These quotes for entrepreneurs were curated in August of 2023 around a theme of “commitment.”
Quotes for Entrepreneurs Curated in September 2023
Theme for this month: Commitment
The Conversation for Commitment
Commitment is a promise made with no expectation of return. It is the willingness to make a promise independent of either approval or reciprocity from other people. The distinction is between a promise made for its own sake and a barter agreement. Barter is an exchange of agreements that are contingent on the actions of another. I will do this if you will do that. This means that we hold an out for ourselves dependent on whether other people fulfill their part of the bargain. This reciprocity works as an element of commerce. It falls short of the level of commitment that creates a new future.
Peter Block in “Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community” [PDF] (2007)
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“Business is impossible without clarity of purpose.”
Mike Solana in “Doom Loop“
What purpose have you committed to?
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“The superficial and slipshod have ready answers, but those looking this complex life straight in the eye acquire a wealth of perception so composed of delicately balanced contradictions that they dread, or resent, the call to couch any part of it in a bland generalization.”
Peter DeVries in “Blood of the Lamb“
There is too much casual knowledge acquired from third-hand sources about the realities of starting a business. First time entrepreneurs talk glibly of “failing fast” and “pivoting” without any recognition of the level of shipwreck and painful re-evaluation at a personal and team-level embedded in those popular phrases. These same folks have ready one-size-fits-all prescriptions, which is why we ask attendees at the Bootstrappers Breakfasts to speak only from experience.
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What people see: success.
What’s beneath the surface: persistence in the face of failures and disappointments, cultivation of good habits and a dedication to hard work where prioritizing these requires short term sacrifices for long term gain.
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“The exchange of a meaningful look means that the two people have talked about whatever it is and have strong opinions which they don’t share with others.”
Sven Birkerts (@svenbirkerts)
Certainly true for old married couples but also for founders who have formed an effective team. They don’t need an audience to argue to, they can work things out privately and present a united front.
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“You need to make a commitment, and then once you make it, life will give you some answers.”
Les Brown
True for exploring a market or determining a strategy, you have to commit but be prepared to adjust or even change direction significantly. Novice founders look for customers to commit first. Paul Saffo wrote about this in “Strong Opinions Weakly Held” [2006] I have bolded key phrases.
The point of forecasting is not to attempt illusory certainty, but to identify the full range of possible outcomes. Try as one might, when one looks into the future, there is no such thing as “complete” information, much less a “complete” forecast. As a consequence, I have found that the fastest way to an effective forecast is often through a sequence of lousy forecasts. Instead of withholding judgment until an exhaustive search for data is complete, I will force myself to make a tentative forecast based on the information available, and then systematically tear it apart, using the insights gained to guide my search for further indicators and information. Iterate the process a few times, and it is surprising how quickly one can get to a useful forecast.
Since the mid-1980s, my mantra for this process is “strong opinions, weakly held.” Allow your intuition to guide you to a conclusion, no matter how imperfect — this is the “strong opinion” part. Then –and this is the “weakly held” part– prove yourself wrong. Engage in creative doubt. Look for information that doesn’t fit, or indicators that pointing in an entirely different direction. Eventually your intuition will kick in and a new hypothesis will emerge out of the rubble, ready to be ruthlessly torn apart once again. You will be surprised by how quickly the sequence of faulty forecasts will deliver you to a useful result.
This process is equally useful for evaluating an already-final forecast in the face of new information. It sensitizes one to the weak signals of changes coming over the horizon and keeps the hapless forecaster from becoming so attached to their model that reality intrudes too late to make a difference.
Paul Saffo in “Strong Opinions Weakly Held“
Here is my tweet-length summary: “The fastest way to an effective forecast is a sequence of lousy forecasts refined by creative doubt that looks at information that doesn’t fit and weak signals of changes coming over the horizon.” Paul Saffo
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Commit to a sustained focus, not a short-term intensity of effort.
“Some people are too intense when they’re young. They’re too driven, too serious about what they are doing. They are totally absorbed in it. So I tell them, you are not going to get better at that much faster a rate by being that absorbed in it. Because what you are going to do is give yourself a nervous breakdown. You’ll destroy your concentration because you are too eager, just relax. Stuff comes in time. It’s the concentration that you have to exert goes this way. It’s horizontal, it’s not vertical.
The key to practicing is to practice and concentrate over a course of years, not a bunch of time in a day, a week at a time. Then the reason you don’t get tired is because you’ll be relaxed and calm, and you are constantly working.”
Wynton Marsalis in Academy of Achievement interview Jan-8-1991
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“He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.”
Goethe
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“Early on, write your desired obituary–then behave accordingly. Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage.”
Charles Munger quoted in Warren Buffet’s February 25, 2023 Shareholder letter
I wrote my obituary in “Connect With Your Purpose” (2014). My aspiration is to remain active and curious, alert to possibilities and threats.
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“You don’t know what your abilities are until you make a full commitment to developing them.”
Carol Dweck
I think developing your talents means letting go of trying to excel in all areas, but picking where you will focus your efforts.
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“Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive: it requires both a vigorous sense of individuality and a sense of shared purpose.”
John W. Gardner in “Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?“
A challenge that the founders and early employees of a startup must manage is take advantage of a fresh start that a startup enables, leverage the unique skills and experience that each person can contribute, and keep efforts aligned around common values and shared purpose. This quote combines two sentences from a longer passage:
“America’s greatness has been the greatness of a free people who shared certain moral commitments. Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive. It is an ironic fact that as individuals in our society have moved toward conformity in their outward behavior, they have moved away from any sense of deeply shared purposes. We must restore both a vigorous sense of individuality and a sense of shared purpose. Either without the other leads to consequences abhorrent to us.”
John W. Gardner in “Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?“
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189 “He who can endure all can dare all.”
Vauvenargues in Maxims
I find it helpful to view a commitment like a credit limit–or a pain threshold. How committed are you? How much are you willing to risk or endure? I am not arguing that you are not committed unless you go all, but that you should determine in advance the amount you are willing to lose to support a commitment and make it clear to everyone involved.
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“If he works for you, you work for him.” Japanese Proverb
I explored the reciprocal obligations that effective leadership imposes on leaders and followers in “Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last.”
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The question is not “what should we automate?”but “what needs to stay human?”
Christina M. Garnett in a comment on Linkedin
h/t Rosie Sherry; It’s an excellent observation. It’s a shame that the email automation vendors like HubSpot have been so aggressively in promoting automation methods that push interactions into the Uncanny Valley.
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“For most people, adult life will involve almost continuous cycles of apparent failure and regret that can best be dealt with through an attitude of gratitude, renewal, and patience with oneself.”
Spotted Toad
Spotted Toad is the anonymous teacher who authored “13 Ways of Going on a Field Trip.” This was a tweet from his twitter account that is now defunct. He had a blog he deleted but is still in Internet Archive.
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“Every prophet has to come from civilization, but every prophet has to go into the wilderness. He must have a strong impression of a complex society and all that it has to give, and then he must serve periods of isolation and meditation. This is the process by which psychic dynamite is made.”
Winston Churchill in Sunday Chronicle, November, 8, 1931 “Moses: The Leader of a People.”
I explored this concept of “withdrawal and return” in the December 2020 newsletter. There is another passage later in the essay I found to be still relevant 92 years later:
“It has often happened that governments and peoples plunge into struggles most reluctantly, terrified of their small beginnings, but once swimming in the torrent go on desperately with immense unsuspected reserves and force in the hopes of emerging triumphantly on the other shore.”
Winston Churchill in Sunday Chronicle, November, 8, 1931 “Moses: The Leader of a People.”
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Hellman’s Law: Keep Cool; Do Not Freeze
h/t Christopher Palatucci, PhD in “Hellman’s Law: Keep Cool; Do Not Freeze” (2008)
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“Education isn’t something you can finish.”
Isaac Asimov
h/t My Small Boat
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“A downturn is a terrible thing to waste.”
Frank Blake quoted in “Home Depot Supply Chain Remodel” (2009)
h/t Jeff Muscatine
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The first requirement for programming is a passion for the work, a deep need to probe the mysterious space between human thoughts and what a machine can understand; between human desires and how machines might satisfy them.
The second requirement is a high tolerance for failure. Programming is the art of algorithm design and the craft of debugging errant code.
In the words of the great John Backus, inventor of the Fortran programming language: “You need the willingness to fail all the time. You have to generate many ideas and then you have to work very hard only to discover that they don’t work. And you keep doing that over and over until you find one that does work.”
Ellen Ullman “How to Be a Woman Programmer” (2013)
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A traveler asked a old man resting in the noon shade of a tree near the city gate, “What sort of people live in this city?”
“Well, friend, what sort of people lived in the last city you called home?” the old man replied.
“Knaves and fools!” the traveler answered.
“You’ll find the same people here,” the old man said.
Near dusk another traveler approached the old man and asked, “What kind of people live here?”
“Well, friend, what sort of people lived in the last city you called home?” the old man replied.
“Good men, true and wise,” came the answer.
“You’ll find the same people here,” the old man said.inspired by “The Right Kind of People” By Edwin Markham
h/t Brett McKay; our expectations shape our actions and attract people to us. If you can find a way to greet people with a smile and start by trusting–at least a little while you verify–you will find more friendly helpful people than if you act as if you expect to be cheated or taken advantage of.
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“Vertrouwen komt te voet en gaat te paard.”
“Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.”
Johan Thorbecke (1798–1872) Dutch statesman
h/t Tim de Rooj; this reminds me of a Dutch Proverb, “Sickness arrives on horseback and departs on foot.” that I curated this in August 2011. This quote by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux also seems apropos:
“Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.”
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
I used it to wrap “Honesty in Negotiations.”
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“What makes a plan capable of producing results is the commitment of key people to work on specific tasks.”
Peter F. Drucker in “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices”
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“Most people want certainty. They want to feel comfortable. And then the true founders, they want to find chaos, and they want to turn chaos into order.”
Garry Tan quoted in “Garry Tan Declares War on SF Politics“
I thought this quote summarized an important insight for founders. It echoes an insight from Amar Bhide’s “Origin and Evolution of New Business” that startups have to hunt for situations where the probability of high value cash flows is uncertain because the situations with low uncertainty will be dominated by existing firms who can make substantially larger investments of money and effort. See
- “Amar Bhide: Start With Affordable Bets in Markets Too Small to Interest Large Players“
- Book Club for Business Impact Panel on Origin and Evolution of New Business [Video]
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“We have not got any money, so we have got to think.”
Ernest Rutherford
Attributed to Rutherford in a 1952 speech by Henry Tizard. A sentiment bootstrappers are intimately familiar with.
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“With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
Founders can be daring but they need to focus and commit.
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“Every great improvement has come after repeated failures. Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”
Charles F. Kettering
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Image source: “Iceberg” Stocklib/media-2-336247428