Quotes

Quotes inspire us toward our best work by guiding us toward an understanding of a larger world and bigger ideas. We have found these quotes particularly inspiring and hope you will as well.

David J. Blumberg, Founder and Managing Partner of Blumberg Capital
The Six T’s You Need to Secure VC Funding
1. Start with the Theme: Tell us the problem you are solving
2. Build the right Team: The best ideas are worthless if you can’t execute
3. Know the Terrain: How and why you can capitalize on industry trends and competitively succeed
4. Deliver the right Technology: How does your tech work, how is it better than alternatives
5. Show Traction: Be early but not necessarily first; strong customer traction reduces risk
6. It’s the Terms: Terms are best 
when they are clear, simple and align incentives

C|O Berlin, Magnum Contact Sheets exhibition, November 2014
The decisive moment is what photography is all about. It is a synthesis of knowledge, sensitivity, technology, form, coincidence and pure intuition.

Bill Vass, former Sun Microsystems CIO — Top 10 Rules for Success in IT
Rule 1: Open systems succeed.
Rule 2: Proprietary systems fail in the long run.
Rule 3: Separate logical layers.
Rule 4: Standards matter.
Rule 5: What’s old is new again.
Rule 6: Technology is not a problem.
Rule 7: Know your estimation factor.
Rule 8: You manage what you measure.
Rule 9: Don’t let the best be the enemy of the better.
Rule 10: Nothing in life is easy.

Jim Henson, from Jim Henson: The Biography, by Brian Jay Jones
Many of the things I’ve done in my life have basically been self-taught. I think we, as the Muppets, broke new ground because we approached puppetry from a different angle. I had never worked with puppets when I was a kid, and even when I began on television I really didn’t know what I was doing. I’m sure that this was a good thing, because I learned as I tackled each problem. I think if you study–if you learn too much of what others have done–you may tend to take the same direction as everybody else.

Lewis H. Latham, Essay, October 23, 2014
It is in the effort to close the distance between the work imagined and the work achieved wherein it is to be found that the ceaseless labor is the freedom of play, that what’s at stake isn’t a reflection in the mirror of fame but the escape from the prison of the self.

R.O. Blechman, Illustrator and author, at age 84
It’s important to stay with a project and not give up because it doesn’t seem to be breaking for you. Whatever it is. I’m reminded of what a Russian scientist once said: ‘Ice forms instantly, but the process of forming the ice is slow and invisible.’

Antoine de Saint-Exupery
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

Steve Jobs
That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.