Kevin OLeary Quotes

When you‘re travelling, your day is jam-packed. I just don’t have time to whip out a PC all the time. But I can whip out a BlackBerry and tweet. I keep a constant diary of where I’m at and why I’m there.

I do not own a single security anywhere that doesn’t pay a dividend, and I formed a mutual-fund company with that very simple philosophy.

Once in a while, I see my fellow TV investors praise a business just because they like the entrepreneur behind it. That kind of thinking might make you feel warm and fuzzy inside – but let’s get back to reality.

As far as I’m concerned, Twitter has wiped out Facebook. I’m done with Facebook.

If I were the president of the United States, I would make unions illegal. They no longer serve a functional purpose in democracy, in my view.

My problem with unions is they breed mediocrity.

Filming ‘The Road to Riches‘ was surprisingly difficult for me. I learned that going back to career successes and failures can be emotionally exhausting as you are forced to revisit the euphoric highs and painful lows in high speed.

There are a lot of idiot fund managers out there who add no value to the process at all.

There are a lot of impractical things about owning a Porsche. But they’re all offset by the driving experience. It really is unique. Lamborghinis and Ferraris come close. And they are more powerful, but they don’t handle like a Porsche.

I keep anywhere between 5-10 percent of my net worth in venture ideas.

There’s something very visceral about watching people beg for money. It’s powerful.

Until Americans feel that their core asset – their homes – are stabilized, they are not going to have the animal spirits and they will continue to have less buying power.

I have met many entrepreneurs who have the passion and even the work ethic to succeed – but who are so obsessed with an idea that they don’t see its obvious flaws. Think about that. If you can’t even acknowledge your failures, how can you cut the rope and move on?

Building fast-growing, globally competitive companies is tough.

If you put a woman in prison for four years when she‘s young and make her pay her time in a horrible place and she wants to come out and work, and become a mother and be a contributor to society and pay taxes and you never give her that chance. There is something un-Canadian about that.

The only reason to do business is to make money; that’s the only reason for doing business.

Unions are about the collective leverage, the power of numbers versus the power of capital.

Money is my military, each dollar a soldier. I never send my money into battle unprepared and undefended. I send it to conquer and take currency prisoner and bring it back to me.

The practical reality of managing cars in the family – I do 36-month leases. I think they’re horrible investments. And you want to give them back after their warranty is over.

If a manager can’t control his costs, fire them.

I have had some great successes and great failures. I think every entrepreneur has. I try to learn from all of them.

Don’t cry about money, it never cries for you.

I’m starting to think about things that I want to do, things that are fun. One of them is driving a car like a Porsche. I’ve driven a lot of cars – sedans, trucks and big family vehicles all year long. But there’s nothing like a four-wheel-drive Porsche.

Don’t cry for money. It never cries for you.

You may lose your wife, you may lose your dog, your mother may hate you. None of those things matter. What matters is that you achieve success and become free. Then you can do whatever you like.

I think every entrepreneur in Canada owes the next generation a road map of how to do it again.

We have to change public perception of ex-convicts. Most Canadians don’t realize that when you come out of prison, you’re a complete pariah. You can’t get a car loan or money from a bank to start a business. So most end up back in prison within 24 months. It’s just so wrong. We need to fix this problem.

Here’s how I think of my money – as soldiers – I send them out to war everyday. I want them to take prisoners and come home, so there’s more of them.

Steve Jobs had his critics. Some saw him as an egomaniac, and others, as a control freak.

You can’t regulate a soul into a business.

Know everything about the companies and people you are going to be negotiating with. Insist on getting the names of everyone participating in the negotiations. Leave no stone unturned; find out as much as you can.

For whatever reason somebody can be convinced to buy a PC, it opens up a whole new market for all of us in the software business.

Don’t call me, I’ll call you… I’m out.

If a man could give birth it would be to a book – it’s an 18-month gestation period.

I don’t mind rude people. I want people that I can make money with, so if their executional abilities are good, and they’re arrogant and rude, I don’t care.

All we do is bring the debate from both sides, and let you as a viewer decide where you want to end up on the issue. That’s very important. That’s exactly what happens in ‘Redemption Inc.’

There’s only one side with me. You get the right side. You get the correct version of the facts.

Protecting Americans from harm goes beyond police and national defense. It’s imperative that we not destroy the commons, the physical environment on which we rely.

When I turned 50, something clicked in my head and I said, ‘I’m not going to live to 100. I’m half-cooked already.’ I set the family down and I said, ‘Listen everybody, we’re now entering the decade of Daddy. We’re going to start doing things that I want to do.’

A lot of people have said a lot of great things about Steve Jobs. And for good reason: he built the world‘s second-most valuable company, with billions in profits and products that have improved every aspect of our lives. But Steve didn’t get there by being a soft, fluffy, Kumbaya-type leader.

Imagine how foolish you’d look if, like one clever salesman who once pitched to me, you tried to license your product to a big industry player without knowing they just launched a competing product. With the right background research, he could have avoided that and other landmines – and so can you.

I’m not trying to make friends, I’m trying to make money.

I’m not trying to make friends, I’m just trying to make money.

Being an employee is a bad outcome. You want to avoid that. Being an employee is never a good outcome. That’s just an opinion.

If you want a friend, buy a dog.