Michael Eisner Quotes

When I read biographies, I'm only interested in the first few chapters. I'm not interested in when people become successful. I'm interested in what made them successful.

Well, when you're trying to create things that are new, you have to be prepared to be on the edge of risk.

We cannot escape that Hollywood is in the middle of a wave of technological change. The current angst over all the implications of new entertainment technology is nothing new.

There's no good idea that can't be improved on.

There's a fine line between what would characterize you as a troglodyte and what would characterize you as a brilliant, avant-garde, forward-thinking genius. There's some middle ground.

The odds of being successful are the same for every group that is educated in America. It's just that the group that is not wealthy is 95 percent of the population. So if there are 100 successful people in a room, probably 95 out of 100 came from more modest means.

Over time, the product we produce has been consistently successful here in America and around the world. Apparently, we are doing something right.

Nobody has a bigger cult than Warren Buffett.

My strength is coming up with two outs in the last of the ninth.

My best idea was to not accept my wife's negative reaction when I asked her to marry me.

Many people you think are individual achievers in fact have either a strong spousal partner over many years or a business partner who's either in the background, not given enough publicity or less egocentric.

In every business, in every industry, management does matter.

If you're soft and fuzzy, like our little characters, you become the skinny kid on the beach, and people in this business don't mind kicking sand in your face.

If it's not growing, it's going to die.

I grew up Jewish. I am Jewish. I went to an Episcopal high school. I went to a Baptist college. I've taken every comparative-religion course that was available. God? I have no idea.

I gravitate toward the team thing. I'm not a golfer - I much prefer basketball.

I find that, once you get into a position where you can afford a pair of shoes and a decent level of living, success in itself is empty.

I don't think individual achievement in business is the most meaningful way for it to operate.

Graduate school is a place to hide for a couple of years.

Eventually the consumer will come to appreciate the editorial point of view of every different brand. User-generated content without editorial oversight will simply be background noise.

Doing stuff that I don't have to talk about because I'm not in a public company is fantastic.

A company that pays attention to the family unit is a successful company. We don't isolate the family. We don't make rides that say, 'Hey mom, dad, you go sit on the bench.'

21 years as CEO is a long time. I was and probably still am the longest serving CEO in America. Certainly I am in the media industry, bar none.

Succeeding is not really a life experience that does that much good. Failing is a much more sobering and enlightening experience.

It is rare to find a business partner who is selfless. If you are lucky it happens once in a lifetime.