From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
If you don't love the act of doing, you'll never find happiness. If your motivation is glory or money, you're bound to be disappointed. If you're more excited about lunch with investment bankers or the Harvard Club than dealing with the day-to-day realities—like working with bakers or being deeply involved in the entity—you'll end up unhappy.
All of the research we've done exploring space has now allowed small teams- with modest funds- to do what it once took entire governments to do. The design and collaborative power of an individual engineer or technologist is more powerful than it's ever been. The tasks themselves are getting more accessible too.
When I started out, there weren't many women in jewellery, and I hope that by creating a more open-minded approach to creativity and design, that I have been able to make a change on what was a very male dominated world.
I learned more from the people at those events – the community, the customer – than anyone in business.
I've made the most money with people who put their nose to the grindstone and don't talk about valuation. They talk about running business and growing it.
Jack said, 'Well, what do you know about PayPal?' – his response, 'I don't know anything about PayPal'. Jack then said, 'Okay, you're hired, we want you to be the CEO of Ali Pay!'
I guess like any other entrepreneur, but Brown? – this may seem inconsequential, but sometimes, the 'them and us' in society only becomes apparent when pointed out.
Are you the guy who wants to know what he gets at the end of the month? Or are you the guy who says I'll take my chances and will do very well or very badly. If you can make that distinction in your own mind, the rest is up to you. That's where entrepreneurship comes from; it means you can live with risk.
I'm just a person who loves to do things before others. I try to do things before they become huge – I feel the market, the world, and try to be more-close to the world today. That's what I think it takes to be an entrepreneur.
I don't really like the term entrepreneur because I think to some it implies that you start businesses for the sake of starting businesses. My view is this. If there's something you want to see in the world that doesn't exist, go build that thing. If that means you have to build a company? so be it.
The line between acceptable mitigated risk and recklessness is actually very thin— and it’s even more dangerous because it moves.
I've worked with many entrepreneurs and billionaires and I see the same trend over and over again. What they want is someone to manage the liquid side of their portfolio, and they want to take a huge chunk out and use it as their risk capital on things they know and can control. The money didn't just drop-in… it arrived through creation and building! These individuals are always going to be about growth….