Wisdom in fragments

Scaling up is incredibly challenging; it's definitely been the hardest part of my own entrepreneurship journey. You might be familiar with The Peter Principle, which states that people are promoted to the level of their incompetence. It's exactly the same in the real world: if you're good at your job, it leads to advancement in your career, and then you don't get to do those things anymore that made you deserve that advancement.

Co-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr

If there's one thing that thematically aligns all startups: a tolerance for innovation in how the companies are run. This means there's a little bit more risk taking and attacking problems in a way that hasn't been done before.

Co-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr

The workplace of the future is hard to predict specifically, but one thing we can predict is that we will increasingly rely on human intelligence and creativity as opposed to human capacity to perform repetitive tasks.

Co-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr

Fundamentally, it's really hard to work on intellectual and complex projects collaboratively. Complexity is underestimated, even by the people who are in the thick of it. There's a lot of anxiety or even resentment towards the tools and process of business that manifests in satire with shows like 'The Office', the movie 'Office Space' or the cartoon 'Dilbert'.

Co-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr

I would love to say that we knew all the answers in advance, but the truth is that we discovered our product and opportunity, rather than planning for it. We started a company to build a massively multiplayer game, and in the process, it very quickly became apparent to us what the utility of Slack was as we used a prototype to collaborate internally.

Co-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr

That's what entrepreneurship is all about–experimenting and finding a way of achieving some goal in the context of business. It's something I've always found fascinating.

Co-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr

My advice to young players today is really simple, you have to be the best you can on the pitch, but also to educate yourself, show an interest in the world, and not let football restrict you. The way football is going, it will become more tactical, more strategic and so the more you open your brain, the better you will be.

Manchester City Captain & Belgian Football Legend

I came to the conclusion that clubs would be better of promoting strategies that induce home-advantage rather than fighting for higher ticket price because the incremental value of each point lost is higher than the value of those more expensive tickets. If you drive your home advantage, your revenues go up!

Manchester City Captain & Belgian Football Legend

As a team captain, you have to figure out how people work, you have to make sure you say the right thing to the right person… you have to know when to shout, when to listen, when to be tough and when to be kind. You have to realise that being captain does not give you a license to order people around; if people follow you, they follow you because they've decided to, not because they have to.

Manchester City Captain & Belgian Football Legend

My mother passed away 10 years ago; and she was always someone who pushed me to get educated, and to work on my academic side. She always made me remember that football could be temporary; what if I broke a leg? What if I lose my ability to play? She never wanted me to give-up my dreams, but to be smart and hedge my bets.

Manchester City Captain & Belgian Football Legend

As a player, you are your asset. You have to manage and keep your performance- as an athlete- at the highest standard. This is key…. after all, you can't market something that's not working or performing well.

Manchester City Captain & Belgian Football Legend

My ultimate legacy would be to retire from Atlassian one day and see it going on to bigger and better things in twenty, fourty, or fifty years after me!

Co-Founder of Atlassian & Technology Entrepreneur

Nobody notices a dollar a day disappearing from their payroll, but think of the impact of a thousand people doing that.

Co-Founder of Atlassian & Technology Entrepreneur

It's hard to create a very successful company, not many people do that. It's even harder to create a company that is durable. Our aim is to create a company that outlasts its founders, and to build a hundred year company you need to provide great customer value, have great employees and great processes.

Co-Founder of Atlassian & Technology Entrepreneur

We were both passionate that we wanted to really make a difference; soup kitchens are good, but they don't prevent homelessness. You can go to volunteer at a soup kitchen every day of the year, and you'll still have homeless people. We wanted to tackle root causes and tackle them globally.

Co-Founder of Atlassian & Technology Entrepreneur

I started my entrepreneurship journey straight out of college, and at the time my goal was simple. I didn't want a real job, and I didn't want to wear a suit…. Anything more than that was a bonus.

Co-Founder of Atlassian & Technology Entrepreneur