“One of the great things about building a tech company is the amazing people that you can hire.”

Planning is valuable, tho the plan is usually useless.

When raising money, you want to look through the lens of ‘What happens when things go wrong?’

Your employees know each other better than they know you.

The person they’re working with, is going to be the person they’ll know more. So if that person leaves, they’re going to go – well, should have I left too? What did they get and how does that compare to my deal.

Breakthrough ideas usually come from guys who look like they’re hallucinating

Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a fruit stand.

When you’re making a critical decision, you have to understand how it’s going to be interpreted from all points of view. Not just your point of view, not just the person you’re talking to, but the people that aren’t in the room. Everybody else.

These decisions intensify when you run a company, because the consequences get magnified 1,000 fold. As in life, the excuses for CEOs making the wrong choice are always plentiful.

Business ends up being very dynamic and situational.

I don’t believe in statistics. I believe in calculus.

Early in my career as an engineer, I’d learned that all decisions were objective until the first line of code was written. After that, all decisions were emotional.

Note to self: It’s a good idea to ask, “What am I not doing?

Hire sales people who are really smart problem solvers, but lack courage, hunger and competitiveness, and your company will go out of business.

You know what the difference between a vision and a hallucination is? They call it a vision when other people can see it.

There are no silver bullets.

There are no silver bullets.

Build your own gimmick and hype, and that’ll make you a better powerlifter. Not just doin’ it like James does it, cause if you try to fly off the building like superman you’ll be out there in the middle of the street.

When I was working in my first job engineering construction, what I liked the most was working with architects and making buildings that had this creative side coming from the architect and that were making them a big success.

I am building a stairway to the stars. I have the authority to take the whole of mankind up there with me. That is why I write.

We have not come to compete with one another. We have come to complete one another.

Concepts differentiate architecture from mere building…A bicycle shed with a concept is architecture; a cathedral without one is just a building.

So that buildings and structures you normally pass without a glance suddenly become arresting, even beautiful? Well, they seem to have that light in Australia nearly all the time.

I’ve had a lot of experience building things, organizing things, a national scholarship program.

I know that New York is big, there are huge buildings, but in fact, it’s quite small and contained.