Quotes About Opportunity

I part of this great nation because my grandfather was born here, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He took a horse, back in 1895, and ride it all the way down to Guanajuato, looking for his American dream. No penny in his pocket, only dreams in his head. And he was an immigrant coming from the States into Mexico. And he found his American dream in Mexico.

As an actor, I was not accepted for the longest time. But it did not deter me, as the audience had accepted me. I never compared myself with any other actors. I never had any game plan and took whatever came my way.

I have been passed over on some things because people didn't think I was edgy enough. But the people who took those gigs are gone now, and I am still here.

I'm so overwhelmed, humbled and just honored the Knicks took the chance with me.

When I was growing up, I had lots of smart classmates that were girls, but none of us were really pushed into math or computers or anything like that. Girls took AP history and AP English and AP European history. And boys took calculus and physics.

It was the quest for survival that took me to the world of sports.

There's a big difference between where I came from and the NFL. Things like this don't happen to people from there often. It just took a lot of hard work and dedication, staying on the right path, believing in myself, and having an inner drive.

You got people that come in, one album, two albums, and they're gone. A lot of people couldn't take the break I took and come back into the game, and people be checking for them.

I took my last final exam at HBS, the first Friday of May in 1997, and I started Amazon next Monday. No, I didn't know what my job was going to be, or what my title was going to be.

What's funny is my mom took me to the theater for the first time when I was six years old, and I was just amazed by it. I just said, 'Hey Mom, can I do this too?' And so she signed me up for little theater classes, and I remember my first audition for a play when I was seven years old was for 'The Thankful Elf.'

I put 'Ghost' online hoping to make a couple hundred bucks, but then the next day, I took meetings with five different record companies.

My parents grew that small business from one 18-year-old guarding a bingo to more than 125 employees in three states. And sure, there was help along the way. But my parents took the risk. They stood up. And you better believe they built it.

All the time I was writing hit songs with my partner David Porter, I always had the yen to perform. Sure did. And when the opportunity came, I took it. The first album, 'Presenting Isaac Hayes,' didn't do so hot, but it was like a prelude for what was to come.

I've done shows where I was the lead, but maybe it wasn't quite right - I took them because I wanted to move my career on.

I've been doing my job for a long time and I never really thought about being an actress or being anything like that. I was always a bit scared as well because of the thing about models becoming an actress and all that. I just never really took it seriously.

For me, trying the NFL and trying this football thing, because of the home and what I went through in there, to me, it was no big deal. It was just another opportunity for me. I didn't see that bigger, grandiose picture of it, I just took it one day at a time, like how I took it in the group home.

After 'Pithamagan,' I took a break scouting for good offers.

We took a plant that was being closed by a big company thinking there was no good use for it, and we came in with a different perspective. We bought some used equipment, as simple as we could.

I took up Tamil films because I'm a big fan of Mani Ratnam. I thought maybe he'll notice me if I act in a Tamil film.

I want to use every tool in the toolbox that's at our disposal to help our economy and put people back to work.

Building infrastructure is our most powerful tool to create jobs and improve the playing field for all businesses.

Education is the most powerful tool for everything but certainly to create opportunities for yourself, and I know that not everyone has the privilege of an education like here in America.

Fame was initially this kind of blunt tool that was thrust into my hands very young.

At a relatively early age, I began to believe that building a business was perhaps the greatest opportunity for making an impact, because it's a tool for making a change in the world.