Director Grace: So you’re going to the Senate Select Committee, but not to the President who appointed you. Why’s that?
I bet the President wasn’t the audience you thought he’d be: I’ll bet he realized you can’t have voters asking why the second-longest serving FBI Director gets fired for doing his job, for sending Agents into Saudi Arabia, seven months from mid-term elections…
Attorney General Young: You want to bet?
Director Grace: Mr Attorney General, I obviously already have. I bet my job.
Attorney General Young: I’m going to bury you.
Director Grace: You know, Westmoreland made all us Officers write our own obituaries during Tet, when it looked like the Cong were going to end it all right there. Once we clued-in that life was finite, the loss of it didn’t scare us any more. The end comes no matter what. The only thing that matters is how you want to go out: on your feet or on your knees?
I bring that lesson to this job: I act, knowing that someday, this job will end, no matter what. You should do the same.
Here’s the lessons: Nothing in this life lasts forever. You’re going to go out, but you can determine how you go.
And,
If you’re in the rat race, you better have an exit strategy, cus they have one for you.
Leonidas: Daxos. What a pleasant surprise.
Daxos: This morning’s full of surprises. We heard Sparta’s on the warpath. We were eager to join forces.
Leonidas: If it’s blood you seek, you’re welcome to join us.
Daxos: But you bring only this handful of soldiers…against Xerxes? I see I was wrong to expect Sparta’s commitment to at least match our own.
Leonidas: Doesn’t it? You, there…what is your profession?
Arcadian: I’m a potter.
Leonidas: And you Arcadian, what is your profession?
Arcadian: Sculptor, Sir.
Leonidas: You?
Arcadian: Blacksmith.
Leonidas: Spartans! What is your profession?
Spartans: AGHROO! AGHROO! AGHROO!
Leonidas: See old friend? I brought more soldiers than you did.
Here’s the lesson: If you’re treating your business like a hobby, and someone asks, “What do you do?” you tell them your job.
If you think like a business owner, and someone asks you your profession, you’re not embarrassed, ashamed, or uncomfortable to tell them you own your own business. It’s something you’re proud of - more than a job. Anyone can get a job. Few have the courage or strength to venture into the Land of Opportunity and actually take advantage of the free enterprise system of this country, and own their own business.
But to succeed, you have to be all-in, willing to fight, and good at it! It’s a profession, not a diversion.
ELLIS: …What you got ain’t nothin’ new. This country is hard on people. Hard and crazy. Got the devil in it yet folks never seem to hold it to account.
BELL: Most don’t.
ELLIS: You’re discouraged.
BELL: I’m …discouraged.
ELLIS: You can’t stop what’s comin. Ain’t all waitin’ on you.
…That’s vanity.
(No Country For Old Men)
Here’s the lesson: Life and change - good and bad is going to happen whether you’re ready or not. Whether you like it or not. Quiting just cus you don’t like what’s happening is stupid. Do something about it!
DRAGLINE: Nuthin’! A handfull of nuthin’! You stupid mullet-head. He beat you with nuthin’! Just like today when he kept coming back at me.
LUKE: (smiling) Nuthin’ can be a pretty cool hand.
DRAGLINE: Cool Hand Luke.
(Cool Hand Luke)
Here’s the lesson: If you know what you’ve got your hands on, and you know who you’re playing against, you can win with anything…or nothing.
VAN DIESEL: Five hundred.
REDNECK: Five hundred what, Douch-bag?
VAN DIESEL: Five hundred fights.
That’s the number I came up with when I was a kid. Five hundred street fights…and you can consider yourself a legitimate tough guy.
You need’em for experience. To develope leather skin. So I got started.
Course, along the way…you stop thinkin’ about being tough and all that. It stops bein’ the point. Get past the silliness of it all.
But then…after…you realize, that’s what you are.
REDNECK: Look, I got no problem with you, all right?
VAN DIESEL: I’ll tell you, you learn a lotta things on the way to five hundred. None of them more important than this…
(Knock Around Guys)
Here’s the lesson: to get good at anything, you gotta do it a lot. And along the way, you’ll make your mistakes, and fall. Maybe even get hurt. “But then…after…you realize that’s what you are.” …a success in whatever field you pursue.