Sam Altman Quotes

While 'The Owner's Manual' is not a formula for guaranteed success by any means, we're confident it will help reduce the failure rate of most startups that use our Customer Development process.

Just like a script, you need to keep a business plan to yourself.

Oh, well, there's a difference between privacy and secrecy.

Secrecy is the enemy of efficiency, but don't let anyone know it.

I always recommend, if you can, to patent or protect whatever your idea is. If you can't, you have to make your best judgment. Sometimes people don't get anywhere because they sit on something, so afraid to reveal it. And yet, in the reverse, sometimes if you expose something too widely, you can risk losing it.

It is much more convenient not to be a public company. As a private company you don't have to give information to the public. Secrecy is an important factor of success in the commodity business.

If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

The most successful company in Silicon Valley is Apple, and they're the most secretive.

To cover with the veil of secrecy the common routine of business is an abomination in the eyes of every intelligent man and every friend to his country.

Secrecy is for losers.... It is time to dismantle government secrecy, this most persuasive of Cold War-era regulations. It is time to begin building the supports for the era of openness that is already upon us.

Enterprises that depend on many rarely succeed.

Secrecy is for losers. For people who do not know how important the information really is.

We now understand the distinction between startups - who search for a business model - versus existing companies - that execute a business plan.

Successful entrepreneurship takes complete dedication and careful strategizing along with market analysis. Plus, successful startups provide countless benefits to a healthy economy and consumers in need.

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.

And remember: Everything in business is a paradox. To be excellent, you have to be consistent. When you're consistent, you're vulnerable to attack. Yes, it's a paradox. Now deal with it!

Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.

I have a consistent rule: The American people should know as much about the Pentagon as the Soviet Union and China do, as much about General Motors as Ford does, and as much about City Bank as Chase Manhattan does.

Do not attempt to hide things which cannot be hidden.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy; the best weapon of a democracy is openness.

Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

If we start deciding, based on guesses or emotions, whether we will or won't participate in a business where we should have some long run edge, we're in trouble.

If you invent frequently and are willing to fail, then you never get to that point where you really need to bet the whole company.

There is but one way I know of conversing safely with all men; that is, not by concealing what we say or do, but by saying or doing nothing that deserves to be concealed.

Don't ever feel that you have to hide who you are. Nothing good ever comes from keeping secrets like that.