“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
-Henry Ford
Now, Again
“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing left to pursue.”
– Hagakure
Mean, Mode
“Startups don’t win by attacking. They win by transcending.”
– Paul Graham, “Mean People Fail”
Management
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
– Antoine De Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince
On Fundraising
“I advise you to apply to all those whom you know will give something; next, to those whom you are uncertain whether they will give any thing or not, and show them the list of those who have given; and, lastly, do not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing, for in some of them you may be mistaken.” – Ben Franklin
Down to Work
“I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.” – Ben Franklin
Haiku
“Barn’s burnt down –
Now
I can see the moon.”
– Masahide
Get Climbing
“Attaining lasting happiness requires that we enjoy the journey on our way toward a destination we deem valuable. Happiness is not about making it to the peak of the mountain nor is it about climbing aimlessly around the mountain; happiness is the experience of climbing toward the peak.”
\- Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier
Precisely
Marc Andreessen: “Do you know the best thing about startups?”
Ben Horowitz: “What?”
Marc Andreessen: “You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.”
“The entrepreneur takes risks but does not see himself as a risk-taker, because he operates under the useful delusion that what he’s attempting is not risky. Then, trapped in mid-mountain, people discover the truth—and, because it is too late to turn back, they’re forced to finish the job.”
– [Malcolm Gladwell](http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2013/06/24/130624crbo_books_gladwell?currentPage=all)