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Quotes by Entrepreneur
"Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up."
317
"Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson."
82
"Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss."
79
"You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve."
79
"If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not."
70
"I think it's possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary."
68
"Obstacles are just opportunities in disguise."
62
"If humanity doesn't land on Mars in my lifetime, I would be very disappointed."
61
"If it's important enough, you'll make the time."
59
"I'm not trying to be anyone's savior. I just try to think about the future and not be sad"
56
"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor."
54
"The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I'm not trying to be anyone's savior. I'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad."
53
"If you're not failing, you're not innovating enough."
48
"Even though I'm a hype man myself, I like the practicality of it all. People who understand how to turn a profit. At the end of the day, this is still business so I'm looking for real practical knowledge of how to actually make money, not necessarily raise it."
41
"What I'm trying to do is, is to make a significant difference in space flight. And help make space flight accessible to almost anyone."
39
"Any product that needs a manual to work is broken."
38
"Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you're doing is as valuable as gold."
37
"There's a silly notion that failure's not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough."
36
"If anyone has a vested interest in space solar power, it would have to be me."
35
"I'd like to die on Mars. Just not on impact."
34
"Success doesn't come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently."
32
"You should take the approach that you're wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong."
31
"Some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster."
31
"Take risks now and do something bold. You won't regret it."
30
"We could definitely make a flying car - but that's not the hard part. The hard part is, how do you make a flying car that's super safe and quiet? Because if it's a howler, you're going to make people very unhappy."
30
"People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working."
29
"The future of humanity is going to bifurcate in two directions: Either it's going to become multiplanetary, or it's going to remain confined to one planet and eventually there's going to be an extinction event."
29
"In order for us to have a future that's exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we're a space-bearing civilization."
28
"Social Media = Business. Period."
28
"The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design."
28
"I'm trying to think about the future and not be sad."
28
"People should pursue what they're passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else."
25
"We're running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere... can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe."
24
"Success is about being brave enough to show up, even when you don't have all the answers."
24
"Biofuels such as ethanol require enormous amounts of cropland and end up displacing either food crops or natural wilderness, neither of which is good."
23
"The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur."
23
"The reason we're building SpaceX is to be able to make life multi-planetary."
22
"People are chasing cash, not happiness. When you chase money, you're going to lose. You're just going to. Even if you get the money, you're not going to be happy."
22
"My proceeds from the PayPal acquisition were $180 million. I put $100 million in SpaceX, $70m in Tesla, and $10m in Solar City. I had to borrow money for rent."
21
"I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email."
21
"Life is too short for long-term grudges."
21
"There's no such thing as perfect. Chasing 'Perfect' is the shortest road to not achieving it."
20
"An asteroid or a supervolcano could certainly destroy us, but we also face risks the dinosaurs never saw: An engineered virus, nuclear war, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us."
20
"Never compare your beginning to someone else's middle."
20
"I'd like to dial it back 5% or 10% and try to have a vacation that's not just e-mail with a view."
20
"Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product."
20
"It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree -- make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to."
20
"I think you have to not be afraid to fail. You have to take risks."
20
"I believe Business Objects is on the cusp of becoming a multi-billion-dollar sales company. There is tremendous growth potential for business intelligence."
19
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