Salespeople are the most important people in any organization. Until a salesperson gets an order, nobody in the company has a job.
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.
I'm a Levi's guy.
My mom had to be resourceful. She grew up dirt poor in rural Louisiana.
What can we be in life? Few figures in history have answered this question with as much clarity and moral authority as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
My first ambition in life, I made up my mind I was going to become Miles Davis. I studied music, music theory. I played trumpet for nine years. One day, my mother explained, 'You can't be Miles Davis. There's one, and he's got that job.'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.'
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.
I had spent years in the United States military. Specifically in the U.S. Navy.
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.
Will Smith played Chris Gardner better than Chris Gardner ever did.
