Creating Benchmark Quotes

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Mitchell Maxwell’s Maxims • You have to create your own professional path. There’s no longer a roadmap for an artistic career. • Follow your heart and the money will follow. • Create a benchmark of your own progress. If you never look down while you’re climbing the ladder you won’t know how far you’ve come. • Don’t define success by net worth, define it by character. Success, as it’s measured by society, is a fleeting condition. • Affirm your value. Tell the world “I am an artist,” not “I want to be an artist.” • You must actively live your dream. Wishing and hoping for someday doesn’t make it happen. Get out there and get involved. • When you look into the abyss you find your character. • Young people too often let the fear of failure keep them from trying. You have to get bloody, sweaty and rejected in order to succeed. • Get your face out of Facebook and into somebody’s face. Close your e-mail and pick up the phone. Personal contact still speaks loudest. • No one is entitled to act entitled. Be willing to work hard. • If you’re going to buck the norm you’re going to have to embrace the challenges. • You have to love the journey if you’re going to work in the arts. • Only listen to people who agree with your vision. • A little anxiety is good but don’t let it become fear, fear makes you inert. • Find your own unique voice. Leave your individual imprint on the world, not a copy of someone else. • Draw strength from your mistakes; they can be your best teacher.
Mitchell Maxwell
the basic metaphor of prototypes still seems apt to me. There are no answers or magic pills. There is no alternative to learning through experimentation. Benchmarking and studying “best practices” will not suffice—because the prototyping process does not involve just incremental changes in established ways of doing things, but radical new ideas and practices that together create a new way of managing.
Peter M. Senge (The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization)
The creators of blue oceans, surprisingly, didn’t use the competition as their benchmark.17 Instead, they followed a different strategic logic that we call value innovation. Value innovation is the cornerstone of blue ocean strategy. We call it value innovation because instead of focusing on beating the competition, you focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers and your company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space.
W. Chan Kim (Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant)
By planting rye I am creating carbon sinks in my backyard, expanding my role in the carbon cycle, launching my own backyard campaign to offset global warming. My emissions, after all, reflect a rural but very comfortable life in which I enjoy goods that travel great distances - clementines from Spain, wine from California - and on the occasional holiday I fly south, seeking warmer places. Will planting rye in the shoulder seasons be enough to make a difference? Certainly not, but it is a gesture, a way to frame the question and provide a benchmark to judge the extent of my complicity.
Amy Seidl (Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World)
The myriad activities that go into creating, producing, selling, and delivering a product or service are the basic units of competitive advantage. Operational effectiveness means performing these activities better—that is, faster, or with fewer inputs and defects—than rivals. Companies can reap enormous advantages from operational effectiveness, as Japanese firms demonstrated in the 1970s and 1980s with such practices as total quality management and continuous improvement. But from a competitive standpoint, the problem with operational effectiveness is that best practices are easily emulated. As all competitors in an industry adopt them, the productivity frontier—the maximum value a company can deliver at a given cost, given the best available technology, skills, and management techniques—shifts outward, lowering costs and improving value at the same time. Such competition produces absolute improvement in operational effectiveness, but relative improvement for no one. And the more benchmarking that companies do, the more competitive convergence you have—that is, the more indistinguishable companies are from one another. Strategic positioning attempts to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by preserving what is distinctive about a company. It means performing different activities from rivals, or performing similar activities in different ways.
Michael E. Porter (HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy)
CELEBRATE YOUR SUCCESS The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. —Oprah Winfrey How do you know if your scrappy effort was successful? There’s positive movement—cause to celebrate. It either moves your intention forward or you come closer to achieving your goal. You will know it worked because you feel the win, big or small. I’m a huge believer in champagne moments (or celebratory beer, ice cream, night on the town, whatever your preference). You have to celebrate! This journey is supposed to be fun. Stop and take the time to recognize and enjoy the big wins, little wins, and everything in between. Research shows there is bonus value to celebrating. In her article “Getting Results Through Others,” Loraine Kasprzak writes, quoting her coauthor Jean Oursler, “When others have worked hard to achieve the desired results, celebrate it! ‘It’s important to celebrate because our brains need a memorable reference point—also called a reward—to make the whole journey worthwhile.’” Celebrating creates a positive benchmark in your brain for future reference. According to an article in the Journal of Staff Development by Richard DuFour: Ritual and ceremony help us experience the unseen webs of significance that tie a community together. There may be grand ceremonies for special occasions, but organizations [and individuals] also need simple rituals that infuse meaning and purpose into daily routine. Without ritual and ceremony, transitions become incomplete, a clutter of comings and goings. Life becomes an endless set of Wednesdays. An endless set of Wednesdays? Yuck. Who needs that? Whether you are an individual, a small team, or a large organization, celebrate your scrappy wins as part of the experience and enjoy the ride.
Terri L. Sjodin (Scrappy: A Little Book About Choosing to Play Big)
CONFUSION 3: HOW TO GET YOUR CUSTOMER TO BUY If your Marketing Process begins with the identification of who your Customer is, followed by your Positioning Strategy to attract that Customer to your door, this Benchmark calls for the creation of an organized Selling Process. It’s what we at E-Myth call your Lead Conversion Process. This is the system through which you consistently assure your customers that, indeed, your business was created just for them. And just like your USP, your Lead Conversion Process demands that you organize just the right words in just the right order, to support your Customers’ need for congruity. In this case, congruity means consistency—meaning that the script your salespeople use is congruent with the promise your USP made. And it’s done in exactly the same way each time. While your USP makes a promise to your Customers, your Lead Conversion System helps your prospective Customers understand exactly how you intend to keep that promise when they buy your services. CONFUSION 4: HOW TO KEEP YOUR CUSTOMER HAPPY Let’s say you’ve overcome the first three confusions—now how do you keep your Customer happy?
Michael E. Gerber (The E-Myth Contractor: Why Most Contractors' Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It)
What are the internal capabilities related to data and AI? •​What were the KPIs and goals for the last twelve months? •​What are the current processes for solving the problem? •​How is performance being monitored and reported? •​How can we benchmark goals moving forward? •​What are industry benchmarks and best practices? •​What opportunities exist to create a competitive advantage? •​What technologies are being used? •​Review current tools and processes to address the business challenge •​Document the existing technology stack, including costs, capabilities, and utilization
Paul Roetzer (Marketing Artificial Intelligence: Ai, Marketing, and the Future of Business)
market research consultant in india: AMT Market Research Having accurate and insightful market research is essential for making informed decisions in today's dynamic business environment. AMT Market Research, a prominent Indian market research consultant, specializes in providing custom solutions to assist businesses in navigating the Indian market's complexities. AMT Market Research aids businesses in a variety of industries in locating growth opportunities, mitigating risks, and remaining competitive by having a thorough comprehension of local consumer behavior, economic trends, and industry shifts. Services and Expertise AMT Market Research offers a wide range of services tailored to each client's specific requirements. These are some: Market Analysis By conducting a thorough market analysis, AMT assists businesses in comprehending market share, size, and trends. AMT ensures that businesses have the data they need to make strategic decisions by evaluating key industry drivers, competitive landscapes, and potential growth areas. Customer Insights Any business that wants to succeed in India's vast and varied market must have a solid understanding of consumer behavior. Businesses can use AMT's consumer insights services to create targeted products and marketing strategies by delving deeply into buying patterns, preferences, and motivations. By analyzing competitors' strategies, strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning, competitor analysis from AMT aids businesses in benchmarking. By taking advantage of their distinct value propositions and comprehending the dynamics of the competition, this service enables businesses to maintain their lead. AMT's feasibility studies provide a comprehensive analysis of potential outcomes prior to launching a new product, entering a new market, or expanding operations, assisting clients in assessing risks and profitability. Data Collection and Analysis AMT uses surveys, interviews, and focus groups to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Advanced analytics are used by the company to transform unstructured data into useful insights, giving businesses a clear path forward. What Attracts You to AMT Market Research? AMT Market Research stands out because it is able to provide individualized solutions that address the particular difficulties that the Indian market faces. AMT provides insights that are accurate, timely, and applicable thanks to a team of seasoned professionals. Clients will be able to anticipate and prepare for changes thanks to their data-driven approach. AMT is a dependable partner for businesses looking to expand in India or strengthen their market position because of its extensive network across various industries and unparalleled access to market information. market research consultant in india can help you stay ahead of the competition, whether you're a local business or a multinational corporation. In conclusion, businesses aiming for success in India need AMT Market Research as a crucial partner. AMT helps its customers make well-informed decisions that drive growth and profitability by providing individualized research solutions, consumer insights, and strategic analysis. AMT Market Research is the preferred consulting firm for businesses attempting to navigate the Indian market's complexities.
market research consultant in india
As the Model S fever gripped Silicon Valley, I visited Ford’s small research and development lab in Palo Alto. The head of the lab at the time was a ponytailed, sandal-wearing engineer named T. J. Giuli, who felt very jealous of Tesla. Inside of every Ford were dozens of computing systems made by different companies that all had to speak to each other and work as one. It was a mess of complexity that had evolved over time, and simplifying the situation would prove near impossible at this point, especially for a company like Ford, which needed to pump out hundreds of thousands of cars per year and could not afford to stop and reboot. Tesla, by contrast, got to start from scratch and make its own software the focus of the Model S. Giuli would have loved the same opportunity. “Software is in many ways the heart of the new vehicle experience,” he said. “From the powertrain to the warning chimes in the car, you’re using software to create an expressive and pleasing environment. The level of integration that the software has into the rest of the Model S is really impressive. Tesla is a benchmark for what we do here.” Not long after this chat, Giuli left Ford to become an engineer at a stealth start-up. There
Ashlee Vance (Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future)
If you disconnect yourself from principles you believe must work for others, then you create a leadership brand that is not genuine and that will lead you to say one thing and practice another. This is the reason why knowledge and mastery issues covered at a personal level, must be revisited with a leadership focus.
Archibald Marwizi (Making Success Deliberate)
Ask yourself - How do I see myself as a leader? How do I use my personal mission and vision to create leadership focus? What does my mission or vision mean in the context of leading others? How many people are going to succeed in their endeavours, through my leadership influence? Do I expect of myself, what I expect of those who follow me? Or I have my own separate standards for the same principles I expect others to live by?
Archibald Marwizi (Making Success Deliberate)
I’ve come face-to-face with these two questions countless times as a writer, an entrepreneur, a painter, a musician, and even a lawyer. On a more immediate level, the questions relate to the project you’re working on. If you’re a painter creating a collection of work, you may start to feel the questions arise as you explore whether a canvas or the collection is taking shape as you have envisioned it. On a more expansive level, the question emerges in the context of whether you should even be a painter or a writer, a coder, an entrepreneur, a CEO. I’ve seen actors struggle to build careers for decades, never coming close to earning enough to cover their bills. Yet they keep on keeping on, because their big break could be one audition away. And this is what they feel called to do. These are some of the most difficult and defining moments every creator faces. I’ve been told by legendary entrepreneurs, “If you have to ask, assume it’s resistance and soldier on.” They claim that you just know whether or not a project is meant to be. But I’ve witnessed countless people commit to perpetually unsuccessful projects or careers or, on the other side of the spectrum, come a breath away from what would’ve been breakthrough success had they just held on a bit longer. So I began to explore a more systematic process, a set of benchmarks, tests, and questions that might better guide these moments and help people decide whether to keep leaning into the journey, alter their course, or walk away and do something entirely different. We start by asking, “What was your inciting motivation?” What made you undertake this endeavor to begin with. Was it, in some form, the expression of a calling? Was it something to keep you busy? Was it about serving a group of people, solving a problem, or serving up a delight? Was it about money or doing anything you could to get your parents off your back and avoid grad school? Begin by going back to the time surrounding your decision to create whatever it is you’re creating and answer this question. Then move on to the next question. In light of the information and experiences you’ve had along the journey to date, does that original motive still hold true? Are you still equally or even more determined to make it happen? And given what you now know, do you believe you can make it happen?
Jonathan Fields (Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance)
In sum, the most commonly used stock and bond market benchmark indexes cause economic harm, distort pricing information, and cause financial behaviours that are inimical with the EU’s aspirations for a competitive low carbon economy.
Wayne Visser (Disrupting the Future: Great Ideas for Creating a Much Better World)
Blue ocean strategy challenges companies to break out of the red ocean of bloody competition by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant. Instead of dividing up existing—and often shrinking—demand and benchmarking competitors, blue ocean strategy is about growing demand and breaking away from the competition.
W. Chan Kim (Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant)
Able hands and restless mind create benchmarks for the future, it brings creativity, it gives us a chance to create chances; Similarly, able hands, but a resting mind become a part of history, it forms the rust on our skills, it makes us so used to the stillness, that walking towards the future becomes a difficult job
Shahenshah Hafeez Khan
Here’s the trick to significantly improving your SaaS email marketing skills—you have to become a student of it. This means you should: Start collecting great email copy, CTAs, and designs. Understand the objective behind each and every email that businesses send. Try to understand the rationale behind copy, link, and design decisions. There are great websites like Really Good Emails11, Good Email Copy12, and Good Sales Emails.com13 that you can use for your research. These sites categorize email copy and designs by types. As well as this, you should sign up to receive emails from some of the leading SaaS brands. Those include, among others: Drift MailChimp Pipedrive Shopify SurveyMonkey Trello Wistia Zapier You should also sign up to competing products and mailing lists from companies in your sector. I personally signed up to thousands of products and newsletters. It’s great for benchmarking and research. At the time of writing, I’ve already passively collected more than 60,000 emails. Obviously, don’t sign up to your competitors’ products with a business email address! I have a special email address I use for this. This account allows me to get data, understand what other organizations are doing, and find good copy ideas. For example, here’s what a search for ‘Typeform’ gives me: Figure 18.1 – Inbox Inspiration It’s not uncommon for me to sign up several times to the same product or newsletter. This allows me to see what they have learned and to track the evolution of their email marketing program. At LANDR, we created a shared document to keep track of subject lines, offers, and copy we wanted to test. Our copywriter was even going through his junk mail folder to find ideas and inspiration. There are tests we ran that were inspired by copy found in his spam folder. Some of them turned out to be really successful too—so keep your eyes open for inspiration. You can use Evernote, Paper, or any other platform to collaborate on idea generation. Alternatively, you can subscribe to paid services like Mailcharts14 or Mailody15. These services will help you track and understand your competitors’ email programs. Build processes to find and access copy and design ideas. It will help you create better emails, faster. In the next chapter we’ll get started creating our first email sequences.
Étienne Garbugli (The SaaS Email Marketing Playbook: Convert Leads, Increase Customer Retention, and Close More Recurring Revenue With Email)
Title: Opening Development: The Job of market research consultant in india In the consistently developing scene of business in India, remaining in front of the opposition requires a profound comprehension of market elements, customer conduct, and arising patterns. This is where statistical surveying specialists assume a significant part. With their ability in information examination, industry bits of knowledge, and vital direction, statistical surveying experts enable organizations to pursue educated choices and explore the intricacies regarding the Indian market. In this article, we dig into the meaning of market research consultant in india and how they drive development and advancement. Exploring Different Business sectors: India is a place that is known for variety, where every district has its own exceptional social, financial, and social elements. Statistical surveying advisors have the aptitude to explore through these assorted business sectors, giving important experiences customized to explicit areas. Whether it's comprehension shopper inclinations in metropolitan communities like Mumbai and Delhi or taking advantage of the thriving business sectors of Level 2 and Level 3 urban areas, statistical surveying advisors offer limited systems that reverberate with the interest group. Uncovering Customer Bits of knowledge: Purchaser conduct is continually developing, affected by elements, for example, financial changes, mechanical progressions, and social movements. Statistical surveying experts utilize a scope of philosophies, including overviews, center gatherings, and information examination, to reveal well established customer experiences. By figuring out the requirements, goals, and trouble spots of the objective segment, organizations can tailor their items, administrations, and promoting methodologies to resound with buyers on a significant level. Recognizing Arising Patterns: In the present quick moving business climate, keeping up to date with arising patterns is vital for keeping an upper hand. Statistical surveying advisors have practical experience in pattern examination, observing business sector developments, contender exercises, and mechanical advancements. By distinguishing arising patterns from the beginning, organizations can gain by new open doors and turn their systems in like manner. Whether it's the ascent of online business, the reception of reasonable practices, or the developing interest for computerized arrangements, market research consultant in india give priceless prescience to direct business choices. Relieving Dangers: Each undertaking involves a specific level of hazard, whether it's entering another market, sending off another item, or extending tasks. Statistical surveying specialists direct careful gamble evaluations, recognizing possible entanglements and moderating elements that could influence business achievement. Through thorough market examination, contender benchmarking, and situation arranging, statistical surveying specialists empower organizations to go with informed risk-the executives choices, limiting vulnerabilities and boosting open doors for development. Driving Advancement: Development is the soul of business achievement, powering development, separation, and supportability. Statistical surveying experts cultivate a culture of development by uncovering neglected needs, distinguishing market holes, and investigating undiscovered open doors. By utilizing market knowledge and shopper experiences, organizations can improve items, administrations, and plans of action that reverberate with the advancing requirements of the market. Whether it's creating state of the art advancements, troublesome plans of action, or advancement showcasing methodologies, statistical surveying experts engage organizations to remain in front of the development bend. All in all, statistical surveying experts assume a basic part in opening development and deve
market research consultant in india
Amazon’s Leadership Principles6 Customer Obsession. Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers. Ownership. Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say, “that’s not my job.” Invent and Simplify. Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here.” As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time. Are Right, A Lot. Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs. Learn and Be Curious. Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them. Hire and Develop the Best. Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice. Insist on the Highest Standards. Leaders have relentlessly high standards—many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high-quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed. Think Big. Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers. Bias for Action. Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk-taking. Frugality. Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense. Earn Trust. Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.
Colin Bryar (Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon)
Skip table Area Description Desirable features Key benefits eg Youth Services Organization Purpose ​–​Why do we exist beyond financial gain? ​–​Emotional appeal ​–​The emphasis shouldn’t change over time ​–​Calls for a togetherness ​–​Grabs attention ​–​Memorable ​–​Benefits selected stakeholders (eg employees, customers, society) ​–​Heart then head appeal ​–​Inspires selflessness ​–​Creates belonging ​–​Catalyst for collaboration ​–​Helps people find meaning ​–​Attracts followers ​–​Creates advocates ​–​To give hope to vulnerable young people Vision ​–​What would success look, feel and sound like? ​–​Brings purpose to life ​–​Evokes imagery ​–​Takes a long-term view ​–​Increases clarity ​–​Has uniqueness ​–​Presents a challenge ​–​Commercial reference ​–​Provides an impetus for and inspires action ​–​Creates focus beyond the day-to-day activities ​–​Provides a benchmark to measure progress against ​–​To become the most respected, innovative and sustainably funded youth services provider in xx countries
Lucy Widdowson (Building Top-Performing Teams: A Practical Guide to Team Coaching to Improve Collaboration and Drive Organizational Success)
The relative success of British and Irish economic performance since the 1990s has helped to give credibility to a more Anglo-Saxon approach in social matters—based on deregulation and flexibility, rather than interventionist policies (see Box 4). But more important still has been the sustained success of the American economy, with its low unemployment and high growth, from which the conclusion could be drawn that flexibility suits the current stage of technological development. While the degree of laissez-faire in the American approach to social policy is resisted, a certain consensus may be emerging in the EU that methods such as bench-marking and peer pressure are more suitable than social legislation for reducing unemployment, as well as for some measures to create a dynamic and competitive economy.
Simon Usherwood (The European Union: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions))
Are the benchmarks reasonable? Logically, that should be the first question that is asked, but it rarely comes up at all. Once we frame the problem as one of time and money overruns, it may never occur to us to consider that the real source of the problem is not overruns at all; it is underestimation. This project was doomed by a large underestimate. And the underestimate was caused by a bad anchor. To create a successful project estimate, you must get the anchor right.
Bent Flyvbjerg (How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between)
We live in the age of the semantic web. Semantic search is constantly mining relationships and ascribing interaction values to people, organizations and things. Semantic technologies are constantly surfacing information looking for trustworthy sources to use as a benchmark.
David Amerland (The Tribe That Discovered Trust: How Trust Is Created Lost and Regained in Commercial Interactions)
I am deeply convinced that we can do better. The key to progress is a relentless focus on value creation, not value capture. Fortunately, there is no contradiction. Financial success, as we have seen time and again, will follow true value creation.10 At a policy level, this means that corporate leaders need to pay close attention to benchmarks number four and number five. Undermining markets will surely leave us poorer—and more divided! The most important work, however, takes place in companies. No matter where you sit in your organization, whether you work alone, in a team, or lead a large corporation, can I ask you to never tire of seeking new ways to increase WTP and lower WTS? Can I convince you that your role is both vital and noble? What better way to lead a life than being preoccupied with creating value for others, to touch their lives in ways both big and small?
Felix Oberholzer-Gee (Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance)
A host of scholars who have studied surviving southeastern Indian groups conclude that few if any of these peoples possess cultures that do not bear the mark of significant contact with nonindigenous societies. Even the most “traditional,” such as the Seminoles of Florida, whom Nancy O. Lurie describes as “Contact-Traditional,” were significantly altered from precolonial days by the time pioneer “salvage” ethnologists described their cultural traits and created laundry lists that have since become benchmarks for defining aboriginal culture in the region. To many more traditional reservation-based groups, having surviving Indian cultural traits is extremely important to proving authenticity, although they are not required for acknowledgement via the BIA process. The existence of surviving Indian cultural traits is highly persuasive to most observers in proving that a group still exists as a viable tribal community.
Mark Edwin Miller (Claiming Tribal Identity: The Five Tribes and the Politics of Federal Acknowledgment)
A man is created for challenges. He is equipped to overcome, to run the gauntlet, to stand finn as a ti,ell-anchored corner post. Men are the benchmark in life, society, and family. It is part of the masculine responsibility to demonstrate strength and stability, to protect and provide for those within their sphere of influence. This is the hallmark of manhood. Preston Gillharn, Things Only Men Know
Rick Johnson (Better Dads, Stronger Sons: How Fathers Can Guide Boys to Become Men of Character)
On a daily basis the venture capitalist was not concerned with historical impact; he worked to create wealth for himself and his limited partners. However, among the Benchmark partners there was awareness that framing one’s professional raison d’être in the language of financial return meant that one was hostage to the vagaries of the market—and even when the market is buoyant, there is little that is soul-quenching about mere numbers. “The really big wins are where all the rewards come from,” Bob Kagle once pointed out, before eBay had gone public. The rewards he was referring to were the emotional ones, not the financial ones, and they were rewards derived not from a game of assuming personal risk—the venture guys had a portfolio across which risk could be spread—but from being backers of entrepreneurs, the ones who commercialized new technology and introduced new products and services—and were the ones who really took on risk. “Nine times out of ten they’re taking on some big, established system of some sort.” He dropped his voice for emphasis: If the individual entrepreneur won, even for the venture guys it produced an “exhilarating feeling”—he groped for the right words—“it’s confirmation that one person with courage can make a difference.” This was the minidrama Kagle and his colleagues had seen play out triumphantly again and again. The work itself did not have any neat demarcations of beginning, middle, and end. The funds seemed to be evergreen, fresh capital materializing as soon as the till was exhausted. The calendars of the partners, revolving as they did around looking at new business plans, meeting new entrepreneurs, considering new deals, gave a feeling of perennially beginning afresh. For them, it was the best place in the cosmos to get the first peek at the future.
Randall E. Stross (eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work)
In one lifetime, a human will experience one or two major downfalls. But immortality creates limitless opportunities for screwing up. When your mortal friends complain about their lives, just tell them your benchmark for rock bottom: getting pregnant with Hitler’s baby.” --“Immortal Perspectives,” Dexter Bloodgood’s Survival Guide for Modern Vampires, 19th Edition
Allison M. Dickson (Scarlet Letters: The Tale of the Vampire Mailman)