Business Quotes

A startup doesn’t know who they’re going to be two days from now, they don’t know what’s around the corner, they don’t know what the world is going to do that will be either beneficial or detrimental to their existence, but they have to be able to think on their feet, act fast and make changes without hesitation.

Many times they’re talking about risk as a bad thing. The way I think about risk is, I want to take some risks. The most dangerous thing is not taking a risk.

The key challenge—and the biggest change from business as usual—is changing the focus from how much inventory there is to how fast it’s moving.

The best customers for us are the ones that present us with a new problem, because chances are, if one customer has that problem, 100 more have it, or 1,000, or 10,000. So you start thinking about solution development rather than product development. That can mean anything from a new feature or capability to a new way to finance purchases or a new way to link things together.

The point is, you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect it to keep working. We had to do something different, but the really hard question was, What is it? We made plenty of mistakes along the way to answering that question, but the most important thing we identified was that we needed to know more about our customers and what problems they were really trying to solve in their businesses–even if they didn’t neatly fit into an existing category of ours.

Customers don’t care how much time something takes to build. They only care that it serves their needs.

I always feel that failure is nothing more than life’s way of nudging you and letting you know you’re off course.

Failure is a prerequisite for great success. If you want to succeed faster, double your rate of failure.

The line between failure and success is so fine, that we are often on the line and do not know it.

Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it’s very hard to fail completely.

One of the things that really define an entrepreneur is you get punched in the stomach over and over and over again, and you just have to show up the next day and keep it going. It really is just persistence.

I was not an overnight superstar, but I was willing to work and willing to learn, and that paid off for me. Every change I made was a small step forward, and as long as I took more steps forward than backward I felt as though I was making progress. I learned that if things weren’t working for me, I had to change, and not expect others to change. But the single greatest lesson I learned was that it takes courage, not confidence, to build a business.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to trust my instincts. Go with your gut and respect what your instincts tell you. I’ve seen the truth of this play out so many times in a lot of different situations. The truth is that while you can (and should) do all your research and due diligence and analyze all your options, in the end it comes down to taking a leap of faith and trusting yourself.

If your gut tells you that a deal is too risky or that your partners seem untrustworthy, pay attention, step back, and reflect. If you go ahead anyway, do so with extra protection, especially in terms of documentation.

If you don’t get a genuine break from work on the regular basis, you will find yourself on the road to burnout or worse, falling out of love with your job or business. Like any good relationship, you need at least some time apart

If you ever feel stuck, or trapped in ‘busyness’ running from one spinning plate to another, go outside and breathe. The less stimuli and noise you have around you, the quicker you’ll find the answers

Action means putting yourself out there, at the risk of rejection; but if you try your best, then there is no such thing as personal failure.

You won’t get anywhere without making a start

Sometimes you have to simply think less and do more.

Focus on the things that you’re good at and you’re passionate about and strive to become world class. Then keep your eyes open to what’s around you and don’t become blinkered. in this way you’ll be ready to spot opportunities when they arise, and you’re also be more resilient it when life throws you the inevitable curve ball.