Alan Bond Quotes

120 Alan Bond Quotes

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You either have that pioneering spirit or you don’t.
Alan Bond

It soon dawned on me that there were very few people who really wanted to go out and tackle the difficult work. I found there was money to be made in solving other people’s problems.
Alan Bond

Problems are like mountains – you have to decide how to get to the other side.
Alan Bond

[On being asked to end the controversy and to get back to sailing] End the controversy? No one would know we were here if it weren’t for the controversy.
Alan Bond

I was always of the view that just because someone said that something hadn’t been done before didn’t mean that if couldn’t be done…
Alan Bond

Older and wiser, I look back and see opportunities missed – times when we should have raised capital rather than debt…
Alan Bond

Ego was part of it as it is something that drives you to do greater things.
Alan Bond

I gave them the opportunity to leapfrog through life instead of standing in a queue.
Alan Bond

We were unable to save ourselves, primarily because we became extremely vulnerable as interest rates climbed from 10 percent to 20 percent and beyond.
Alan Bond

I knew that my entire world crumbled to dust when I heard the keys rattle and the prison cell door lock behind me for the very first time.
Alan Bond



What was a problem for someone was for me just a challenge in need of a simple solution.
Alan Bond

I certainly stretched the boundaries a lot more than I should have.
Alan Bond

There is no doubt that Kerry got the deal of a lifetime.
Alan Bond

The anguish of failure is not a pleasant experience.
Alan Bond

When I was 18 I set myself a target to have 1 million pounds in the bank by the time I was 21.
Alan Bond

By the time I turned 21, in 1959, I had my 1 million pounds in the bank and was building on it.
Alan Bond

Get me inside any boardroom and I’ll get any decision I want.
Alan Bond

The trouble with Australia was that it was being seized by a vocal and critical minority which knocks success and resents excellence.
Alan Bond

[As a teenager aged 14 to a co-worker three years older then him] When I grow up, you’ll be working for me.
Alan Bond

The local authorities become dictators, the shire councils become dictators. You’ve got to have a firm hand to get things done.
Alan Bond



Traditionally, property companies are highly geared. Our company is more fortunate than some in having a majority of long-term arrangements backed by sound investments.
Alan Bond

Whether you race or not, I will be at the line, and so will CBS, NBC and the rest. So take your choice.
Alan Bond

[On an overseas business deal – Giving the party fifteen minutes to make up their mind] If I don’t hear from you by then. I’m going to get on a plane and go back to Australia.
Alan Bond

We’ll just bloody come back and win it off them then.
Alan Bond

[To his defeated crew in a 1980 America’s cup race] Don’t worry boys. That was great. We gave it our best shot.
Alan Bond

[On his 1983 America’s cup challenge] We’ll have the budget and the boat. And we are going to win the America’s Cup. Right?
Alan Bond

I own this, I own that, I will soon own…
Alan Bond

I’d describe myself as the ultimate entrepreneur who pushed the envelope of development and pioneered projects others were afraid to pursue.
Alan Bond

At no stage did I ever think that the shores of Australia were the boundary for my dreams.
Alan Bond

My world was beyond the horizon – a world that I knew was out there because I had travelled halfway around it as a youngster to start a new life in Australia.
Alan Bond



I could also be described as a corporate explorer – pushing out into the unknown, just like the great explorers of yesteryear…
Alan Bond

The risks I took were calculated.
Alan Bond

Just like the dangers any pioneer faces, there was always a risk associated with my corporate exploration…
Alan Bond

I was the one who gambled on four challenges for the America’s cup…
Alan Bond

I was always of the view that just because someone said that something hadn’t been done before didn’t mean that if couldn’t be done – it might only need to be looked at a bit differently.
Alan Bond

Why did my world collapse, and why did I go to prison?
Alan Bond

In hindsight I can say there was too much gearing, too much borrowing, and as a result mistakes were made.
Alan Bond

The biggest mistakes came when I tangled with Tiny Rowland, and at around the same time bought into the Bell Group.
Alan Bond

[On his relationship with the WA government] We became too close.
Alan Bond

Older and wiser, I look back and see opportunities missed – times when we should have raised capital rather than debt, although raising capital was the long-term plan that would have seen us become world dominant in our chosen arenas.
Alan Bond



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