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[Jeff Bezos] said people who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. He doesn’t think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It’s perfectly healthy — encouraged, even — to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos visits 37signals and shares some wisdom, cautioning against the all-too-human fear of being wrong.

Sir Richard Branson creativity and innovation quote entrepreneurship

It’s a combination of passion, vision, creativity and a sense of adventure.

Sir Richard Branson on the secret of entrepreneurship.

Complement with how to find your purpose and do what you love.

Sir Richard Branson quote thought and opinion creativity and innovation entrepreneurship culture and society interviews

Success in business can be measured by if you enjoy what you are doing; create something that stands out; create something that everyone is really proud of.

[…]

Money is not my first priority - I have always pursued what I am passionate about whether that will make me money or not, my fascination is learning and discovery more than being rich and powerful.

Sir Richard Branson on entrepreneurship, echoing Thoreau’s timeless words on success and iconic graphic designer Paula Scher’s poetic definition.

Complement with Alan Watts on money vs. purpose and this lovely vintage read on how to avoid work and do what you love.

libraries thought and opinion culture and society entrepreneurship

Not having to wonder how I was going to eat meant my attention could be given to other things, like reading wonderful books. As a child, many of the books I read and loved came from the local libraries where I lived. I can still remember going into a library for the first time and being amazed — utterly amazed — that I could read any book I wanted and that I could even take some of them home, as long as I promised to give each of them back in time. I learned my love of science and story in libraries. I know now that each of those libraries were paid for by the people who lived in the cities the libraries were in, and sometimes by the states they were in as well. I owe the taxpayers of each for the love of books and words.

A self-made man looks at how he made it – beautiful read on what it really means to “pay it forward”

entrepreneurship research culture and society sociology

For both men and women, becoming an entrepreneur was associated with social skills and entrepreneurial intentions expressed at age 16. In addition, we found gender-specific pathways. For men, becoming an entrepreneur was predicted by having a self-employed father; for women, it was predicted by their parents’ socioeconomic resources. These findings point to conjoint influences of both social structure and individual agency in shaping occupational choice and implementation.

34-year longitudinal study of an international sample examines who becomes an entrepreneur

cities art and design culture and technology books quote science and technology tech entrepreneurship

When the internet was new, its early enthusiasts hoped it would emulate the greatest serendipity machine ever invented: the city. The modern metropolis, as it arose in the 19th century, was also an attempt to organise an exponential increase, this one in population. Artists and writers saw it as a giant playground of discovery, teeming with surprise encounters. The flâneur was born: one who wanders the streets with purpose, but without a map.

… some of our most serendipitous spaces are under threat from the internet. Wander into a bookshop in search of something to read: the book jackets shimmer on the table, the spines flirt with you from the shelves. You can pick them up and allow their pages to caress your hands. You may not find the book you wanted, but you will walk out with three you didn’t.

… serendipity, on the other hand, is, as Zuckerman says, “necessarily inefficient”. It is a fragile quality, vulnerable to our desire for convenience and speed. It also requires a kind of planned vagueness. Digital systems don’t do vagueness very well, and our patience
with it seems to be fading.

The Dot-Com City - architecture and design critic Alexandra Lange examines Silicon Valley urbanism

entrepreneurship creativity and innovation thought and opinion books science and technology Richard Branson

Entrepreneurialism isn’t about what happened last night, but about the morning after. If you hide under the covers because you can’t face another day of the same old grind, you clearly need more change in your life. If you leap out of bed precisely because, today, everything is going to be different and something is sure to surprise you, then you’re halfway there already.

Sir Richard Branson in the introduction to Velocity: The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital.

art and design thought and opinion business design entrepreneurship Apple

1. Design makes all the difference
2. Design the organization
3. The product is the marketing
4. Design is systems thinking
5. Design out loud
6. Design is for the people
7. Design with conviction

The seven principles of designing insanely great products, from John Edson’s forthcoming book, Design Like Apple: The Seven Principles of Designing Insanely Great Products, Services, and Experiences.

(ᔥ Thought You Should See This)

advice art and design creativity and innovation thought and opinion design innovation entrepreneurship lists

An untended garden quickly becomes a field: plant what you want to grow.
Have partners, but don’t do the same things: make sure you both do something you enjoy.
Hire people for what they can teach you, not for what you can teach them.
Everyone should be able to take criticism: creative trust is built on critical honesty.
Design is only one part of the puzzle: savor the discussion, development, debate, and dissemination of your work just as much as the making of it.
Goals may be arbitrary, but not having them will be maddening when there’s no one else to tell you if you’re doing a good job: set 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year goals at the outset.
When you take your favorite clients out to lunch, it’s a good time to propose what you’d like to do together next.
Knowing more designers doesn’t necessarily translate into having good clients: spend your development time wisely.
Be known for something: it helps.
You will never work harder than when you’re building something: find balance. Sometimes the best way to solve a creative problem is to take a vacation or read a book.

Advice on design entrepreneurship from Rob Giampietro.

(↬ Swiss Miss)

art and design creativity and innovation thought and opinion design talks advice creativity entrepreneurship

“[If] you wind up taking work that, at the end of the day, you’re not very proud of, then over time that will eat your soul.”

What are you afraid of? Fantastic Creative Mornings talk on creative entrepreneurship by Jim Coudal.

Apple business art and design creativity and innovation entrepreneurship TED talks

Guy Kawasaki, one of the original Apple employees responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984, on 12 lessons he learned from Steve Jobs.

“Experts” are clueless
Customers cannot tell you want they need
Biggest challenges beget the best work
Design counts
Use big graphics and big fonts “A rule of thumb for fonts: Find out who the oldest person is in the audience, divide his or her age by two.”
Changing your mind is a form of intelligence
“Value” ≠ “price”
A players hire A+ players
Real CEOs demo
Real entrepreneurs ship
Marketing = unique value
Some things need to be believed to be seen

(↬ Read It Later List)

quote thought and opinion education entrepreneurship culture and society advice

Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

[…]

Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life — the life you author from scratch on your own — begins.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling? When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at Princeton, 1986, in one of 5 timeless graduation addresses to live by.

quote psychology science and technology thought and opinion business entrepreneurship

Failure may not be an option in the mind of an entrepreneur, but it is all too frequent in reality. High-risk-taking entrepreneurs override such loss aversion, a phenomenon most of us succumb to—in which losses hurt twice as much as gains feel good—that we developed in our evolutionary environment of scarcity and uncertainty.

Fascinating Scientific American read on the double-edge sword of the optimism bias and how we opt out of overoptimism, citing Nobel-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s excellent Thinking, Fast and Slow.

quote entrepreneurship thought and opinion business creativity and innovation

Q: What’s the number-one quality one needs to have or choice one needs to make in translating a brilliant idea into successful entrepreneurship?

A: Be selfless. Do not think of yourself, your needs, your protection, your security. Think only of what would be a dream-come-true for your customers, and find a way to make that happen. Only after you design a perfect business from their perspective, should you adjust the numbers to make sure it’s sustainable. But focus entirely 100% on them, not yourself.

Derek Sivers on the secrets of entrepreneurship