“If more people learned to understand their real business interests correctly and to act accordingly, we would have a much better world.”

“There is a major difference between theoretical knowledge andexperiential knowledge. Academics think they know how the economyshould work; successful business owners know how the economy doeswork. They have been there and done it. Our government should beturning to those who have experiential knowledge when it comes tosolving our fiscal problems. They would realize that many of theircurrent policies may sound good but don’t work in the real worldand must be abandoned. They would spend less and live within theirmeans. They would be promoting the creation of more entrepreneursand business owners, instead of hiring more bureaucrats, consultingmore academics, and enlisting more lawyers to harass and prosecutethe true wealth creators of this nation.”

“Even the most well-meaninggovernment policies have unintended consequences that have harmedthe economy. If government policies were today held accountable the wayprivate businesses are, the scoreboard would say government is failingto help people...and this is a fact.”

“The question is not whether we should or should not regulate; itis how much should we regulate and who the regulators shouldbe. We went overboard on deregulation under Reagan. UnderBush, many people lost in the casino. Now we have the Obamaadministration overreacting and overreaching with regulation thatdoes the exact opposite of wealth creation. If we are to have changewe can believe in, then we could start by replacing the majorityof the lawyers in regulatory agencies with actual experienced, successfulbusiness veterans. They would have recognized the early warningsigns of many of the financial debacles created by the bubble-bustcycle.”

“It is an oft-repeated axiom that a person can learn a whole lot abouta society by how it treats its poor; but just as much may be learnedby looking at how that same society treats its rich. Indeed, the economicfuture of the poor—and our nation—will be determined in the coming decades by how we treat the people in this country who create great wealth. It will be determined by our understanding of theso-called rich and by our need to foster and protect this minority oftrue wealth creators.”

“Too many people today on Wall Street go for the quickbuck at the expense of their reputation and client satisfaction, therationale being “let’s make the money while we can and retire earlyin the sun.” For me, this is not a sprint but a marathon, besides thefact that, in my definition, overnight success is 15 years. Anyone whodoes not understand the basic tenets of this philosophy is not someoneI can or will do business with.”

“If wealth is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.”