“Champions possess a distinct mindset, a relentless drive for excellence that sets them apart. They're not content with just doing okay; they strive for excellence constantly. Being second is not an option for them, they aim for the top.”
— Patrick Mouratoglou
Tennis coach who famously coached Serena Williams

The quote archive

Economics

A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.

It is impossible to have the World Bank type of policy that is saying one policy fits all – educate your population, adopt better institutions, adopt family planning, and this will be the rescue. On the contrary, resources are limited, and we need to target the elements that are creating hurdles in the development of each country.

— Oded Galor

Economist known for unified growth theory explaining long-term economic development

Think about your water kettle. When you heat the water and you see the transition from water to gas, not all water molecules are converted at once. The same happened in the world economy. Since this transition was associated with such a fantastic increase in income per capita, those societies that took off first increased their gap from the rest of the world tremendously.

— Oded Galor

Economist known for unified growth theory explaining long-term economic development

Over this 99.9% of human existence, when technology advances, population advances and counterbalances any potential increase in human prosperity. Suddenly once technological progress reaches a tipping point, families start to invest in education, they economise on the number of children, and technological progress is converted into richer people rather than into more people.

— Oded Galor

Economist known for unified growth theory explaining long-term economic development

There is a certain conventional wisdom about the way that humanity evolved over time. The puzzling element is that much of the gain that we made in the technological realm were converted into more people, rather than into richer people up until very, very recently. World income per capita has increased 14-fold in the past 200 years, whereas over 300,000 years of human existence, it hardly changed.

— Oded Galor

Economist known for unified growth theory explaining long-term economic development

We've heard stories from folks who have paid off their student debt by becoming digital artists and selling NFTs. If you think about the jobs of the future – there will be people who will be making money as VR sculptors, virtual land real estate agents… People are already creating those jobs now!

— Devin Finzer

Co-Founder and CEO of OpenSea, leading NFT marketplace platform

For the creator economy, NFTs represent a way for creators and producers of content to directly engage with the people who support them. It's a completely different model… a way for artists and creators to monetise much more effectively than incumbent platforms.

— Devin Finzer

Co-Founder and CEO of OpenSea, leading NFT marketplace platform

Today, American capital markets are a detriment for competitiveness. The private markets are doing well, but we need a new way forward for competitiveness that works better for companies and the people.

— Roger L. Martin

Management theorist & former Dean of Rotman School of Business

Right now, is the absolute best time in human history to be a disruptor. The world is awash with cash chasing disruptive ideas and most companies have one (if not both) hands tied behind their back.

— Roger L. Martin

Management theorist & former Dean of Rotman School of Business

Bill Gates spoke at Davos in 2008, about the need for creative capitalism. Michael Porter started talking about shared value capitalism, John Mackey of Whole Foods started talking about conscious capitalism and Marc Benioff started talking about compassionate capitalism. It was the beginning of a time when everybody felt the need to put a modifier in front of the word 'capitalism,' it was clear the incumbent version wasn't working as well as it could.

— Alan Murray

Editor of Fortune Magazine & Wall Street Journal columnist

If you look at the balance sheets of Fortune 500 companies 50 years ago and today, 50 years ago, 80% of the value was physical stuff. Today, more than 85% of the value consists of intangibles. Companies must become so much more now that their value comes from their ability to inspire, drive and organise human beings.

— Alan Murray

Editor of Fortune Magazine & Wall Street Journal columnist

Education exponentially multiplies advancements in every other sector. And critically, it empowers communities with the skills to shape their own futures, build their own economies, and advocate for their own rights.

— Nadia Murad

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Yazidi Genocide Survivor Advocate

Alibaba convinced me that it's possible to do good for society, and to do good in business. Traditionally, people thought of social impact as a nice to have, something on the side as part of your 'CSR.' Increasingly, there is a belief that it should be core to a business.

— Brian A. Wong

Central banks all around the world have essentially abused the power of printing money, and they have abused it by using quantitative easing, meaning creating new federal money to kit over fundamental problems, structural problems in the economy. So much of that acceleration in the wealth inequality has come from this quantitative easing.

— Albert Wenger

Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, early Bitcoin and cryptocurrency advocate

We need to get out of the peacetime footing that we are on and we need to get onto a wartime footing against this climate crisis. During World War II, the US allocated 50% of GDP roughly to fighting, and I believe we need to get to 50% of GDP sustained over 5 to 10 years.

— Albert Wenger

Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, early Bitcoin and cryptocurrency advocate

The industrial age economy was characterised by the scarcity of physical capital like machines, buildings, and roads. Capital is no longer the binding constraint on humanity. We have an excess of physical capital. The real scarcity today is attention to the importance of the question, to what end are we deploying this capital.

— Albert Wenger

Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, early Bitcoin and cryptocurrency advocate

The best analogy I can give for an IPO is that it's like a wedding. There's a whole lot of attention directed toward the wedding, and less toward the 20 years of marriage after the wedding. IPO has the word initial in it, it's the starting line for being a public company.

— Mike Evans

NFL Wide Receiver for Tampa Bay Buccaneers & Super Bowl Champion