Fran Tarkenton

“If you wait for the right time or the good times to start a business, you wait all your life.”

“You know, quarterbacks, I think greatness in quarterbacks is taking what you've got, whether it's a great team, a good team, or a struggling team and make them better.”

“The New York Times Bestseller 'The Amateur,' written by Ed Klein, former editor of the 'New York Times Magazine,' is one of the best books I've read.”

“Profit isn’t and shouldn’t be the mission of business. The mission of business is to help people. To help your customers, your co-workers, your employees, and your partners. Success is not a number — it’s not X dollars or Y customers — it’s a measurement of VALUE.”

“In sports, teams win and individuals don't.”

“Ignoring facts does not make them go away.”

“Great quarterbacks, good quarterbacks, make plays.”

“If football taught me anything about business, it is that you win the game one play at a time.”

“That's how I judge a quarterback: Either you make plays or you don't. I don't even want to talk about mechanics.”

“Quarterbacks need to make their team better. If it's a bad team, they can even make a bad team better.”

“The pro athlete is a sad tale. He signs a big contract and thinks he's set for life. I didn't think I was set for life, and I don't now. As athletes, we are important, celebrities, in demand and rich. Then we are out of the game and we are not important, not celebrities, not in demand and not rich.”

“You can only learn by opening yourself up to engage with different sources of information. How can you learn something if you never see it, read it, or hear it?”

“The greatness of America is capitalism, free market capitalism. The exceptionalism of American business.”

“Television isn't my career. Business is.”

“What's so wonderful about football and business and show business is that every time I start thinking I'm special, I get knocked on my ass.”