“I am not someone who puts a lot of pressure on myself. I love a challenge and live for the big stage of an Olympic Games or World Championships. Some people get nervous for the big events but I look forward to them.”
— Usain Bolt
Jamaican Sprinter & Olympic Gold Medalist, Fastest Human Ever

The quote archive

Entrepreneurship

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

Had the first astronauts or explorers listened to advice, chances are they would never have embarked on those world-changing adventures. The same is true of entrepreneurs. First and foremost, entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs because their gut had an insight or an idea that's driven them.

— Not specified

One you have to get a unique insight. It starts there. Two, you need to be prepared to devote a lot of energy and commitment.

— Steve Ballmer

Former CEO of Microsoft & Owner of Los Angeles Clippers

Small companies will get an idea and try to scale up. Big companies have to decide when to extend, when to extend and scale, and when to do something new. They need to build capabilities in terms of insight and execution to do the new thing.

— Steve Ballmer

Former CEO of Microsoft & Owner of Los Angeles Clippers

Never was wealth the driver for me. – it was always hey, there's a cool idea here, let's make something of it. It was nice to be well rewarded, but the interesting part was working the problem, thinking about new things and how to bring them forward from being ideas to being products or new ways of doing things.

— Steve Ballmer

Former CEO of Microsoft & Owner of Los Angeles Clippers

Most people think of entrepreneurs as someone who starts a company, but to me? Entrepreneurship is really about problem solving. You can be an entrepreneur in a company, in a family or in your own venture. The bottom line? If you can solve a problem – you're an entrepreneur.

— Naveen Jain

Entrepreneur & Founder of Moon Express, Infosys Technologies Co-Founder

The first trillionaires are going to be created through space exploration. Imagine the mineral wealth on planet Earth, and then realise that Earth is just a tiny blue dot in our whole galaxy… which is just one galaxy in a universe, which could be part of many universes. Everything we think is rare on Earth, is abundant in space.

— Naveen Jain

Entrepreneur & Founder of Moon Express, Infosys Technologies Co-Founder

One of the ideas you hear often is that in America there is a culture where not only is it ok to fail, but it's almost expected – like a badge of honor. This is true to a point but that implies a cut-throat culture that is more legend than reality.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

One of the defining experiences I had with CNET, a digital media company where I was the fourth employee back in the dawn of the internet, was recognizing the power of asking for help.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

Too often I feel there is also a search for 'the next' Steve Jobs or Joanna Shields. These are extraordinary people and yet I believe we should not treat entrepreneurialism as requiring a narrow checklist of certain characteristics.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

The key both in the US and the UK is to have hand-raisers – people who want to take a chance, and get involved. That is a spirit that you see both in the UK and in America.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

You have to keep reaching, keep thinking about what the next-level is.

— will.i.am

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

Entrepreneurship is the relentless drive to carry-on, no matter what. Entrepreneurship is tolerance, focus and dedication. Entrepreneurship is this 'true north' belief that whatever this 'thing' is that you want to bring to culture, that you will see it through… and that you are the one here to usher it into existence.

— will.i.am

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

As business-leaders we have to start taking responsibility to speak-out about our own struggles, so that others do the same- and by doing so, make our teams and our peers realise that it's fine to not be fine.

— Unknown

By 2025, we're going to see 40-50% of all tech entrepreneurs being women, and that's good news.

— Adeo Ressi

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.

— Adeo Ressi

You can't be successful unless you're genuine as a human being and honest. The startups in our world that are really successful are both genuine and honest; they bring that pure level of passion to the table and they're very honest about the world around them.

— Adeo Ressi