Andrew Yan Quotes
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Starting a business is similar to an athletic endeavor, like serving a tennis ball. Telling you how to do it is useless. You actually get better through a combination of practice, coaching, and repetitions with money on the line.
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At Venture for ,we've worked with hundreds of aspiring young entrepreneurs who want to build businesses and change things for the better.
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It's easy to see how non-profits become engrossed in catering to donors, which may or may not be the best thing at all times, while if a company is ultra-engaged with its customers, it's universally positive and helpful.
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Non-profits should be looking to enlist and retain the best people to aggressively solve problems, not to perform adequately and persist. We should expect people to innovate and do the highest-quality work and then reward them accordingly.
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FOMO (fear of missing out) is the enemy of valuing your own time.
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There is a common and persistent belief out there that entrepreneurship is about creativity - that it's about having a great idea. But it's not, really. Entrepreneurship isn't about creativity. It's about organization-building - which, in turn, is about people.
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What was a profitable business in one era can become a public utility and a recognized public good in the next.
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The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is push my dog off of me. He likes to sleep on top of me. I think it's because I'm warm and breathing.
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I meet young people all the time who say something like, 'I want to work in venture capital.' And I can see why. Who wouldn't want to be smart, well-paid, dispense large sums of money, and tell people what to do?
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Income taxes are very poor at generating income from automation because the gains are realized by technology companies that are experts at not paying taxes.
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One reason why entrepreneurs are admired is that they often take on a degree of risk in launching a new business.
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I'm a capitalist, and I believe that universal basic income is necessary for capitalism to continue.
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Before Starbucks, there wasn't as much of a coffeehouse routine; we generally drank really cruddy diner coffee.
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The professors at Harvard are smarter and more world-renowned, and so your child will learn from a pre-eminent scholar who is a leader in his or her field. Some of Harvard's professors are even famous.
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I've always taken pride in relating to the underdog or little guy or gal.
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Intellectual capital drives financial capital and growth.
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Mistakes are acceptable if they're the result of moving forward.
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People generally think of technology simply as a spur to start new businesses. But the Internet has also made it possible for more businesses to compete for any given opportunity.
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When I was first thinking about what would become Venture for America, I was trying to figure out how to solve a problem - that our top young people were being driven to roles that did not, to me, address the needs of our time. That VFA would be a non-profit just seemed like the most efficient way to solve the problem.
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You will almost always leave a professional services environment with a few noteworthy friends and relationships. These contacts can prove to be extremely valuable both personally and professionally.
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The best policymakers know that in start-ups, as in politics, not everything works out exactly as planned.
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Money often moves around like a high school kid with no personality - it goes with the crowd.
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Our young people desperately want the chance to participate in and lead our nation's economic and cultural revival. They're up for the challenges that they're going to inherit. It only remains for us to present the path to address them.
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In my experience, fledgling entrepreneurs focus way too much on the money - you can get most things done and figure out a lot without spending much. That said, most businesses require money to launch and get off the ground.