‘Ambitions must be set higher after every level that is reached’ – 40 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From attitude to ambition, 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 40 gems and insights from the week of November 5-11 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. See also our compilation of quotes from India’s No.1 startup conference TechSparks 2018 here.

Success comes only from tenacity and progression. – Romicon Revola, sculptor

Positive attitude, perseverance, and constantly striving for progress are the watchwords of entrepreneurship. - Naveen Kumar, Green Castle Food and Beverages

Turning up and doing what you love every day, taking it one step ahead in a positive direction, and making an impact toward a better economy and social structure is an achievement. - Tejaswini Gopalaswamy, Unventured Expeditions

The best partnership is one where the service provider becomes an active ideator too. - Nandini Vaidyanathan, 'Entrepedia'

Career choices should be looked at from multiple lenses - satisfaction, impact, complexity, variety, and travel, along with money (financial stability and comfort). – Gaurav Shah, ISDM

One must persist to balance the needs of a day’s job and giving justice to personal ambitions. Once enough ambiguity is resolved, steps should be taken to move on. - Pavan Soni, Inflexion Point

Every day, the self-employed and small businesses struggle to manage their cash flow. They struggle to get paid on time, face friction to obtain loans, and often juggle managing payroll. - Sasan Goodarzi, Intuit

The first sale is always difficult. - Nikhil Ramaswamy, Vyuti Systems

Pricing techniques used will often spell success and failure of an offering. - Satchit Hasabnis, LoanBaba

The importance of building a personal emergency fund cannot be overstated, especially for an entrepreneur. – Harsh Jain, Groww

Value your idea, but still be open for critique and feedback. - Sriram Narayanasami, Maersk

It is the need of the hour for the businesses to step up their game and go digital and keep up with the technological changes. - Parushni Aggarwal, Studio Creo

The Learning and development (L&D) department part of human resources (HR) is one area ripe for intelligent automation within an enterprise. - Sudhakar Reddy, NECS

To stay relevant, we just need to update and acquire new skills and accept machines as our co-workers. - Ketan Kapoor, Mettl

Conversational AI will usher in a new era of harmony between man and machine. – Ram Menon, Tibco

A neutral internet is at the heart of the web’s founding and its subsequent success and popularity. - Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web Foundation

Making the virtual workspace a reality for your business will lead to a reduction in cost and increase in efficiency. - Limesh Parekh, Enjay IT

Today the incentives for e-vehicles look promising. - Akash Gupta, Mobycy

For an early stage entrepreneur getting the right investor is important. - Sandeep Patel, Nepra Resource Management

Social ecommerce is the next big thing in the ecommerce space of India. - Tuck Lye Koh, Shunwei Capital

The ecommerce industry is, today, one of India’s fastest growing industries and one of its most attractive for foreign investors. - Ganesh Prasad, Khaitan & Co.

The vibrant technology ecosystem in India means that not only are we generating solutions for national development goals but that most of them can be offered to the rest of the world as well. - Suhel Bidani, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Legal cannabis has a huge market potential in India. - Rohit Sharma, IIHA

India has more than 176 lakes, over 34 ghats, 3,200 dams and barges, and more than 17 major rivers and tributaries, and more than 7,500 km of coastline. - Aliasgar Calcuttawala, Saif Automation

Indians are looking for more and more reasons to travel. - Saujanya Shrivastava, MakeMyTrip

It’s going to be a challenge for travel startups to keep innovating at the same breakneck speed and offer products that will ‘keep’ a consumer for life. - Hetal Joshi, The Wander Girls

Young people from poor places are at such a big disadvantage and need mentors and help to realise their potential. - Rohith Maradapa, Ashoka University fellow

Every woman cherishes motherhood, but for working professionals, motherhood often comes at the cost of their career. - Neha Yaduvanshi, Vastada Consulting

Very few companies train employees to recognise and push back against bias in hiring and promotions. - Women in the Workplace report

One of the biggest fears of managers who have to give feedback is that the feedback they give will not be received with professionalism. - Suvra Sen, Sapphire Human Solutions

Organisations will need to realign the mindset of senior leaders using the three C principle of Curiosity, Courage and Comfort. - Sumit Sethi, Aon India

The more you share, the more you grow. – Rohaan Sulaiman, travel photographer

The richer your contextual network becomes, the more connections will spark in your mind. - Yonatan Levy, ‘The Other Ideas’

Maturity comes from your ability to think and create, and not just from age. - Ashu Gupta, artist

Ambitions must be set higher after every level that is reached. - Mohandas Pai, Aarin Capital

Spend enough time in a state of frenetic shallowness and you permanently reduce your capacity to perform deep work. - Cal Newport, Deep Work

Don’t just reward the past, incentivise the future. - Ravi Naidoo, Design Indaba

Passion and stress are the same things in a 180-degree refractive way, and both take a lot of time. - Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm

Fitness should be a priority for everyone and at every age. It teaches you how to live your life. - Mohammad Kaif, cricketer

Art needs to get out of galleries and more into public spaces, it should not be seen as intimidating by larger audiences. - Abhishek Naidu, Art Bengaluru 2018

There is a huge lacuna in finding the right artwork to adorn your living or working spaces. - Madhu Chandrika, Earthen Symphony

Designers have so much power today, thanks to technology. With power comes responsibility. Use your design superpowers for good. - Jay Dutta, DesignUp

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).