‘Failure teaches you a lot more than success’ – 45 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From frontier markets to failure learnings, witness the memorable journey of Indian entrepreneurship in these excerpts and stories! StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous post here). Share these 45 gems and insights from the week of September 20-26 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights!

 Everything that has moved history happened because of listening instead of talking. Talking inspires. But listening creates the inspiration. – James Altucher

India is the flavor of the decade ahead. This is really India’s business era. – Harish Bijoor

I knew if I had to sustain my creativity, I had to make my own films. - Simran Lamba

Poetry is to me what religion is to a priest. - Raghavendra Madhu, Poetry Couture

The common man would earlier never write a will largely because they were and still are apprehensive of making multiple visits to a lawyer. - V. Muralidharan, SBICAP

Today, entrepreneurs are self made and are more open to learning. - Amit Patni, Nirvana Ventures

People who advise you to join Microsoft forget that that company, too, began as a startup. - Pardeep Goyal

Mobile phones are becoming the gateway of healthcare industry. - Vishal Bali, Medwell Ventures

Native advertising makes customers look you up. Content marketing can ‘convert’ the customers who look you up. - Reeta Gupta, The Network

Vanity metrics are great for public chest-thumping. - Kashyap Deorah

TV channels will especially be bullish with cross media integration. - Hiro Mashita, M&S Partners

Design is an integral part of human life. Right from waking up to sleeping there are different interfaces one sees, feels and should get inspired from. - Tuhin Roy and Piyush Bhandari, JUMPINGGOOSE

The little touches and small innovations add to the whole vibe. - Alankar Jain, The Lil Flea market

Women are the backbone of India’s coffee industry. - Sunalini Menon, IWCA

If you have a solution for an actual problem you will get funded. - Viren Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals

Startups should actively sense changes with respect to policy and guideline with respect to IP. - Ramakrishnan Vaidyanathan, Intellectual Ventures

Whenever you feel demotivated, simply think ‘What if’ my startup could impact billions of lives. - Garima Juneja, Viral Curry

Leaders will make big bets and win big. - Rob Thomas, ‘Big Data Revolution’

Local commerce industry is expanding its geographic reach with the advent of hyper local market on the digital platform. - Bhartesh Chhibbar, HeyBiz

There is a tremendous need to offer an in-home healthcare option for millions of people in India and other emerging markets. – Arun Mathew, Accel Partners

Today, solar energy cost has achieved parity with several electricity boards. – Narayanan, Chennai Angels

The startup revolution offers enormous opportunity to tell stories. – Prof. S. Sadagopan, IIIT-B

Everything that is beautiful and Indian sadly needs to go abroad for it to become mainstream in India. - Seema Mehta, Chhandam School of Kathak

It is important to pay close attention to new entrants for they can learn from your mistakes and disrupt your business rather quickly. - Pavan Soni, IIM Bangalore

It is important to understand what happens to your ESOPs if you leave or in the case of transfer of ownership of the startup. - Alok Goel, SAIF Partners

We don’t go online anymore. We live a life online nowadays. - Nitin Bawankule, Google

You cannot get driven people to ‘be in the zone’ unless you are a ‘great leader.’ - Supriya Goswami, inMobi

For first-time founders, it is inevitable to have some ego about how they want to shape the product. The solution is to focus on data. - Pavneet Tiwana, Knowledge Map

Scaling is not just the only requisite. Innovation plays a major role. – Yosha Gupta, Lafalafa.com

We don’t train numbers. We train people. - Rajat Chabba, Agrasar

Turning unemployment into entrepreneurship will create a world without poverty. - Mohammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate

Everyone’s Facebook wall is now an invaluable digital real estate that has potential to be used for social good. - Piyush Jain, Impact Guru

Everything stems from that one entity, the volunteer. - Rajani Paranjpe and Bina Sheth Lashkari, Vibha

We the citizens also have a role to play, and most problems can be eliminated if we start segregating waste at the source daily. - Abhishek Gupta, Reddonatura

How can you be tired or bored when you are doing something you love? – Dr. Sita Bhateja

The ability to pursue what I am most passionate about – that’s the best motivator in the world. - Chetna Mirchandani, Tikka Safari

Sometimes, procrastination can be a sign that what we’re working on the wrong thing. - Smriti Modi, The Itch List

The most important part is to have a voice and a passion to make it possible. - Gopika Nath, artist

If I can reach out to the world with my creativity, I will be satisfied that I lived life queen size! - Shukla Chowdhury

Girls, know your rights first. Put yourself first. Respect yourself. - Audrey D’Mello, Majlis

It is women alone who are expected to create that balance between personal and professional life. - Sakshi Bhasin Tulsian, POSist

In the case of diversity in the tech industry, the first step was admitting there was a problem. - Nisha Holla

All I want is, if I’m doing something, just don’t stop me. I don’t want any negativity, that’s all. - Hetal Dave, sumo wrestler

Learn to prioritise the important over the urgent. - Hetal Doshi, The Wander Girls

Always have a not-to-do list and your to-do list is ready. - Almas Khan, v-Test

Failure is the most probable outcome for any startup. So in case you fail, you have reached the natural outcome! – Hari Ganapathy, PickYourTrail

Failure teaches you a lot more than success. - Sowmya Nanjundaiah, INCITE

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).