Many entrepreneurs do not realize that many of the problems their businesses face today began yesterday, long before there was a business.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

Often, I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tones yes, but not the actual words; yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable. What will come of all this, heaven only knows!

Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.

When people are taken out of their depths they lose their heads, no matter how charming a bluff they may put up.

Let’s face it. Umpiring is not an easy or happy way to make a living. In the abuse they suffer, and the pay they get for it, you see an imbalance that can only be explained by their need to stay close to a game they can’t resist.

Back when I was in school, few people understood dyslexia and what to do for it. My teachers thought I was lazy and not very clever, and I got bored easily… thinking of all the things I could do once I left school. I couldn’t always follow what was going on.

The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

I don’t think anyone ever plans to change line-ups, but it’s something that comes with being in bands. I was in a band once and there were always problems – members come and go – and some of the world’s biggest bands have changed line-ups loads!

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

I was sure I’d set the world on fire, and it was hard for a young feller like me to realize the truth – that I hadn’t set the world on fire, and I was totally unprepared to handle the consequences if ‚The Big Trail‘ had been a success and launched me as a star.

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.

The worst part of success is, to me, adapting to it. It’s scary.

Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

Being beautiful is not so fun when you’re in a business with all men.

Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.

In order to deal with all the medical cost demands and other challenges in the U.S., as we look to raise that revenue, the rich will have to pay slightly more. That’s quite clear.

I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

I like the good life too much, I’m not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.

No memory of having starred atones for later disregard, or keeps the end from being hard.

I’d have to be superman to do some of the things I’m supposed to have done, I’ve been at six different places at six different times.

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.

When most people ask about a business growing, what they really mean is growing revenue, not just growing the number of people using a service. Traditional businesses would view people using your service that you don’t make money from as a cost.

I’m not a good storm-outer… because I forget stuff.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

A revolution is not a bed of roses.

My folks ain’t graduated from high school or nothing like that, so we always had to struggle in the family – and I come from a big family.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up.

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens.

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.

I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.

The uncertainty of parenting can bring up feelings in us that range from frustration to terror.

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.

If a whole bunch of people want to make your life a living hell, they’re gonna do it.

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

Writing is challenging work because it’s so easy to get consumed with how it’s going, what’s going to happen to it, who’s going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

I enjoy competition. I enjoy challenges. If a challenge is in front of me and it appeals to me, I will go ahead and conquer it.

I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

We all knew this. We all knew that it would take more time than any of us want to dig ourselves out of this hole created by this economic crisis.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.

I can be accused of trying to be commercial sometimes.

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.

This rise of the new global mega-rich is happening as established institutions are falling. The fall runs the gamut from the music business and traditional media to the Detroit automakers who find themselves obsolete, outmaneuvered, and out-priced by entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Mumbai, Shanghai, and even Siberia.

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

A lot of people ask me when I do a stunt, ‚Jackie, are you scared?‘ Of course I’m scared. I’m not Superman.

California has a special relationship with the Internet. Many of the core technologies that power the Internet were invented here. Many of the most successful online entrepreneurs and content creators – in business, the arts, and countless other endeavors – got their start here.

I built a company at the same time I built a career.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.