Andy Dunn Quotes

A founder is the emotional energy aorta of a company. The energy that emanates from a founder attracts people and capital to the endeavor. When that energy goes away, it can feel impossible to do the job.

Marc Lore has been a mentor of mine for a long time. He taught me how to hire people and how to do the hardest thing in business, which is to make a great culture. I believe Marc is the most innovative and ambitious e-commerce entrepreneur on the planet.

I know this: Jerry Jones is unique, he's as cool as James Bond and he has a command of his business. He can step into any arena and succeed.

Bill Gore from Goretex was a very strong influence because he was one of the first larger companies to experiment with freedom in the workplace.

People have asked me, 'Is it about Apple or is it about Jobs?' and I say it's about how a man becomes his company and the company becomes the man. That has only happened a few times, like it happened with Ford, I think, they became inextricably linked together.

My dad is an unbelievable entrepreneur who balanced his life as a father and a president of two very successful companies.

In the founders, I look for a person I feel is trustworthy, driven and smart. I invest in the person first, because in the event the business fails, the person and I can move forward and create another business.

I read the Steve Jobs book, and that kind of changed everything. I've been, like, an Apple geek my whole life and have always seen him as a hero. But reading the book, and learning about how he built the company, and maintaining that corporate culture and all that, I think that influenced me a lot.

One of the perks of being the founder is that you get to build the company in your image.

The heart and soul of the company is creativity and innovation.

Good is somebody who delivered and allowed the company to overcome obstacles, without leaving a profound impact on its culture. Great is somebody who leads his company to achievements and performance and value that nobody was expecting it had.

Who's more likely to succeed - someone with high skill and no ambition, or no skill and high ambition? If you're an entrepreneur, you can hire as many skilled people for your business as you want.

A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.

At HBO, my leadership had to inspire and gain the respect of employees in a large company with over 100 external business relationships in dozens of countries.

I have hundreds of poems memorized. Mostly by others, but also my own. I use the poems when I lead retreats for management groups on topics like creating teams, or coming up with a more entrepreneurial system, or creating more excitement.

Leadership is the willingness to put oneself at risk…. Leadership is seeing the possibilities in a situation while others are seeing the limitations…. Leadership is evoking in others the capacity to dream.

We don’t need corporate generals. We need warrior generals…. Many of our military leaders are like car designers who have never driven a car….they go along to get along.

There is something only a CEO uniquely can do, which is set that tone, which can then capture the soul of the collective.

I have always regrets about selling anything of Reed Hastings because he's really a good manager and a great capitalist.

Hef is a man of the big picture. He is a creative force.

I think 'Shoe Dog' by Phil Knight is the best memoir I've ever read by a business person.

School taught me how to do a 9-5 job rather than be a person who wants to start a business.

Musk is very inspiring to me.

Turner Broadcasting went from a very entrepreneurial, risk-taking company where I had a tremendous amount of freedom and autonomy to a corporate, bureaucratic nightmare.

I live, breathe, and die by what kind of company we're creating.