‘Humility is the true key to success’ – 30 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From hard work to humility, witness the memorable journey of Indian entrepreneurship in these excerpts and stories! StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous post here). Share these 30 gems and insights from the week of December 18-24 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights!

Public speaking isn’t about how good you are; it’s about what the audience can get out of your presentation. - Bijal Shah, ROKT

Learn from everything around you so life becomes more interesting every day. - James Altucher

Dear optimist, pessimist, and realist – while you guys were busy arguing about the glass of wine, I drank it! Sincerely, the opportunist. - Lori Greiner, For Your Ease Only

From an India perspective, the good news is that chatbots are one technology where the pace of innovation and adoption is at par with the US. - Aakrit Vaish, Haptik

By implementing blockchain technology, the government can directly connect with the people economically. - Kartik Hegadekatti, IRTS

Every organisation must embrace digital transformation and apply data crunching for predicitve and prescriptive results. - Anil Bhansali, Microsoft India

Demonetisation will be remembered as a good example of how even the best ideas, when prematurely introduced and poorly coordinated, can impose a heavy collateral damage. - Shailesh Jha, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

Learning through technology triggers changes in how students consume content. It offers them newer ways to explore concepts and initiate learning on their own. - Byju Raveendran

The next big potential wave for e-commerce is in reaching rural India. - Manoj Gupta, CraftsVilla

I would call it a monumental year for the Indian gaming industry. - Badri Sanjeevi, Mauj Mobile

In a span of 10 years, fashion rental will become mainstream. - Sahyujyah Shrinivas, LibeRent

Once the Aadhaar-enabled payment system is fully introduced, the security issue will also be largely addressed. - Piyush Goyal, Minister of State

There is a lot that can be done with smart electric vehicles. It is about leveraging the disruption that the mobile and internet have brought into the automobile industry. - Padmasree Warrior, NextEV

India overtakes UK & becomes 5th largest GDP after USA, China, Japan & Germany. India may have large population base but this is a big leap. - Kiren Rijiju, Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs

We need to know history on its own terms. If you don’t know where you come from how will you know where you are going. – Shashi Tharoor, ‘An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India’

We are making some tweaks so that it makes it easier for startups. We have a long way to go. - Ramesh Abhishek, DIPP

A majority of schools aren’t very tech-savvy and have had bitter experiences with enterprise resource solutions (ERPs). - Ashish Chaturvedi, School Diary

Human Resources isn’t a thing we do. It’s the thing that runs our business. – Steve Wynn

Doing fast iterations has been the key to moving rapidly as a product company. - Nipun Goyal, Curofy

For any CSR-based development activity to be truly effective, it must be aligned with stakeholder needs. – Shalaka Kalgutka, Fourth Wheel

We tell our daughters and sisters to go and get it all in life -- fame, success, and money -- and when they do, we do not know what to do with them. – Chetan Bhagat, ‘One Indian Girl’

At the end of the day, your customers will adopt a product that is useful and usable. Find someone who has the instinct to turn that adoption into addiction. - Sohel I S, HDFC RED

All the guys who have done well, anywhere in the world, have focussed not on valuation but on value. And the value that you’re going to give to your customer. – Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip

Excess money corrupts, encourages slack and wasteful costs and gives us a sense of power to spend without really thinking harder. - Ronnie Screwvala

You can raise capital, but if you don’t have the ecosystem to support you, the business essentially doesn’t thrive. – Hari Menon, Big Basket

The biggest lesson from Alphabet is that you can be the world’s best at your current job and still find time to carry on a dozen Moonshot projects. - Abhijit Bhaduri, ‘The Digital Tsunami’

You need to keep the employee morale up and continue to hustle as a team even when there is no money in the bank. - Alok Medikepura Anil, Bluebook

If you stick long enough, entrepreneurship pays off. Even if you fail, you have learnt so much that good jobs are at arm's reach and your grand network helps in the process. - Harsh Snehanshu, YourQuote

Humility is the true key to success. It is the foundation for all virtue. – Ankit Rawal, Fourth Lion

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).