Build Quotes

“That’s the one downside of working with your heroes. You’re so busy learning your craft from them that you just assume they’re looking at the big picture. You assume they’ll notice the brick wall directly in their path.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“That’s the great thing about heroes. You can use their inspiration to drive you. If you do it right, and listen carefully, they’ll share decades of learning. And then, one day, you might return the favor.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“After every podcast, he asks his interviewee in private, “Who are the top three people you know and respect who you think I should talk to next? Do you mind intro-ing me really quickly?”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Bill Gurley, the incredibly smart, wry, contrarian Silicon Valley VC and Texan deal maker, puts it this way: “I can’t make you the smartest or the brightest, but it’s doable to be the most knowledgeable. It’s possible to gather more information than somebody else.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“To do great things, to really learn, you can’t shout suggestions from the rooftop then move on while someone else does the work. You have to get your hands dirty. You have to care about every step, lovingly craft every detail. You have to be there when it falls apart so you can put it back together. You have to actually do the job. You have to love the job.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“But to many new grads, it sounds perfect: you get paid incredibly well to travel around the world, work with powerful companies and executives, and learn exactly how to make a business successful. It’s an alluring promise. Parts of it are even true. Yes, you get a nice paycheck. And yes, you get plenty of practice pitching important clients. But you don’t learn how to build or run a company. Not really.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“We started from the technology—focusing on what we could create, what would impress the geniuses at our company—not the reason why real, nontechnical people would need it. So the Magic Link solved problems that regular people wouldn’t recognize for more than a decade.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Find a business that’s starting a revolution. A company that’s likely to make a substantial change in the status quo has the following characteristics: It’s creating a product or service that’s wholly new or combines existing technology in a novel way that the competition can’t make or even understand. This product solves a problem—a real pain point—that a lot of customers experience daily. There should be an existing large market. The novel technology can deliver on the company vision—not just within the product but also the infrastructure, platforms, and systems that support it. Leadership is not dogmatic about what the solution looks like and is willing to adapt to their customers’ needs. It’s thinking about a problem or a customer need in a way you’ve never heard before, but which makes perfect sense once you hear it.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“That’s what you’re looking for when you’re young, when you think you know everything then suddenly realize you have no idea what you’re doing: a place where you can work as hard as you can to learn as much as you can from people who can make something great. So even if the experience kicks your ass, the force of that kick will propel you into a new stage of your life. And you’ll figure out what to do next.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“The only failure in your twenties is inaction. The rest is trial and error.” —ANONYMOUS I needed to learn. And the best way to do that was to surround myself with people who knew exactly how hard it was to make something great—who had the scars to prove it. And if it turned out to be the wrong move, well, making a mistake is the best way to not make that mistake again. Do, fail, learn. The critical thing is to have a goal. To strive for something big and hard and important to you. Then every step you take toward that goal, even if it’s a stumble, moves you forward.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“The best way to find a job you’ll love and a career that will eventually make you successful is to follow what you’re naturally interested in, then take risks when choosing where to work. Follow your curiosity rather than a business school playbook about how to make money. Assume that for much of your twenties your choices will not work out and the companies you join or start will likely fail. Early adulthood is about watching your dreams go up in flames and learning as much as you can from the ashes. Do, fail, learn. The rest will follow.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“So when you’re looking at the array of potential careers before you, the correct place to start is this: “What do I want to learn?”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Adulthood is your opportunity to screw up continually until you learn how to screw up a little bit less. Traditional schooling trains people to think incorrectly about failure. You’re taught a subject, you take a test, and if you fail, that’s it. You’re done. But once you’re out of school, there is no book, no test, no grade. And if you fail, you learn. In fact, in most cases, it’s the only way to learn—especially if you’re creating something the world has never seen before.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Adulthood is your opportunity to screw up continually until you learn how to screw up a little bit less. Traditional”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“The world is full of mediocre, middle-of-the-road companies creating mediocre, middle-of-the-road crap, but I’ve spent my entire life chasing after the products and people that strive for excellence. I’ve been incredibly lucky to learn from the best—from bold, passionate people who made a dent in the world.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“A good mentor won’t hand you the answers, but they will try to help you see your problem from a new perspective. They’ll loan you some of their hard-fought advice so you can discover your own solution.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Steve Jobs once said of management consulting, “You do get a broad cut at companies but it’s very thin. It’s like a picture of a banana: you might get a very accurate picture but it’s only two dimensions, and without the experience of actually doing it you never get three dimensional. So you might have a lot of pictures on your walls, you can show it off to your friends—I’ve worked in bananas, I’ve worked in peaches, I’ve worked in grapes—but you never really taste it.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“If you’re not solving a real problem, you can’t start a revolution.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“The only failure in your twenties is inaction. The rest is trial and error.” —ANONYMOUS”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“The best way to find a job you’ll love and a career that will eventually make you successful is to follow what you’re naturally interested in, then take risks when choosing where to work. Follow your curiosity rather than a business school playbook about how to make money. Assume that for much of your twenties your choices will not work out and the companies you join or start will likely fail. Early adulthood is about watching your dreams go up in flames and learning as much as you can from the ashes. Do, fail, learn. The rest will follow. ¨”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“You will encounter a crisis eventually. Everyone does. If you don’t, you’re not doing anything important or pushing boundaries.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“New perspectives are everywhere. You don’t have to drag a bunch of people off the street to stare at your product and tell you what they think. Start with your internal customers. Everyone in a company has customers, even if they’re not building anything. You’re always making something for someone”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“But if you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying hard enough. He learned from the screwups,”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“You balance what they want to hear with what they need to know. [See also:”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Don’t worry about what you’re going to lose—think about what you’re going to become.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Early adulthood is about watching your dreams go up in flames and learning as much as you can from the ashes. Do, fail, learn. The rest will follow. ¨”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Sundar Pichai told me that all the teams we were trying to work with were very busy. They didn’t have extra cycles to dedicate to Nest. And no one at Google could simply dictate to them how to get things done—it was up to the teams to decide how to use their time. As I stared at him, my eyes widened. I saw stars. It was as if I were in a car accident. Time slowed down. All I could think was, Ooooooooohhhhh, shhhhiiiiiiitttttt.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“So when you’re looking at the array of potential careers before you, the correct place to start is this: “What do I want to learn?†Not “How much money do I want to make?†Not “What title do I want to have?†Not “What company has enough name recognition that my mom can brutally crush the other moms when they boast about their kids?†The best way to find a job you’ll love and a career that will eventually make you successful is to follow what you’re naturally interested in, then take risks when choosing where to work.”
― Тоnу Fаdеll, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“People have this vision of what it’s like to be an executive or CEO or leader of a huge business unit. They assume everyone at that level has enough experience and savvy to at least appear to know what they’re doing. They assume there’s thoughtfulness and strategy and long-term thinking and reasonable deals sealed with firm handshakes. But some days, it’s high school. Some days, it’s kindergarten.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Your messaging is your product. The story you’re telling shapes the thing you’re making.”
― Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making