Explore Quotes by Jon Taffer

I'm a businessman, not a bartender.

If you can't build a relationship with your customers, you're in big trouble. If you can remember the numbers from the reports and spreadsheets you spent hours poring over in your office, but you can't picture the faces of your customers - you're in big trouble.

The Knack were a very, very powerful band, and you got to understand, when they came in, all the punk stuff was still going on. There was an amazing conflict within the scenes.

Leadership is a trait; it's not a skill.

In the worst of our recession, bars were making money. Every bar can make money. If they're failing, it's not because of the president or Congress or Ukraine. It's because of them. And if you own failure, then you'll own success.

I've always said that my greatest crises are my greatest opportunities to prove my own character to myself.

I don't want to hire people who have less of a commitment than I do.

I'm the type of employer who will hire based on personality, based on potential. If you put the resume before the personality, you're going to fail.

There has been a black hole in the bar business in Las Vegas, particularly on the Strip in tourist areas.

I have a playroom with my drum set, a guitar, and amplifier at home.

A plate of food hits the table, lands right in front of you. One of two things happens. Either you sit up and look at it and react to it, or nothing happens. If nothing happens then that restaurant is stuck in mediocrity forever.

Government employees make a good amount of money - income levels are very high in Washington, D.C. compared to other markets, so they are living in a bubble.

Bars are about experience and interaction; so often, the people make the bar.

You can tell within a second of entering a bar if it's a place you should spend your time.

I went to college for political science and got a bartending job.

The right personality with a weak resume can be filled in. That's the employee who will become great.

I think success is a relative term. If you're a caveman, success is capturing an elephant. Success is achieving better than the norm. Success is being exceptional. It's exceptional reputation, exceptional income, and exceptional respect.

Excuses destroy success every time.

Failure is an awful thing, and when I look at the common denominator of failure, it seems to always be the same thing: excuses.

When I meet with people who are ineffective managers with failing businesses, I can't change what they do - I have to change the way they think.

People see themselves on camera. They're ashamed of the things that they do, so they have a choice: Either they accept responsibility for it, or they blame the show for it. It's a human reaction.