Kevin O'Leary Quotes

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.

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.

In his first term, President Barack Obama played a cautious manager navigating the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression and cleaning up the messes left by President George W. Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I don't think spending time in Ottawa is a good use of my time as the leader.

You'd rather own gold; not the miner

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.

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.

I actually think being an entrepreneur is a state of mind. If you're going to be an entrepreneur, my thesis is that you have to sacrifice everything for some period in your life to be successful. You have to be myopic and completely focused and unbalanced in every way. Once you've achieved success, you're free to do whatever you like.

I want to go to bed richer than when I woke up. The pursuit of wealth is a wonderful thing, but the thing is you have to be honest about it, you have to tell the truth.

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

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.

People say that I can't speak French. C'est pas vraiment placé. I'm getting better every day. I just have to keep practising. That's the truth.

I'm ashamed of what has happened to Canada. And I'm not leaving a $1.5 trillion deficit to my kids. No chance in hell is that happening.

You can't regulate a soul into a business.

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.

You can't win a majority mandate unless you get back 60 per cent of the votes between the ages of 18 and 35. It's a fact.

I'm proud to be on the CBC and to see the management here represents both sides of every story. This is what's unique about the new CBC: you get a Kevin O'Leary on it when five years ago you wouldn't.

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.

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.

So much of life is a negotiation - so even if you're not in business, you have opportunities to practice all around you.

The definition of leadership is that you have to find great people and ask them to do extraordinary things. I've been doing that my whole life.

Money has no grey areas. You either make it or you lose it.

I could have easily gone down the wrong path and dropped out of school, but I was given a second chance.

The road to riches is never straight and narrow. It can be riddled with financial land mines.

The skies were blue when I was coming up. I want my kids to have the same opportunity, if not better, than I had.

I think a book is your calling card, your business card.

Building fast-growing, globally competitive companies is tough.

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?

Don’t let the dark clouds of greed confuse you

Nobody forces you to work at Wal-Mart. Start your own business! Sell something to Wal-Mart!

Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas

Let's not forget, there are three languages in Canada - English, French, and there's the language of jobs.

If I don't deliver a majority mandate in 2019, fire me.

Trudeau motivated people between the ages of 18 to 35 to vote, and 82 per cent of them voted for him. That changed Canadian politics forever. If they stay motivated, and believe me, they are, no party can ever get a majority mandate again without winning at least 60 per cent of those voters. There hasn't been a Conservative candidate in 15 years that ever got on a campus anywhere here in any Canadian university and wasn't thrown stones at.

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

I have no baggage in politics. I've never been a politician. I don't owe anybody anything.

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

What are the most important qualities that make a successful entrepreneur? The ability to communicate. The ability to express your idea with certainty. That's how you become a leader-even if you are unsure, your ability to explain your vision and your direction is the attribute you need the most. ... Articulate your idea in 90 seconds or less.

All businesses require capital, management and labor, and business executives, wanting to grow and maintain profitable enterprises, have a strong incentive to keep costs, including labor, as low as possible.

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.

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.

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

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.

We need physical exercise to prepare our brain for long periods of concentration

I'm not planning on giving my kids any of my wealth. They know when their education is over, I'm pushing them out of the nest. The bird you see dead under the nest is the one who didn't think about the future.

When you bring an idea that has no merit to me, and you ask me to comment on it, I'm going to tell you it has no merit.