Smart Business Quotes & Sayings

I don't often think of Donald Trump, but his daughter is very smart. She's a woman working in real estate, which is predominantly men, and she's both savvy and articulate about her business and her business acumen. — Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

But truly, it was a practical decision, a smart business move. — Gillian Flynn

Intellectually secure people do not need to show anyone how smart they are. They are empirical and seek truth. Intellectually insecure people need to show everyone how smart they are. They are egotistical and seek triumph. — Kevin Ashton

Rather than having small smart tricks to get by, focus on holding on and persevering. — Jack Ma

Smart recessionary marketing means not waiting for business to return to normal. Instead, you should cash in on this invaluable opportunity your more cautious competitors may be creating for you. If they pull back, your media investment works much harder. — Sarah Carter

I was gratified by the way our players had approached each game throughout the season. They had remained focused on the task at hand, playing hard and smart week after week. We didn't have any turmoil or distractions. We went about our business as usual. To do that in a setting that often was anything but usual is a testament to the character of our players and coaches. Our process worked; we simply picked a bad year to only be very good. — Tony Dungy

Be a smart learner. Learn from your mistakes and adjust your behavior accordingly. — Ehab Atalla

Ludacris is a very smart individual. He's about his business. Everything is business with him. So I learned a lot about making deals from him. — Two Chainz

There is a mistake technical and scientific people make. We think that if we have made a clever and thoughtful argument, based on data and smart analysis, then people will change their minds. This isn't true. If yoy want to change people's behavior, you need to touch their hearts, not just win the arguments. We call this the Oprah Winfrey rule. — Eric Schmidt

You make deals in business and in government if you're smart. — Joe Arpaio

I have discovered there are only a handful of good ideas in the whole world. You already know them. You have heard them your entire life. Here are some of the main keys to being more successful:
Take personal responsibility.
Things change, so be flexible.
Work smart and work hard.
Serve others well.
Be nice to others.
Be optimistic.
Have goals; want something big for yourself.
Stay focused.
Keep learning.
Become excellent at what you do.
Trust your gut.
When in doubt, take action.
Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.
Enjoy all you've got.
Above all keep it simple. — Larry Winget

Have the courage to walk away from a fantastic deal, if the person on the other side is disprepectful or trying to pull a smart one on you.' Temptation should never rule a deal, the value should, fairplay should and acceptance on either side that the deal is being made for the value being created for both! — Abha Maryada Banerjee

There are two kinds of intelligence in this world. People who are Monopoly smart and people who are Trivial Pursuit smart ... If you're starting your own business, don't even talk to me. But If you need to know who the lead singer of Kajagoogoo is, I'm your guy. His name is Limahl, by the way. — Christian Finnegan

One of the challenges in networking is everybody thinks it's making cold calls to strangers. Actually, it's the people who already have strong trust relationships with you, who know you're dedicated, smart, a team player, who can help you. — Reid Hoffman

Just as many smart people fail in the investment business as stupid ones. Intellectually active people are particularly attracted to elegant concepts, which can have the effect of distracting them from the simpler, more fundamental truths. — Peter Cundill

There are some key elements to business being a success, and that's a smart visionary and great management behind the people that are going to build it. — Rob Dyrdek

Being properly prepared is one of the biggest assets in business and in athletic competition. — Keeth Smart

Once you have permission to talk to someone, finding new products or services for them is a smart way to grow. — Seth Godin

I may not be the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick the smartest people to do business with and size them up very fast. — Ziad K. Abdelnour

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with his elegant quickness ...
For when his day's work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against adversary.
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin & glaring eyes. — Christopher Smart

Hire sales people who are really smart problem solvers, but lack courage, hunger and competitiveness, and your company will go out of business. — Ben Horowitz

In the founders, I look for a person I feel is trustworthy, driven and smart. I invest in the person first, because in the event the business fails, the person and I can move forward and create another business. — Daymond John

If you look at the economics of Nokia, roughly half of the company, half of the business, half of how we think about the business is focused on those emerging markets and on those lower-priced devices. But, of course, people who are aspirational and buying those lower-priced devices today are looking at smart phones tomorrow, and so forth. — Stephen Elop

I don't think that writing talent has much to do with where one went to school, or the number of degrees on one's business card, but I do get a bit bristly at the implication that romance authors couldn't possibly be smart enough to get into an Ivy League school. — Julia Quinn

A smart entrepreneur knows they cannot run a business on their own. They know that business is a team sport. — Robert Kiyosaki

Every great business leader I've ever met, in addition to being very smart, very driven, they have this, 'Why not me? Screw it, I deserve it, let's go.' And if you don't have that, you can't achieve greatness. — Donny Deutsch

As America's head coach, President Obama needs to make some big and smart adjustments to jump-start economic growth and business investment, stimulate job creation, and get wages up for ordinary Americans. — Harold Ford Jr.

I stuck around in Hollywood for too long. I was there a long time, and when I left, I was smart enough to realise that what I was leaving was not just the movie business. I wanted to get rid of the whole atmosphere. — Andre Previn

Henry Ford gave that idea popular currency when he brought out the famous Model T car and announced in 1914 that he would pay his workers the then unheard-of wage of $ 5 a day. Not only was it a matter of social justice, Ford later wrote, but it was smart business. When wages are low, Ford argued, business and the economy are at risk. But when pay is high and steady, Ford reasoned, business is more secure because workers earn enough to be good customers and eventually to be able to afford to buy Model Ts. — Hedrick Smith

I called my business manager in California and said, 'Sell all of my stock' - what little of it I had - and it's the only smart financial move I ever made. — Lauren Bacall

If it can be profitable to be green, that's just smart business. — Barry Sternlicht

I think up until the point when we started in the business, which was in the early '70s, most of the humor was political. The smart humor was political satire. — David Zucker

Women are smart in business and dumb in love. They won't date outside their zip code, let alone outside the city. They are city snobs. — Patti Stanger

The smart business person sees an opportunity to generate referrals by collaborating with their competitors. — Timothy M. Houston

The sooner we associate long hours and multitasking with incompetence and carelessness the better. The next time you hear boasts of executives pulling an all-nighter or holding conference calls in their cars, be sure to offer your condolences; it's grim being stuck in sweatshops run by managers too ignorant to understand productivity and risk. Working people like this is as smart as running your factory without maintenance. In manufacturing and engineering businesses, everyone learns that the top priority is asset integrity: protecting the machinery on which the business depends. In knowledge-based economies, that machinery is the mind. — Margaret Heffernan

I often give my wife Carol scripts I'm offered and want her opinion - because she's a really smart lady, and she's got nothing to do with this business, so I get the audience's point of view. — Scott Glenn

Business success depends on good business leadership, and that means hiring and partnering with only the people your business really needs. These are the smart, hardworking people who know your industry as well as, or even better than, you. — Kevin J. Donaldson

I think most importantly the reason we've been on the upswing is Ring of Honor has been very smart about the speed of its growth. ROH is not a company that says ok we're going to throw all this money in and let's just go for it. ROH has the business approach of slow but steady. — Adam Cole

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren't that smart, who aren't that creative. — Elon Musk

The dumb-manager theory of business problems just didn't hold water for me. There had to be a deeper reason why smart people would make decisions that lead to failure. — Clayton M Christensen

If clients don't trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn't matter how smart you are. — Greg Smith

My phone isn't "smart" because of its features. I make it smart by maximizing the phone's feature-set toward better personal efficiency. — Larry Bailin

I never knew any Jews until I got into show business. I've found them to be real smart and good workers. — Loretta Lynn

Try to focus on customers flow and business potential the business you are investing in might or might not have, because that is basically the only way you will be certain that you have made a smart decision. — Mike Jellick

I think the business community is smart enough to realise that just having a trade union is not enough. They are smart enough to know they need to be part of a union that has political and financial power. — Marjorie Scardino

Some people have a lot of time, but no money--
It's because they don't work hard enough.
Some people have a lot of money, but no time--
It's because they don't work smart enough.
The most successful people have both. — Bob Sharpe

You can't know it all. No matter how smart you are, no matter how comprehensive your education, no matter how wide ranging your experience, there is simply no way to acquire all the wisdom you need to make your business thrive. — Donald Trump

There's nothing wrong with continuous improvement and smart business tactics, but the tail is wagging the dog when market research becomes more important than technical innovation. — Eric Schmidt

It is a very competitive business with a lot of smart and hardworking people in it. — Dr. C.

In business, standards establish the rules of the game, creating path dependencies as investments are made and corresponding designs are set in stone and plastic. Inferior standards can prevail due to smart marketing or industry collusion. — Evgeny Morozov

The venture business is a bit of an apprenticeship business, so the firm I worked for didn't let me make an investment until I was 30. That was probably a very smart thing. — Fred Wilson

Well, we're about 24 million subscribers today, and that's up from about 15 million a year ago, so it's a very high rate of growth, and that's what's exciting about the business - more and more people are getting smart TVs, they're watching Netflix on their iPads. — Reed Hastings

It's as important to sell yourselves as much as the service. The business model's going to change 50 times, and the market's going to change, but you need to convince that investor that you are smart enough and excited enough about the opportunity that you'll figure it out. — Dylan Smith

Charity work. Any smart, ethical business owner is going to be involved with something that gives back, whether it is at the community level, in the fight against a specific disease, or in a broad campaign to address another social issue. If you are willing to take the time to roll up your sleeves - first, to find out what groups your targeted mentor works with, and second, to start giving your money, time, or resources to that same group - you can find inroads to business mentors very quickly, and all while pursuing a worthy cause. — Ryan Blair

Just been talking today out here to all the Senators investigating these stock swindles and overcapitalizations. There has been hundreds of millions lost. There ought to be some form of guardianship for people that buy all this junk. Education won't do it. The buyers are the ones we have educated up till they are just smart enough to fall for everything that comes along. — Will Rogers

We are certain that for every one of these rock stars we meet in our daily work, there are dozens or even hundreds more who are doing their best to unseat us from our perch. Maybe all of them will fail, but probably not. Probably, somewhere in a garage, dorm room, lab, or conference room, a brave business leader has gathered a small, dedicated team of smart creatives. Maybe she has a copy of our book, and is using our ideas to help her create a company that will eventually render Google irrelevant. Preposterous, right? Except that, given that no business wins forever, it is inevitable. Some would find this chilling. We find it inspiring. — Eric Schmidt

Fortunately, we have a lot of really smart women in the business. — Rosanna Arquette

It's all about trying to be very careful about what your next role or what your next move is gonna be. It's all about trying to have longevity in this business and make smart choices. — Aaron Paul

Make Hard Work Your Best Friend. Hard Work becomes Smart Work; Smart Work becomes Easy Work. — Vid Lamonte' Buggs Jr.

People in retail banks are not smart. They have a business model that's quite difficult to not make money out of - but still they somehow manage it. — Peter Hargreaves

We really began to think in different ways about our business in terms of climbing this mountain and it became very clear very quickly this was the smart thing to do. Not only did we start to generate answers for those customers, they embraced us for what we were trying to do. The goodwill in the market place has just been stunning. The rest of the business case is pretty simple. I cost it down not up. — Ray Anderson

The people who built Silicon Valley were engineers. They learned business, they learned a lot of different things, but they had a real belief that humans, if they worked hard with other creative, smart people, could solve most of humankind's problems. I believe that very much. — Steve Jobs

When you're feeling overwhelmed in business, one smart idea can beat the biggest Super Bowl ad. — Courtney Love

Remind people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense. This makes you look smart. — Scott Adams

This is a business. Be smart. Choose wisely. — John Aniston

had occurred to very few in the hopeful-starlet community that regular features and low body weight might not after all be counted on to buy you a thing that mattered. The shock of the Cielo Drive murders was bad enough out in civilian life, but the impact on Shasta and her friends was paralyzing. You could be the sweetest girl in the business, smart with your money, careful about dope, aware of how far to trust people in this town, which was not at all, you could be nice to everybody - focus pullers, grips, — Thomas Pynchon

They dated," Frank says, with just a little too much relish. "For two years. They were the shiniest golden couple of our class. What a match, you know? Both gorgeous. She's super smart--does student government, debate, choir, all that business. He does the sports and volunteers with his dad's church, has those puppy eyes that make you want to buy him a boat--"
"Do they?"
"Yes, gaze deeply into his eyes next time--you'll feel it." He takes a long draw from his drink and then continues. "Anyway, they were the kind of couple where it's like, separate--they're great. But together, it's . . . star magic."
"Star magic?"
"From the universe. Celestial bodies aligning and shit. That kind of magic. — Emma Mills

Every time a player goes out to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be Number One in any business. But more important, you've got to play with you heart - with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second. — Vince Lombardi

If you are not good at innovating, be smart in investing. — Rifhi Siddiq

Employers have recognized for some time that it's smart business to have a diverse workforce - one in which many views are represented and everyone's talents are valued. Well, disability is part of diversity. — Thomas Perez

There's a lot of health information available on your smart phone. There's financial information. There's your conversations, there's business secrets. There's an enormous long list of things that there's probably more information about you on here than exists in your home, right. Which makes it a lot more valuable to all the bad guys out there. — Tim Cook

Nasty Gal Obsessed: We keep the customer at the center of everything we do. Without customers, we have nothing. Own It: Take the ball and run with it. We make smart decisions, put the business first, and do more with less. People Are Important: Reach out, make friends, build trust. No Assholes: We leave our egos at the door. We are respectful, collaborative, curious, and open-minded. Learn On: What we're building has never been built before - the future is ours to write. We get excited about growth, take intelligent risks, and learn from our mistakes. Have Fun and Keep It Weird. — Sophia Amoruso

Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress. — Seth Godin

The world of the 90s and beyond will belong to managers or those who make the numbers dance, as we used to say, or those who are conversant with all the business jargon we used to sound smart. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders
people who not only have an enormous amount of energy but who can energize those whom they lead. — John Welch

When I started the diamond business, no black person, period, was in it to do what we're trying to do to change the industry. So I like to do things that I see clearly that are in my, you know, scope. And then, I had to figure how I get talented or smart business people around me to execute. That's what I have to do. — Russell Simmons

Will and George were doing well in business, and Joe was writing letters home in rhymed verse and making as smart an attack on all the accepted verities as was healthful.

Samuel wrote to Joe, sayings, "I would be disappointed if you had not become an atheist, and I read pleasantly that you have, in your age and wisdom, accepted agnosticism the way you'd take a cookie on a full stomach. But I would ask you with all my understanding heart not to try to convert your mother. Your last letter only made her think you are not well. Your mother does not believe there are many ills uncurable by good strong soup. She puts your brave attack on the structure of our civilization down to a stomach ache. It worries her. Her faith is a mountain, and you, my son, haven't even got a shovel yet. — John Steinbeck

Nobody talks about how Puffy went to Howard University or about Lil Wayne attending the University of Houston. All the young kids know is what they see on the videos. They don't realize that these guys have taken managerial and business courses, and know how to brand and how to market themselves. They're very smart. — Yolanda Adams

This is a competitive business - there are a lot of women who want these jobs, but experience, education, and smarts go a long way. I'm still figuring it out - I learn new things every day. Once you stop learning, you should get out of the business. It's just really about being hungry for more. — Nicole Lapin

Keep this constantly in mind: that all sorts of people have died - all professions, all nationalities. Follow the thought all the way down to Philistion, Phoebus, and Origanion. Now extend it to other species. We have to go there too, where all of them have already gone: . . . the eloquent and the wise - Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates . . . . . . the heroes of old, the soldiers and kings who followed them . . . . . . Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes . . . . . . the smart, the generous, the hardworking, the cunning, the selfish . . . . . . and even Menippus and his cohorts, who laughed at thewhole brief, fragile business. All underground for a long time now. And what harm does it do them? Or the others either - the ones whose names we don't even know? The only thing that isn't worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don't. — Marcus Aurelius

I wanted to be involved in TV and film in some capacity, so a compromise, because acting seemed unrealistic, and so risky, was to get into the production side. And it was a really fortunate, smart move looking back on it, because it gave me perspective on another side of the business. — Wentworth Miller

Excerpt from Cracking the Safe:
Thus what the world calls good business is only a way
To gather up the loot, pack it, make it secure
In one convenient load for the more enterprising thieves.
Who is there, among those called smart,
Who does not spend his time amassing loot
For a bigger robber than himself? — Thomas Merton

I learned early that business is business and politics is politics. The proof is how few important businessmen have made good politicians. They may think that they are very smart about everything because they made millions of dollars by digging a hole in the ground and finding oil, but the talent and luck needed to become rich are not the same talent and luck needed to succeed on Parliament Hill. — Jean Chretien

Just as no one knows why the sun rises every morning, so is Faking Smart! an enigma that has grasped the imagination of tycoons and business scholars from all walks of life and from every corner of this massive sphere we call Earth. 'We don't know why it works,' quotes the FSRI. 'It just does! So, let's leave it at that. — Martin Fossum

You can have an Apple in the phone business, or a RIM, and they can do very well, but when 1.3 billion phones a year are all smart, the software that's gonna be most popular in those phones is gonna be software that's sold by somebody who doesn't make their own phones. — Steve Ballmer

But for all their differences, shyness and introversion have in common something profound. The mental state of a shy extrovert sitting quietly in a business meeting may be very different from that of a calm introvert - the shy person is afraid to speak up, while the introvert is simply overstimulated - but to the outside world, the two appear to be the same. This can give both types insight into how our reverence for alpha status blinds us to things that are good and smart and wise. — Susan Cain

The tale of Enron is a story of human weakness, of hubris and greed and rampant self-delusion; of ambition run amok; of a grand experiment in the deregulated world; of a business model that didn't work; and of smart people who believed their next gamble would cover their last disaster - and who couldn't admit they were wrong. — Bethany McLean

Just really, really believe in what you're trying to do. Don't let people alter that. Let people advise you and lead you down paths to make smart business decisions. But trust your instinct and trust that overwhelming drive that made you put all your dreams and everything on the line. — Luke Bryan

Just because you may be a Genious, does not mean you are Smart. — Mark W. Boyer

It's probably not just by chance that I'm alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he's terribly strong. And if he's stronger than I, I'm the one who can't live with him. ... I'm neither smart nor stupid, but I don't think I'm a run-of-the-mill person. I've been in business without being a businesswoman, I've loved without being a woman made only for love. The two men I've loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness. I've done my best, in regard to people and to life, without precepts, but with a taste for justice. — Coco Chanel

Real estate is at the core of almost every business, and it's certainly at the core of most people's wealth. In order to build your wealth and improve your business smarts, you need to know about real estate. — Donald Trump

Many a business depends for its success on some girl who is smart enough to see to it that her boss gets his work done, who sometimes even does his work for him, who keeps everybody satisfied and happy, and who has enough foresight to control new situations as they occur. How do you go about finding such a jewel? ... RICHARD and RUBIN, How to Select and Direct the Office Staff — Susan Griffin

Sephora's business is really smart and clever - I'm all for anything that gets people up and out and into the social experience of shopping. — Marc Jacobs

Cloud-based, blockchain-based autonomous business entities running via smart contract could then electronically contract with compliance entities like governments to self-register in any jurisdictions in which they wanted to operate. Every business could be a general universal business first, and a jurisdictional business later when better decisions can be made about jurisdictions. The same could be true for individuals as general humans first, and citizens on demand later. — Melanie Swan

When Jonathan was in business school, one of his finance professors used to say that "money is the lifeblood of any company." This is only partially true. In the Internet Century money is obviously critical, but information is the true lifeblood of the business. Attracting smart creatives and leading them to do amazing things is the key to building a twenty-first-century business, but none of that happens if they aren't flush with information. — Eric Schmidt

Well I 'low I'll MAKE it my business." "Well why don't you?" "If you say much, I will." "Much - much - MUCH. There now." "Oh, you think you're mighty smart, DON'T you? I could lick you with one hand tied behind me, if I wanted to." "Well why don't you DO it? You SAY you can do it." "Well I WILL, if you fool with me." "Oh yes - I've seen whole families in the same fix." "Smarty! You think you're SOME, now, DON'T you? Oh, what a hat! — Mark Twain

Idiocy in the modern age isn't an all-encompassing, twenty-four-hour situation for most people. It's a condition that everybody slips into many times a day. Life is just too complicated to be smart all the time. — Scott Adams

Posting dramatic charts or funny pictures is good and giving people smart reasons to believe what they already think is great. — Derek Thompson

I think I've got my business notions and my sense for that sort of thing from my dad. My dad never had a chance to go to school. He couldn't read and write. But he was so smart. He was just one of those people that could just make the most of anything and everything that he had to work with. — Dolly Parton

Denis Eady was the son of Michael Eady, the ambitious Irish grocer, whose suppleness and effrontery had given Starkfield its first notion of "smart" business methods, and whose new brick store testified to the success of the attempt. His son seemed likely to follow in his steps, and was meanwhile applying the same arts to the conquest of the Starkfield maidenhood. Hitherto Ethan Frome had been content to think him a mean fellow; but now he positively invited a horse-whipping. — Edith Wharton