Categories:
- Rallying the Team
- Personal Success
- Ins and Outs of Entrepreneurship
- Conquering Fear
- Dealing with Failure
- Overcoming Challenges
- Thoughts on Innovation
Conquering Fear
If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.
If you can’t stand the heat, don’t tickle the dragon.
Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth.
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
About right now is better than exactly wrong later.
Make sure that the best thing to happen to your customer today is you.
There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.
Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts.
If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great offenses to rest.
There is nothing like writing to force you to think and get your thoughts straight.
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the entrepreneur adjusts the sails.
Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.
Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent.
With Early Stage companies, it’s never one thing. It’s always one thing after another.
As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.
Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way.
You want to learn from experience, but you want to learn from other people’s experience when you can.
Light travels faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Simplicity is a virtue.
I would rather fail at something I love than succeed at something I hate.
Retail is detail.
Knowledge of the oceans is more than a matter of curiosity. Our very survival may hinge upon it.
People will remember stories long after they have forgotten your bullet points.
Give someone a book, they’ll read if for a day. Teach someone how to write a book and they’ll experience a lifetime of paralyzing self-doubt.
It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
Why should I worry about dying? It’s not going to happen in my lifetime.
No one ever confines a secret to one person only. No one destroys all copies of a document.
The old definition of leadership is ‘look at me, I’m a leader.’ But the new definition should be ‘No, actually, look at you – I’m listening.’
You can’t demand a withdrawal from someone you have not invested in.
Big companies are amazing at coming up with reasons not to do things.
We live to learn.
The customer of my customer is my customer.
People have a historical memory that goes back to breakfast.
A fish doesn’t know it’s wet.
It’s not success you want to be remembered for, but significance.
I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present.
I believe the risks I take are justified by the sheer love of the life I lead.
We had a quote over the door that read, ‘Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.’
Accommodate changing times but cling to unchanging principles.
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
Religion either leads to a deeper reflection or a greater certainty.
Let’s go invest tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.
Profit gives us resources.
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
The root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.
There is living and dying. There is no retirement.
Try your best to make goodness attractive.
Dad always used to say, ‘Tell me a fact, and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth, and I’ll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever.’
Your faith needs to be greater than your fear.
I often tell would-be entrepreneurs that you have to be a little crazy or even masochistic to choose this life. The energy, endurance, optimism and just plain thick skin required aren’t for the faint of heart.
I believe that smart people working hard will eventually get lucky.
If you‘re the smartest person in the room, you haven’t hired well.
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
A leader is a dealer in hope.
The fact that others are bad does not imply that you are good.
We was doin’ good till we blowed up!
We’re imperfect people pursuing perfect ideas and there’s tremendous frustration in the gap.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
Adult humans are only a little more rational than five-year-olds.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
You cannot control cattle at a high rate of speed. They have the capacity to tire out and just stand there, and they will not move. Slow is fast – cattle don’t wear a wristwatch.
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
Proving it will be a homerun ahead of the swing is impossible! You have to try for a hit first and sometimes it turns into a homerun.
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
I don’t like investors. When you take money, you’re typically setting the stage to get out. It’s about multiples and math at that point. It’s not about product. It’s not about customers. It’s just about growth. And that, to me, is a perverted sense of what business is about. Business to me is about making something great, treating your employee’s great, treating your customer’s great, adding something good to the world that wasn’t there before.
The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.
Trust your mistakes.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.
Creativity is great – but not in accounting.
There’s no fun like work.
You can’t really run the company by pissing off the scientists who do the work.
Life is on the wire. The rest is just waiting.
Not knowing what you’re doing has nothing to do with where you’re going.
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.
The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.
The rational and the irrational complement each other. Individually, they are far less valuable.
Start working with your prospects as if they’ve already hired you.
I see the light when I feel the heat.
Too many kings can ruin an army.
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!
More important than what disease the person has is what person has the disease.
Until we have an exit, we Angel investors are just donors.
Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.
There’s no decision you should ever make that would embarrass you if it became public.
The best sales professionals are experts in and advocates for their buyers. They won’t represent companies they don’t believe in. They won’t get on a call without being prepared to make the most of their and their prospect’s time. They know how to leverage every technology, colleague and contact to augment their skills in order to produce optimal outcomes. They welcome coaching, exercise discipline with their time, do their homework and win for the team. They are true athletes.
It’s one thing to be wrong about the valuation. It’s another to be wrong about the business model.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
By the time you get really good at this, you’ll be dead!
If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open sewer and die.
One of the hardest truths for any technologist to hear is that success or failure in business is rarely determined by the quality of the technology.
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
The meek shall inherit the earth – but not its mineral rights.
If I’m the smartest guy in the room, I’m in the wrong room.
I don’t want a lawyer who tells me what I can’t do. I hire a lawyer to tell me how to do what I want to do!
Red meat is not bad for you. Now, blue-green meat? That’s bad for you!
There’s a price to pay for the price you pay.
Every day is a flaming toboggan ride.
You can’t talk yourself out of a problem you’ve behaved yourself into. You must behave yourself out!
The more things change, the more they stay the same. It may be a different age, but I’m on the same page. ‘Cause one thing I’ve found. I still be digging on James Brown.
For some entrepreneurs it’s better to be never than late.
There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.
There’s no business not like show business.
Fear is an excellent motivator. I find that it really brings out the true ingenuity of a creature.
Don’t give up on your dream, but have a backup dream.
Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness.
By and large the citizens are proud of their great orchestra; and by and large, the citizens have never heard it.
In my next life, I will try to commit more errors.
The seven smartest words in the English language are: ‘I don’t know, but I’ll find out.’
Listening to advice often accomplishes far more than heeding it.
All you need is faith, trust and pixie dust!
Someone needs to do something about this.
Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget.
Life is just one damned thing after another.
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.
Interesting, if true.
There are two ways to be the most important guy in town. One is to have all the money. The other is to give all the money.
The simplest explanation is always the most likely.
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
You can never complete the work, nor must you abandon it.
Working a little harder to keep a customer now is a lot smarter than working a lot harder later to get a new customer.
If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.
Design is an agent of change, which can help us to make sense of what is happening and to turn it to our advantage.
The darkest nights produce the brightest stars.
Arguing that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you don’t care about full speech because you have nothing to say.
Beer isproof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
The most dangerous phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way.’
After you ask a closing question, SHUT UP! The next person who speaks loses.
Be careful – a little success can create a whole lot of overhead.
If you have perfect customer analytics, you will know how to find people who look like your current customer. But if you focus only on them, you will never get any new business.
He that can’t endure the bad will not live to see the good.
Never judge the characters you play… That’s the first rule of acting.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
The first person you lead is you.
First, they ignore you. Then, they laugh at you. Then, they fight you. Then, you win.
Being early and being wrong are sometimes not that different.
Whatever people … do not understand, they are always prepared to dislike.
Many things are improbable, only a few are impossible.
All of Wendy’s spins off one fresh word – FRESH
The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason.
My advice on firing is simple. Treat that person the same way you’d want to be treated if you were in that situation. They’re still a good person, just not the right fit.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
To understand a company, spend time with its customers.
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
You have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you, for the law is too slow. I will ruin you.
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I don’t have a lot of regrets.
Every time I look at my yacht, I think of the 30X exits on one of my investments. I don’t have a yacht.
Entrepreneurship exists in the tiny space between madness and genius; and, its journey requires a few cross border violations across both madness and genius to get to the final destination.
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
Partners don’t pay each other, they help each other get paid.
Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people.
It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop.
In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.
It’s so much easier to do something new than to do something well.
The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectations.
You can’t let your past hold your future hostage.
Take my factories and my money but leave me my salesmen and I’ll be back where I was in two years.
We’re not trying to entertain the critics… I’ll take my chances with the public.
The job of tech transfer manager is to make something happen – without getting fired.
Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.
Integrity is a binary state. You either have it or you don’t
Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
People fire themselves.
It’s nice to be nominated but it’s better to win.
Possessions are a way of turning money into problems.
If you are batting 1,000, you are playing in the Little Leagues.
I worship entrepreneurs. They do more than anyone thinks is possible – with less than anyone thinks is possible.
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you’re scared to death.
I am not a fan of lost causes. But a … of causes not yet won.
There is great power in ignorance and naivete.
History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.
Elon cares a lot about humanity, but he doesn’t really care about individual people all that much.
Focus on doing things that can’t hurt and might help. You’ll always be ahead.
Can you teach me to believe?
Change before you have to.
The biggest thing about negotiating: You’ve got to make sure you’re trying to construct a good deal for them.
Learn to sell and you will never starve.
If you can’t be kind, at least be vague.
Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.
I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.
If you presume, you are putting ‘P’ on your resume.
If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.
Problems don’t age well.
Long as the night will be, the sun will rise without you.
If you take comfort in anti-dilution clauses you probably believe in lifetime guarantees.
History has shown that incumbents tend to fight trends that challenge established ways and, in the process, lose focus on what matters most: customers. Customers always win.
I think and think for months and years, ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time, I am right.
You miss 100% of the shots you never take.
We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
Success is easy if you think of it like rust: It’s inevitable if you keep at it.
When you need money, go ask for advice. When you need advice, go ask for money.
We’re not funding Mother Teresa. We’re funding imperial, will-to-power people who want to crush their competition.
Wealth is not about having a lot of money. It’s about having a lot of options.
Decide what your [company] purpose is and write it down. That way, you won’t lie to yourself.
Anything can happen, but it usually doesn’t.
Expedite the inevitable.
The things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those that got there first.
I don’t try to reinvent the wheel. I just try to change the spokes.
I did not always think he was right, nor did he always think I was right. But we were each the person the other trusted.
With good people, you can do anything. With bad people, nothing helps.
Things are never going to turn out the way you think they will.
The best audience is intelligent, well-educated and a little drunk.
Politicians are the same everywhere. They promise to build a bridge even when there’s no river.
The universe is basically an animal that grazes on the ordinary. It creates infinite idiots just to eat them.
The impossible missions are the only ones that succeed.
Raising your first VC round can be like bobbing for piranhas.
If you never retire, you will never expire.
If it doesn’t scare you, you’re probably not dreaming big enough.
If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits.
Having money is no reason to spend it.
Too little confidence, and you’re unable to act; too much confidence, and you’re unable to hear.
If you don’t have a business, what do you do for aggravation?
Entrepreneurs’ genius is the gold in the mine; angels are miners helping to extract it; VCs are claim jumpers.
Angels who won’t conduct postmortems climb the ladder of success wrong by wrong.
I don’t know what the price is, but the price knows what the price is.
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.
Storms make trees take deeper roots.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss in enthusiasm.
Half of the lies they tell about me aren’t true.
Art is not optional, not decorative landscaping in front of the castle of civilization. It is no more or less important than philosophy, religion, economics, or psychology.
The harder I work, the luckier I get!
Respect everyone, fear no one.
Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.
A leader’s job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room.
When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.
If this is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised.
In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning in indispensable.
A smooth sea never made for a skillful sailor.
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
Panic is not a strategy.
You don’t go broke making small profits.
Whether individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead not for them, but for ourselves.
