Michael Eisner Quotes

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.

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

The movie business has always been like the wild-catting oil business. Everyone wants a gusher.

We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.

There's no good idea that cannot be improved on.

A brand is a living entity-and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.

To punish failure is yet another way to encourage mediocrity.

Fear of failure is a far worse condition than failure itself, because it kills off possibilities.

You either play by the rules, change the rules, or get out, altogether.

Management is not a science, it is an art.

Recovering from failure is often easier than building from success.

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

Diversity is a great force towards creativity.

It doesn't matter whether it comes in by cable, telephone lines, computor, or satellite. Everyone's going to have to deal with Disney.

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

The whole business starts with ideas, and we're convinced that ideas come out of an environment of supportive conflict, which is synonymous with appropriate friction.

We all know that the Disney brand is our most valuable asset. It is the sum total of our seventy-five years in business, of our reputation, of everything that we stand for.

User-generated content is not done by professionals. The best user-generated content eventually becomes those people gravitated in the professional world.

Content has always driven the business. Now it's no longer the queen to a king of distribution; it is the king, king, king, because the consumer has complete choice.

Sometimes you have to be worn out and burnt out to become authentic and original.

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.

You can't succeed unless you've got failure, especially creatively.

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

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

A decision will be made before it's too late or soon thereafter.

Failure is good as long as it does not become a habit.

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

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

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

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.

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

Privacy laws are our biggest impediment to us obtaining our objectives.

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.

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

The only thing that gives [new technology] purpose is the kind of creative content we all produce.

I think when you get inured with the past, you get committed to the past, you stop growing.

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.

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.

Nobody has a bigger cult than Warren Buffett.

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.

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

Creativity can flourish within sensible financial limitations.

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

I find that no matter how long a meeting goes on, the best ideas always come during the final five minutes, when people drop their guard and I ask them what they really think.

If you're really good, you should express yourself...a lot.

The company should be run from a creative point of view rather than a financial point of view.

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.

Failure is good as long as it doesn’t become a habit.