Risk & Courage
Taking bold bets and acting in spite of fear.
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 12:37 · Harvard Gazette
12:37 of 23:51All quotes from this speech →
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Verified sourceInaugural Address · Watch at 3:36 · John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
3:36 of 15:11All quotes from this speech →
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 12:12 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
12:12 of 14:26All quotes from this speech →
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 9:38 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
9:38 of 14:26All quotes from this speech →
Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path. And that will make all the difference.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 4:57 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
4:57 of 14:26All quotes from this speech →
But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.
Verified source2014 Commencement Address at the University of Texas at Austin · Watch at 11:21 · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin
11:21 of 19:29All quotes from this speech →
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
Source18 March 2012 60 Minutes, season 44, episode 26 · via Wikiquote
When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, 'Nah, what's wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.
SourceFrom articles on Evan Carmichael's website · via Wikiquote
The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.
SourceGeneral Orders · National Archives on Founders Online
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.
SourceJordan, Michael. I Can't Accept Not Trying · via Wikiquote
One day, you might look up and see me playing the game at 50. Don't laugh. Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
SourceHall of Fame induction address, 2009 · via Wikiquote
It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
SourceAs quoted in Animated Architecture (1982) by Derek Walker, p. 10 · via Wikiquote
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
SourceQuotes from the press · via Wikiquote
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
So give me a turbulent world as opposed to a quiet world and I'll take the turbulent one.
Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.
Well private money can take risks in a way that government money often isn't willing to.
If something's important enough, you should try. Even if - the probable outcome is failure.
It's OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.
Starting a business is not for everyone. Starting a business - I'd say, number one is have a high pain threshold.
I wouldn't say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I'd like my fear emotion to be less because it's very distracting and fries my nervous system.
The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor.
I had so many people try to talk me out of starting a rocket company, it was crazy.
The space shuttle was often used as an example of why you shouldn't even attempt to make something reusable. But one failed experiment does not invalidate the greater goal. If that was the case, we'd never have had the light bulb.
I would like to fly in space. Absolutely. That would be cool. I used to just do personally risky things, but now I've got kids and responsibilities, so I can't be my own test pilot. That wouldn't be a good idea. But I definitely want to fly as soon as it's a sensible thing to do.
I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public.
None of the films I've done was designed for a mass audience, except for 'Indiana Jones.' Nobody in their right mind thought 'American Graffiti' or 'Star Wars' would work.
The worse a situation becomes the less it takes to turn it around, the bigger the upside.
If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.
One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.
Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.
Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.
There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.
I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.
The big businesses are less willing to take risks. I talked to some young people in Hong Kong, and they said they are lost. Young people indeed have fewer opportunities than before. But is it true that there are no more opportunities for them? No!
My dream was to set up my own e-commerce company. In 1999, I gathered 18 people in my apartment and spoke to them for two hours about my vision. Everyone put their money on the table, and that got us $60,000 to start Alibaba. I wanted to have a global company, so I chose a global name.
If you can't tolerate critics, don't do anything new or interesting.
I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate.
The common question that gets asked in business is, 'why?' That's a good question, but an equally valid question is, 'why not?'
If you only do things where you know the answer in advance, your company goes away.
I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. Since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition. In fact, there are so few people this crazy that I feel like I know them all by first name.
You can't be afraid to fail. It's the only way you succeed - you're not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.
Because if you're prepared and you know what it takes, it's not a risk. You just have to figure out how to get there. There is always a way to get there.
I knew how to sell. I felt confident I could run a business. I was willing to outwork anyone. I wasn't afraid to live like a student on next to nothing. So that meant I had absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Recessions are the best time to start a company. Companies fail. Others hold back capital. If you are willing to do the preparation and work, it is the best time to invest in yourself and start a business.
The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.
Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.
This is a perverse thing, personally, but I would rather be in the cycle where people are underestimating us. It gives us latitude to go out and make big bets that excite and amaze people.
Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.
I admire the courage and self-reliance it takes to start your own business and make it succeed.
Everywhere I go, I always look for creative entrepreneurs, whether it's artisans and craftsmen, small farmers and gardeners, or restaurateurs who use fresh, locally sourced ingredients. I admire the courage and self-reliance it takes to start your own business and make it succeed.
I was a very good cook, and I knew I could build a business.
My father used to say that it's never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said, 'You never know what you can accomplish until you try.'
Limits, like fear, is often an illusion.
I've never been afraid to fail.
Sometimes you need to get hit in the head to realize that you're in a fight.
Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.
I have a lot of things to prove to myself. One is that I can live my life fearlessly.
The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.
Overcoming fear is the first step to success for entrepreneurs. The winners all exemplify that, and the hard work and commitment they have shown underlines what is needed to set up a business.
There's no point in starting a business unless you're going to make a dramatic difference to other people's lives. So if you've got an idea that's gonna make a big difference to other people's lives, then just get on and do it.
Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you're likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.
My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.
You never know with these things when you're trying something new what can happen. This is all experimental.
I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn't really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.
Well, the odds must be against anybody being able to fly around the world in a balloon on the first attempt. All of us who are attempting to go around the world in balloons are effectively flying in experimental craft because these craft cannot be tested.
Be willing to use yourself to get out there and put the company on the market. If you have to make a fool of yourself, make a fool of yourself, but make sure that you end up on the front pages, not the back pages. In time, it's possible that your company will stand out from the crowd, and you'll be successful.
If you don't have a real stake in the new, then just surviving on the old - even if it is about efficiency - I don't think is a long-term game.
If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.
I think we would be dead and gone if we were just mostly failing.
What gets lost is we wouldn't be who we are and as successful as we have been if we didn't have a decent batting average.
If you don't jump on the new, you don't survive.
Venus told me the other day that champions don't get nervous in tight situations. That really helped me a lot. I decided I shouldn't get nervous and just do the best I can.
I'm definitely not a fearless individual.
You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I've done that sort of thing in my life, but I've always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don't know why. Because they're harder. They're much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you've completely failed.
I turned down 'Harry Potter' and 'Spider-Man,' two movies that I knew would be phenomenally successful, because I had already made movies like that before and they offered no challenge to me. I don't need my ego to be reminded.
Because of how much movies cost, it's dangerous to be experimental on one film after the other. But we can experiment with television. We can do things that are fringe and bring ideas to the table that are offbeat and original.
We all feel that if we have a crazy idea that might get laughed at, there's nothing wrong with seeing if there's a crazy writer out there who agrees with us and can take it to a crazy network and somehow bring something that's a little bit daft and edgy to life.
The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to 'Jurassic Park' or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I've got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.
I'd rather Apple cannibalize Apple than somebody else cannibalize Apple.
I don't view Apple or myself as an activist. What we do is for some things where we think we have deep knowledge, or think we do, or a strong point of view, we're not shy. We'll stand up, speak out - even when our voice shakes.
I always look for a challenge and something that's different.
Every single time I start to do a picture, without fail, I feel as if I don't know what I'm doing.
We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.
We are not trying to entertain the critics. I'll take my chances with the public.
We did it Disneyland, in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster - closed and forgotten within the first year.
It's no secret that we were sticking just about every nickel we had on the chance that people would really be interested in something totally new and unique in the field of entertainment.
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.
We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.
Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.
Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.
The first quality that is needed is audacity.
Quotes without a listed source are commonly attributed to the speaker. We add sources as we confirm them. How we source quotes
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