Eli Broad Quotes
112 Eli Broad Quotes
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[On not doing well in high school but excelling in college] I like to question everything. High school teachers didn’t like that. College professors love students who do that.
Eli Broad
[On the houses his company Kaufman & Broad built going on sale in January 1957 and selling out the first weekend.] We came up with a product. Everybody said, ‘No one will buy it.’
Eli Broad
[On starting Kaufman & Broad] When we started, life was very simple. If you built a home and the monthly payments even before tax benefits were equal to or less than rent, people would buy.
Eli Broad
I knew there was risk – risk of failure, that we wouldn’t accomplish it. I’d measure the risks versus the reward, and if I thought the odds were in our favor, we’d go ahead and do it.
Eli Broad
You don’t want a bunch of robots running around. You want people who have ideas, who are going to challenge you and push you. You want people who are going to say, ‘I’m not sure you are doing the right thing. You ought to do it a different way.’ You want to listen to all that, but at the end of the day, as they say, the buck stops here. You make a decision and you expect them to follow it.
Eli Broad
[On his reputation for being a tough boss] There’s a story around here that you’re either here for six weeks or you’re here for twenty years.
Eli Broad
I’ve always had strong directors. It would not have bothered me to have a lead director or a chairman as long as I was the CEO. I want to be challenged. I’m one of those people who ask a lot of questions. You know, when the going gets tough, you need people like this.
Eli Broad
Directors have responsibilities beyond even shareholders and employees to the public at large and customers.
Eli Broad
Born in the Bronx… Only child… Dyslexic… They didn’t know what dyslexia was back then… It was many years later that I found out that I was dyslexic and grew out of it.
Eli Broad
The idea was to build homes without basements…All the homebuilders in Detroit said ‘No-one will buy a home without a basement’… It was 15 percent less than other homes and people bought them…
Eli Broad
We sold out our seventeen homes in the first weekend. It was amazing.
Eli Broad
[On Sunlife Insurance] I said ‘We’ve got to find a market niche. And we found out a market niche that turned out to be a great success… retirement savings, mutual funds, annuities, financial planning services and the like…
Eli Broad
[On Sunlife Insurance company of America purchased in 1971 that was founded in 1890] From that acquisition which was in the mid 50 some odd million dollars, we ended up selling it to AIG for $18 billion dollars.
Eli Broad
I found it far more interesting to be involved with art of our time. Why? Because you could meet the artist. They have a different view of life than we businesspeople have. I learned a lot from artists.
Eli Broad
[On learning from artists] I have learned to be broader minded than I otherwise would be. They see society differently than bankers, and lawyers and we businesspeople do.
Eli Broad
[On his philanthropy] For us to do things it has to be three tests. 1) If other people are doing it then that’s fine. 2) Will it make a difference twenty or thirty years from now and lastly are there people there that can make it happen?… And that’s very different to charity where you just write checks.
Eli Broad
[On fixing the education system] We’ve got to fix a broken system.
Eli Broad
We need a longer school day and a longer school year. Our kids are short-changed… They only get 720 hours a year on average on academics… In other countries it’s one and a half times that.
Eli Broad
[On being the ‘unreasonable man’] I’m very demanding. I don’t take no for an answer. I always ask ‘Why not?’ when people say ‘You can’t do that. It hasn’t been done before.’ So I say ‘Why not?’ And I listen and rarely do I get a great answer. If I don’t get a great answer to ‘Why not?’ then I go ahead. People think that’s unreasonable.
Eli Broad
I’ve got a thirst for knowledge, I read four newspapers a day.
Eli Broad
Pursue the untried.
Eli Broad
The fact that no-one had done it before is even better reason to do it now.
Eli Broad
[On setting higher goals] Revise expectations upward.
Eli Broad
I don’t linger.
Eli Broad
Art becomes an addiction.
Eli Broad
[On a special piece of art] I smile every time I look at it.
Eli Broad
I was the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary art back in ‘79.
Eli Broad
I believe the purpose of a museum is to educate the broadest possible public but also to advance galleryship.
Eli Broad
I am determined.
Eli Broad
Always, ask a lot of questions…
Eli Broad
Time is the most valuable thing you have…
Eli Broad
Do you want to walk through the same door for the rest of your life, or do you want to do more?
Eli Broad
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