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Quotes by Ben Steenstra
A collection of original quotes by Ben Steenstra on entrepreneurship, strategy, leadership, courage, purpose and personal responsibility.
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Each quote is drawn from one of Ben’s articles, where the broader idea and context are explored in more detail.
Entrepreneurship and strategy
“Success does not make risk smaller. It changes what an entrepreneur believes is at stake.”
“Anyone who only calculates the cost of change makes standing still look free.”
“An entrepreneur can spend years taking too little risk to renew the business, only to take far too much risk trying to save it.”
“If you wait until change becomes unavoidable, circumstances will eventually make the decision for you.”
“Optimization becomes dangerous when it helps a company become better at something the market values less each year.”
“Strategy begins where the list of untouchable assumptions ends.”
“The market responds to clarity, not to your inner preparation.”
“Entrepreneurship does not start with a brilliant idea, a business plan or a beautiful website. Entrepreneurship starts with the willingness to do something today that makes money.”
“A meeting should create clarity, ownership or a decision. If it does not, it should probably be a conversation, a message or nothing at all.”
“If a consultant knows how to build a million-dollar business, ask to see theirs.”
Leadership and motivation
“People usually do not need to be motivated. The board mainly needs to stop professionally organizing their motivation out of the company.”
“If you reject every initiative and then wonder why employees show no ownership, you have not discovered a motivation problem. You have created one.”
“Authenticity is not doing whatever you want. It is staying true to what is right, without losing sight of the people your choices affect.”
“Authenticity without empathy becomes ego. Empathy without authenticity becomes weakness. Leadership needs both.”
“When a leader speaks about values but acts from fear, status or convenience, people notice.”
“Silence is never ‘nothing.’ Silence is either weight, or emptiness.”
“Charisma is not the ability to dominate attention. It is the ability to make attention worthwhile.”
“Only when feedback becomes specific can you determine whether it is accurate and what you should do with it.”
“Sometimes feedback arrives messily. Sometimes emotionally. Sometimes too harshly. Sometimes at a moment when you do not want to hear it.”
“Silence multiplies authority. Talk less. Notice more. Ask one question, then stop at the question mark.”
Sometimes you are not racing towards a finish line you chose yourself. You are racing towards one you have come to believe you must reach.”
Courage, uncertainty and action
“A positive what if can create movement. A negative what if can build a prison and then convince you it is only being realistic.”
“Previous losses do not automatically reduce the chance of future success.”
“Without action, hope becomes fantasy. With action, hope becomes pressure you can actually carry.”
“Truly asking creates a moment in which someone can say yes or no, and in which you have to deal with the outcome like an adult.”
“If you want momentum, you have to stop outsourcing your courage.”
“Conviction invites. Fear defends.”
“Assumption-based predictions can mislead us so much that we get in the way of ourselves creating and seizing opportunities.”
“Much more becomes possible once you stop waiting until everything feels safe.”
“Startups don’t need more ideas. They need more guts.”
- from Free Online Startup Course.
“Courage is rarely loud. Often courage is just honest.”
Time, attention and purpose
“If you don’t know what you want to make time for, you have no reason to remove anything else.”
“Your calendar is more than a schedule of your time. It is a draft version of your life.”
“Attention makes you respond to what asks for you. Intention helps you choose what deserves you.”
“Developing purpose is a way of creating your own happiness.”
“If through hard work you only bring misery into the world, you’d better not do anything.”
“Doing more is not always the answer. Sometimes you need to feel more and make better choices by looking honestly at what truly matters in your work and your life.”
“Meaningfulness is what drives me, but achieving results is where I derive satisfaction.”
Resilience, emotions and responsibility
“Resilience is not pretending the blow did not hurt. It is preventing the blow from deciding where you remain lying.”
“Not every setback is a gift. But every setback reveals a choice you did not have to make before it happened.”
“You cannot always choose what you feel first, but you can learn to choose what meaning you continue to give it.”
“The state you are in often decides the world you think you are living in.”
“Trying to control what is not yours will exhaust you. Taking responsibility for what is yours will give you direction.”
“Tolerance is what you do when you still hope reality will become different.”
“Acceptance begins when you stop fighting what is already true and start choosing your response.”
“That does not mean you should overreact. It means you should stop underreacting.”
AI and independent thinking
“A generic AI can be helpful, but it often does not have a centre.”
“AI will not decide whether the future becomes better or worse. We will. AI only makes the consequences of our clarity, stupidity, greed and wisdom much bigger.”
“Smart phrasing is not the same as strong substance.”
“An expert does not just give answers, but sees patterns.”
“Companies that use AI intelligently do not start by asking which tool they should buy. They start by asking where they lose time every week on work that could be done smarter, faster or more consistently.”
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