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Quotes by Entrepreneur
"Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up."
210
"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will."
56
"Obstacles are just opportunities in disguise."
35
"If it's important enough, you'll make the time."
34
"Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss."
32
"You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve."
31
"Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you're doing is as valuable as gold."
26
"Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson."
26
"I think it's possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary."
23
"If you're not failing, you're not innovating enough."
22
"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."
21
"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor."
18
"The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur."
18
"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."
17
"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."
17
"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."
17
"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."
16
"Any product that needs a manual to work is broken."
15
"If anyone has a vested interest in space solar power, it would have to be me."
15
"Some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster."
15
"I'd like to die on Mars. Just not on impact."
14
"If humanity doesn't land on Mars in my lifetime, I would be very disappointed."
14
"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."
14
"I don't create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done."
13
"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."
13
"Success is about being brave enough to show up, even when you don't have all the answers."
13
"Biofuels such as ethanol require enormous amounts of cropland and end up displacing either food crops or natural wilderness, neither of which is good."
12
"The best way to predict the future is to create it."
12
"I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email."
12
"You should take the approach that you're wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong."
11
"People should pursue what they're passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else."
11
"Life is too short for long-term grudges."
11
"I'm anti-tax, but I'm pro-carbon tax."
10
"I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future."
10
"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."
10
"I believe Business Objects is on the cusp of becoming a multi-billion-dollar sales company. There is tremendous growth potential for business intelligence."
10
"I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better. I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself."
10
"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."
10
"The key to success is to start before you're ready."
10
"The reason we're building SpaceX is to be able to make life multi-planetary."
9
"There's no such thing as perfect. Chasing 'Perfect' is the shortest road to not achieving it."
9
"I say something, and then it usually happens. Maybe not on schedule, but it usually happens."
9
"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."
9
"I've been amazed at how often those outside the discipline of design assume that what designers do is decoration. Good design is problem solving."
9
"France needs to find something that makes it stand out. It's not enough for it to do almost as well as its neighbors."
9
"I think you have to not be afraid to fail. You have to take risks."
9
"When you change your mind, you change your life."
8
"As you heat the planet up, it's just like boiling a pot."
8
"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."
8
"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."
8
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