Sam Altman

“Yeah, I don't believe on the deferred life plan.”

“Write code, talk to users, and build the company.”

“Obsess about the quality of the product.”

“Overcommunicate with your team. For some reason most founders are really bad at this one. Transparency is your friend.”

“You have to have an almost crazy level of dedication to your company to succeed.”

“Stay focused and don’t try to do too many things at once. Care about execution quality.”

“Remember that you are more likely to die because you execute badly than get crushed by a competitor.”

“Simple is good. Be suspicious of complexity.”

“You have to have great execution—far more people have good ideas than are willing to roll up their sleeves and get s--t done.”

“Keep a to-do list every day. At the top of it, put the one or two big things you want to work on.”

“All startups are f----d in at least one major way. Keep going.”

“Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers. It’s easy to get sucked into an infrastructure rewrite death spiral.”

“Most things are not as risky as they seem.”

“Let yourself grow more ambitious, and don’t be afraid to work on what you really want to work on.”