Andrew Yan Quotes
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Venture for America operates in communities that could generally use more innovation: Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, and other U.S. cities. So I'm obviously a big believer in innovation and progress as key drivers of economic growth and prosperity.
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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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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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When I graduated from Brown, I had a very limited conception of jobs, careers, and what I wanted to do. Basically, I figured I should do some kind of thought work that paid well, but I wasn't sure what.
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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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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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FOMO (fear of missing out) is the enemy of valuing your own time.
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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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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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Intellectual capital drives financial capital and growth.
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If you go deep into a problem, you'll find most all of the time that there are yet more problems to be solved from the ground up.
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We need people building companies all over the country to innovate in aviation, consumer products, education, health, cybersecurity, biotech, manufacturing, and everything in between.
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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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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've always taken pride in relating to the underdog or little guy or gal.
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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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After graduating from Brown, I went to law school and became a corporate lawyer in New York City.
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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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The best policymakers know that in start-ups, as in politics, not everything works out exactly as planned.
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Silicon Valley is like Wall Street in that it will fill and pursue market opportunities to their logical extremes.
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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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In some environments, roles shift and change each period depending on what the company's needs are. On the other hand, many functional roles can become very repetitive if you perform similar tasks over and over again.
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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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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.