81 Jon Taffer Quotes from the American Entrepreneur

Jon Taffer is an entrepreneur and TV personality from the United States.

Born November 7, 1954, Jon Taffer is famous for hosting TV series “Bar Rescue”.

An entrepreneur, author and TV personality, he began in the bar industry as a bartender, eventually owning a bar and becoming a celebrated name in the sector.

Inducted into the Nightclub Hall of Fame, Taffer also presided over the Nightclub and Bar Media Group.

The New York native has written three bestselling books and launched a management app, BarHQ.

Jon Taffer

He returned to TV in 2019 with “Marriage Rescue”. Taffer, worth $14 million, has been married to Nicole since 2000.

Here is a collection of the best quotes by Jon Taffer.


Best Jon Taffer Quotes

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Leadership is a trait; it’s not a skill. ~ Jon Taffer.

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Honestly, if I could be anything, I’d love to be a small-business authority type of person. ~ Jon Taffer.

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I believe that every person’s failure is their fault, every single time. ~ Jon Taffer.

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Never eat anything out of a bowl in a bar… If it isn’t in a package, don’t eat it. ~ Jon Taffer.

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I think life takes circles sometimes. ~ Jon Taffer.

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People don’t go to bars they think are uncool. ~ Jon Taffer.

I can’t believe the sense of community here, the amount of pride the people who run this city have in Las Vegas. They are wonderful. ~ Jon Taffer.

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The simple things can be really powerful. ~ Jon Taffer.

The fact of the matter is that the most important responsibility a bar owner has is public safety and the safety of the people in it. ~ Jon Taffer.

Make no mistake: confrontation is unavoidable in business. ~ Jon Taffer.

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I don’t want to hire people who have less of a commitment than I do. ~ Jon Taffer.

I think the greatest mistakes have been my greatest lessons. ~ Jon Taffer.

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Own your own failures and you will own your success. ~ Jon Taffer.

I don’t embrace excuses. I embrace SOLUTIONS. ~ Jon Taffer.

The wrong personality with the greatest resume in a business will not grow that business. ~ Jon Taffer.

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I can change businesses, but I can’t change people. ~ Jon Taffer.

Any time a bar or chef cares more about their own ego than the tastes and comforts of their customers, they should just open a monument to themselves and not a business. ~ Jon Taffer.

Top Jon Taffer Quotes

Failure is an extremely personal thing, and so is success. The problem with people is they don’t own their failure, and if you don’t own your failures, you’re never going to own your successes. ~ Jon Taffer.

If your main reason for opening a bar is to have somewhere for you and your friends to hang out, then build a bar in your basement, and stay out of the industry. ~ Jon Taffer.

Human interaction is something that I believe, as humans, we crave for. And that is where bars and social environments come into play. ~ Jon Taffer.

In the bar and restaurant industry, you’re always one idea away from your next quarter-million. ~ Jon Taffer.

Leadership cannot be taught. Either you’re a leader by the time you’re 12 years old, or you never will be. ~ Jon Taffer.

Most people who get into the business are social animals by nature, but do they have the financial abilities to manage a business? A great bar owner has both. ~ Jon Taffer.

I’m a really happy guy. I have a great career, a wonderful wife and family. ~ Jon Taffer.

When I’m angry on TV, I’m actually not. I’m manipulating you as an owner. ~ Jon Taffer.

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Bars can’t be everything to everyone. They must be everything to someone. ~ Jon Taffer.

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. ~ Jon Taffer.

Famous Jon Taffer Quotes

I’ve always said that my greatest crises are my greatest opportunities to prove my own character to myself. ~ Jon Taffer.

Don’t build a bar for yourself. Build it for your customers. It’s all about them: the walls, the finishes, the textures, the food, the beverages, literally everything has to be for them. ~ Jon Taffer.

What I love about Vegas is that we have the mountains and the Strip. There is always something to do. ~ Jon Taffer.

I opened my first bar that I owned in 1989. The first one I ever owned was in downtown St. Louis. ~ Jon Taffer.

When a sizable group of customers speak, I always listen! The ‘customers’ view’ is key to my confidence in decisions. ~ Jon Taffer.

I’m a businessman, not a bartender. ~ Jon Taffer.

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. ~ Jon Taffer.

When I get angry, it’s with purpose. My purpose is to solve a problem. And I never lose sight of that. ~ Jon Taffer.

Rarely does a congressman stand up and defend a liquor company. Rarely does a congressman stand up and defend a bar. ~ Jon Taffer.

It’s easy to be good when things are great; it’s tough to be good when they’re not. ~ Jon Taffer.

A bar is a factory, a marketing organization, and a service organization all in one. ~ Jon Taffer.

The word ‘mixology’ adds $3 to the price of any drink. ~ Jon Taffer.

I really was going to run for Congress. ~ Jon Taffer.

Popular Jon Taffer Quotes

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

If I’m your boss, and I truly want you to be successful… I’m inherently going to teach you. I’m inherently going to correct your mistakes. I’m inherently going to spend time with you. I’m inherently going to lead you. ~ Jon Taffer.

If I were to pick the life of someone whom I professionally mimic in many ways, it would be Howard Hughes, surprisingly. ~ Jon Taffer.

The gift of giving and paying it forward has always been traits I consider to be invaluable. ~ Jon Taffer.

Any business, no matter what it is, lives or dies by the customer reaction it creates. ~ Jon Taffer.

I believe that a cook in a kitchen isn’t producing an entree: he’s producing a reaction. The product is the reaction; the entree is just the vehicle. ~ Jon Taffer.

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. ~ Jon Taffer.

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. ~ Jon Taffer.

I was 12 years old and in summer camp. I started a company called Aardvark Industries, which provided basic services to camp counselors. ~ Jon Taffer.

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

You cannot have a great business without creating one great, positive reaction after another. ~ Jon Taffer.

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

When my company does a good job, we make people happy. They laugh, they smile, they have a good time – that’s what we do for a living. Any business doing that is making a noble effort. ~ Jon Taffer.

I could take a cemetery and make all the tombstones beer companies. There’s a lot of craft beers that came and went. A lot of them. ~ Jon Taffer.

Great Jon Taffer Quotes

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

When you’re finished, bars are not inherently profitable. You got to work at them to make them profitable. ~ Jon Taffer.

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Excuses destroy success every time. ~ Jon Taffer.

I guess I’ve just always had an entrepreneurial spirit. ~ Jon Taffer.

Nine out of ten people who are failing blame their failure on somebody else. And that is the common denominator of failure. ~ Jon Taffer.

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. ~ Jon Taffer.

Eating something with someone is the second most sensual and intimate thing you can do in life. The experience can’t just be about consumption. ~ Jon Taffer.

When you’re on-stage, you’re expected to perform in the bar business. You shake hands. You smile. You’re all positive energy: you add to your environment. When you walk in the door to the back of the house, that’s like a stage door. You’re off-stage now. ~ Jon Taffer.

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. ~ Jon Taffer.

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

If a candidate puts together a small business platform, I’ll go out on the road for him. You know, I’ll support him. ~ Jon Taffer.

You have to connect with your market and your employees. First, understand that what your market says is fact and what you say is opinion. Then, take the time to create a good connection with your employees. Without those two key connections, your business will be stuck in mediocrity forever. ~ Jon Taffer.

The infusion of technology and social marketing to bar spaces is a big opportunity. ~ Jon Taffer.

The whole point of a bar is, I look in your eyes, you look in my eyes, we’ve never met each other before, we talk, we get to know each other, have a drink together, and the great end of that story is we get married someday. ~ Jon Taffer.

Revenue cures everything in the business world. ~ Jon Taffer.

Inspiring Jon Taffer Quotes

If you’re not passionate, you achieve mediocrity. ~ Jon Taffer.

Don’t open a bar if you think all you need to be is social and greet the customers. You have to run a business. ~ Jon Taffer.

When I went to college, I really became interested in cultural anthropology. Our behavior isn’t that different from other primate species’. ~ Jon Taffer.

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

You can tell within a second of entering a bar if it’s a place you should spend your time. ~ Jon Taffer.

I have no personal or professional regrets. I really don’t. ~ Jon Taffer.

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. ~ Jon Taffer.

Keeping a bar clean is basic in this business. Having a staff that speaks adequate English is basic. ~ Jon Taffer.

Cocktails and food are social. ~ Jon Taffer.

Your ‘brand’ is what your customers think of you, not what you think of you. ~ Jon Taffer

The greatest gift of leadership is a boss who wants you to be successful. ~ Jon Taffer.


So these were the 81 top Jon Taffer quotes and sayings.

If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Stefon Diggs quotes and Gifford Pinchot quotes.

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Chandan Negi
Chandan Negi

I’m the Founder of Internet Pillar - I love sharing quotes and motivational content to inspire and motivate people - #quotes #motivation #internetpillar