Aaron Levie Quotes

The packaged food business environment is very Darwinian. You're fighting for survival every year; you evolve and grow or you die. It's really that simple.

Today, you expand or you are expendable.

The person who insists on using yesterday's methods in today's world won't be in business tomorrow

The great thing about the business is how Darwinian it is. We have to swim or die - if you are found wanting over a period of time, you've either got to change what you're doing or find something else to do.

Capitalism and political systems - like companies - must constantly evolve to stay vital.

You adapt, evolve, compete or die.

In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it's the fast fish which eats the slow fish.

That competition and the struggle for existence is the mechanism behind this state of perpetual change.

Journalism is a Darwinian process.

Struggle is the father of all things. It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle.

The rules of survival never change, whether you're in a desert or in an arena.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

With each new day in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing he must outrun the fastest lion or perish. At the same time, a lion stirs and stretches, knowing he must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. It's no different for the human race. Whether you consider yourself a gazelle or a lion, you have to run faster than others to survive.

But in the free market system, you're forced to change.

In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running, if you stand still, they will swallow you.

Adapt or die.

Modern competition is often described as a fight of all against all.

You cannot make a living on the past …the stone age did not end because they ran out of stones.

In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.

Since I became CEO, 87 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500 are off the list. What that says is that companies that don't reinvent themselves will be left behind. I also think that's true of people. And I think it's true of countries.

If you don't change with the times, the times are going to change you.

Everyone does what they believe they need to do in order to survive in this business, 'survive' being the operative word.

If you don't jump on the new, you don't survive.

There are always losers when society evolves. In the free market, these losers are expected and encouraged to retrain and find new ways to survive and thrive.

You can embrace nostalgia and history and tradition at the same time - it has to progress or it can't survive.