Michael Eisner's 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.

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

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.'

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nobody has a bigger cult than Warren Buffett.

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

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

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

You just have to make sure the model you're working on does not undersell your product.

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.

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.

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.