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Quotes for Entrepreneurs–January 2012
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“What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background but motivation, perseverance, and desire — the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery.”
Ellen Ochoa
I think entrepreneurship requires not only the motivation to discover your own strengths but also the perseverance to discover opportunities in the marketplace that these strengths enable you to capitalize on.
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“Don’t just follow your passion unless your passion produces something other people will pay for.”
Tim Berry in “Lessons Learned from 22 Years of Successful Bootstrapping“
It’s not enough to make something that people want, they have to need it and be willing to pay for it. See also “Solve Real Problems That People Will Pay For Where You Add Unique Value.”
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“A hamlet with a church becomes a village. A town with a cathedral becomes a city. And, a Google search with ADHD becomes a morning.”
Merlin Mann
It’s a matter of “I always Google too long” vs. “I always Google too late.”
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“If you board the wrong train, it’s no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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“When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark, and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.”
Edna O’Brien
I think this also matches the character of many successful entrepreneurs who are not Irish as well.
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“If you see a line get in it, because you’re going to want what’s at the end.”
USSR aphorism
and too often the basis for a poor launch message. Too many “viral launch” strategies require a prospective user or customer to tweet or e-mail friends or post a badge on their blog before they have had a chance to experience any aspect of the service. This reminds me of a joke from the USSR era:
Two women walk by a long line of people on a Moscow street. They reach the end and one says, “Let’s get in it!” “Why”, asks the other, “I cannot tell where it ends.” So they ask the last person in line, “What are you in line for?” He answers, “I am not sure but with a line this long it must be something good!”
I used this as the first half of “Focus on Delighting Your Early Customers Over Accumulating Followers” and as a closing story for “Only Ask Customers For Referrals”
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“A new broom sweeps clean but an old broom knows the corners.”
Irish aphorism
See also:
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