‘The greatest asset is a strong mind’ – 60 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From methodology to mindset, 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 60 gems and insights from the week of January 8-14 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

If you know how to learn to learn, you can do anything. – Byju Raveendran

Talent speaks beyond everything. - DJ Paroma

When you combine escapes with passions, money is a side effect. And love is a side effect. – James Altucher

The best way to shut mouths is to perform. – Anil Kumble

Work is something that excites. - Sulaj Kini, Bell Paints

Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. – Stephen Hawking

The greatest asset is a strong mind. - PV Sindhu

Art comes alive when it has a soul. - Suresh Huidrom, Harts Studios

Authors always carry multiple stories within them, waiting to be bundled up and let out the door. - Rupa Bhullar, ‘The Indigo Sun’

Create situations that force you to become more than of what you are now. – Vartika Kashyap, ProofHub

Edutainment will beat entertainment eventually. - Amit Agarwal, OckyPoocky

I have seen the transformative strength of goodness and the healing power of gentleness. – Shah Rukh Khan

Mobile banking now accounts for more than 50 percent of all digital transactions, and will outpace netbanking this year. – ICICI Bank

You may be driving, watching TV, browsing the internet or reading a magazine when you hit on an idea. - Anjali Singh, Azilaa

For the investors, it is more important to know who they are investing in. – Swati Bhargava, CashKaro

Healthcare is on the cusp of a sound revolution. - Arvind Badrinarayanan, Taal

Typically venture debt begins to mature into a market after the equity market has been around for a while. - Ashish Sharma, InnoVen Capital

The number of farmers who have defaulted on agriculture loans has increased due to repeated droughts in the region. - Kaveri Grameen Bank, Kora

If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution. – Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Only a fraction of all venture capital funding is going to the education sector but the long-term impact an investment in this sector can make is exponential. - Vishal Bharat, ECF

One can live without electricity and internet in Kashmir, but not without kangri. - Mohammad Mairaj

For a growing number of people, the idea of travel has changed from ticking off places on your bucket list, to gaining and gathering new experiences. - Vandana Vijay, Offbeat Tracks

An accelerator is a strategic choice that permits enormous corporates to remain relevant and focused. - Sayantan Dasgupta, EVC

Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable. - Matt Mullenweg, WordPress

The best time to introduce change is when employees are ready to embrace change and are excited about it. And there is no better time for it than the new year! – Sanna Vohra, The Wedding Brigade

At least 5-10 percent of traffic congestions can be avoided if people stopped moving in different directions erratically at junctions. - Sachin Kamaladharan, SMIDER

What is the difference between identity, authentication and authorisation? - Vinay Sreenivas, Alternative Law Forum

The major challenge for UIDAI is to protect the data under its control. - RBI

We don't have a separate privacy law, which is critical now, with the huge proliferation of personal data. – Prabhakar Mundkur, HGS Interactive

No legislation can change the mindset, it's only education that can help change attitudes. - Subhash Mendhapurkar, SUTRA

Even law has a lot of loopholes which companies often worry about. – Aditya Shrivastava, IPleaders

Detecting the best talent for your project is a mix of experience, practice, analysis, and strategy. - Pramod Panchagnula, ScaleLabs

Problem recognition is the key to problem resolution. – Abhishek Agarwal, The Judge Group

To make the most out of the emerging opportunities, P2P lending players will need to work together. - Vinay Mathews, Faircent.com

Bringing the next 100 million customers online will take years. – Satish Meena, Forrester Research

It’s the openness to trying new things and willingness to adapt, and burning desire to grow that would make the SME graduate into a much bigger company. - Arivudinambi Jagannathan, FreshOrder

Organisations that are not creating new digital business models or new ways to engage constituents or customers are falling behind. - John David Lovelock, Gartner

Startups push your career to the next level and your growth is super fast. But you also run a risk of instability. – Vishwas Mudgal, GoodWorkLabs

Don’t be embarrassed by your failures. Learn from them and start all over again. – Richard Branson

So much of academic economics is just about narrow specialisation and learning everything about nothing. - Ajay Shah, IGIDR

The feeling of making a difference is what keeps you going. - Ankur Bhatnagar

When you purchase sustainable clothing, you are making a conscious decision to purchase recycled clothes or an ethically manufactured piece. - Thasneem Masood, Rossbelle

Hearing-impaired children can become self-sufficient, provided we shift the focus from numbers to the quality of care. - Devangi Dalal, Josh Foundation

Chinese cellular operators accounted for nearly half the world’s IoT connections in the October-December quarter. - Counterpoint Research

Having perfectly happy customers is the first step, but it’s hardly enough. You have to ask them to create the kind of testimonials that become stories you can use. – Esther Choy, ‘Let the Story do the Work’

Effective waste management is a sizeable opportunity for companies. - Jaideep Khanna, Artha Capital

Zero landfill is our motto. We don’t want waste to be waste, we want to get wealth out of it. - DG Nagaraj, Mysuru City Corporation

Software is not only a catalyst in transforming ideas into outcomes but is also a competitive differentiator. - Sunil Manglore, CA Technologies

The last thing you want is spending six to nine months on an idea, only to realise later NOBODY will ever pay you for it. – Zubin Ajmera, Progress and Win

Be aware of change, especially the change that begins with yourself. - President Ram Nath Kovind

The ad tech industry has ways to go before convincingly making a case for blockchain applications, let alone cryptocurrency. - Vitaly Pecherskiy, StackAdapt

In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending. - Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway

Lowered risks and costs, along with increasing innovation, means that blockchain technology is going to be integral to financial services in times to come. – Sirish Kumar, Telr

Tech can also be a force that stimulates and expands creativity beyond normal boundaries. - Marguerite Courtel, Art of Change 21

Nanotechnology has very exciting implications for life-saving and lifestyle enhancing procedures, such as angioplasty. - Prakash Sojitra, Concept Medical

Every day Blockchain technology is changing the norm and encouraging innovation. - Alex Holmes, MoneyGram

Filmmaking equipment is getting shorter, powerful, and affordable due to the latest technologies. Our smartphones are also turning into tools to make films. – Ankit Kapoor, MovieTime CinePlex

IoT unlocks huge opportunities for UI, UX and application developers. – Lovleen Bhatia, Edureka

To remain relevant, technology vendors must integrate AI into every aspect of their devices, or face marginalisation. - Roberta Cozza, Gartner

Today, India does not have more than 100 employable AI engineers. Most of the guys who know AI have floated their own companies. - Kamal Karanth, Xpheno

India is today the largest freelancer market in the world and poised for growth. - Narsi Subramanian, PayPal India

The key budget expectations are to increase allocation for infrastructure and in agriculture. - Venu Kondur, Lobb

India needs to have a business-ready ecosystem that also recognises the IPs of international patent holders. - Kaushik Dutta, TARI

I have to change the entire education system in India so that poor villagers can rise up and have a good life. - Ravi Kumar Yadav, Englishbolega

India has one of the lengthiest Constitutions in the world, but no laws or rights make any sense when they are not implemented. – Vibha Setlur, LegalChap.com

The marketplace for cup branding will continue to be strong and popular and it is scalable in India as well as the global market. - Rahul Shah, Ola

India lacks in quality and safety when it comes to glass making equipment. - Reshmi Dey, Glass Sutra

The big global brands are uncompromising about features such as security and robustness. - Anoop Balakrishnan, Agrima

It is a fierce, competitive and lonely battle out there. Be prepared to be un-rewarded and un-recognised for a long time. - Rajesh Pandey, photographer

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).