional dancer, and I went on the road and started making real money. — Cesar Romero

Environment protection weighs the same in my life as my professional acting career. — Li Bingbing

To stay relevant, you must keep your career in permanent beta. That means committing to a lifetime of learning and professional growth, a lifetime of strategic — Jay Samit

I had already been into my professional career for six years and had not won an individual gold medal at the Olympics. There was a tremendous amount of pressure going into 1996 to get it done. — Michael Johnson

When I was in high school, even in college, I didn't have any real image of a career woman or a professional woman. — Betty Friedan

Refuse to accept the belief that your professional relevance, career success or financial security turns on the next update on the latest technology. Sometimes it's good to put the paddle down and just let the canoe glide. — Simon Mainwaring

Other people were looking at my decision in terms of "retirement." I guess that's the right term - retirement - from the NFL, anyway, the only professional career I have ever known. However, I don't think that God ever wants us to retire from relevance or significance. We faced a twofold question: what is the best setting for me to continue to do God's work and how did this fit in with what was best for my family? — Tony Dungy

There is also the professional mentor, a person whose success in his or her career can be a source of practical wisdom and inspiration. This success might be mea sured in material gain or far-reaching influence, or in lives touched and relationships fostered. These mentors can offer a model for good business, ethical practices, and effective work habits, and they often provide the motivation we need to seize whatever opportunities come our way. — John Wooden

Had I not become a professional golfer, I think I would have pursued some type of career in aviation. — Arnold Palmer

Without Police Woman I wouldn't have had a career. The show started about the same time the women's movement was taking off. Ours was the first prime-time one-hour show featuring a strong, professional woman. It paved the way for other series to follow. — Angie Dickinson

He was one of that class of men who, apart from a scientific career in which they may well have proved brilliantly successful, have acquired an entirely different kind of culture, literary or artistic, for which their professional specialisation has no use but by which their conversation profits. — Marcel Proust

When someone does a professional favor for you, send a handwritten note. You must send a written note to a mentor or sponsor when she helps you. Perhaps even a gift. And here's a great tip from Archambeau: When you take someone's advice, let her know it and how it worked out. So few people ever do that. — Kate White

I still go through stages of wanting to try other trades. When I was young I thought I'd be a magician. And then a cartoonist. Or a professional roller-skater. But there wasn't much support for those on career day. — Jason Mraz

I have experienced a tremendous amount of personal and professional growth, and I feel incredibly lucky that I'm able to make a career out of doing the things that I love. — Jose Garces

If you really want a career in professional skateboarding,you really got to stop pushing mongo. — Jamie Thomas