Steve Blank
69 quotes
Biography
Steve Blank is an American entrepreneur, educator, author and speaker. He created the customer development method that launched the lean startup movement.
"Customers don't ask to see your business plan."
"While there is an occasional bad apple, the public market rewards companies with revenue growth and sustainable profits."
"80% of success in your career will come from just showing up. The world is run by those who show up…not those who wait to be asked."
"Innovation comes from those who see things that other don’t."
"Founders are truly artists – they see something no one else does."
"Entrepreneurship is an art, not a job."
"Founders fit the definition of a composer: they see something no one else does. And to help them create it from nothing, they surround themselves with world-class performers."
"In Silicon Valley, we have a special word for a failed entrepreneur – it’s called experienced."
"A founder's skill is knowing how to recognize new patterns and to pivot on a dime. At times the pattern is noise, and the vision turns out to be a hallucination."
"Strategy Is not a to-do list."
"There are no facts inside the building, so get the hell outside."
"To predict the future, 1/3 of your team needs to be crazy."
"Young entrepreneurs tend to be fearless and have no respect for the status quo, and that’s exactly what you need in an environment where the status quo is going to put you out of business."
"Don't believe your own b.s. It's real easy to confuse funding with success."
"When I was young, I learned a quote in Sunday school that has stayed with me throughout my life. It said, 'teach us to number our days that we gain a heart of wisdom.' * Most of us will wake up 28,762 days- and then one day - we won’t. That means you have about 21,000 days left - and about 14,000 of them for your career. So herein lies the urgency."
"Mentorship is a two-way street. While I was learning from them [brilliant mentors] - and their years of experience and expertise - what I was giving back was equally important. I brought fresh insights and new perspectives to their thinking."
""Build it and they will come” is not a strategy; it’s a prayer."
"We used to pivot by firing people. Now we fire the hypotheses."
"Customer Development says “Glad you have these hypotheses about your startup. All of them are probably wrong.”"
"Progress and stability are mutually exclusive."
"Number one is "Do you have curiosity?" Number two is "Does it translate to imagination?" But number three is "Did it translate to action?" That’s the difference between someone with an idea and someone who is an entrepreneur."
"Don’t execute other peoples advice if you can’t explain why you’re doing it."
"A startup is not a smaller version of a large company."
"A startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model."
"On Day One, a startup is a faith-based enterprise."