An idea isn't worth that much. It's the execution of the idea that has value. If you can't convince one other person that this is something to devote your life to, then it's not worth it.
Interpretation
Ideas are valuable only when they are acted upon and can inspire others.
This quote emphasizes that merely having a good idea is not sufficient; what truly matters is the ability to execute the idea and garner support from others. If an idea cannot engage or convince at least one other person to commit to it, its potential is limited, indicating the importance of collaboration and execution in achieving success.
In practice
In a motivational speech to young entrepreneurs discussing the importance of action.
Usability is not everything. If usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans-serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms. But nobody would be there. They would all be down the street at Coyote Ugly pouring beer on each other.
There's a subtle reason that programmers always want to throw away the code and start over. The reason is that they think the old code is a mess. [...] The reason that they think the old code is a mess is because of a cardinal, fundamental law of programming: It's harder to read code than to write it.
A user interface is well-designed when the program behaves exactly how the user thought it would.
Focus is scary—until you realize that it only means turning your back on markets you could never have anyway. Sharp focus on jobs that customers are trying to get done holds the promise of greatly improving the odds of success in new-product development.
I didn't realize that winning the Olympics at age 14 automatically put me in the category of being a celebrity.
One of many strengths that I often see in successful women on Wall Street is a responsible balance between risk taking and risk mitigation - the ability to assess situations smartly and make the right medium-to-long-term decisions without being lured into reckless, short-term profit-taking.
In the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.
If you're lucky enough to have been rewarded in life to the degree that I have, there comes a point at which you have to decide whether to become a slave to your net worth by devoting the rest of your life to increasing it or to let what you've accumulated begin to serve you.
I've always said if I'm winning at one thing, I'm failing at another.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.