If a company is profitable, the founder is in control. If it's not, investors are in control.
Sam AltmanRead
Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
Interpretation
Starting a business is a risky endeavor that requires perseverance, but success will come to those who persist.
This quote emphasizes the precarious nature of entrepreneurship, likening it to riding a wave that can lead to either failure or success. The metaphor suggests that while the journey is fraught with potential dangers, those who are able to endure and maintain their grip amid the challenges are likely to achieve their goals.
In practice
In a motivational speech about entrepreneurship.
If a company is profitable, the founder is in control. If it's not, investors are in control.
It's so important for startups to get their culture right at the start. They need to feel unique and that they are on their own important mission in the world.
If you have the opportunity to go be an early employee at a company that's just going crazy, and you believe it's the next Facebook or Google, you should go join that company.
Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley. Most people don't want Ferraris, they want a winning seed investment.
People always make the mistake of calling an idea small or stupid because they don't understand how it's going to evolve.
Technology magnifies differences, and it's been replacing or obviating jobs for a long time. But what happens as that case accelerates? I'm not one of these doomsayers who says, 'There will be no jobs.'
If you can prove that you're in that elite class on a consistent basis, it speaks volumes about a player's longevity. It also says that as a player, you were steady, stable, and great and that you deserve to be recognized.
I want the last cheque I write to bounce.
Service to many leads to greatness- great respect, great satisfaction.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.
These three things-work, will, success-fill human existences. Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy. Work passes these doors, and at the end of the journey success comes in to crown one's efforts.
It's not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for.
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