Adam Braun Quotes

The single most powerful element of youth is that you don't have the life experiences to know what can't be done.

Most of all, I'll remind them each morning that we make a choice to bring positivity or negativity into the world, and that within every single person where lies an extraordinary story waiting to unfold.

It's the presence of others who are smarter, kinder, wiser, and different from you that enables you to evolve. Those are the people to surround yourself with at all times.

Your life should be a story you are excited to tell.

In moments of uncertainty, when you must chose between two paths, allowing yourself to be overcome by either the fear of failure or the dimly lit light of possibility, immerse yourself in the life you would be most proud to live.

Creating something new is easy, creating something that lasts is the challenge.

Every person has a revolution beating within his or her chest

I realized that even big waves start with small ripples

your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.

At certain moments in your life you just know that everything after will change. You can ignore these moments by not acting on the new set of possibilities they enable, and your life will stay the same. But if you say yes to their reverberating potential, your life path alters permanently.

Your twenties are the time to both accept and fight your way into the person you're destined to become.

Sometimes you have to leave things behind to understand their true value.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

You may be safe, but I am free.' Take advantage of the freedom that comes with your youth. Inhale life, exhale fire, and embrace the late, sleepless nights, because that's when the magic happens- when everyone else is asleep and you're awake thinking about the world as it is, and the world as it would be. Make the most of those moments," I said forcefully. "And in the coming years people will tell you that you're too young to change the world. I'm here to tell you, that's fucking bullshit.

The biggest difference between the person who lives his or her dreams and the person who aspires is the decision to convert that first spark of motivation into immediate action.

Adversity bonds people more often than it breaks them.

Many of us spend our entire lives in the same bubble - we surround ourselves with people who share our opinions, speak the way we speak, and look the way we look. We fear leaving those familiar surroundings, which is natural, but through exploration of the unfamiliar we stop focusing on the labels that define WHAT we are and discover WHO we are.

what you see around you is proof of what exists within you.

It was only by focusing on creating joy in her life that I discovered the greatest feeling of happiness in my own.

I looked around and acknowledged that what you see around you is proof of what exists within you.

Every great inventor, architect, scientist, and mathematician began as a child holding nothing more then a pencil. That single stick of wood and graphite could enable him to explore worlds within that he would never otherwise access.

True self-discovery begins where your comfort zone ends,

Your twenties are the time to both accept and fight your way into the person you’re destined to become.

How many times have I missed an incredible connection that could have been made because I had my face in my phone instead of paying attention to those around me?

The purest joys are available to all of us, and they're unrelated to status, recognition, or material desires.

At the greatest levels of affluence, and the deepest levels of poverty, parents share the same desire for their children to have a better future.

I understood that I might fail, but I wouldn't let it happen because I changed my compass along the way.

So many of the people I admired—the musicians, the artists, the writers—created their greatest works not during a period of happiness and contentment, but during a period of struggle.

Weak speakers look down at the floor, good speakers look up but scan the room, great speakers make eye contact selectively, and exceptional speakers deliver every complete thought directly to one person in the audience, making that person feel like the center of the room—and then they move on and do it again.

I nodded, still unable to speak, digesting the weight of what she had just said. We exist because of the sacrifice of those who came before us, but how often can we make them feel the full value of their impact? ... It was only by focusing on creating joy in her life that I discovered the greatest feelings of happiness in my own.

This realization led me to institute a personal policy of going off email from Friday night until Sunday morning. I would use my weekends to rest, rejuvenate, and reconnect with those I cherished most. For one day a week, it’s important to allow yourself to be a human being, rather than a human doing.

They served as a constant reminder that to achieve exceptional things, you must hold yourself to exceptional standards, regardless of what others may think.

People think big ideas suddenly appear on their own, but they’re actually the product of many small, intersecting moments and realizations that move us toward a breakthrough.

In truth we re-create our reputation every day.

Sometimes you have to show someone that you’re willing to run through a wall before they’ll open the front door.

...when your faith is tested you simply have to believe that there will be light ahead and continue moving forward.

Most ventures fail in the early stages because people stop trying after they're told no too many times.

Creating a company means you’re going to go through hell and high water along the way. You need to know the character of the people at your side. Trust is everything.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

They chose to be different. And in doing so, they proved that through struggle, sacrifice and service, staggering personal transformation is possible.

Purpose can manifest from so many different places, but it most often appears through the small things that enable us to feel connected to a broader whole

The mind delivers logic and reason, but the heart is where faith resides.

You never realize how much you value something until you are faced with the prospect of losing it.

Here's my best advice: make the little decisions with your head and the big ones with your heart. Do that, and you'll be just fine.

Non is defined as “of little or no consequence: unimportant: worthless.” Worthless? Clearly, something needed to change. Why were we the only industry that introduced itself with a negative when we existed not to reduce profits, but to foster a profusion of purpose? Instead of introducing ourselves by touting what we didn’t do, shouldn’t we share what we did do?

Sometimes you know something in your head, and other times you know it in your heart. The mind delivers logic and reason, but the heart is where faith resides. In moments of uncertainty, when you must choose between two paths, allowing yourself to be overcome by either the fear of failure or the dimly lit light of possibility, immerse yourself in the life you would be most proud to live.

In certain situations you ask to see a sign to guide you in the right direction. Sometimes these calls to a higher power are answered and sometimes we are left to seek counsel from within. But if you look for them, the signs will usually present themselves to those with open eyes.

But deep down inside, I was no longer enamored with the life I’d created. The only purpose I was serving was self-interest. While I rarely showed it to outsiders, my happiness waned day after day. A restless voice kept me up at night, telling me that until I found meaning, the money wouldn’t matter.

Many of us spend our entire lives in the same bubble—we surround ourselves with people who share our opinions, speak the way we speak, and look the way we look. We fear leaving those familiar surroundings, which is natural, but through exploration of the unfamiliar we stop focusing on the labels that define what we are and discover who we are.

When you're part of something special, you have to cherish it and defend it against many outside distractions and temptations. But nothing is more potent or deceptive than the competing interests or another great opportunity. In those moments when priorities clash, always stay guided by your values, not your perceived necessities. Necessities exist in a state of mind that will not last, whereas values are transcendent and enduring.

When you align individually high-performing people around the idea that they are collectively underdogs, you tap into the cohesive gel that brings early adopters together. We created an enemy for us to rebel against (this belief that our approach was “impossible”), which is one of the fastest ways to unite people around a common goal. And with each new person who joined our volunteer army, we received both the validation and the skills necessary to prove that we could carve a different path from those who came before us.

Listening intensely is a far more valuable skill than speaking immensely.

The biggest of dreams often start with small, unreasonable acts.

Most ventures fail in the early stages because people stop trying after they’re told no too many times.

Make your life a story worth telling

We each bear responsibility to prove ourselves day in and day out and have no one to blame but ourselves for the outcome.

The paperwork would make me CEO and grant me a salary, equity, and benefits. Between the money and the health insurance, I could cover all of my immediate needs. But I’d have to change everything I stood for.

The key is to think big and then take small, incremental steps forward day by day. Start by changing the subjects of your daily conversation from the life you are living to the life you aspire to create. By speaking the language of the person you seek to become, you will soon find yourself immersed in the conversations that make you most come alive. You’ll sense the energy you emit attracting similar energy from others. Your conversations will lead to opportunities, which will become actions, which will become footprints for good.

How many times do you have thirty things to do and you focus on the twenty-five that matter least?

Purpose can manifest from so many different places, but it most often appears through the small things that enable us to feel connected to a broader whole. Although

Make your life a story worth telling.

Purpose is found when you stop thinking about how you exist in the world and start trying to figure out why you are here. Once you solve that question, everything else will fall into place.

Purpose can manifest from so many different places, but it most often appears through the small things that enable us to feel connected to a broader whole.

You have to find a mantra and live it fully. The one I’d adopt right now if I were you is something I found on the inside of a friend’s journal last year: ‘You may be safe, but I am free.’ Take advantage of the freedom that comes with your youth. Inhale life, exhale fire, and embrace the late, sleepless nights, because that’s when the magic happens—when everyone else is asleep and you’re awake thinking about the world as it is, and the world as it could be. Make the most of those moments,” I said forcefully. “And in the coming years people will tell you that you’re too young to change the world. I’m here to tell you, that’s fucking bullshit.

Sometimes you just know. With absolute conviction. The complete absence of doubt is so rare it generates a sense of excitement that’s so powerful it becomes shocking. . . . That name just appeared in my head, and I remember a hard closing of my eyes followed by an opening and a quick punch of breath. It literally knocked the wind out of me, left me searching for air, a tingling of excitement surging through my chest. Yes. With absolute conviction. Everything had changed.

Think about how the world will change in the next ten years, and how you and your resources and networks will change within it. Use that as a compass to determine how you can affect as many people as possible.

Expectations are the daunting shadows that trail behind accomplishments; no matter how high one goes, the other follows on its footsteps.

The role of the founder should eventually be to listen to the echoes of his or her initial words, and then encourage and amplify the most genuine among those you hear.

Dancing with these kids, I looked around and acknowledged that what you see around you is proof of what exists within you. There is a primal energy that spurs us to move, to shake, to transform. And once ignited, it is a feeling that takes on a life of its own.

True motivation is not found within reaching a goal, but rather getting to a place where you can confidently and audaciously move the finish line far off into the distance once again. It’s in the space between the known and the unknown, where you can craft a vision for the future that you hope to create and then chase it with relentless fervor.

But the best presentations—the ones that inspire action—are those where the same journey is portrayed, except the audience is the focus. It’s not about the presenter; it’s about the chance that the audience has to become the hero by completing a well-defined task.

The more we speak in the voice of our most aspirational self, the closer we pull our future into our present.

Many presentations follow a traditional hero’s journey, with the presenter portraying himself or herself as the hero to win over the audience. But the best presentations - the ones that inspire action - are those where the same journey is portrayed, except the audience is the focus. It’s not about the presenter; it’s about the chance that the audience has to become the hero by completing a well-defined task.

It's the presence of others who are smarter, kinder, wiser, and different from you that enables you to evolve.

We both laughed it off, but it was an important reminder to never take oneself too seriously, and to never feel too self-satisfied. The only truth about first impressions is that you only get one. The way people perceive you in those first few moments will set the anchor around which all future interactions are based. Fortunately, few people noticed my blunder, but you can’t get those moments back; you can only prepare for making the best possible first impression on those new people you’ll meet in the future. As

At the end of World War II, the U.S. military set up an agency called the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, whose mandate was to implement Operation Paperclip, a program in which U.S. military and spies fanned out across Europe, seeking German scientists and engineers to bring home to America. Even before the war with Germany had ended, the Cold War was in full swing, and the U.S. government was desperate not just to obtain the knowledge these men held, but to keep their ideas, research, and abilities out of the hands of the Soviets. President Truman was adamant that no actual Nazis be brought back to the States, but the generals and spies ignored this edict from their ostensible commander-in-chief. When confronted with Nazi war criminals like the infamous Wernher von Braun—inventor of the German V-2 rocket and dedicated exploiter of slave labor, who was personally responsible for flogging and torturing people, and whose program resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands—the army and intelligence services whitewashed records, expunged files, and erased evidence of Nazi Party membership. They not only brought the most evil of criminals back to the United States, but gave them the highest of security clearances.

Adam Braun’s book, The Promise of a Pencil.