David Lawrence Geffen is an American business magnate, producer, film studio executive, and philanthropist. Geffen co-created Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and DreamWorks SKG in 1994.
Inspirational David Geffen Quotes:
1.“If you really believe it – go for it.” David Geffen
2.“I’ve always thought that each person invented himself for whatever reasons, for whatever circumstances, through whatever he has gone through, that we are each a figment of our own imagination. And some people have a greater ability to imagine than others.” David Geffen
3.“If you have big dreams then go after big markets. See what the big markets are right now and see where the gaps are. Fill in those gaps and you’ll find success if you try hard work.” David Geffen
4.“Sometimes life’s rules don’t make sense. If you ever find that to be the case or if you see something being done just because it’s ‘always been that way,’ see it as an opportunity. An opportunity to go your own way.” David Geffen
5.“Contrary to popular belief, businesspeople are very risk averse. They like low-risk, high-reward opportunities.” David Geffen
6.“I don’t think the failure of companies is they don’t have money. It’s that they don’t have a vision. They don’t have enough talented people. And I think that’s always the story.” David Geffen
7.“I trusted people around me. That’s not easy to do. Many entrepreneurs want complete control, but that approach just can’t work. Not at scale.” David Geffen
8.“People who are fools don’t get successful, and they don’t get to be successful if they are worried about their popularity.” David Geffen
9.“I don’t think people get to be successful without ambition. I don’t think people get to be successful unless they have very strong egos.” David Geffen
10.“You have an idea of the way you think it is, and it’s not that way at all, it’s something else.” David Geffen
11.“Generally speaking I stick my head in when people ask for an opinion.” David Geffen
12.“The opportunity for an entrepreneur to start a company from scratch today is abysmal.” David Geffen
13.“Broke is a Hollywood term!” David Geffen
14.“Happy is harder than money. Anybody who thinks money will make you happy hasn’t got money.” David Geffen
15.“To be able to live and work in the United States is a privilege.” David Geffen
16.“I don’t agree that the best giving is anonymous. We should be examples to our friends and communities. I should be an example to young, gay kids. It’s not like people are really anonymous anyway.” David Geffen
17.“I intend to give every nickel of my money away, while I’m alive.” David Geffen
18.“Your life isn’t made up of people who aren’t in it.” David Geffen
19.“I could not get up in front of an audience of 6,000 people put together by AIDS Project Los Angeles, where so many people are infected with HIV and are dealing with this very, very serious issue of AIDS, and not acknowledge that I was a gay man. I just couldn’t do it. My hesitation in the past is strictly that I think these are private matters. But I, unfortunately, am not a private person. I have become, by virtue of my success and other things, a public person.” David Geffen
20.“There are a great many gay people in the entertainment business, and I think that generally speaking, this business is more compassionate and more accepting than maybe any other industry except fashion in the United States. On the other hand, you know there is a thing called fear, and people have a lot of fear. And sometimes their fear is not necessarily rational.” David Geffen
21.“I can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone would want to serve in the military, but if people who happen to be gay want to serve their country they should have the right to do so.” David Geffen
22.“One thing AIDS does is make you realize the future is an illusion. All you have is right now. And you aren’t alive five years from now, you aren’t alive 10 years from now, you aren’t alive 30 years from now. You’re just alive today. And to start living your life for the future is dumb. There is no future.” David Geffen
23.“Not only did I know that I wasn’t one of the smart kids in the class, but so did everyone else. There was no word dyslexia when I was a kid. You were just dumb.” David Geffen
24.“As a child I wanted to earn a thousand dollars a week, have an apartment on Ocean Parkway and drive a Cadillac convertible.” David Geffen
25.“I thought I’d be a success even back in the mailroom at William Morris. It was just inconceivable to me I couldn’t win it all. David Geffen