Quote

My parents didn't believe in luck. They believed in hard work and in preparing me to take advantage of opportunity. Like many parents, they taught me to be generous but never to depend on the generosity of others.

Naveen Jain

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Naveen Jain
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: September 6
Businessperson
Entrepreneur
UP
Believe
Parent
Generosity
Never
Opportunity
Generous
Like
Others
Believed
Didn
Luck
Take
Advantage
Many
Depends
Hard
Parents
Preparing
Work
Taught
Depend

More quotes by Naveen Jain

Image
Philanthropy without scale and sustainability is like any other bad business that will simply wither and die on the vine.
Naveen Jain
Image
I started off with a company, InfoSpace, with my own funding. The company was listed among the most successful companies and I went on to start Intelius and Moon Express. Now, I focus my time on using the skills of an entrepreneur to solve many of the grand challenges facing us in the areas of education, healthcare, clean water and energy.
Naveen Jain
Image
Success doesn’t necessarily come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won’t win a game or a battle the win comes from basic blocking and tackling.
Naveen Jain
Image
Philanthropy is not about giving money but about solving problems. While well-meaning, the idea of writing a check and calling it 'philanthropy' is extremely short-sighted and, unfortunately, extremely pervasive.
Naveen Jain
Image
Each one of us has the power to be the change we want to see in the world, making the world a better place.
Naveen Jain
Image
Every day you spend becoming an expert in a field, you become more useless in that field.
Naveen Jain
Image
Growing up in India, I knew all I needed to change the world was one good opportunity, and I prepared myself for it. When that opportunity came - in the form of the chance to earn an engineering degree - I was ready.
Naveen Jain
Image
Because I was poor I had one special advantage. When you are poor, and basic survival is your concern, you have no alternative but to be an entrepreneur. You must take action to survive just as you must take action to seize an opportunity.
Naveen Jain
Image
Success is not about how much money we have in the bank, but it's about how many peoples' lives we have impacted through it. Success is experienced when we do things which are never done before.
Naveen Jain
Image
It's really easy to create a $1 billion company - you just have to solve a $10 billion problem.
Naveen Jain
Image
Our education system was developed for an industrial era where we could teach certain skills to our children and they were able to use these skills for the rest of their lives working productively in an industry.
Naveen Jain
Image
There are as many ways to help another human being as there are people in need of help. For some, the urgent need is as basic as food and water. For others, it is an opportunity to develop a talent, realize an idea, and reach one's full potential.
Naveen Jain
Image
Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an opportunity where others see nothing. This focus and intensity helps to eliminate wasted effort and distractions. Most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation, i.e. companies suffer from doing too many things at the same time rather than doing too few things very well.
Naveen Jain
Image
As a father, I believe that involving children in sports at a young age is generally, a wise proposition. I believe that healthy competition is... well... healthy that sporting events foster a spirit of teamwork that far surpasses the events themselves and that active participation keeps children moving and is good for their self-esteem.
Naveen Jain
Image
As a child I experienced firsthand the severe effects of poverty and illiteracy, especially upon women and children. My parents taught me the importance of education and that it was a key to improving an individual's life.
Naveen Jain
Image
Athletes at all ages are bigger and stronger than ever before. And they are being encouraged - sometimes even incentivized, as we recently learned was the case on at least one National Football League team - to play to injure.
Naveen Jain
Image
In the business world today, failure is apparently not an option. We need to change this attitude toward failure - and celebrate the idea that only by falling on our collective business faces do we learn enough to succeed down the road.
Naveen Jain
Image
Go where your customers take you! For example, did you know that Sony's first product was a rice cooker? Since abandoning the rice cooker, it has merely managed to become the world's biggest consumer electronics company.
Naveen Jain
Image
As a young boy growing up in rural India, most of what I knew of the world was what I could see around me. But each night, I would look at the Moon - it was impossibly far away, yet it held a special attraction because it allowed me to dream beyond my village and country, and think about the rest of the world and space.
Naveen Jain
Image
Neuroplasticity research showed that the brain changes its very structure with each different activity it performs, perfecting its circuits so it is better suited to the task at hand.
Naveen Jain