Business

Without truthfulness I would never have been able to grow anything of any significance, I would have been 'found out.' Having truthfulness and ethics within a business creates trust among employees at all levels and is critical.

Billionaire British entrepreneur and founder of Phones 4u mobile retailer

You cannot run a business without great people, who are incentivised to be great; and so, you must protect them, and pay them appropriately.

Billionaire British entrepreneur and founder of Phones 4u mobile retailer

There are no people called entrepreneurs but people perform entrepreneurial functions at different times. Edison performed great entrepreneurial acts. But he was also fierce opponent of innovation when it threatened his business interests.

Leading African innovation and development scholar at Harvard Kennedy School

With Foursquare, our original app was a good idea but it wasn't a hundred million users good idea. The data behind the app, and what we do with the data? That's our good idea. That's our hundred million dollars in revenue idea.

Co-Founder of Foursquare, Location-Based Social Networking Pioneer

I don't really like the term entrepreneur because I think to some it implies that you start businesses for the sake of starting businesses. My view is this. If there's something you want to see in the world that doesn't exist, go build that thing. If that means you have to build a company? so be it.

Co-Founder of Foursquare, Location-Based Social Networking Pioneer

Having attention as an entrepreneur is the ultimate business development tool, and business development is the backbone of any great business- it's important.

Serial Entrepreneur, Author & Digital Marketing Strategist

Good attention is very valuable. In 2017 unlike 2007 when I was yelling about this stuff, people now understand that personal brands are leverage. When you have people's attention, and especially if they think you have value, you can do amazing things.

Serial Entrepreneur, Author & Digital Marketing Strategist

You will never find opportunities in your comfort zone, you have to push yourself. You have to be hungry and willing to go into the unknown. The unknown is where you will always find opportunity.

Icelandic billionaire businessman and former chess player

One of the best ways to make money is not to lose it. If you can learn not to lose money, you're making money. When you lose your own money, it hurts, it makes you careful, but you cannot let it take the mojo… the hunger out of you.

Icelandic billionaire businessman and former chess player

Are you the guy who wants to know what he gets at the end of the month? Or are you the guy who says I'll take my chances and will do very well or very badly. If you can make that distinction in your own mind, the rest is up to you. That's where entrepreneurship comes from; it means you can live with risk.

Icelandic billionaire businessman and former chess player

I would not have believed anyone if they had told me that within eighteen months I would have lost 99 per cent of my $4 billion fortune and would be pursued almost to the brink of bankruptcy by seven major banks… I would have found it impossible to contemplate that I would be treated like a pariah in my home country, saddled with $1 billion in debts and hated as a man who had supposedly almost single-handedly brought down an economy. But that is exactly what happened…

Icelandic billionaire businessman and former chess player

Short-term vision does not allow one to build better businesses and create value. If we keep a long-term perspective in mind, we will go through the good cycles and the bad cycles and reach the other side.

Terra Firma Capital founder; acquired EMI Records in 2007

While most people are uncomfortable with change we have a business built on analysing it. Our business takes advantage of challenges and the opportunities they provide.

Terra Firma Capital founder; acquired EMI Records in 2007

Simply put, a great business will understand its customers, have a clear, sound strategy and a business plan that can deliver against it.

Terra Firma Capital founder; acquired EMI Records in 2007

The most common mistake is to stop challenging when things are going well. I recognise failure as not having made a business better than when you were first involved.

Terra Firma Capital founder; acquired EMI Records in 2007

Kodak had been living in linear-time, something which is intuitive to most of us, where we think in days, weeks, months, years… The world had already started to shift when people like Steve Jobs started to take-advantage of the fact that you could connect the dots.

CEO of Apple Computer Company during the 1980s and 1990s