A Gallon of Entrepreneurial Inspiration

A gallon as in....four quotes. Forgive the bad pun and the quick post, but the clients are hungry, and sated clients are what creates more good time for more good work. Here are four great sayings from unlikely sources. While I'm not going to state my opinion of each quote's relevance, they wouldn't be here if I didn't find a lesson for entrepreneurs in each.

Rod Carew, on Steailng Home (from Esquire Magazine):

"Stealing home is the exciting play in baseball. I got a thrill out of doing it. And the greatest thing about stealing home is this: Either you did it or you didn’t. There’s nothing else to say. Once I slid across the plate, I just stood up and walked back to the dugout. I never celebrated. I never turned around and looked at the pitcher or anything. I had accomplished what I’d set out to do for my team, and that was it. It was done."

Conan O'Brien, on finding holes (from, yes, Oprah Magazine):

“Stop thinking so much” proved to be the mantra of my subsequent weird career. People ask me all the time how I wound up with my own talk show or how I managed to make it last nine years. The truth is I don’t know. It’s like asking someone “So how did you get hit by a meteor?” My Late Night career has largely been the result of reacting honestly and spontaneously to people and problems around me. I don’t know how I got here and I certainly don’t know where I’m going. This is the essence of my philosophy and coincidentally, the words to most Jimmy Buffet songs.

“Which reminds me of one last piece of wisdom I heard a running back say about football. He said that despite the best planning and blocking, “the hole is never where it’s supposed to be.” What this man was saying is that real life is about reacting quickly to the opportunity at hand, not the opportunity you envisioned. Not thinking and scheming for the future, but letting it happen and reacting. In this way, life is a lot like football, right down to the part where you pat the ass of the man next to you.”

Sigfried and Roy on, um, capes (from Esquire Magazine):

"Wear the cape; never let the cape wear you."

Ted Williams, from his Hall of Fame acceptance speech:

“…ballplayers are not born great. They’re not born hitters or pitchers or managers, and luck isn’t the big factor. No one has come up with a substitute for hard work. I’ve never met a great player who didn’t have to work harder at learning to play ball than anything else he ever did. To me it was the greatest fun I ever had, which probably explains why today I feel humility and pride, because God let me play the game and learn to be good at it…”