A Quote by Sam Altman

Wait to start a startup until you come up with an idea that you feel compelled to explore.

Sam Altman

Quote Topics

Come Come Up Compelled Explore Feel Idea Start Startup Until Up Wait

Quote Author

Sam Altman
American - Businessman

We hear again and again from founders, that they wish they had waited to start a startup until they came up with an idea they really loved.

Sam Altman

Just work. Don't wait. Everybody's waiting until they have the perfect idea to start working. Even if you have an inkling of what you want to do, start moving towards it. And it's going to flesh itself out through the process of moving towards the goal. And by the time you get to where you're going to be, it's not going to look anything like it did when you sat on the couch thinking about it. And if you wait until it's perfect in your head before you get of the couch and start working on it, that's never going to happen.

Brandon Stanton

What to do when inspiration doesn't come; be careful not to spook, get the wind up, force things into position. You must wait around until the idea comes.

John Huston

Don't wait till you're older, or in some better job than you have now. Don't wait for anything. Don't wait till some magical...idea drops into your lap. That's not where ideas come from. Go looking for an idea and it'll show up. Begin now.

Ira Glass

I don't think in genres. Once I get a germ of an idea I wait for it to die! And if it refuses to die and keeps coming back, I start thinking more about it. Then come the world and the characters. I wait to get bored and if I don't get bored- then I start building on them.

Kanika Dhillon

Motivation is when you get hold of an idea and don't let go of it until you make it a reality. Inspiration is the reverse - when an idea gets hold of you and you feel compelled to let that impulse or energy carry you along. You get to a point where you realize that you're no longer in charge, that there's a driving force inside you that can't be stopped.

Wayne Dyer

The reason to retire is to try to avoid embarrassment; you ought to do it before people are dropping big hints. You want to be the first to come up with the idea. You don't want to wait until you trip and fall off the stage.

Garrison Keillor

You can't always say and do things and wait until the right moment, when everything is perfectly lined up. As women, I feel like we do that. I just see so many women take the back seat and wait until the right opportunity, and when you do that, you miss out on the best things.

Jessica Mendoza

We explore our environment, more than we are compelled to utter poetry, when we're toddlers. We start doing that later. Before that happens, every child is a scientist.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

If someone wants to start a business but they don't have an idea that they are specifically passionate about, then it may not be the right time for them to start it. Instead, they should work with someone else who is doing something they care about in the meantime until an idea comes up.

Omar Samra

When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.

Sam Altman

There is a difference between motivation and inspiration. Motivation is when you get hold of an idea and don't let go of it until you make it a reality. Inspiration is the reverse-when an idea gets hold of you and you feel compelled to let that impulse or energy carry you along. You get to a point where you realize that you're no longer in charge, that there's a driving force inside you that can't be stopped.

Wayne Dyer

If you have an idea that you can't get out of your head, do a startup. Otherwise join a startup.

Fred Wilson

There's this famous observation that I totally believe: Great startup ideas are the ones that lie in the intersection of the Venn diagram of 'is a good idea' and 'looks like a bad idea.' So you want most people to think it's a bad idea and thus not compete with you until you get giant. But for it to secretly be good.

Sam Altman

I grew up horseback riding. That was my passion. I didn't start shopping until about 16 or 17, when I could drive myself to stores and explore on my own.