Nick Hanauer Quotes

I like entrepreneurial people; I like people who take risks.

I think entrepreneurs are born and not created, and so I think you see a lot of similarities among entrepreneurs in different parts of the world. Their backdrop may be very different, but their drive to create a business and to create jobs remains very much the same, whether it's in Silicon Valley or Kandahar or Kabul.

A lot of people say I was brilliant. I wasn't. I was an opportunist: a young entrepreneur who saw things and took advantage.

As an entrepreneur, you tend to see the opportunities where others see none.

An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.

Because it's so empowering, I want people to think about being entrepreneurial regardless. They don't have to start companies, but that's what makes them great employees, that's what makes them great citizens.

All artists are entrepreneurs. All entrepreneurs are artists.

If you're going to be an entrepreneur... it's not all textbook. It's gut feeling, it's intuition, it's a feeling you have that you can do this and make it happen. I think you have to have a personality.

Being an entrepreneur isn't really about starting a business. It's a way of looking at the world: seeing opportunity where others see obstacles, taking risks when others take refuge.

My dad was an entrepreneurial businessman, and maybe I got some of his ability.

My children have been learning lessons about entrepreneurship since they were in kindergarten, and these lessons are paying off: even though they are only 22, 18, and 15, they have already collectively launched three nonprofit organizations and several new businesses.

Being an entrepreneur is a mindset. You have to see things as opportunities all the time. I like to do interviews. I like to push people on certain topics. I like to dig into the stories where there's not necessarily a right or wrong answer.

We are looking for highly technical, enthusiastic and capable entrepreneurs who have a healthy disregard for the impossible, and that's not always easy to find.

A lot of people who own a business aren't entrepreneurial at all.

Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an opportunity where others see nothing.

We started Fox when everyone said it couldn't be done.

I have a mother who never took no for an answer when it came to her creative pursuits. She started a hair salon in her spare bedroom and four years later had 30 employees.

I'd like to see the word 'entrepreneur' knocked off its pedestal. Being 'entrepreneurial' is something I look for not only in founders to invest in, but also employees to hire.

In the tech world, you can reel off great products in several ways. You can have the once-in-a-lifetime gut instincts of a Steve Jobs. You can have the brainiac coding skills of a Bill Gates, Larry Page, or Sergey Brin. Or, I learned, you can have the deep intellectual curiosity and stubbornness of a Jeff Bezos.

Different parts of the world have different attitudes to failure. Arguably, it may take more courage to be an entrepreneur in Sydney, or Paris, or London, or Japan, or Singapore... but an entrepreneur sees the world for what it could be, not what it is.

I'm a very business-minded person.

I think the culture and DNA of our organization is to take risks.

A lot of entrepreneurship is seeing the future in a way that no one else sees it. Then, it becomes about execution and doing what it takes to succeed.

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.

I think Steve Wynn, who was like my mentor and a second father, has been a great inspiration. He's a great mentor because he's a guy who's had great business success but also has always been driven by creativity - and inspired creativity.