The professors at Harvard are smarter and more world-renowned, and so your child will learn from a pre-eminent scholar who is a leader in his or her field. Some of Harvard's professors are even famous.
— Andrew Yang
Organizations relying upon young, idealistic, and mission-driven people to work at below-market compensation over the long-term will burn them out and find the best people leaving over time.
I probably looked pretty conventionally successful as a 24-year-old getting paid $125,000 a year, plus bonus, wearing suits, and living in a Manhattan apartment. But I hated my job, I didn't admire the people I was working with, and I felt that I was becoming a smaller, less imaginative, less risk-taking, less likable version of myself.
One could argue that our national university system has become a de facto talent drain for much of the country. Many states and communities send their top students away to great schools, never to hear from them again.
Our young people desperately want the chance to participate in and lead our nation's economic and cultural revival. They're up for the challenges that they're going to inherit. It only remains for us to present the path to address them.
We're conditioned to let businesses fail, regardless of how much we like them. We believe that if the market doesn't want that bookstore to exist, then it shouldn't exist.
Asking the government to fix our economy is like asking an editor to fix a movie, but in this case, the editor's not even of one mind.
The problems that you see startups tackling are dramatically different in different cities. Silicon Valley is unlikely to produce the same set of companies as New York or Cleveland because the region has a different set of strengths and defining institutions.
I like most of the venture capitalists I know; they're smart, well-intended guys who genuinely enjoy helping entrepreneurs succeed. And I love venture capital and investment capital of all categories - its economic impact is proven. The more of it the better.
One reason why entrepreneurs are admired is that they often take on a degree of risk in launching a new business.
As a society, we can't hide from the future; we have to build and own it.
If you go deep into a problem, you'll find most all of the time that there are yet more problems to be solved from the ground up.
The image of entrepreneurship as the province of the unprivileged and un-entitled - the Horatio Alger, rags to riches myth - flies in the face of reality.
If we create enough new companies, there will be additional opportunities for people at every rung of the educational ladder.
At Venture for ,we've worked with hundreds of aspiring young entrepreneurs who want to build businesses and change things for the better.
If a company is growing, then people's roles often grow and change, and opportunities abound.
In the start-up setting and in most companies, the output is action-oriented. You need to be getting things done and making decisions, often with limited information.
The best organizations are filled with people who have a wealth of choices as to what work they choose to do. We need to give them every reason possible to solve the world's problems.
At Manhattan GMAT, I had done my best to create a positive work environment and culture, and I further believed in rewarding people financially at or above the market rate for a job well done.
After graduating from Brown, I went to law school and became a corporate lawyer in New York City.
All of us, and particularly young people, have a tendency to view ourselves and our natures as static: you'll choose to do something for a few years, and you'll still be the same you.
I spent five years running Manhattan GMAT helping young people get into business school.
If a new company is formed, it hires people and creates jobs in its community. As it grows, people's opportunities multiply and wages rise. Inequality diminishes as more people get pulled into good jobs.
Intellectual capital drives financial capital and growth.
I remember looking up to most any venture capitalist as someone who could make my little company happen with a single million-dollar check.
A company can set off in one direction, figures out that it's not the right way to go, and then go in an entirely new direction. Over time, the product or service improves, and the company gets better at executing and delivering.
Retail businesses have narrow margins. If you cut off a flow of young consumers, it's only a matter of time before the businesses struggle and fail.
Venture for America operates in communities that could generally use more innovation: Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, and other U.S. cities. So I'm obviously a big believer in innovation and progress as key drivers of economic growth and prosperity.
The vast majority of small business owners want nothing to do with figuring out a website. They are neck-deep in their business trying to keep it going.
Many of the scrappy young people I meet who are the first in their family to go to college feel that they have to bring home a steady paycheck to make their family's sacrifices worthwhile.
Every entrepreneur doesn't need to be technical - there are plenty of opportunities out there for people who aren't coders.
People generally think of technology simply as a spur to start new businesses. But the Internet has also made it possible for more businesses to compete for any given opportunity.
In some environments, roles shift and change each period depending on what the company's needs are. On the other hand, many functional roles can become very repetitive if you perform similar tasks over and over again.
You will almost always leave a professional services environment with a few noteworthy friends and relationships. These contacts can prove to be extremely valuable both personally and professionally.
Non-profits should be looking to enlist and retain the best people to aggressively solve problems, not to perform adequately and persist. We should expect people to innovate and do the highest-quality work and then reward them accordingly.
FOMO (fear of missing out) is the enemy of valuing your own time.
When I was growing up, I'd study for days trying to get good grades. When I'd get an 'A,' I'd feel elation for about 30 seconds, and then a feeling of emptiness.
Professional services industries like finance, consulting, and legal services are, by definition, meta-industries. That is, they serve to help large companies raise money, buy and sell each other, reorganize, implement new systems, conduct complex transactions, and so forth.
What was a profitable business in one era can become a public utility and a recognized public good in the next.
There is, happily, a non-redistributive approach to address income inequality - one that doesn't rely upon government. It's to grow the pie. That is, create more decent jobs that pay more.
We need people building companies all over the country to innovate in aviation, consumer products, education, health, cybersecurity, biotech, manufacturing, and everything in between.
I meet young people all the time who say something like, 'I want to work in venture capital.' And I can see why. Who wouldn't want to be smart, well-paid, dispense large sums of money, and tell people what to do?
It might be a lot easier to take risks if you're part of a group who will look out for one another.
Before Starbucks, there wasn't as much of a coffeehouse routine; we generally drank really cruddy diner coffee.
Technology can create needs even as it addresses them.
Freelancers generally want as friction-free an engagement as possible.
Starting a successful company is one of the hardest things anyone does.
In most every business, you learn by doing. The apprenticeship model is much more effective than the classroom for cultivating entrepreneurs.
In a professional service environment, you often work on one engagement or deal after another, with one ending before the next begins.
When I graduated from Brown, I had a very limited conception of jobs, careers, and what I wanted to do. Basically, I figured I should do some kind of thought work that paid well, but I wasn't sure what.
