Eli Broad Quotes

#1. Time is the most valuable thing you have - and I'm not just talking about the minutes for which you're paid.

Eli Broad

#2. To me, unconventional thinking is approaching a problem and asking, 'Why not? Why can't something be done?' If someone can't give me a good reason why you can't do something, I find a way to do it.

Eli Broad

#3. Twombly, frankly, was an acquired taste. I was not in love with Twombly the first time I saw one of his paintings.

Eli Broad

#4. I don't think it makes any sense for an individual to invest in common stocks unless they know the company, work at the company, and so on.

Eli Broad

#5. As the son of a union activist and a lifelong Democrat, I've always thought that privatizing our public schools is not the answer. We must strengthen public schools.

Eli Broad

#6. You don't support politicians in their elections if whoever's seeking money only has a goal to stay in office or get in office. You have to pick the people who are going to do the best job.

Eli Broad

#7. Most museums - with all their burdens to pay for exhibitions, administration, and security - really don't have any money really to acquire art, with few exceptions.

Eli Broad

#8. There is no substitute for knowledge. To this day, I read three newspapers a day. It is impossible to read a paper without being exposed to ideas. And ideas - more than money - are the real currency for success.

Eli Broad

#9. Oprah Winfrey's global influence is unparalleled. Not only has her generosity and firm belief that education is the key to a better life benefited countless women and children around the world, but her example has also inspired millions of people to give back in ways big and small.

Eli Broad

#10. Los Angeles is one of the four cultural capitals of the world, but we don't attract as many cultural tourists as New York, London or Paris. I want to change that.

Eli Broad

#11. Being a Midwesterner, I know that many of the middle-class manufacturing jobs that had been at the heart of our economy are either gone or going, and they're not coming back.

Eli Broad

#12. I can imagine no more important contribution to our country's future than a long-term commitment to improving urban K-12 public schools.

Eli Broad

#13. Contemporary art challenges us.. it broadens our horizons. It asks us to think beyond the limits of conventional wisdom.

Eli Broad

#14. Teach For America provides one of the most critical pipelines for bringing new talent into public education.

Eli Broad

#15. I have always believed that every great city in history needs a vibrant center.

Eli Broad

#16. People always say congratulations. When you're a successful bidder it means you're willing to spend more money than anyone else. I'm not sure if that's congratulations or condolences.

Eli Broad

#17. Los Angeles is such a great meritocracy. Where can someone with my background - don't have the right family background, the right religion, the right provenance or whatever you want to call it - I come here and I'm accepted. The city's been good to me. And I want to give back.

Eli Broad

#18. I'm strong-willed. Architects are strong-willed. You get the best results with a strong client and a strong architect working together.

Eli Broad

#19. People think it's strange how briskly I move through museums. Sure, I could stand in front of each piece and stare at it for a good long time. But that's not me.

Eli Broad

#20. People would rather have art or gold instead of paper money.

Eli Broad

#21. Civilizations are not remembered by their business people, their bankers or lawyers. They're remembered by the arts.

Eli Broad

#22. It's critical that states improve how teachers are trained, recruited, evaluated, compensated, advanced, and retained.

Eli Broad

#23. The first thing I started collecting was stamps. Until I started discovering girls. That was the end of stamps.

Eli Broad

#24. School district policies and practices have not kept pace with student and teacher needs.

Eli Broad

#25. I don't like to spend time in endless meetings talking about stuff that isn't going to get anything done. I have meetings, but they're short, prompt and to the point.

Eli Broad

#26. I can't think of another enterprise other than being a homeowner that can't have its debt restructured in bankruptcy. Corporations can but a homeowner can't? Now with securitization the homeowner can't go to the owner of the loan and work things out.

Eli Broad

#27. Philanthropy is activism.

Eli Broad

#28. School boards are, for the most part,made up of political wannabes who see a board seat as a stepping stone for political office, or well-meaning parents who represent an ethnic group or geography, or have some other narrow interests. Few people on them understand what governance is about.

Eli Broad

#29. Art evokes emotion. It doesn't have to be a thing of beauty.

Eli Broad

#30. Museums do not share their collections with other museums unless they get something in exchange. The Metropolitan will deal with the Louvre, but will they send their stuff to Memphis? No.

Eli Broad

#31. What artists think about the world is often different from how we businessmen see it, and I find that an enriching experience.

Eli Broad

#32. The first dream I had was just to get a college education. I got through college in three years, taking extra classes in summer school.

Eli Broad

#33. I don't think the market can keep going up. In the U.S., we see real estate not going up.. houses are selling at lower prices. You can't have anything going up 10 percent to 20 percent to 30 percent indefinitely.

Eli Broad

#34. Unfortunately, the boards of art institutions tend to be populated with well-meaning supporters of the arts who often lack any business background or appetite for imposing appropriate discipline.

Eli Broad

#35. Frankly, I'm not sure how far I would get if I attended public school today. It's not just that public schools aren't producing the results we want - it's that we're not giving them what they need to help students achieve at high levels. K-12 education in the United States is deeply antiquated.

Eli Broad

#36. You can have great teachers, but if you don't have a good principal, you won't have a good school.

Eli Broad

#37. I've become convinced that Los Angeles is going to become the next contemporary art capital - no other city has more contemporary gallery space than Los Angeles. We've come into our own, finally.

Eli Broad

#38. I think over any period of time, especially if you don't use leverage, it is difficult to continually beat the S&P 500.

Eli Broad

#39. I believe that a newspaper is a great civic asset and that ownership is best in the hands of foundations or wealthy families that want to own it for reasons other than maximizing profits. I also believe newspapers should remain in local hands.

Eli Broad

#40. Who you spend your life with-much more so than how you choose to spend it-is the most important decision you can make. Do it right. That's the best advice I can give you.

Eli Broad

#41. Anything I do, I spend a lot of time. I do it with passion and intensity. I want to be in charge.

Eli Broad

#42. I learned to embrace risk, as long as it was well thought out and, in a worst-case scenario, I'd still land on my feet.

Eli Broad

#43. Without a doubt, stem cell research will lead to the dramatic improvement in the human condition and will benefit millions of people.

Eli Broad

#44. I don't want to be in the film business. I'm not even sure it's a business.

Eli Broad

#45. I never play golf because it takes too long, and the business connections it produces can be made just as easily over an early breakfast.

Eli Broad

#46. The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels.

Eli Broad

#47. A lot of executives act like their time is worth more than anyone else's. But I always respect an employee who guards his or her time, even from me.

Eli Broad

#48. While I am proud of a number of accomplishments, there are real costs to being unreasonable. Long hours. Too little time with family. A near incapacity for, as they say, stopping and smelling the roses.

Eli Broad

#49. If you have poor management that's not doing the right job, you end up with unions filling the void and ... page after page of work rules and thicker and thicker contracts.

Eli Broad

#50. I never stay anywhere - parties, museums, meetings - longer than three hours.

Eli Broad

#51. I think the opera is one of the great cultural jewels of Los Angeles.

Eli Broad

#52. Ideas, more than money, are really the currency for success.

Eli Broad

#53. My family and I have been blessed with good fortune in the world of business. We've created quite a net worth. My children, two boys, have more money than they will ever need, and they aren't empire builders.

Eli Broad

#54. I'd rather be respected than loved.

Eli Broad

#55. Managers are responsible for setting workplace policies under which teachers can succeed. Managers are responsible for negotiating contracts that create the conditions under which teachers can succeed.

Eli Broad

#56. I don't see myself as a great discoverer of artists, like Charles Saatchi.

Eli Broad

#57. You always learn lessons in business.

Eli Broad

#58. The biggest barrier we've seen to student progress is this: School policies and practices often prevent good teachers from doing great work and even dissuade some talented Americans from entering the profession. This needs to change.

Eli Broad

#59. The best move you can make in negotiation is to think of an incentive the other person hasn't even thought of - and then meet it.

Eli Broad

#60. No one ever made a million bucks by being cautious or timid or reasonable.

Eli Broad

#61. I believe in the democratization of the arts. What do I mean by that? I think museums, with some exceptions, have a responsibility to educate a much broader public.

Eli Broad

#62. My wife was the first art collector in the family, and I didn't become interested until around 1973. The first important artwork we bought was a Van Gogh drawing of two peasant houses in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

Eli Broad

#63. I could live anywhere in the world I want. But Los Angeles is the place to live.

Eli Broad

#64. Every artist is unreasonable, because he or she is doing something that hasn't been done before.

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#65. Any city in America would like to get a museum built if they didn't have to pay for it.

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#66. The unions no longer control the education agenda of the Democratic Party.

Eli Broad

#67. People don't know I've got a deep social conscience. I'm a child of the Depression, born in 1933. My parents were very liberal in their social views.

Eli Broad

#68. A real collector does not sell.

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#69. Artists rarely do the same thing over and over again. Art is about the new, doing things in a new way.

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#70. There were periods when the art market got overheated, but there is no reason it should appreciate dramatically.

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#71. I am not a patient person. My friends and colleagues will confirm this. But, frankly, we should all feel a little more impatient with the state of public education in America today.

Eli Broad

#72. At a time when all the other builders were selling homes with basements but without carports, we would sell homes without basements and with carports. This allowed us to provide a more appealing product at a lower price. In other words, we felt we would be giving customers greater value.

Eli Broad

#73. How absurd that our students tuck their cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPads, and iPods into their backpacks when they enter a classroom and pull out a tattered textbook.

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#74. If you ask why I do what I do - I want to make a difference. I don't just want to maintain the status quo. I want to help people, to work with institutions or create ones when they don't exist.

Eli Broad

#75. I believe in two things: One, Andrew Carnegie said, 'He who dies with wealth dies in shame.' And someone once said, 'He who gives while he lives also knows where it goes.'

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#76. The American people frankly have been, over many, many years - to be blunt - fat, dumb and happy. If they want their children to compete with children in India, China or Korea, they better get them a far better education.

Eli Broad

#77. Someone once told me I'm a sore winner, and they're right. I rarely take more than a moment to enjoy a success before I'm moving on and looking for the next challenge.

Eli Broad

#78. For businesses to be successful, they need to constantly ask the question: 'How can we provide value to our customers?' At the end of the day, that is what matters.

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#79. I'm naturally curious, and I read four newspapers a day.

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#80. I'd be bored to death if I spent all my time with other businesspeople, bankers and lawyers.

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#81. I've never been one who enjoys maintaining the status quo. I'm always pushing for new ideas, whether it's in business or philanthropy.

Eli Broad

#82. It's hard to explain your emotions when you see a work of art.

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#83. In high school, I would drive my teachers batty. They would make a statement, and I would say, 'Why is that?' They didn't want to be questioned.

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#84. I am old enough to remember when America's K-12 public schools were the best in the world. I am a proud graduate of them, and I credit much of my success to what I learned in Detroit Public Schools and at Michigan State University.

Eli Broad

#85. Charity is just writing checks and not being engaged. Philanthropy, to me, is being engaged, not only with your resources but getting people and yourself really involved and doing things that haven't been done before.

Eli Broad

#86. In America, what you've accomplished financially is a measurement, whether you like it or not.

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#87. The happiest people I've found are in science. These people have three times the IQ - maybe I'm exaggerating. They have a higher IQ than I do. They love what they're doing, they have a good family life, they're satisfied.

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#88. I've got a big ego, I admit it; I'm ego-driven.

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#89. If people want to criticize me because it sells papers, that's fine. I just don't like it when it's inaccurate.

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#90. Collecting is more than just buying objects.

Eli Broad