Drew Houston Quotes

• Don't worry about failure; you only have to be right once.

  Drew Houston

  Inspirational, Motivational, Business

  "The Era Of The #fumblebrag" by Caleb Garling, www.wired.com. March 26, 2015.

  59 Copy quote

• If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started.

  Drew Houston

  Dream, Planning, Study

  41 Copy quote

• Surrounding yourself with inspiring people is now just as important as being talented or working hard.

  Drew Houston

  Inspirational, People, Important

  25 Copy quote

• There are 30,000 days in your life. When I was 24, I realized I’m almost 9,000 days down. There are no warm-ups, no practice rounds, no reset buttons. Your biggest risk isn’t failing, it’s getting too comfortable. Every day we’re writing a few more words of a story. I wanted my story to be an adventure and that’s made all the difference. Instead of trying to make your life perfect, give yourself the freedom to make it an adventure, and go ever upward.

  Drew Houston

  Adventure, Writing, Practice

  37 Copy quote

• Instead of trying to make your life perfect, give yourself the freedom to make it an adventure, and go ever upward.

  Drew Houston

  Inspirational, Adventure, Giving

  Drew Houston's Commencement Address at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, news.mit.edu. June 7, 2013.

  17 Copy quote

• You become the average of the five people you hang out with.

  Drew Houston

  Average, People, Growth

  11 Copy quote

• The happiest and most successful people I know don't just love what they do, they're obsessed with solving an important problem, something that matters to them.

  Drew Houston

  Successful, People, Important

  16 Copy quote

• If you start your own thing, you can learn a lot really fast from doing things wrong.

  Drew Houston

  Ifs

  "DropBox CEO Drew Houston Explains How To Become A Leader Quickly" by Max Nisen, www.businessinsider.com. December 6, 2013.

  10 Copy quote

• Learn early, learn often.

  Drew Houston

  12 Copy quote

• When you’re in school, every little mistake is a permanent crack in your windshield. But in the real world, if you’re not swerving around and hitting the guard rails every now and then, you’re not going fast enough. Your biggest risk isn’t failing; it’s getting too comfortable.

  Drew Houston

  Real, Mistake, School

  15 Copy quote

• The only way to learn on a zero dollar budget is to talk to people

  Drew Houston

  Zero, People, Dollars

  4 Copy quote

• You can’t focus on what everyone else is doing — it has to be about what’s really broken and what you can do to fix it.

  Drew Houston

  Broken, Focus, Can Do

  12 Copy quote

• You have to adopt a mindset that says, 'Okay, in three months, I'll need to know all this stuff, and then in six months there's going to be a whole other set of things to know - again in a year, in five years.' The tools will change, the knowledge will change, the worries will change.

  Drew Houston

  Inspirational, Years, Worry

  "DropBox CEO Drew Houston Explains How To Become A Leader Quickly" by Max Nisen, www.businessinsider.com. December 6, 2013.

  14 Copy quote

• The hardest-working people don't work hard because they're disciplined. They work hard because working on an exciting problem is fun.

  Drew Houston

  Inspirational, Fun, Hard Work

  9 Copy quote

• Reading a book about management isnt going to make you a good manager any more than a book about guitar will make you a good guitarist, but it can get you thinking about the most important concepts.

  Drew Houston

  Reading, Book, Thinking

  16 Copy quote

• I'd be like, alright, I don't know anything about sales. So I would search for sales on Amazon, get the three top-rated books and just go at it. I did that for marketing, finance, product, engineering. If there was one thing that was really important for me, that was it.

  Drew Houston

  Book, Engineering, Marketing

  17 Copy quote

• You must maximize the probability that someone shows up at front door of your store or website and ends up with a solved problem.

  Drew Houston

  Doors, Problem, Ends

  14 Copy quote

• One misconception is that entrepreneurs love risk. Actually, we all want things to go as we expect. What you need is a blind optimism and a tolerance for uncertainty.

  Drew Houston

  Optimism, Entrepreneur, Tolerance

  5 Copy quote

• No one is born a CEO, but no one tells you that. The magazine stories make it sound like Mark Zuckerberg woke up one day and wanted to redefine how the world communicates [by creating] a billion-dollar company. He didn't.

  Drew Houston

  Business, Zuckerberg, Creating

  11 Copy quote

• I actually don't think it matters how early or late you are as long as you hit critical mass.

  Drew Houston

  Thinking, Long, Matter

  5 Copy quote

• Where you live matters: there’s only one MIT. And there's only one Hollywood and only one Silicon Valley. This isn't a coincidence: for whatever you're doing, there's usually only one place where the top people go. You should go there. Don’t settle for anywhere else. Meeting my heroes and learning from them gave me a huge advantage. Your heroes are part of your circle too - follow them.

  Drew Houston

  Inspirational, Hero, Circles

  Drew Houston's Commencement Address at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, news.mit.edu. June 7, 2013.

  15 Copy quote

• Even if it doesn't work out, the experience is so valuable to so many employers that your worst case scenario is, 'Ok, so that was a bust, I'll get a six-figure job at whatever company.' Risk is this outmoded idea - your parents might not understand that, but taking these types of risks doesn't have a downside.

  Drew Houston

  Jobs, Ideas, Worst Case Scenario

  10 Copy quote

• Devices are getting smarter - your television, your car - and that means more data spread around. There needs to be a fabric that connects all these devices. That's what we do.

  Drew Houston

  Mean, Data, Car

  "How Did This 28-Year-Old Frat Boy End Up Worth $600 Million? A Dropbox FAQ". Interview with Nicholas Carlson, www.businessinsider.com. October 18, 2011.

  13 Copy quote

• You need that hunger no matter what, because eventually the honeymoon period wears off. Somewhere between printing your business cards that say 'founder' on them and everything else you have to do, you realize, 'Oh, actually this is a ton of work.'

  Drew Houston

  Inspirational, Needs, Cards

  8 Copy quote

• A lot of times it's an asset to not know everything about everything... A lot of really great, innovative things have happened when people just didn't know it wasn't supposed to be possible.

  Drew Houston

  Inspirational, People, Assets

  5 Copy quote

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