Building a startup community is not a zero-sum game in which there are winners and losers: if everyone engages, they and the entire community can all be winners.
Interpretation
Building a startup community benefits everyone involved, with collective engagement leading to mutual success.
This quote emphasizes the collaborative nature of a startup community, arguing that success is not merely a competition where some prevail while others fail. Instead, when individuals contribute and engage with one another, the entire community flourishes, creating an environment where everyone can succeed together. Collaboration and shared efforts lead to greater outcomes, showcasing the importance of working together rather than in isolation.
In practice
In a presentation about community building, one can use this quote to highlight the importance of teamwork.
For a long time, I've ranted against naming your startup community 'Silicon Whatever.' Instead, I believe every startup community already has a name. The Boulder startup community is called Boulder. The L.A. startup community is called L.A. The Washington D.C. startup community is called Washington D.C.
The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build.
I've been very lucky. All I wanted was to pay the rent. Then these characters took off and suddenly there were Hulk coffee mugs and Iron Man lunchboxes and The Avengers sweatshirts everywhere. Money's okay, but what I really like is working.
When I was 26, I wrote my first mystery, 'The Thomas Berryman Number', and it was turned down by, I don't know, 31 publishers. Then it won an Edgar for Best First Novel. Go figure.
It's what you practice in private that you will be rewarded for in public.
Be happy when you reach the top: cry, clap your hands, shout to the four winds that you did it, let the wind - the wind is always blowing up there - purify your mind, refresh your tired and sweaty feet, open your eyes, clean the dust from your heart. It feels so good, what was just a dream before, a distant vision, is now part of your life, you did it!
If you hate to lose, you do whatever you need to do to make sure you're business is successful.
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