FRAN TARKENTON

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 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.

Ignoring facts does not make them go away.

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

Television isn't my career. Business is.

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

Great quarterbacks, good quarterbacks, make plays.

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

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.

In sports, teams win and individuals don't.

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.

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.

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

Success, in my view, is the willingness to strive for something you really want

If it's not fun, you are not doing it right.

Leadership must be demonstrated, not announced.

Fear causes people to draw back from situations. It brings on mediocrity, it dulls creativity, it sets one up to be a loser in life.

When everything else breaks down, I don't hesitate to roam out of the pocket and do the boogaloo.

Success, in my view, is the willingness to strive for something you really want. The person not reaching the top is no less a success than the one who achieved it, if they both sweated blood, sweat and tears and overcame obstacles and fears. The failure to be perfect does not mean you're not a success.

Winning means being unafraid to lose.

I discovered that the more I hustled, the luckier I seemed to get.

None of us really pushes hard enough. People always talk about playing over your head when you are up against someone really good. Maybe you don't play over your head at all. Maybe it's just potential you never knew you had.

It's perfectly okay to want to quit - as long as you don't.

Cultivate your desire for success to be greater than the fear of failure; Failure is merely a pitstop between where you stand and success. Failure allows you to learn the fastest; Failure inspires winners and defeats losers.