Shahid Khan Quotes
101 Shahid Khan Quotes (Flex-N-Gate, Jacksonville Jaguars)
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You take the situation and you make it better.
Shahid Khan
The most important thing is to really make a difference.
Shahid Khan
[In January 2009] We can’t become a nation of hamburger flippers and insurance salesmen. We’ve got to have manufacturing.
Shahid Khan
[On the eternal opportunities in America] You can do anything you want to. You have to work hard, you have to create your own luck, and you have to have some luck also. But here, it’s possible.
Shahid Khan
[In December 2011] That’s what luck is, right? When preparation meets opportunity.
Shahid Khan
You have to learn and change, no matter how successful you are.
Shahid Khan
You’ve got to find the best people.
Shahid Khan
You have to find, and attract and keep good people.
Shahid Khan
[On not being put off by the challenge that Jacksonville Jaguars presented when he bought it to become viable.] No, I’ve been around opportunity or turnaround all my life.
Shahid Khan
[In February 2012] I think listening to the customer, having a sense of humility. That’s huge.
Shahid Khan
The wonderful thing about America is optimism. You know the American Dream. That is something so precious.
Shahid Khan
[In December 2011] We are always growing. We are always looking. I want to see what the opportunities are.
Shahid Khan
You have to take your lumps and face reality. There’s always some good in something bad happening to you, and you look for that.
Shahid Khan
[On what led him to America from Pakistan.] Looking for a better life, fame and fortune. Heard the streets were paved with gold. Found that to be true.
Shahid Khan
I got encouragement from my father. That he had always dreamt of going overseas to make his fortune. He’d had some success as a small-time entrepreneur. I should do it. And I thought that was great.
Shahid Khan
I wanted to study engineering. We researched and applied to a couple of schools. The first letter that came was from the University of Illinois and admitted. So there I went.
Shahid Khan
That area had almost a centuries worst storm. A blizzard about 30 inches of snow. So the air traffic was shut for days. So when I got there I’d been travelling for several days. And they’d drop you off at night and you’d be looking at snow. And where do you go? So I went to a couple of places and finally winded up at the YMCA that night. And it was ‘Wow. This is really different.’ I kind of wasn’t expecting this.
Shahid Khan
It was two dollars a night at the YMCA and I’m thinking ‘Man, I’m getting ripped off here. This is too expensive.’ I’m going to go through my staff here very quickly. But the next morning I got up and I saw they were hiring dishwashers and so I got a job there washing dishes. A $1.20 an hour and it was like ‘My god, what a country. That I’m making more money now than 99.9% of the people in Pakistan. And it can’t get any better.’
Shahid Khan
Then I started engineering school which was hard, and then I’d be saying ‘I can make this kind of money without a degree why should I even be going to engineering school.’ But then you discover the good things of America, the social life. I pledged a fraternity and most of the guys had convertibles so I had to get a car which meant you need another job. You get on that American Dream very quickly.
Shahid Khan
[On going through the due diligence on the Rams.] How to value, what’s important. What isn’t.
Shahid Khan
And we just sat down and worked it out on a piece of paper.
Shahid Khan
[On having a knapkin that had the basic details of the deal to buy the Jacksonville Jaguars.] I framed it. So I should have brought it over.
Shahid Khan
What was on it? We started off with a price and then we started deducting for certain things, came down to a number. And both he and I knew that the way to do a transaction was that you cannot have too many adds of deducts. That’s what really ties things down. And you’re really fighting over in the scheme of things not that much money but you end up just destroying the timing and the whole relationship in the process. So both of us agreed it has to be a transaction where the minute you agree to it. It has to run as a regular business, you can’t be taking money out or putting money in. And then whatever it is, it is. Working capital, cash and so on.
Shahid Khan
For me, I was ready for an NFL team. This is your calling. Your number get’s called here in Jacksonville. You take the situation and you make it better.
Shahid Khan
Physically you give up very little when you give up material possessions. It think it’s when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Shahid Khan
[On philanthropy] It’s about sustainability and really making a difference for the long haul. I think it’s something you have to spend a lot of time and thought on.
Shahid Khan
We have a couple of kids, we’re lucky to have them.
Shahid Khan
It’s about what do we feel passionate about. Where do we think we can make a difference.
Shahid Khan
[On his style of philanthropy.] We wanted to be more about making a difference teaching people to fish rather than giving them a fish.
Shahid Khan
I think charity begins at home.
Shahid Khan
It’s great to learn, but it’s even better to learn from someone else – their experience.
Shahid Khan
We used to have a mindset that when you’ve given the money you’re done. And what we’ve learnt is that you’re really starting at that point… You have to make the right choice but then you have to make sure it’s really implemented. And it produces the results you were really hoping.
Shahid Khan
[On reducing some government regulation and taking a co-operative stance to help drive even greater growth in some areas.] Get out of the way of the entrepreneurs.
Shahid Khan
People… You’ve got to find the best people. And you’ve got to develop the best people and that might mean you have to pay them better than you’re getting paid. You might even be the owner. That is absolutely vital that you have to find, and attract and keep good people.
Shahid Khan
[In March 2013] I think this is the season really to dream.
Shahid Khan
You unshackle from the past.
Shahid Khan
There were two sides, business and football. Business I understand. It was pretty obvious to me what we had to do. But the football side was like the Holy Grail.
Shahid Khan
If you are honest with yourself and the team and the fans, there’s only one thing to do when it’s 2-14. When it’s 8-8 you can be conflicted as to how much baby and how much bathwater there is, but here there was no baby – it was just water.
Shahid Khan
We’re selling a great experience and hopefully a victory.
Shahid Khan
On the football side it’s like being a doctor. The first thing is to do no harm.
Shahid Khan
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