Friday, December 2, 2011

i-TFTD #346: Silicon Valley Speak


Indian-born techies, entrepreneurs and recently, management professors, have achieved extraordinary success and fame over the past 25 years. Recall the statement Kumar Mangalam Birla made in a speech around 2007: As the joke in Silicon Valley runs, if a person's name is Shreedhar, don't bother checking his IT skills! Many such Indians have gone on to become venture capitalists and mentors to use the wealth and experience they have gained to help nurture others. Here are a few quotes from this community.

#346-1. You have to accept the reality of where you came from. The moment you lose that, you stop listening, stop thinking and become arrogant. Usually, you see that in successful people. People become self-destructive when they become arrogant—they over-reach, become over-ambitious and dominating.
-Ram Shriram, Indian American venture capitalist and founding director of Google, in this interview

#346-2. MNCs and government are largely irrelevant in the business of innovation. Ignore conventional wisdom in order to invent the future. My willingness to fail gives me the ability to succeed.
-Vinod Khosla, Indian American venture capitalist and co-founder of Sun Microsystems (1955-), in this interview

#346-3. A recession is the best time to start a company. It is nev! er easy. Nothing ever happens automatically.
-Kanwal Rekhi, Indian American venture capitalist and co-founder of TiE, director at Novell Networks  (1945-)

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