"Take care of yourself: When you don't sleep, eat crap, don't exercise, and are living off adrenaline for too long, your performance suffers. Your decisions suffer. Your company suffers. Love those close to you: Failure of your company is not failure in life. Failure in your relationship is."
About Evan Williams
Evan Williams — Life and Legacy
Evan Williams is a prominent tech entrepreneur recognized for his role in co-founding Twitter and Medium, platforms that have significantly influenced online communication and content sharing. His contributions have transformed how people connect and express ideas in the digital age. Williams's core philosophy revolves around innovation and leadership. He believes in the power of technology to democratize information and empower individuals. His quote, 'The best way to predict the future is to invent it,' encapsulates his proactive approach to entrepreneurship, urging others to take charge of their destinies. This mindset reflects his journey, where he consistently challenged the status quo and sought to create platforms that foster open dialogue and creativity. The impact of Williams's work is evident in how social media and publishing have evolved. His insights into the importance of adaptability and vision resonate deeply in today's fast-paced digital landscape. By emphasizing that 'You can't just sit back and wait for things to happen,' he inspires a generation of entrepreneurs to embrace risk and innovation, making his quotes not only relevant but essential in understanding the dynamics of modern leadership.
Quote collection
Evan Williams quotes
18 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Hard things are valuable; easy things are not so valuable. Reaching the mountaintop is rewarding because it is hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it."
"Failure of your company is not failure in life. Failure in your relationships is."
"Assume the best but hire paranoid people."
"Our problem wasn’t that it blew up and was impossible to scale, but there were some bad choices made. One of the biggest lessons time after time was to focus. Do fewer things."
"User experience is everything. It always has been, but it's undervalued and underinvested in. If you don't know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company on board."
"Take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time Identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps."
"The things that keep nagging at you are the ones worth exploring."
"Marketing, when done well, is about story telling."
"Change the world. Build a business. Have fun."
"When you’re obsessing about one thing, you can reach insights about how to solve hard problems. If you have too many things to think about, you’ll get to the superficial solution, not the brilliant one."
"The vast majority of things are distractions, and very few really matter to your success."
"After high school, I enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, but I stayed only a year and a half. I felt college was a waste of time; I wanted to start working."
"I tried to be a ski bum when I stepped away from Twitter, and I wasn't a very good skier."
"I suspect there's a lot of validity to the premise that big companies aren't going to attract entrepreneurial talent."
"Every major communication tool on the Internet has spam and abuse problems. All email services, blogging services and social networks have to dedicate a significant amount of resources and time to fighting abuse and protecting their users."
"News in general doesn't matter most of the time, and most people would be far better off if they spent their time consuming less news and more ideas that have more lasting import."
"When I meet with the founders of a new company, my advice is almost always, ‘Do fewer things.’ It’s true of partnerships, marketing opportunities, anything that’s taking up your time. The vast majority of things are distractions, and very few really matter to your success."