‘Don’t strive to be the best, strive to be legendary’ – 50 quotes from Indian startup journeys

Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory Media, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous post here). Share these 50 gems and insights from the week of June 8-14 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. See also our special compilation of quotes related to India’s coronavirus responses here.

Open innovation is the future of innovation. Not everybody can do all the innovation themselves, and partnership helps in this regard. - Madhurima Agarwal, NetApp

Learning is a way of life and never leaves us. Our brain is reshaping with every single thought we have. - Dinesh Bbhasin, ‘bread n butter’

Risk is best understood as a combination of two factors - how reversible is the decision and how controllable is the outcome. - Shripati Acharya, Prime Venture Partners

Rejection doesn't feel like something you want to embrace, but rejection is never permanent. Your perseverance and your tenacity is what people will remember. - Chelsea Handler

Entrepreneurship education has gained relevance over a period of time and is much needed to guide future entrepreneurs, especially now more than ever. - D N S Kumar, Ansal University

Cloud is the next big transition in the technology industry. - Anil Valluri, Google Cloud

Developers all over the world are rapidly transitioning from the code-first mindset to an API-first mindset. - Abhinav Asthana, Postman

While adoption of private and public cloud is increasing, existing security solutions are inadequate to manage identities and resources across such a hybrid environment. - Sheetal Mehta, Wipro

In the beginning, bitcoin was all about speculation, and people wanted to get rich. But now, they are seeing it as a secure medium of exchange and as a pathway to the financial world. - Ray Youssef, Paxful

India is using internet-enabled platforms to make significant improvements in their lives. - Ashish Gupta, MyKaam

With the coming of holograms in the near future, phygital interactions will also become commonplace. - Chandralika Hazarika, Bigthinx

Look for those problems where new data sets and technology have come to life, and where there’s a problem that desperately needs to be solved. - Joel Hellermark, Sana Labs

Technology should be easy, simple, consumable and revenue-generating. At the same time, it should be democratic, accessible and reachable to all. - Deepesh Kuruppath, CargoFL

People are often scrambling to put numbers into a spreadsheet when the MIS or a dashboard is due. What’s better is to build this into the tech. - Vikram Vaidyanathan, Matrix Partners India

There is no doubt that a mix of online and offline education would trump pure classroom-based learning in the next two-to-three years. - Ghanshyam Tiwari, GoodEd Technologies

More than 76 percent of children consider their parents to be the most important influencer in choosing higher education and career, but majority of their parents do not feel capable to do this effectively. - Praveen Parameswar, Lifology

In the business of money, credibility is extremely important. A customer will easily go to a website and buy something for Rs 500, but asking them to save Rs 500 on a website is harder. - Nithin Kamath, Zerodha

From being considered an “unnecessary expenditure” by many companies, PR has today become a vital point of communication between organisations and their audience. - Nikky Gupta, Teamwork Communications

Marketing is a domain where a lot of new companies, startups, and freelancers come in every year. - Siddhant Jain, Three Fourth Solutions

Perhaps the greatest gift technology, and media, have bestowed upon us is the ability to create, indulge, and share our realities. - Prashanti Malisetti, Pixel Pictures

Digital magazines are fast catching the attention of the media industry. - Abhishek Kulkarni, Urbane Luxury Ventures

So much content can be exchanged across countries; there’s so much to learn from each other. - Venu G, NoSchool

In India and Southeast Asia, the MSME sector is moving into the next era, with technology helping increase their efficiency and providing them with tools to conduct their business seamlessly and profitably. - Alan Wong, Ula

There are many people out there who do not pursue their passion fearing it won’t pay the bills, especially in the field of creative talents including acting, music, and painting. - Jayshree Nayak, TheSnugApp

If you read, your book is kind of your friend, because it's like the book is telling you its story, and you’re the listener. - Natalie Portman

Read, observe, experiment and express yourself. That will lead you to what you are looking for. - Christena Shaju, Stella Maris College

Please take out some time daily and set a routine for a daily riyaaz or a vocal workout. If you are really sincere with your riyaaz it will take you to greater heights. - Asees Kaur, ‘Wanga Kaaliyan’

Consistency and persistence becomes key and a challenge too. - Aanchal Shrivastava, TAA Music Label

Everyone needs improv theatre in their life. It teaches you to fail and how to deal with it. It teaches spontaneity and dealing with all the curveballs life throws at you. - Arjun Mehra, Improv Comedy Bangalore

To be in the grocery business, one needs to be deep-pocketed. - Arjun Shetty, Grocery Factory

Wine tourism helped in putting Nashik on the map as well because it was earlier perceived only as a religious destination. - Chaitanya Rathi, Sula Vineyards

Given the current situation, many tenants are struggling with a liquidity crunch. - Akhil Gupta, NoBroker

As an industry, we’re just scratching the surface of how India’s bus services can be when married to our uber offerings of safety, sanitisation, and comfort. - Shailesh Gupta, Yolobus

Even today, many in India are living without access to menstrual products, lack of privacy to wash, or use clean toilets. A collective approach is imperative to root this out. - Deane De Menezes, Red is the New Green

Women are always questioned about strength and endurance, their competitiveness, be it on the sports field, in their professional careers or other spheres. - Kopal Goyal, ‘Project Wild Women’

Even when militants surrender, the stigma still exists. - Ananya Paul Dodmani, tribal rights activist

With the rise of drug-resistant pathogens, there is a need for new effective drugs, diagnostics, and devices. - Shridhar Narayanan, FNDR

Despite the high prevalence of cancer in Asia, all the genomics data available is based on the Caucasian population who largely belong to the developed countries. - Kshitij Rishi, 4baseCare

You need to remember that you always have to eat differently and live differently whenever the seasons change, in order for your body to move harmoniously through them. - Deepa Kannan, PFNR

Most of the footwear designed today do not take care of the natural functions of the body. - Ashish Jain, Iatric Industries

Age plays no part when it comes to entrepreneurship. - Harpita Pandian, Classminds

Typically, we see the greatest hurdles in a startup’s journey as they scale from local success to global challengers, and then again when they go on to become category leaders. - Abhi Kumar, M12

You also must realise that a lot of things waste your time, and find out the activity traps and avoid doing those. - TN Hari, BigBasket

Be mindful of who you trust, work and share information with. Make sure you have a MoU in place, enough funds and invest in good systems, operations and procedures in place. - Neha Upadhyay, GUNA Organics

It is heartwarming to see the rise of serial entrepreneurs or people who are starting up after their first venture has failed. This development and maturity of the ecosystem is very healthy. - Shrishti Sahu, Emoha Eldercare

When you are a market leader, the goal is not to protect the market share, but to grow the market. - Arvind Ronta, Visa

If you’re a great manager, your people will make you a leader. They acclaim that, not you. - Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle, ‘Trillion Dollar Coach’

Choose what matters the most and make that happen. Guilt can be paralysing or it can be a catalyst to act on what’s important to you, so direct it wisely. - Shubhra Bhandari, TI India

Organisations are adaptive and fit when they rehearse change. - Liisa Välikangas, ‘The Resilient Organisation’

As a single founder, there are a lot of things to balance and get it right. - Karan Bajaj, WhiteHat Jr.

You’re here for the long haul. It’s not a sprint, it is a marathon. You need to stay here to actually reap the benefits of your investments. - Sushma Kaushik, Aavishkaar Capital

Don’t strive to be the best, strive to be legendary. - Ankit Gupta, OYO

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).