Sam Altman Quotes

Every first time founder waits too long, everyone hopes that an employee will turn around. But the right answer is to fire fast.

If someone doesn't fit in your company, you have an obligation to get rid of them, because you're holding them back from excelling elsewhere.

Firing employees, that's unfortunately part of doing business.

I know I was a businessman for years, and I stayed up countless nights worrying about having to let one person go. It's a terrible thing to do.

The worst way to fire somebody is to let it drag out. It's not good for that person because they're not succeeding in their role. And it's not good for the organization because it's just not working.

Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the worst.

I've taken people and fired them over a period of a year. I've fired them over a period of a month. I've fired them over a period of a day or a week, nice and easy, slow. The one thing that a firing always has in common is the next day they wake up and they hate Donald Trump, no matter how nice you are.

The hardest thing for a chief executive to do is to tell someone that they don't have a job anymore.

You cannot be in your offices every day doing nothing... and at the end of the day you expect to be paid.

I always do my firing in the morning because that's when I'm fresh.

In my experience, people are usually fired for reasons having to do with budgetary constraints, incompetence or not fulfilling the terms of a contract.

I don't even like firing people. I don't think I've ever said, 'You're fired' to anybody.

I was well-dressed and good at firing people because I really did care. I cared about giving them the opportunity to talk through the situation and was always sincere. I would explain that 'This was a bad match,' and they were probably meant to do other things if they weren't giving their all to this, which paid $10 a hour.

I've never been fired in my life.

You read these management books that say, 'These are the hard things about running a company.' But those aren't really the hard things. The hard things are when you have to layoff half your company, or you have to fire your best friend. Or you have to figure out a way not to go bankrupt.

I knew that everybody could be replaced. Nobody lasts forever. And if you work for somebody, he's certainly got the privilege and the right to fire you.

If you are a lousy teacher, you should be fired.

Every time you walk down the street people are screaming, 'You're fired!'

You’ve got two people working for you – Warrick and (Meghan) O’Sullivan – that you need to get rid of.

In 2003 and again in 2010, I was fired from my job as editor-in-chief of a 'progressive' paper, Al-Watan. During the years in between, I served as media adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to Britain and then the United States.

I'll be kicked out before I rust out.

From a productivity standpoint, you're supposed to reduce headcount on par with declining revenue. If you believe the environment isn't going to improve, you should take a bigger cut to get in front of the problems.

Everybody who's been fired has heard before about the problems they have. They just don't know it's that serious. Once you know what the stakes are, you become more serious.

I'd never have left Hawkwind if I hadn't been fired.

Al Davis fires everybody.