Entrepreneur Wisdom Database

When you really become a professional at this stuff, what’s important is how well you can do when you’re not inspired.

Being nice and competitive are two different things. We’re nice guys kicking ass.

I’m sometimes called a serial entrepreneur, but that’s only because, before Zynga, I failed to create a sustainable company.

“You shouldn’t get attached to a feature set. You should get attached to a problem you’re solving.”

learning to be a CEO through classroom training would be like learning to be an NFL quarterback through classroom training

It seemed crazy to me that you have to be an accredited investor to invest in a company... but you can go to Las Vegas and lose $10,000 at the table in an hour but you don’t have to be an accredited gambler to do that.

And perhaps this is why we look so wistfully at entrepreneurs. They seem to exude the raw passion that experience has taught us to modulate, the vivid emotion that we’ve learned to suppress, the intense energy that we learn must be channeled, the unreasonable audacity that has been replaced by sensible objectives. We cheer for them because they represent our youthful hopes, our idealism, our ambitions and our dreams. And when these entrepreneurs defy the extraordinary odds, and succeed, we rejoice, for at the moment we can sense, if only fleetingly, the exceptional untapped potential within each of us. We rejoice, and wonder: what if?

I hate it when people call themselves 'entrepreneurs' when what they're really trying to do is launch a startup and then sell of go public, so they can cash in and move on. They're unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business.

To get something new done you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable.

I have long believed in the power of a word or a single phrase to effectively communicate a business imperative—and to inspire people. The best words are never big or complicated, but are packed with emotion and meaning, leaving no question of what I expect of myself and others.

Every significant invention must be startling, unexpected, and must come into a world that is not prepared for it. If the world were prepared for it, it would not be much of an invention.

Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.

The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are.

They were called nerds. But I could never have built the business without them

Well run technology businesses with tremendous consumer usage make a lot of money over the long term

we invest in strength, not lack of weakness

Luck finds the doers.