Top 125 Quotes & Sayings by Andrew Yang

I wear a suit most days, in part because it's suitable for any type of meeting and in part because it takes the thought out of it.

I like most of the venture capitalists I know; they're smart, well-intended guys who genuinely enjoy helping entrepreneurs succeed. And I love venture capital and investment capital of all categories - its economic impact is proven. The more of it the better.

As a society, we can't hide from the future; we have to build and own it.

When I was growing up, I'd study for days trying to get good grades. When I'd get an 'A,' I'd feel elation for about 30 seconds, and then a feeling of emptiness.

All you need is self-driving cars to destabilize society.

In most every business, you learn by doing. The apprenticeship model is much more effective than the classroom for cultivating entrepreneurs.

The monetary market is going to value people's time less and less as time goes on, so you need another way to structure their day that rewards them.

The reason Donald Trump was elected was that we automated away four million manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. If you look at the voter data, it shows that the higher the level of concentration of manufacturing robots in a district, the more that district voted for Trump.

People love Twinkies, and everyone knows about them, yet Hostess went bankrupt. Attention and commercial success have an uncertain relationship in business.

Back in 2001, my first start-up was mentioned in the 'New York Times' and 'USA Today.' I figured that would drive thousands of visitors to the site and tons of new business. Instead, only a handful of people visited our site, and not much business came of it at all.

Tell young girls they can be anything, including entrepreneurs and self-made billionaires. Encourage your friends/daughters/female students/yourself to take a shot.

We say success in America is about hard work and character. It's not really. Most of success today is about how good you are at certain tests and what kind of family background you have, with some exceptions sprinkled in to try and make it all seem fair.

Building a successful business requires a combination of human capital, financial resources, market opportunity, persistence, community support, and even luck.

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.

After a couple of years in a professional setting, you'll get used to dressing presentably, preparing for meetings, speaking appropriately, showing up on time, writing professional correspondence, etc.

We need to provide all areas of the country with access to high-quality medical care.

I have started or run several companies and spent time with dozens of entrepreneurs over the years. Virtually none of them, in my experience, made meaningful personnel or resource-allocation decisions based on incentives or policies.

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.

Starting a successful company is one of the hardest things anyone does.

People can grow from adversity as much as they do from prosperity.

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.

Freelancers generally want as friction-free an engagement as possible.

Income taxes are very poor at generating income from automation because the gains are realized by technology companies that are experts at not paying taxes.

Mistakes are acceptable if they're the result of moving forward.

What good is a high GDP if some, or even many, Americans are left behind?

Automation is no longer just a problem for those working in manufacturing. Physical labor was replaced by robots; mental labor is going to be replaced by AI and software.

I try not to bring my phone to the gym - it's too tempting to play with it.

Technology companies tend to operate in winner-take-all spaces and thus adopt a very high-commitment culture.

Most Americans agree that technology is going to eliminate many more jobs than it is going to create.

Many of the scrappy young people I meet who are the first in their family to go to college feel that they have to bring home a steady paycheck to make their family's sacrifices worthwhile.

A universal basic income funded by a value-added tax, which is a tax placed on a product whenever value is added at each stage of the supply chain, from production to the point of sale, would spread the benefits of automation to a much wider group of people.

Organizations relying upon young, idealistic, and mission-driven people to work at below-market compensation over the long-term will burn them out and find the best people leaving over time.

The best policymakers know that in start-ups, as in politics, not everything works out exactly as planned.

Incarceration and recidivism rates high? Providing people an incentive to stay out of jail while also providing them some level of economic security while they get back on their feet - both accomplished by a UBI - sounds like a great way to solve that problem.

I'm a capitalist, and I believe that universal basic income is necessary for capitalism to continue.

If we create enough new companies, there will be additional opportunities for people at every rung of the educational ladder.

If I need a pick-me-up, I pull up a memo file on my phone and type in three things I'm grateful for. The things I've typed on other days are still there. It's a long list. Always helps.

Of course, women are free to start any kind of company they want. But women sometimes identify different problems than men do and start different sorts of companies as a result.

In the start-up setting and in most companies, the output is action-oriented. You need to be getting things done and making decisions, often with limited information.

We need more women solving different problems, starting companies, and creating jobs to drive our economy and society forward.

At Venture for ,we've worked with hundreds of aspiring young entrepreneurs who want to build businesses and change things for the better.

The image of entrepreneurship as the province of the unprivileged and un-entitled - the Horatio Alger, rags to riches myth - flies in the face of reality.

Every entrepreneur doesn't need to be technical - there are plenty of opportunities out there for people who aren't coders.

Universal basic income is not a solution in search of a problem - it is the obvious solution that has been in front of us for years. It only requires us to have the vision, empathy and courage to adopt it for the American people before it is too late.

Professional services industries like finance, consulting, and legal services are, by definition, meta-industries. That is, they serve to help large companies raise money, buy and sell each other, reorganize, implement new systems, conduct complex transactions, and so forth.

Overnight successes are generally years in the making. And most progress is made in isolation, far from the public eye.

One thing I disliked about being a lawyer was billing for my time.

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.

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.

The impending destruction of jobs due to automation and AI technologies is definitely increasing the need for - and speed at which - we have to implement big solutions, such as a universal basic income.

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.

In my experience, entrepreneurship tends to be kind of cumulative, like a layer cake. Taking some time away can make it hard to rev up.

Millennials get a bad rap sometimes about their grit and perseverance.

I can't sit by and do nothing as our country disintegrates.

If a company is growing, then people's roles often grow and change, and opportunities abound.

FOMO (fear of missing out) is the enemy of valuing your own time.

I'm an entrepreneur trying to let the American people know that it's not immigrants that are causing economic problems, it is the fact that our economy is advancing in ways that is making human labor less and less essential.

In a professional service environment, you often work on one engagement or deal after another, with one ending before the next begins.

The vast majority of small business owners want nothing to do with figuring out a website. They are neck-deep in their business trying to keep it going.

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.