I've probably failed more often than anybody else in Silicon Valley. Those don't matter. I don't remember the failures. You remember the big successes.
Interpretation
Failures are often overshadowed by achievements, which define our journey.
In this quote, Vinod Khosla reflects on the nature of success and failure in his career in Silicon Valley. He acknowledges that while he may have experienced numerous failures, they are insignificant compared to the successes he remembers. This highlights the importance of resilience and focusing on positive outcomes rather than dwelling on setbacks.
In practice
During a motivational speech at a startup event.
Seeking an acquisition from the start is more than just bad advice for an entrepreneur. For the entrepreneur it leads to short term tactical decisions rather than company-building decisions and in my view often reduces the probability of success.
Is it 10 years, 20, 50 before we reach that tipping point where climate change becomes irreversible? Nobody can know. There's clearly a probability distribution. We need to ensure this planet, and we need to do it quickly.
Entrepreneurs have the flexibility and the ability to do things that large companies simply cannot. Could a large company pull off a trick like Amyris, going from anti-malaria medicine to next-generation fuel?
The only way you multiply resources is with technology. To really affect poverty, energy, health, education, or anything else - there is no other way.
You need a degree of foolishness to cause disruptive change in healthcare. Dare to dream.
Did Google know much about media? Or Amazon about commerce? Tesla about cars? SpaceX about rockets? EBay about classifieds? What did I know about computing when I started Sun Microsystems? We should celebrate these entrepreneurs, not pillory them for fighting entrenched incumbent industries that have political influence and money.
The fans had become used to looking toward the scoreboard whenever a gymnast stuck a landing. You could tell they were thinking, 'Was that good enough? Would the numbers read 10.00?' The athlete was looking, too.
Which would you rather be, a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?
In most cases, when people make more money, they get deeper in debt. This is why money alone does not make you rich.
The critics are always right. The only way you shut them up is by winning.
Success at the highest level comes down to one question: Can you decide that your happiness can come from someone else's success?
Going to work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going sixty miles an hour or is the train going sixty miles an hour and you're just sitting still?
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