Steve Blank Quotes

Initiative is doing the right things without being told.

I've stepped more into my business and really... taken control for how I want that to be.

It's hard for me to work for somebody else. I can work with someone, but not for someone.

Sometimes you have to create a vision, a path for a vision. It may not be apparent, and you may have to forge it yourself. And that will be the way to move your life forward.

Believe in individual initiatives, in courage, in risk.

I did all kinds of things as a young person to try to make money. I had a chicken operation - I sold chickens. I can remember going to high school football games as a ten-year-old and gathering Coca-Cola bottles, 'cause you'd turn them in and get a nickel. I wanted not to remain idle.

I would really want to teach someone how to function without having to have plays called for you.

It's hard to visualize someone as a leader, if she is always waiting to be told what to do.

I think I've always been a follow-the-leader with my career, or maybe waiting for things to happen. Now I'm like, I'm OK-I know the direction, whoever's on board can go with me.

Some of the traits that make you a great entrepreneur also work against you. Examining data of high-scoring people, we find that oftentimes the world frustrates them: They're super-smart, they're super-capable, and the work quality of their peers is vastly inferior to what they can achieve on their own.

You can't always wait for the guys at the top. Every manager at every level in the organization has an opportunity, big or small, to do something. Every manager's got some sphere of autonomy. Don't pass the buck up the line.

Instead of being taught independence, energy, and enterprise, our youth today is taught to look for security.

Leadership is a mindset in action. So don't wait for the title. Leadership isn't something that anyone can give you - you have to earn it and claim it for yourself.

Never let the other fellow set the agenda.

Is it important to have a crew behind me? No, it's important to have me behind them. That's how I look at it. You can't just roll with a situation like you're depending on somebody to help you. You're supposed to help the situation, whatever the situation is that you're in.

When you're doing what you love to do, you become resilient. You create a habit of taking chances on yourself. If you do what's expected of you, and things go poorly, you will look to external sources for what to do next, because that will be your habit. You will be standing there frozen. If you are just filling a role, you will be blindsided.

I've always wanted to call the shots because I would rather fail than not have a chance to figure it out on my own.

I'm the type of person that doesn't like to wait for people to do things for me, and I never want to feel stuck. Why sit around and be like, 'I wish my label would book me some studio time,' if I can just buy my own studio equipment and figure out how to run Pro Tools and record it myself?

The thing I hate most in acting is asking permission to do things. What you really want to do is say, 'This is my need; this is what's going to get me further; this is what's going to be alive. I don't ever say, 'Do you mind if...?' I just come in and do it.

I just know that it's smart for my career to carve my own path and do my own thing.

I had difficulty working for other people.

Leadership is a mindset that shifts from being a victim to creating results. Any one of us can demonstrate leadership in our work and within our lives.

Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.

My drive into high tech doesn't involve a lot of people - just me and a very small team.

Learn to bet on yourself and have confidence in your own decisions. No one knows your business better than you.