Kevin O'Leary Quotes

101 Kevin O’Leary Quotes

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I measure my success by asking myself some very simple questions: Did I go to bed richer than when I woke up? Did I help my investors do the same? What can I do better, or differently, tomorrow?
Kevin O’Leary

What I love the most about money. There is no gray zone. You either make money or lose it; you have it or you don’t.
Kevin O’Leary

I wasn’t sure that a show about venture capitalism would really take off in Canada…
Kevin O’Leary

I’ve been called much worse names than ‘asshole’ – on and off the screen. And I’ll tell you why it has never bothered me: because I speak the truth.
Kevin O’Leary

I tell the truth because I don’t like to lead people astray or to waste time.
Kevin O’Leary

Money’s great, money’s the point of everything., and I can always earn more. But time is a scare commodity. It is the true universal currency, because you can’t invent, manufacture, or buy time.
Kevin O’Leary

[On not yet being able to invent time.] Not a day goes by when I don’t lament that fact. Therefore, I have no time for people, places, or things that waste it.
Kevin O’Leary

Unless there’s money to be earned, I don’t take meetings with people I don’t know or need to see.
Kevin O’Leary

I call myself the Merchant of Truth because I speak the truth to everybody all the time. And it can sound blunt to the unaccustomed ear. It might make me come across as an asshole, but that’s only because the brutal truth is so rarely spoken these days. It’s like an ancient tribal language we’ve forgotten we know how to speak.
Kevin O’Leary

Business is bred in my bones.
Kevin O’Leary



[On his grandparents] Only in North America can two people who’ve never met in their small Lebanese village meet and mate!
Kevin O’Leary

For more than two decades, not a day has gone by for me without a pitch… So for more than two decades, not a day has gone by without my having to tell some hard working entrepreneur that their idea sucks.
Kevin O’Leary

The truth is that truly great ideas, ideas that lead to creative destruction and change the world forever, are few and far between.
Kevin O’Leary

I’ve probably heard more than 10,000 pitches… and truth be told, most of them sucked.
Kevin O’Leary

Great opportunities are few and far between.
Kevin O’Leary

It pains me to see good entrepreneurs chase bad opportunities.
Kevin O’Leary

Time, energy, bandwidth and, most of all, M-O-N-E-Y, are all scarce resources.
Kevin O’Leary

There simply isn’t enough time, money, or energy to pursue every idea. And that is a good thing. It leads to evolutionary economics, where only the most agile survive and only the best thrive.
Kevin O’Leary

One has to be extremely careful of where one invests. That is true no matter what you invest: money, time, or energy.
Kevin O’Leary

As the Merchant of Truth, it is my duty to help hard working people put down their rabid dog of an idea and move on. It is my duty to hold them accountable to themselves. It is my duty to help them see the folly of their ways.
Kevin O’Leary



I help people find the winners and run away from the losers.
Kevin O’Leary

Alcoholism is one form of addiction – spending is another.
Kevin O’Leary

Children need to understand that money is a finite resource. It's not free. And it can help you immensely or hurt you badly.
Kevin O’Leary

I am not planning on giving my kids any of my wealth. They know that 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: at some point its parents stopped feeding it. That's a hard analogy but it's true.
Kevin O’Leary

I tell wealthy parents that if they don't kick their kids out of the house and put them under the stresses of the real world they will fail to launch - they will become unsuccessful adults. I really believe that.
Kevin O’Leary

[On not giving his kids any of his wealth] I am setting up generational skipping trusts so I can provide education for their children and their kids.
Kevin O’Leary

If you don't start out your life with the fear of not being able to feed yourself and your family, then what motivates you to go get a job?
Kevin O’Leary

I don't want my kids to be worse off than me. Fear motivated me, and it will motivate them.
Kevin O’Leary

If you don't plan on having kids, there is no reason to get married. I tell people who are not planning to have kids never to get married.
Kevin O’Leary

Everyone should have a bank account and a credit rating regardless of their age.
Kevin O’Leary



When you get married, you are forming a business relationship not just an emotional one.
Kevin O’Leary

When I'm discussing a decision around an investment, I'm not trying to make friends.
Kevin O’Leary

I don't care if people can't take the truth.
Kevin O’Leary

[On describing himself.] Slightly right of Attila the Hun.
Kevin O’Leary

Can you imagine the information I get just sitting in that green room every single day?... I'm never going to quit that show.
Kevin O’Leary

I want to go to bed richer than I woke up.
Kevin O’Leary

Everyday one thing works while three others don’t. But that’s why you get richer.
Kevin O’Leary

Don’t cry about money, it never cries for you.
Kevin O’Leary

Pig’s get slaughtered… Why are you being so greedy?… What do you think – that I’m an idiot?
Kevin O’Leary

I gotta tell ya, never insult money.
Kevin O’Leary



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