From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
I don't believe there's a universal formula for success—I can only share what worked for me, which was driven by enthusiasm for new ideas. What I value most in people is enthusiasm—not passion, which I find overused—but genuine enthusiasm to see opportunities and act upon them.
That was when I thought, 'am I going to be someone who only wants to do music when it's all going well? And only when it's served to me on a plate? Or do I want to do this… no matter what…' For me, there was nothing else, I wanted to make music.
Most people I would consider world-class, successful entrepreneurs never volunteered for the job. They were kicked out like the guy who offended the king and was kicked out of the city walls.
The idea itself constitutes about 20% of the success, the remaining 80% hinges on execution. This understanding is vital for an early-stage investor to gauge the potential success of a venture.
I've learned that the best ideas often come from the most unexpected conversations. That's why I've spent decades having curiosity conversations with people from completely different fields.
From the data I've collected, about 2% of humanity is qualified to be an entrepreneur. If we got to a point where the full 2% pursued entrepreneurship as a viable way to live their lives? The amount of problems we would solve in human-society would be astounding.
What motivates great entrepreneurs is fear of failure; and here's the thing – most entrepreneurs fail several times before they achieve success, and the more you fail, the more fear you have.
I think people need to understand that building a business is really, really difficult. That shouldn't put anyone off, but there's no easy road to riches.
Impact investing starts from the other end. It starts with an issue… this could be a problem, a social issue or so on. Impact investors start with an issue and then try to build a viable, sustainable financial model around that.
You become an entrepreneur, not by intent, but by accident. It may be that you see a need in a market and decide to act on it. Those for me are the true entrepreneurs- people that just start building, perhaps even without a plan, they just do it. Look at the most famous ones.... Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, they never went to shows or to training, they just got on with it.
I'm just a person who loves to do things before others. I'm very open to listening to young people, and always have a good relationship with them. I'm curious. Thanks to this, 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.
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!'