The quote reigning supreme today is “No matter what road you are walking on right now, your dreams are valid.” Forget that for a minute and consider the journey walked by most successful tech founders of our time. Here’s what they have to say:
Biz Stone, Co-founder Twitter:
“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make look like an overnight success.”
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon:
“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.”
Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn founder:
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you have launched it too late.”
Steve Jobs, Co-founder Apple:
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
Bill Gates, Co-founder Microsoft:
I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.”
Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr:
“So often people are working at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.”
Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable:
“We are really competing against ourselves. We have no control over how other people perform.”
Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare:
If there is something you want to build and the technology is not there yet, just find the closest possible way to make it happen.”
Jan Kuom, co-founder Whatsapp:
[Traditional SMS] stinks. It’s a dead technology like a fax machine left over from the seventies, sitting there as a cash cow for carriers.”
Chris Hughes, Co-founder Facebook:
“You need to be surrounded by good advisers, but you also need to trust your instinct.”
Steve Jobs:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything is secondary.
