Steve Blank

Customers don't ask to see your business plan.

— Steve Blank

While there is an occasional bad apple, the public market rewards companies with revenue growth and sustainable profits.

— Steve Blank

Confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea.

— Steve Blank

80% of success in your career will come from just showing up. The world is run by those who show up…not those who wait to be asked.

— Steve Blank

Innovation comes from those who see things that other don’t.

— Steve Blank

Founders are truly artists – they see something no one else does.

— Steve Blank

Entrepreneurship is an art, not a job.

— Steve Blank

Founders fit the definition of a composer: they see something no one else does. And to help them create it from nothing, they surround themselves with world-class performers.

— Steve Blank

In Silicon Valley, we have a special word for a failed entrepreneur – it’s called experienced.

— Steve Blank

A founder's skill is knowing how to recognize new patterns and to pivot on a dime. At times the pattern is noise, and the vision turns out to be a hallucination.

— Steve Blank

Entrepreneurs are artists and I mean “artists” in the true sense of the word: they see something no one else does.

— Steve Blank

Strategy Is not a to-do list.

— Steve Blank

There are no facts inside the building, so get the hell outside.

— Steve Blank

To predict the future, 1/3 of your team needs to be crazy.

— Steve Blank

Young entrepreneurs tend to be fearless and have no respect for the status quo, and that’s exactly what you need in an environment where the status quo is going to put you out of business.

— Steve Blank

Don't believe your own b.s. It's real easy to confuse funding with success.

— Steve Blank

When I was young, I learned a quote in Sunday school that has stayed with me throughout my life. It said, 'teach us to number our days that we gain a heart of wisdom.' * Most of us will wake up 28,762 days- and then one day - we won’t. That means you have about 21,000 days left - and about 14,000 of them for your career. So herein lies the urgency.

— Steve Blank

Mentorship is a two-way street. While I was learning from them [brilliant mentors] - and their years of experience and expertise - what I was giving back was equally important. I brought fresh insights and new perspectives to their thinking.

— Steve Blank

"Build it and they will come” is not a strategy; it’s a prayer.

— Steve Blank

We used to pivot by firing people. Now we fire the hypotheses.

— Steve Blank

Customer Development says “Glad you have these hypotheses about your startup. All of them are probably wrong.”

— Steve Blank

Progress and stability are mutually exclusive.

— Steve Blank

Number one is "Do you have curiosity?" Number two is "Does it translate to imagination?" But number three is "Did it translate to action?" That’s the difference between someone with an idea and someone who is an entrepreneur.

— Steve Blank

Don’t execute other peoples advice if you can’t explain why you’re doing it.

— Steve Blank