QuoteProject
Entrepreneurs have only the murkiest picture of the future in which they are making their bets, and also there is ambiguity: they don't know when they push this lever or that lever that the outcome is going to be what they think it is going to be - there is the law of unanticipated consequences.
Edmund Phelps
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Entrepreneurs face uncertainty in their decisions, often leading to unpredictable outcomes.

The quote by Edmund Phelps highlights the inherent uncertainty that entrepreneurs encounter while making decisions about the future. It suggests that despite their efforts to predict outcomes by making strategic choices, they are often confronted with unexpected results due to factors beyond their control, illustrating the complexity and unpredictability of entrepreneurship.

Themes

EntrepreneurshipUncertaintyDecision-MakingRiskConsequences

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a motivational speech for aspiring entrepreneurs.

More from Edmund Phelps

At the simplest level, economics can better show us the consequences of our actions. Less simple are cases in which we don't have the knowledge to predict the full consequences. Global warming and climate change are examples.
Edmund PhelpsRead
If every effect of any new products or methods were required to be known before they could be produced and marketed, they would not be true innovations - and thus not represent new knowledge of what people would like, if offered.
Edmund PhelpsRead
The good life, as it is popularly conceived, typically involves acquiring mastery in one's work, thus gaining for oneself better terms - or means to rewards, whether material, like wealth, or nonmaterial - an experience we may call 'prospering.'
Edmund PhelpsRead
The epic story of the West is the development in the 19th century of a mass prosperity the world had never seen and its near-disappearance in one nation after another in the 20th.
Edmund PhelpsRead
When the word 'morality' comes up in connection with economics, income distribution and financial stability are usually the issues. Is it moral for rich countries to use such a high proportion of the world's resources or for investment bankers to earn large bonuses?
Edmund PhelpsRead
A nation's economy is more than its markets, tastes, technologies and property rights.
Edmund PhelpsRead

Similar quotes

Power is winning the battle over who owns the customer: the brand or the retailer.
Leonard LauderRead
Business is what concerns us. If you care about something enough to do something about it, you're in business
Richard BransonRead
The best client is a scared millionaire.
H. L. MenckenRead
If you can shape your business life or your working life, you can just look at it as another extension - you just fulfill all your values as a human being in the work place. If you are an activist, you bring the activism of your life into your business, or if you love creative art, you can bring that in.
Anita RoddickRead
Business plans are the tool existing companies use for execution. They are the wrong tool to search for a business model.
Steve BlankRead
A visionary company doesn't simply balance between idealism and profitability: it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable. A visionary company doesn't simply balance between preserving a tightly held core ideology and stimulating vigorous change and movement; it does both to an extreme.
James C. CollinsRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.