“I always tell people to not risk their own money, and to get venture funding. You should fail fast and spend as little money as possible to get your ideas validated.”
— Kris Gopalkrishnan
Co-Founder and Former CEO of Infosys, Indian IT Pioneer

The quote archive

Wisdom in fragments

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

Our mission is to help people create a life, not just a living. By freeing them from thinking about the tasks related to space, they can dedicate more of their time and energy on their work and passions.

— Miguel McKelvey

Co-founder of WeWork, co-working space company

Success is different for everyone, but for me success has always been about finding meaning and personal fulfillment. If I can wake up every day, feel engaged in my work and know that I tried my best to help others feel the same as me, then I feel successful.

— Miguel McKelvey

Co-founder of WeWork, co-working space company

At WeWork, we believe creators are anyone that's pursuing their passions and contributing to a mission. Regardless of your company size, title or function, you are working towards creating meaning, intention and purpose within your life.

— Miguel McKelvey

Co-founder of WeWork, co-working space company

We have to shift the focus of our discussions on Europe to trying to deal with the citizens' concerns. And I mean simple things, like 'I can't buy an iTunes record for someone living in a different country because of the geolocation requirements and copyright'.

— Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Former President of Estonia & Cybersecurity Pioneer

I personally want to throw up every time I hear some completely senseless and baseless statement like 'we need more of Europe, not less'. It means nothing, and those slogans simply drive people crazy – It goes to show the intellectual vacuousness of the people who say them.

— Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Former President of Estonia & Cybersecurity Pioneer

Without the existence of Europe, smaller countries like mine [Estonia] would have a difficult time to survive economically or even from a defence perspective. The internal European market is absolutely vital for the functioning of the very different economies of the continent.

— Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Former President of Estonia & Cybersecurity Pioneer

In my case, and for many people I know, a European identity is something that was denied to us for 50 years. For 50 years, Estonia was occupied by the Soviets, and so- for us- for our people, who were under communist domination, we were comfortable and happy to take on a European identity when we gained independence.

— Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Former President of Estonia & Cybersecurity Pioneer

Bias means your mind, your experiences, and your knowledge is too narrow to take in and truly appreciate the person standing in front of you. We have to hold all humans in respect.

— May-Britt Moser

Neuroscientist; Nobel Prize for discovering brain's positioning system cells

I don't think about myself as a woman in these contexts, I think about myself as a human. We should take advantage of our qualities and not trying to change or hide them.

— May-Britt Moser

Neuroscientist; Nobel Prize for discovering brain's positioning system cells

Diversity brings interesting ideas, interesting challenges and creativity. If there are too many females in a field, then get more men! If there are too many men in a field, get more women!

— May-Britt Moser

Neuroscientist; Nobel Prize for discovering brain's positioning system cells

We all experience challenges. If you always make one thing your excuse or let other people drag you down because of something like your gender, it will become your prophecy. Whatever reason, you will never know for sure. You just have to keep fighting.

— May-Britt Moser

Neuroscientist; Nobel Prize for discovering brain's positioning system cells

I completely appreciate that people think social media is a waste of my time, but spending all day being obsessed with our customer, interacting with them in every way that I can, answering every question, trying to understand everything that I can about them, matches everything that we do and everything that we produce.

— Ella Mills

Founder of Deliciously Ella, plant-based food blogger and author

The word engage is the most important thing when it comes to creating a strong brand. From day one, any time someone would comment I would comment back to them- and I started to understand our audience really quickly. I probably spent 3 or 4 hours a day on our social media channel replying to people.

— Ella Mills

Founder of Deliciously Ella, plant-based food blogger and author

We were able to create a brand before we created a product – and that means that the spaces that we can now go into are so vast, because people know Deliciously Ella not just for a single food product but for an entire lifestyle play.

— Ella Mills

Founder of Deliciously Ella, plant-based food blogger and author

Initially, there was no intention of doing anything with Deliciously Ella – it was a personal project, and that allowed it to grow as a community, and a space, that wasn't commercially focused. I think this gave it a level of authenticity that perhaps some brands struggle with and in retrospect it's been a really interesting approach, albeit an unusual one.

— Ella Mills

Founder of Deliciously Ella, plant-based food blogger and author

For me, starting a business was something that kind of ended up happening, not something I had the intention of doing. You so often hear stories of amazing entrepreneurs who tell you they always had that business instinct, even when they were at school they used to sell marbles or chocolate; and that wasn't me in any shape or form. It all happened incredibly naturally.

— Ella Mills

Founder of Deliciously Ella, plant-based food blogger and author