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1 of the hardest parts about being a founder, is that there are a 100 important things competing for your attention each day.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Things
Founder
Founders
Competing
Hardest
Parts
Attention
Important

More quotes by Sam Altman

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A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
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In the beginning of a company, there is no management and this actually works really well.
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The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.
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So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business.
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You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff.
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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers.
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The other piece besides focus for execution is intensity. Startups only work at a fairly intense level.
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In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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You need to have a culture where people have very high quality standards in everything the company does, but still move quickly.
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No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
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... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you you know fires in a day.
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The single word that matters most I think to keep the company productive as it grows is alignment.
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You have to save the vision speeches for when the company is winning. When you're not winning, you just have to get momentum back.
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Remember that the idea will expand, and become more ambitious as you go.
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The best people know that they should join a rocketship.
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You should be able to describe any employee as an animal at what they do.
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These all sounded really bad, but they turned out to be good. If they had sounded really good, there would have been too many people working on them.
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The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.
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... fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee.
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