Categories:
- Dealing with Failure
- Ins and Outs of Entrepreneurship
- Overcoming Challenges
- Personal Success
- Rallying the Team
- Thoughts on Innovation
- Conquering Fear
Personal Success
Always make new mistakes.
Retail is detail.
The first 98% of the engineering design takes 98% of the time. The remaining 2% of the design work takes the other 98% of the time.
Accommodate changing times but cling to unchanging principles.
Let’s go invest tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.
Profit gives us resources.
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.
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.
A leader is a dealer in hope.
After 35 years, there is not a shred of evidence that stock-based compensation by company officers is correlated with company performance.
We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
An expert is [somebody] who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.
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.
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.
Complaining is not a strategy.
Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.
Make space for the new mistakes.
We were given some great advice early on: Strategy is what you don’t do. Whenever we do anything, we ask ourselves, ‘Is this true to Warby Parker?’
Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don’t know which half.
It is very hard to find any evidence which shows that a focus on maximizing shareholder value actually maximizes shareholder value.
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.
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.
Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.
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.
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!
Every day is a flaming toboggan ride.
Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness.
In my next life, I will try to commit more errors.
A joint venture is two parties in the same bed with different dreams.
The four most dangerous words in investing are: This time it’s different.
Teach thy tongue to say: ‘I do not know.’
Creativity without action is merely imagination.
The darkest nights produce the brightest stars.
Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
The first person you lead is you.
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
What got you here won’t get you there.
The beginning of thought is disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
I worship entrepreneurs. They do more than anyone thinks is possible – with less than anyone thinks is possible.
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.
There is always a well-known solution to every human problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.
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.
There are decades when nothing happens and then there are weeks where decades happen.
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 did not always think he was right, nor did he always think I was right. But we were each the person the other trusted.
Building a great company is necessary but insufficient for building a great investment.
Failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent you have to experiment.
The universe is basically an animal that grazes on the ordinary. It creates infinite idiots just to eat them.
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.
The future is like a Japanese game show. You have no idea what’s going on.
One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.
A smooth sea never made for a skillful sailor.
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.
You don’t go broke making small profits.
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.
The four most important words in business are ‘What do you think?’
Innovation is the only insurance against irrelevance; the only guarantee of long-term customer loyalty.
You can’t let your past hold your future hostage.
Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.
The job of tech transfer manager is to make something happen – without getting fired.
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.
The only thing worse than a big flop is a small success.
People fire themselves.
Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master.
Can you teach me to believe?
Learn to sell and you will never starve.
If you can’t be kind, at least be vague.
I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.
Choice is the enemy of decision.
The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.
If you take comfort in anti-dilution clauses you probably believe in lifetime guarantees.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.
I made it because I believed I’d make it.
Be ready to revise any system, scrap any method, and abandon any theory, if the success of the job requires it.
Panic is not a strategy.
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.
People will remember stories long after they have forgotten your bullet points.
We’re not funding Mother Teresa. We’re funding imperial, will-to-power people who want to crush their competition.
Advertising cannot sell a poor product. It might induce people to try it once. But it cannot build an enduring business on such a product.
No one ever confines a secret to one person only. No one destroys all copies of a document.
Any data fed to AI is chosen subjectively. Computers do not see the world precisely as it is; they see it within the limits of the data given to them to represent the world. That’s a flaw AI and people have in common.
Religion either leads to a deeper reflection or a greater certainty.
You don’t give people what they want. You give them what they don’t yet know they want.
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.
Looking forward, people need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Face-to-face contact will give you the edge over your competitors every time.
With good people, you can do anything. With bad people, nothing helps.
To do a common thing, uncommonly well, brings success.
The impossible missions are the only ones that succeed.
Raising your first VC round can be like bobbing for piranhas.
If it doesn’t scare you, you’re probably not dreaming big enough.
When assessing ‘first mover advantage’ remember that mousetraps demonstrate the wisdom of being the second mouse.
Having money is no reason to spend it.
Leaders define reality and provide hope.
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?
Investing is about meeting people’s needs.
Why should I worry about dying? It’s not going to happen in my lifetime.
Purpose is not the sole pursuit of profits, but the animating force for achieving them.
Entrepreneurs’ genius is the gold in the mine; angels are miners helping to extract it; VCs are claim jumpers.
Trying to come up with a great idea is not a great idea. Go for quantity over quality.
Angels who won’t conduct postmortems climb the ladder of success wrong by wrong.
We live to learn.
Less is more.
Objects have their own world. Making an object means imbuing it with its own spirit.
Facts tell. Stories sell.
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.
No amount of advertising can force any large number of people to buy things they do not want. Advertising can only create a new market for products which fill a genuine – though often unexpressed or latent – consumer want.
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance – or a stranger.
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful.
There’s no business not like show business.
Don’t give up on your dream, but have a backup dream.
I’m only interested in designing for a certain type of woman. Specifically, one that has money.
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.
Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.
Many angels have seen more deals than they can remember. Some remember more homeruns than they have seen.
More is more.
Wandering is an essential counterbalance to efficiency.
Your results may be worthless or misleading … but at least the data was easy to collect and you got published.
When you’re through changing, you’re through.
By and large the citizens are proud of their great orchestra; and by and large, the citizens have never heard it.
You can fool all the people all of the time – if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.
I would rather fail at something I love than succeed at something I hate.
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.
You can’t demand a withdrawal from someone you have not invested in.
All you need is faith, trust and pixie dust!
Purpose is not a mere tagline or marketing campaign, it is a company’s fundamental reason for being.
If all you ever did is all you’ve ever done, then all you ever get is all you’re gonna get.
There is no reason for any person to have a computer in their home.
Anyone who has ever taken a shower has had a great idea.
Neatness rejects involvement.
We may be wise, after all, to treat impossibility as something other than an absolute condition. Alone among all the creatures in the world, we can think about fantastical things and, at least some of the time, bring them into being.
Mistakes … the portals of discovery.
Failing is good as long as it doesn’t become a habit.
Someone needs to do something about this.
Life is just one damned thing after another.
But that is what fashion is about, when you look at something, and you aren’t sure if you like it or not.
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.
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.
Never rule out that there are economic linkages you don’t understand.
You can never complete the work, nor must you abandon it.
A man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.
Corporations don’t have morals.
Our mission is to delight people who appreciate quality of life.
An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.
After you ask a closing question, SHUT UP! The next person who speaks loses.
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.
Nobody cares about your product, service or solution. All they care about is the difference you can make for their organization.
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road’ll take you there.
Whatever people … do not understand, they are always prepared to dislike.
The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.
Many things are improbable, only a few are impossible.
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
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.’
If you try to do some big thing, you don’t just need it to be big: you need it to be good. And it’s really hard to do big and good simultaneously.
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 less money you need, the harder it is to run out.
Be a skeptic but never a cynic.
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
The business of America, it turns out, is not business. It’s monetizing what is in our heads.
For some entrepreneurs it’s better to be never than late.
It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.
Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
We’re imperfect people pursuing perfect ideas and there’s tremendous frustration in the gap.
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.
Adult humans are only a little more rational than five-year-olds.
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.
Even if the situation or challenge is very complex, usually the simplest solution is the one to go with.
The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.
Discovery is the process of simultaneously seeing things that everyone sees and thinking things that no one has thought.
Sleep on your big decisions and then be decisive.
Life is on the wire. The rest is just waiting.
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open sewer and die.
If you don’t have a solution to match the scale of the problem, you have a hobby.
Is anything more un-American than an empty shelf?
The meek shall inherit the earth – but not its mineral rights.
Not knowing what you’re doing has nothing to do with where you’re going.
If you’ve gotten to the point where you are thinking it might be time to think about replacing the founder, its past time to replace the founder.
For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
Simplicity is a virtue.
When the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight.
If you’re the smartest guy in the room, find another room.
I see the light when I feel the heat.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
Too many kings can ruin an army.
Think like an entrepreneur. Create like an innovator. Perform like a teammate.
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.
Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over.
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.
By the time you get really good at this, you’ll be dead!
Done is better than perfect.
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
A business exists to create a customer.
There’s a price to pay for the price you pay.
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.
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others lives on.
If you can’t stand the heat, don’t tickle the dragon.
Make sure that the best thing to happen to your customer today is you.
Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.
If you build a better mousetrap, you will catch better mice.
An entrepreneur is someone who shoots an arrow and then runs to move the target, so the arrow hits it.
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.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more.
There’s no fun like work.
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.
If the shoe fits, you probably didn’t buy it online.
We’re all born different, that’s what we got in common.
On ne règne sur les âmes que par le calme. (One leads by calm.)
Humility is the most underrated aspect of being an entrepreneur. Once your head gets too big, you’re cooked.
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.
Failing to plan, is planning to fail.
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
If I’m the smartest guy in the room, I’m in the wrong room.
If you have no idea how something is supposed to be done, I guarantee you’ll be disruptive. Let what you don’t know become your greatest asset.
I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.
Never judge the characters you play… That’s the first rule of acting.
We’re not trying to entertain the critics… I’ll take my chances with the public.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
There is great power in ignorance and naivete.
If you don’t listen to your customers, someone else will.
A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems.
Wealth is not about having a lot of money. It’s about having a lot of options.
If you never retire, you will never expire.
Good judgment comes from experience and experience … well, that comes from poor judgment.
I never know how much of what I say is true.
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.
When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.
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.
A fish doesn’t know it’s wet.
It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop.
The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectations.
Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.
With Early Stage companies, it’s never one thing. It’s always one thing after another.
Possessions are a way of turning money into problems.
If you are batting 1,000, you are playing in the Little Leagues.
Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth.
I am not a fan of lost causes. But a … of causes not yet won.
There is nothing so depressing as boundless optimism.
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.
In economics, things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.
Focus on doing things that can’t hurt and might help. You’ll always be ahead.
Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.
If you presume, you are putting ‘P’ on your resume.
Mediocre people are always at their best.
You can’t innovate once.
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.
When you need money, go ask for advice. When you need advice, go ask for money.
It’s not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.
Done equals good.
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present.
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the entrepreneur adjusts the sails.
Terrible is the temptation to do good!
If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits.
About right now is better than exactly wrong later.
Our company is guided by three deeply held beliefs: That brands with purpose grow, companies with purpose last and people with purpose thrive.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go long, go together.
Make no little plans.
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.
I believe the risks I take are justified by the sheer love of the life I lead.
Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent.
A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
You’ll see it when you believe it.
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
It’s not a good strategy until it costs you something to pursue.
I’m sure that you’re trying to challenge yourself to invent something new. That’s impossible.
The public wants what it can’t get.
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
Beer isproof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Prediction is difficult, especially about the future.
You want to learn from experience, but you want to learn from other people’s experience when you can.
There’s only one boss: the customer. He can fire everybody from the chairman on down simply by spending his money elsewhere.
I just invent, then wait until man comes around to needing what I’ve invented.
Be careful – a little success can create a whole lot of overhead.
The customer of my customer is my customer.
One can learn to cook, but a restaurateur is born.
They say the secret of success is being at the right place at the right time, but since you never know when the right time is going to be, I figure the trick is to find the right place and just hang around.
He that can’t endure the bad will not live to see the good.
If this is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised.
Being early and being wrong are sometimes not that different.
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.
Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
If I can’t make money in the $5 trillion U.S. market, it may be a little bit of wishful thinking to think that all I have to do is get a few thousand miles offshore and I’ll start showing my stuff.
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.
Anytime anybody says, ‘It’s good enough,’ it’s shitty.
Even if you are on the right track, the train will run you over if you just sit there.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!!
Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves it’s amazing what they can accomplish.
If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.
There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.
Customers don’t want 1/4 drills, they want 1/4 holes.
There is nothing like writing to force you to think and get your thoughts straight.
I believe that smart people working hard will eventually get lucky.
Typos in your presentation tell your investors how carefully you plan to manage their money.
The fact that others are bad does not imply that you are good.
Your job is to make people care about your obsessions.
I don’t want the revenue; I just want the profit.
There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
We had a quote over the door that read, ‘Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.’
If you watch entrepreneurs long enough, you observe that innovation is typically a ground game, not a Hail Mary pass.
Good enough never is.
It’s not success you want to be remembered for, but significance.
If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great offenses to rest.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Creativity is great – but not in accounting.
It’s hard to teach a young dog old tricks.
Light travels faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
At the opening of the Hoover Dam, a beaver told a rabbit: ‘Well, I didn’t build it. But it’s based on my idea.
Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
They tried to be too clever, and that was their undoing.
