I do my job like I breathe — so if I can’t breathe I’m in trouble.
Interpretation
Passion for your work is as essential as breathing; without it, you face difficulties.
In this quote, Karl Lagerfeld emphasizes the importance of passion and dedication in one's work. He compares his commitment to his job to the very act of breathing, suggesting that just as breathing is vital for life, having a genuine love and enthusiasm for your work is crucial for personal and professional well-being. When work ceases to be enjoyable or fulfilling, it creates a sense of trouble or distress in one's life.
In practice
During a motivational speech about pursuing careers, this quote can inspire students to find work they love.
I believe in sketching because there is something very sensitive in sketching, you know, in sketches that you don't have out of a computer that looks the same like everybody even if, later on, the dresses are OK, but I like to sketch, and I like to see trails made after my sketches that look the same. It is you know, what I like.
I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over.
If I could be reincarnated as a fashion accessory, it would be a shopping bag.
Chic is a kind of mayonnaise, either it tastes, or it doesn't.
Why should I stop working? If I do, I'll die and it'll all be finished. 'm lucky to work in the most perfect of conditions. I can do what I want in all kinds of areas. The expenses are not expenses. I would be stupid to stop that. Work is making a living out of being bored.
Elegance has nothing to do with fashion.
I did everything by the numbers. I had checklists upon checklists. If I wasn't ahead of everybody on my team, I didn't feel I was doing my job.
One very interesting framework for a company to succeed over time - beyond just business logic and analytics - is, do they have a reason why the best graduates in engineering programs will flock to them versus competitors?
The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.
Staying true to who I am was tougher when I first got wealthy. Having great friends kept me grounded.
I would never allow anyone to give me money, no difference how badly I needed it. I wanted literally to earn my living.
(On being the world's richest man) I wish I wasn't ... There's nothing good that comes out of that. You get more visibility as a result of it.
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