I started out as a business manager for a national hotel chain based in Oklahoma. I got frustrated with what was happening in the state capital - the high cost of doing business and a lack of educated workers.
The question in their minds was, why did the outside world, and particularly the Western world, produce all these landmines, and send them to Afghanistan? This business must be stopped. It's a dirty business to produce such a horrible device.
Whenever one or more components of a company's business model changes, new business models are created for supporting companies. The changes might involve niches served, new marketing angles or improved value propositions.
We have boys now, and men, in the rock and roll business and all the show business, who have this reaction on women. They scream. They yell. They do all sorts of wild things.
My view is that, just as in many businesses, brands really matter. There will always be a role for destination sites. Eighty million users come to our destination. I think that will be the vast majority of our future business.
No man has a right to expect to succeed in life unless he understands his business, and nobody can understand his business thoroughly unless he learns it by personal application and experience.
The present government is very insistent that business sponsorship should replace government sponsorship of the arts. Business sponsorship won't happen unless you make tax concessions, which they won't.
Business is one of the most powerful institutions on Earth for creating wealth and opportunity and helping to lift people out of poverty. When you think about it that way, then business is not separate from development policy.
My father is actually a quarry man - he deals in stone. He also at one point had a lot of sheep, he owned a sheep farm, but primarily the family business was in stone.
In 40-odd years in show business, some years I could do no wrong, and some years I could do nothing right. Show business. I owe it everything - it owes me nothing.
A well-functioning microfinance bank can actually be a profitable business as well. So it became a perfect proof point that, through business, you can provide an experience that leads to individual self-empowerment.
I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.
A successful economic development strategy must focus on improving the skills of the area's workforce, reducing the cost of doing business and making available the resources business needs to compete and thrive in today's global economy.
When I got into the music business in 1976, there weren't many women on the roster. As a woman, you don't complain; you work twice as hard, and you do your job.
Because my business life is so busy, my home is really my sanctuary. That is where I reflect and spend quality time with my girls.
I'm born into the cycle of giving that we're all born into, and I recognize it. So just because something is a good business, I'm not a business guy. I'm a creative guy.
Doing good business - being ethical, being transparent, being caring, implementing values in your business - makes a difference, and you make money at the same time.
I see no conflict whatsoever between Christianity and good business practices. People say you can't mix business with religion. I say there's no other way.
The truth is, when I got started in this business, it wasn't because I had a full understanding of the importance of the business, but because I thought it was fun. I found it exciting. It fulfilled me, whatever it was that I was looking for.
There were days when I hated politics. But I fought against hating the people on the other side because we were all in the same business - the business of building our country's future.
That's why I do this music business thing, it's communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.
