Vision & Purpose
Mission, purpose, and the big picture that gives work meaning.
Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.
Verified sourceInaugural Address · Watch at 10:04 · John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
10:04 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 →
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.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 4:48 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
4:48 of 14:26All quotes from this speech →
If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
Verified source2014 Commencement Address at the University of Texas at Austin · Watch at 6:09 · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin
6:09 of 19:29All quotes from this speech →
With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.
SourceSecond Inaugural Address (1865) · via Wikiquote
I've been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that's kind of a religious belief. I mean, it's at least a moral belief.
SourceResponse when he was asked whether he believed in God, at his interview with Rolling Stone magazine. March 27, 2014. · via Wikiquote
I'd rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.
Source13 July 2012 regarding Hyperloop · via Wikiquote
...every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.
SourceLetter to Benedict Arnold · National Archives on Founders Online
For I love to indulge the contemplation of human nature in a progressive state of improvement and melioration: and if the idea would not be considered as visionary and chimerical, I could fondly hope that the present plan of the great Potentate of the North [Catherine the Great], might, in some measure, lay the foundation for that assimilation of language, which, producing assimilation of manners and interests, should one day remove many of the causes of hostility from amongst mankind.
SourceGeorge Washington to the Marquis de Lafayette · National Archives on Founders Online
I had always hoped that this land might become a safe & agreeable Asylum to the virtuous & persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong
SourceGeorge Washington to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp · National Archives on Founders Online
Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.
SourceFarewell Address to the People of the United States · National Archives on Founders Online
Help young people. Help small guys. Because small guys will be big. Young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds, and when they grow up, they will change the world.
Source"5 Life Lessons From Alibaba Founder Jack Ma", Time (Sept. 23, 2014) · via Wikiquote
Connectivity just can't be a privilege for people in the richest countries. We believe that connecting everyone in the world is one of the great challenges of our generation, and that's why we are happy to play whatever small part in that that we can.
SourceSource: 120 Mark Zuckerberg Famous Entrepreneurship & Inspirational Quotes · via Wikiquote
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.
SourceThe Quotable Walt Disney (2001) · via Wikiquote
Disneyland is a work of love. We didn't go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.
SourceThe Quotable Walt Disney (2001) · via Wikiquote
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we're going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.
Immigrants aren't the reason wages haven't gone up enough; those decisions are made in the boardrooms that too often put quarterly earnings over long-term returns.
We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.
When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have.
Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied.
We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.
I was lucky to be involved and get to contribute to something that was important, which is empowering people with software.
If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not.
People should pursue what they're passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.
There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Why do you want to live? What's the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing.
I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems... It's got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.
If you don't have sustainable energy, you have unsustainable energy. The fundamental value of a company like Tesla is the degree to which it accelerates the advent of sustainable energy faster than it would otherwise occur.
The future of humanity is going to bifurcate in two directions: Either it's going to become multiplanetary, or it's going to remain confined to one planet and eventually there's going to be an extinction event.
It's important that we attempt to extend life beyond Earth now. It is the first time in the four billion-year history of Earth that it's been possible, and that window could be open for a long time - hopefully it is - or it could be open for a short time. We should err on the side of caution and do something now.
Obviously Tesla is about helping solve the consumption of energy in a sustainable manner, but you need the production of energy in a sustainable manner.
I don't think it's a good idea to plan to sell a company.
I've actually made a prediction that within 30 years a majority of new cars made in the United States will be electric. And I don't mean hybrid, I mean fully electric.
In order for us to have a future that's exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we're a space-bearing civilization.
What I'm trying to do is, is to make a significant difference in space flight. And help make space flight accessible to almost anyone.
If we're going to have any chance of sending stuff to other star systems, we need to be laser-focused on becoming a multi-planet civilisation.
My vision is for a fully reusable rocket transport system between Earth and Mars that is able to re-fuel on Mars - this is very important - so you don't have to carry the return fuel when you go there.
SpaceX is only 12 years old now. Between now and 2040, the company's lifespan will have tripled. If we have linear improvement in technology, as opposed to logarithmic, then we should have a significant base on Mars, perhaps with thousands or tens of thousands of people.
The X is an amazing car, but we kind of got carried away with the art and technology. Obviously, you want great art. You want great technology. But we did get a little distracted from our mission, which was to advance the cause of electric vehicles. And it probably delayed us a little bit with the Model 3 as well.
I think a lot of the American people feel more than a little disappointed that the high-water mark for human exploration was 1969. The dream of human space travel has almost died for a lot of people.
You can't do it unless you can imagine it.
Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.
Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard.
My vision is to build an e-commerce ecosystem that allows consumers and businesses to do all aspects of business online.
The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you've got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision. Also, if you don't give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.
I want to change history, do something important in my life, and influence individuals like we have with millions of small businesses on Alibaba. Then they love and respect you because you made their life important.
My job is to help more people have jobs.
As a business person, I want the world to share the prosperity together.
I tell the government, if people have no jobs, you are in trouble. Government will be in trouble. My job is to help more people have jobs.
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.
Amazon.com strives to be the e-commerce destination where consumers can find and discover anything they want to buy online.
I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it's not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that's not why you do it. You do it because you have something meaningful that motivates you.
When it comes to space, I see it as my job, I'm building infrastructure the hard way. I'm using my resources to put in place heavy lifting infrastructure so the next generation of people can have a dynamic, entrepreneurial explosion into space.
A life of stasis would be population control, combined with energy rationing. That is the stasis world that you live in if you stay. And even with improvements in efficiency, you'll still have to ration energy. That, to me, doesn't sound like a very exciting civilization for our grandchildren's grandchildren to live in.
People will visit Mars, they will settle mars, and we should because it's cool.
No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it's government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.
The solar system can support a trillion humans. And then we'd have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins.
The vision is to figure out how there can really be dynamic entrepreneurialism in space.
The question really is, are you improving the world? And you can do that in many models. You can do that in government, you can do that in a nonprofit, and you can do it in commercial enterprise.
We will have to leave this planet, and we're going to leave it, and it's going to make this planet better.
I don't know all the future steps, but I know one of them: we need to build a low-cost, highly operable, reusable launch vehicle. No matter which path we take, it has to include that gate, and so that's why that's Blue Origin's mission.
I know Elon, we're very like minded in many ways. We're not conceptual twins. One thing I want us to do is go to Mars, but for me it's one thing. He's singularly focused on that. I think motivation wise, for me I don't find that Plan B idea motivating. I don't want a plan B for Earth, I want Plan B to make sure Plan A works.
My own view is that every company requires a long-term view.
When we build our own colonies, we can do them in near-Earth vicinity, because people are going to want to come back to Earth. Very few people - for a long time, anyway - are going to want to abandon Earth altogether.
We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we'll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.
Two kids in their dorm room can't start anything important in space today. That's why I want to take the assets I have from Amazon and translate that into the heavy-lifting infrastructure that will allow the next generation to have dynamic entrepreneurialism in space, to build that transportation network.
We fly to 106 kilometers. We've always had as our mission that we always wanted to fly above the Karman line because we didn't want there to be any asterisks next to your name about whether you're an astronaut or not.
One thing that I find very unmotivating is the kind of Plan B argument: when Earth gets destroyed, you want to be somewhere else. That doesn't work for me. We have sent robotic probes now to every place in the solar system, and this is the best one.
If you're changing the world, you're working on important things. You're excited to get up in the morning.
It really matters whether people are working on generating clean energy or improving transportation or making the Internet work better and all those things. And small groups of people can have a really huge impact.
If we were motivated by money, we would have sold the company a long time ago and ended up on a beach.
We're at maybe 1% of what is possible. Despite the faster change, we're still moving slow relative to the opportunities we have. I think a lot of that is because of the negativity... Every story I read is Google vs someone else. That's boring. We should be focusing on building the things that don't exist.
We have a mantra: don't be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.
Basically, our goal is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful.
Leaders don't look backwards to condemn what has already been done; they look forward to create a better future.
Your customers can tell you the things that are broken and how they want to be made happy. Listen to them. Make them happy. But don't rely on them to create the future road map for your product or service. That's your job.
Make sure you are the boss. I don't think I would encourage executives that work for me to blog. There can be only 1 public vision for an organization.
Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission - to make the world more open and connected.
There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.
When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power.
My goal was never to just create a company. A lot of people misinterpret that, as if I don't care about revenue or profit or any of those things. But what not being just a company means to me is not being just that - building something that actually makes a really big change in the world.
Our mission is to connect every person in the world. You don't do that by having a service people pay for.
The thing that we are trying to do at facebook, is just help people connect and communicate more efficiently.
Connectivity is a human right.
When people are connected, we can just do some great things. They have the opportunity to get access to jobs, education, health, communications. We have the opportunity to bring the people we care about closer to us. It really makes a big difference.
The companies that work are the ones that people really care about and have a vision for the world so do something you like.
At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people's capacity to build and maintain relationships.
It's really easy to have a nice philosophy about openness, but moving the world in that direction is a different thing. It requires both understanding where you want to go and being pragmatic about getting there.
We're running the company to serve more people.
In terms of doing work and in terms of learning and evolving as a person, you just grow more when you get more people's perspectives... I really try and live the mission of the company and... keep everything else in my life extremely simple.
We are a mission-driven company. In order to do this, we have to build a great team. And in order to do that, you need people to know they can make a bunch of money. So we need a business model to make a lot of money.
We talk about this concept of openness and transparency as the high-level ideal that we're moving towards at Facebook. The way that we get there is by empowering people to share and connect. The combination of those two things leads the world to become more open.
There are different ways to do innovation. You can plant a lot of seeds, not be committed to any particular one of them, but just see what grows. And this really isn't how we've approached this. We go mission-first, then focus on the pieces we need and go deep on them and be committed to them.
What really motivates people at Facebook is building something that's worthwhile, that they're going to be proud to show to friends and family.
A lot of times, I run a thought experiment: 'If I were not at Facebook, what would I be doing to make the world more open?'
If you go through some big corporate change, it's just not going to be the same. If we sold to Yahoo, they would have done something different; if you want to continue your vision of the company, then don't sell because there's inevitably going to be some change.
When I started Facebook from my dorm room in 2004, the idea that my roommates and I talked about all the time was a world that was more open.
We want to make it so that anyone, anywhere - a child growing up in rural India who never had a computer - can go to a store, get a phone, get online, and get access to all of the same things that you and I appreciate about the Internet.
I'm trying to make the world a more open place.
Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.
The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open.
I feel that the best companies are started not because the founder wanted a company but because the founder wanted to change the world... If you decide you want to found a company, you maybe start to develop your first idea. And hire lots of workers.
While some doubted that connecting the world was actually important, we were building. While others doubted that this would be sustainable, you were forming lasting connections. We just cared more about connecting the world than anyone else. And we still do today.
We know that for every 1 person who get access to the Internet, one new job gets created, and one person gets lifted out of poverty. So in theory, going and connecting everyone on the Internet is a large national and even global priority.
All the things I love is what my business is all about.
American Made is not just an event. It's a movement to spotlight and support the next generation of creative entrepreneurs who are turning their passion for making into thriving small businesses.
My goal with our American Made program is to inspire people of all ages to become 'doers,' whether it's them learning how to make an easy weekday dinner or starting their own business.
Every entrepreneur talks about the passion you have for your work, and I think that's what's missing with a lot of women in business.
The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.
The challenge of life, I have found, is to build a resume that doesn't simply tell a story about what you want to be, but it's a story about who you want to be.
What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people's lives.
Your job is not just to do what your parents say, what your teachers say, what society says, but to figure out what your heart calling is and to be led by that.
What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.
The goal of my shows, my interviews, my business, my philanthropy, all of it, whatever ventures I might pursue, would be to make clear that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates me.
My whole reason for creating a network is literally to bring little pieces of light. It's to continue to spread little pieces of light in the world, to illuminate the possibility of the human spirit.
My father was a man who didn't consider himself learned. He was a man who liked to be a farmer. He enjoyed his dairy farm and felt the calling. So there was a dedication. I was dedicated as a child to the service of God, and so there was this continual centering of a greater purpose than your own.
I've been very passionate about renewable energy for many years, particularly solar energy and its capacity to bring abundant clean, sustainable energy to millions around the globe.
From my very first day as an entrepreneur, I've felt the only mission worth pursuing in business is to make people's lives better.
I've never gone into business to make money. Every Virgin product and service has been made into a reality to make a positive difference in people's lives. And by focusing on the happiness of our customers, we have been able to build a successful group of companies.
Taking bold action on climate change simply makes good business sense. It's also the right thing to do for people and the planet. Setting a net-zero GHG emissions target by 2050 will drive innovation, grow jobs, build prosperity, and secure a better world for what will soon be 9 billion people.
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.
Can you imagine what a different world we will live in when businesses do what's right for the communities and the environment in everything they do?
We have one planet in our solar system that's habitable, and that's the Earth, and space travel can transform things back here for the better. First of all, by just having people go to space and look back on this fragile planet we live on. People have come back transformed and have done fantastic things.
More businesses should be following Apple's stance in encouraging more investment in sustainability.
At Virgin, we have always backed the power of the entrepreneur and inventor to find solutions to tricky problems. Why should climate change and the battle against carbon be any different?
An important priority for me is a business must get their own house in order. Be or become an agent of positive change in your own enterprise and adopt responsible practices to eliminate the risks that often lie at the root of inequality and poverty.
As more airlines consolidated and grew larger and more focused on the bottom line, flying in the U.S. became an awful experience. Despite moves to block our airline from flying, Virgin America began service in August 2007 - with the goal of making flying good again.
The true cost to the world of a burger is far greater than the money you hand over to buy it.
For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility. And the responsibility for me is to invest in creating new businesses, create jobs, employ people, and to put money aside to tackle issues where we can make a difference.
Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that's what a number of us are trying to do.
When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn't set out to build a business empire... For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that's going to make a real difference to other people's lives.
To me, Microsoft is about empowerment... we are the original democratizing force, putting a PC in every home and every desk.
I think reconceptualizing Microsoft as a devices and services company is absolutely what our vision is all about. Office 365 and Azure on the services side are representative of it.
We will reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more.
We've had great successes, but our future is not about our past success. It's going to be about whether we will invent things that are really going to drive our future.
My ambition with connectivity is not to fly balloons in the national airspace of other countries, but my dream is to be able to enable the local entrepreneurs to have low-cost connectivity solutions.
LinkedIn was an amazing deal for us to do because of their mission.
One thing we've talked a lot about, even in the first leadership meeting, was, what's the purpose of our leadership team? The framework we came up with is the notion that our purpose is to bring clarity, alignment and intensity.
I want to see us remain convinced that software matters in the future.
At our core, Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world.
I've been blessed with talents to play this game and been put on a stage to impact a lot of people. I don't want to take that for granted.
Things don't have to change the world to be important.
Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.
I want to put a ding in the universe.
What is Apple, after all? Apple is about people who think 'outside the box,' people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done.
And no, we don't know where it will lead. We just know there's something much bigger than any of us here.
I think we need to take responsibility for the things we put on this planet, and also take responsibility for the things we take off the planet. We need to have limiters on how far we allow ourselves to go - ethical, moral limiters.
I thought film was more important than life itself for many years. But I was naive to the world until my first child was born in 1985.
I've always wanted to tell a story about Lincoln. I saw a paternal father figure; I saw someone who was completely, stubbornly committed to his ideals, to his vision.
The thing which attracted me to Google and to the Internet in general is that it's a great equalizer. I've always been struck by the fact that Google search worked the same, as long as you had access to a computer with connectivity, if you're a rural kid anywhere or a professor at Stanford or Harvard.
For me, it matters that we drive technology as an equalizing force, as an enabler for everyone around the world. Which is why I do want Google to see, push, and invest more in making sure computing is more accessible, connectivity is more accessible.
There are seven billion people in the world. And I think phones are the first time most people will have access to a modern computing device. With Android, we want to enable that for people.
The core of what Google is about is bringing information to people.
One of the great things about an open system like Android is it addresses all ends of the spectrum. Getting great low-cost computing devices at scale to the developing world is especially meaningful to me.
Google is all about information. So the notion of using and presenting information in the right point at the right time to users is what, in essence, describes Google.
What all of us have to do is to make sure we are using AI in a way that is for the benefit of humanity, not to the detriment of humanity.
We're very simple people at Apple. We focus on making the world's best products and enriching people's lives.
Work takes on new meaning when you feel you are pointed in the right direction. Otherwise, it's just a job, and life is too short for that.
You don't have to choose between doing good and doing well. It's a false choice, today more than ever.
Companies that get confused, that think their goal is revenue or stock price or something. You have to focus on the things that lead to those.
The North Star has always been the same, which for us, is about making insanely great products that really change the world in some way - enrich people's lives.
People should have values, so by extension, a company should. And one of the things you do is give back. So how do you give back? We give back through our work in the environment, in running the company on renewable energy. We give back in job creation.
Our goal has never been to make the most. It's always been to make the best.
When technological advancement can go up so exponentially, I do think there's a risk of losing sight of the fact that tech should serve humanity, not the other way around.
This is Steve's company. This is still Steve's company. It was born that way; it's still that way. And so his spirit, I think, will always be the DNA of this company.
That has always been the objective of Apple: to do things that really enrich people's lives. That you look back on and you wonder, 'How did I live without this?'
You have to find the intersection of doing something you're passionate about and that, at the same time, is in the service of other people. I would argue if you don't find that intersection, you're not going to be very happy.
Think about what you're passionate about. I did not learn something early enough: if I could go back, I'd tell the younger me that there's a big difference between loving to work and loving the work.
Life is not living in the suburbs with a white picket fence. That's not life. Somehow our American culture has made it out that that's what life needs to be - and that if it's not that, it's all screwed up. It's not.
I want a world without war, a world without insanity. I want to see people do well. I don't even think it's as much as what I want for myself. It's more what I want for the people around me. That's what I want.
You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.
When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.
We believed in our idea - a family park where parents and children could have fun- together.
Of all the things I've done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.
I never called my work an 'art'. It's part of show business, the business of building entertainment.
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.
Quotes without a listed source are commonly attributed to the speaker. We add sources as we confirm them. How we source quotes
The Weekly Brief
One idea about leadership, every week. Sourced.
A short weekly email with a verified quote, the story behind it, and what it says about leading people. No noise, no hot takes.
Launching soon.