Starter Entrepreneur Quotes

So I admitted it: “I’m a humanitarian.” And then I put a fine point on it: “Who happens to be an entrepreneur.” And then I really declared it. “And I think I can protect myself without fucking anyone else over.

Conflict can explode when social pain becomes unbearable. When it becomes something worse than exclusion, when it becomes humiliation. Humiliation is “the nuclear bomb of the emotions,” the psychologist and physician Evelin Lindner wrote. That’s why it’s the third fire starter, following group identity and conflict entrepreneurs. Humiliation poses an existential threat that jeopardizes the deepest part of ourselves, our sense that we matter, that we are worth something. It is “the enforced lowering of a person or group,” Lindner writes, “a process of subjugation that damages or strips away their pride, honor and dignity.

I was beginning to see that to live well as an entrepreneur, I just needed to stop thinking so much and go get busy. That meant starting small, starting fast, and not worrying about what I didn’t know. I became an expert at taking leaps. Being unafraid to start new things meant that, unlike most people, I was constantly conducting experiments in my personal and professional lives, in both big and small ways. New industries. New hobbies. New technologies. New roles. New people. New side hustles. That’s where I found my superpower, which taught me a lesson I want to pass on to you: focus above all else on being a starter, an experimenter, a learner.

For starters, wear your swag as often as you can, whether it’s a company T-shirt, hat, canvas bag, or whatever. This is so easy and is a great, inexpensive conversation starter. For years I have worn a .CLUB T-shirt at trade shows. In fact, I’m on a plane right now editing this section and just realized that I’m still wearing my .CLUB shirt even though we sold the company two years ago. I guess old habits are hard to break!

Nordstrom is looking to hire entrepreneurs—empowered self-starters, who seize opportunities to create and build their own businesses; to be franchisees within the larger Nordstrom franchise.