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Quotes for Entrepreneurs Curated in September 2014
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“A holiday gives one chance to look backward and forward, to reset oneself by an inner compass.”
May Sarton
Uses as opening quote in “Labor Day 2014: Knowledge Work Productivity
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A prototype is worth a thousand meetings.
Mike Davidson (@MikeIndustries)
“A few well stated goals are worth five prototypes”
Cason Swindle (@CasonBang)
The “prototype is worth a thousand meetings” is probably derived from IDEO’s
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a thousand pictures.”
The earliest cite I can find is by Jun Lin Lee of Minitheory who used
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a thousand meetings”
to describe the value of prototyping at a Singapore Lean Startup Circle presentation in June 2013 and in https://speakerdeck.com/leejunlin/quick-and-dirty-prototyping-singapore-lean-startup-circle-june-meetup I contacted him and he said it’s not original with him but could not remember where he read it.
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“In 149 centuries, movies add time and CAD adds depth to a flat static cave drawing of a hunt.”
Chris Yonge
Condensed from Chris Yonge on 3D Printing: Past, Present, and Future
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“Enthusiasm finds the opportunities, and energy makes the most of them.”
Henry S. Haskins “Meditations in Wall Street” (1940)
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“Loneliness is the poverty of self;
solitude is richness of self.”
May Sarton
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“Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
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“Everything is raw material.
Everything is relevant.
Everything is usable.
Everything feeds into my creativity.
But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.”
Twyla Tharp
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“The best demo is conversation driven by mutual curiosity: a joint exploration of their situation, their needs, and your offering.”
Sean Murphy
Twitter version of opening to “A Great Demo Is A Conversation Driven By Mutual Curiosity”
The best demo–a Great Demo!--is a conversations driven by mutual curiosity. Your goal is to learn more about a prospect’s current situation and needs while they want to learn more about your product and services and how you can help them.
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“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”
Stephen Grellet
Used as end quote for “Counting Your Blessings”
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“In product development we create value by generating valuable information efficiently.”
Don Reinertsen in “Four Imposters: Success, Failure, Knowledge, and Learning“
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“We can, after all, learn much from lessons we did not sign up for.”
Alexander Jablokov in “Breath of Suspension”
h/t Fred O’Bryant’s Quote Collection Volume 2
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“There is no substitute for excellence.
Not even success.”
Thomas Boswell
h/t Fred O’Bryant’s Quote Collection Volume 1
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“The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards.”
Alexander Jablokov in “The Place of No Shadows”
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“Empathy is intuitive, but it is also something you can work on intellectually.”
Tim Minchin in “Occasional Address at The University of Western Australia 17-Sep-2013“
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“There’s one sort of intelligence. It helps you get what you want.
There’s another: the kind that tells you what the right thing to want is.”
Alexander Jablokov from The Breath of Suspension
h/t Fred O’Bryant’s Quote Collection Volume 2
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“Cyberspace is everting.” It’s interpenetrating our everyday reality to the point that on-line is our normal waking state.”
William Gibson in Spook Country
Quoted in Deformation Professionelle Of The Software Entrepreneur
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Will Evans (@semanticwill): “True strategy is about placing bets and making hard choices under conditions of uncertainty, not about assuming plans can remove risk.”
Sean Murphy (@skmurphy): plans mitigate risk: strategy balances the cost of preparations and options against the reduction in risk produced.
Will Evans (@semanticwill): Socratic question: all plans? Some? Which ones? How do they do so?
Sean Murphy (@skmurphy): Let me use your “true strategy” formulation: you can tell if it’s truly planning if it mitigates risk.
Sean Murphy (@skmurphy): True planning mitigates risk; strategy balances the cost of preparations and options against risk reduced.
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“A great part of life consists of contemplating what we cannot cure.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
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“5 Whys is good for root cause but I start with ‘5 Whos’ to sharpen customer focus.”
Tristan Kromer in “Tristan Kromer on Testing Customer and Value Hypotheses“
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“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
Ernest Hemingway
Could you repeat that? I didn’t quite catch it.
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“Thoughtland = thinking without tinkering.
Wasteland = tinkering without thinking.
Pretotypeland = thinking and tinkering.”
Alberto Savoia (@Pretotyping)
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” Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarised in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.”
Walt Disney
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“Mrs Thicknesse and I agreed that a business of his own was probably the only solution for him because he was obviously unemployable.”
Peter De Vries in “Comfort Me with Apples”
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“The past is rich in lessons from which we would greatly profit except that the present is always so full of Special Circumstances.”
Mignon McLaughlin
Used as a closing quote for “How Long Is a Piece of String?”
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Customer development is the complex discovery-driven sale.
If you think I don’t grok customer development, you may not grok sales.
Twitter version of closing lines to “What Are the Core Skills For Customer Development?”
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“A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that when an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product. ”
Tim Cook in “A message from Tim Cook about Apple’s commitment to your privacy.”
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“Count no day lost in which you waited your turn, took only your share and sought advantage over no one.”
Robert Brault
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“Your name is your primary weapon in the battle for the mind.”
Al Ries and Jack Trout in “Positioning“
Used as a section quote in “Why You Need a Logo”
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“Entrepreneurs expect opportunity only by creating value for others.”
Dan Sullivan in “The Great Crossover“
Used as a section quote in “Entrepreneurial Mindset: Create Value For Others”
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“An MVP is Finished Only After You Have Early Adopters”
Javid Jamae (@javidjamae)
Used as the title for a guest post “An MVP is Finished Only After You Have Early Adopters”
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“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.”
James Michener in “Chesapeake”
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“We tend to use a new technology to do an old task more efficiently. We pave the cow paths.”
Paul Saffo on “The Mouse Turns 40” (2008)
More context
Takahashi: Is technology where you would expect it to be, based on Moore’s Law?
Saffo: We are making advances at the rate that one would expect. We are not making advances at the rate one would hope. This is why Doug’s ideas are still relevant. We tend to use a new technology to do an old task more efficiently. We pave the cow paths. Using computers to send email is doing the same thing that the Postal Service used to do. It’s paving the cow path. That’s human nature to solve problems that way. In 1907, Leo Baekeland invented plastic, which he called Bakelite. He tried to make plastic look like something familiar, like tortoise shells. Soon enough, they figured out other things to do. Computers are still in this Bakelite stage. Laptops look like typewriters with screens. This is a revolution that is 40 years old and is still getting under way. Next time at the airport, look around. Most people are looking for a chair to type on their laptops. Keyboards shouldn’t be in your lap. You should have other ways to interact, more like the iPhone.
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“Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.”
Bruce Mau in “An incomplete manifesto for growth“
More context
20. Be careful to take risks. Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.”
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“The future of work consists of learning a living.”
Marshall McLuhan in “Understanding Media“
h/t Kevin Kelly “The Proverbs of St. McLuhan”
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“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth.
We are happy when we are growing.”
William Butler Yeats
h/t Gretchin Rubin Daily Quotes
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“For tolls too briefly the sounds of mercy…
In fear we ponder the use of thunder for peace”
Shawn Phillips “Hie Away“
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“A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.”
May Sarton
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“Schmexpert: half schmuck, half expert. A lot of feedback that you get in bureaucracies from “customers” is actually from schmexperts. They only know enough jargon to be dangerous and they sees every problem as a long term justification for their indispensability.”
Bill Meade in “Customer Development and Schmexperts“
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“We’re all naturally curious when we’re eight years old. But as most people get older, they become less and less curious, so they ask other people to be curious for them. That’s what I do for a living.”
Ron Miriello
h/t Quotes on Design
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“All things are difficult before they are easy.”
Thomas Fuller
h/t Conal Elliot Quotes Collection
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There are several gems, but the one I like best is
“There is no substitute for excellence. Not even success.”
Thomas Boswell
Very Well Said!
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