Kirk Kerkorian Quotes

“Flying the North Atlantic taught me that the biggest risks often offer the biggest rewards. But you better know what you're doing before you take them.”

“I don't build hotels. I build dreams. And dreams, when they're big enough, become reality.”

“I don't need to know how to build cars. I need to know how to build value. And Chrysler has tremendous untapped value.”

“The key to making money is not avoiding risk—it's understanding risk better than the other guy.”

“When everyone else is selling, that's when you should be buying. When everyone else is buying, start thinking about selling.”

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk at all. But you better make sure you understand what you're risking before you put your money down.”

“I've never made a deal I didn't think I could walk away from. That's what gives you the power to negotiate.”

“Opportunity doesn't knock—it whispers. You have to be listening very carefully to hear it.”

“The best deals are the ones where everybody wins. The worst deals are the ones where you think you're the only winner.”

“I don't invest in businesses I don't understand. But I make sure I understand a lot of different businesses.”

“Cash is king, but timing is emperor. You can have all the money in the world, but if your timing is wrong, you'll lose it all.”

“The key to success is not avoiding mistakes—it's making sure your mistakes don't kill you while you're learning from them.”

“I'd rather own a piece of something great than all of something mediocre.”

“Hire people who are smarter than you, then get out of their way. Your job is to set the direction, not steer every turn.”

“The best managers are the ones who make you look good, not the ones who make themselves look good.”

“[Trust](/mental-models/trust) is the most valuable currency in business. Once you lose it, you can never really get it back.”

“Success isn't about how much money you make—it's about how much you keep and what you do with it.”

“Every failure teaches you something valuable, but only if you're honest about what went wrong.”

“The difference between successful people and everyone else isn't talent or luck—it's persistence. Most people give up right before they would have succeeded.”

“I've been broke, and I've been rich. Rich is better, but broke teaches you things that rich never can.”

“Money is just a way of keeping score. The real game is about building something that lasts longer than you do.”

“The best investment you can make is in yourself. Everything else is just details.”

“I never forgot where I came from, and I never let success change who I was. That's the only way to stay grounded when you're flying high.”

“At the end of the day, it's not about the deals you made or the money you earned. It's about the people you helped and the legacy you leave behind.”