AMBITION

I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.

I could either watch it happen or be part of it.

Don't be a little bitch with your goals.

Our goal is to make Zoom meetings better than in-person meetings. That's the bar.

We don't want to be the best project management tool. We want to be the last productivity tool you ever need.

We don't want to be a bank. We want to be the financial super-app — everything you need for money in one place.

Forty-five million customers trust us with their money. That number will be a billion within ten years.

We have 100 million customers. That's more than the population of most countries. And we're just getting started.

We want to be the number one shopping destination in the world. Not a payment method — a shopping app.

People say you can't compete with Google. People said you couldn't compete with Yahoo either.

In the world I see, you're going to have a WeWork on every corner. We are here in order to change the world. Nothing less than that interests me.

A snail is currently faster than a tunnel boring machine. We intend to defeat the snail in a race.

We can have a trillion humans living in the solar system. That means we'd have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins. That's the future I want for my grandchildren.

We want to be the everyday everything app for Southeast Asia. One app, from morning coffee to evening savings deposit.

Mark Zuckerberg offered us three billion dollars. I said no. My board thought I was insane. But you don't sell the future for three billion.

We sold our last company to Microsoft for $320 million. This time we said let's aim higher. Thirty-two billion higher, as it turned out.

Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment deeper. And our efforts greater.

Wirecard will be the most important financial technology company in Europe. The banks are too slow and too old to compete with us.

432 Park Avenue is 1,396 feet of concrete and glass and proof that you can lose everything and still build the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere.

Hudson Yards is 28 acres built on top of running trains. We had to construct a platform over an active rail yard before laying a single brick. Nobody else wanted to touch it. That is exactly why we did.

People say our culture is intense. It is. We are trying to replace a trillion-dollar industry. That is not a 9-to-5 job. If you want comfortable, go work at a bank — the ones we're replacing.

The Transformer paper changed AI forever. I want Near to do the same for decentralized computing. One foundational technology that enables everything that comes after it.

We are going to put a driverless car on every road in America. That is not a goal — that is an inevitability.

There are 150 million orphans in the world. I want to solve that. I want to be elected president of the world.

The hostile takeover of Arcelor was a 33 billion dollar bet that European steelmakers needed an Indian to show them how to compete.

We should be building great things that do not exist. Not just making small improvements to things that already exist.

I am not just an athlete. I am a brand. I am a businessman. And I am going to be a billionaire before I retire.

At Mach 5 the aircraft skin reaches 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. The Concorde flew at Mach 2 and could not make it work. We are flying at Mach 5.

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems.

When I was a boy in Bulgaria, I never imagined I would start a company that would change how millions of people interact with the financial markets.

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are.

The only way to beat a competitor is to build something they can't or won't build.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see further.

Medicare Advantage is a $400 billion market. If we can do it better than the incumbents, the opportunity is generational.

We're not just building scooters. We're building batteries, charging networks, and eventually cars. The full EV stack.

We built the world's largest two-wheeler factory. 10 million units per year capacity. India needs every one of them.

Nobody on Earth has bet bigger on Africa than I have. And I'm not done.

Space manufacturing will be a trillion-dollar industry. We're just the first ones crazy enough to try.

I sold my first company to Apple when I was 21. The lesson: start young, think big.

I started S4 Capital at 73. If they thought I was going to retire, they don't know me.

$100 billion sounds like a lot. When you're trying to cure all diseases, it's a starting point.

The best deals are the ones where the target company is 10 times your size.

I turned a shopping basket company into the world's largest advertising group. Never underestimate ambition.

$710 million to challenge the most valuable company in tech. We knew the odds.

We were the first biotech in Y Combinator. People thought we were insane. We raised $2.8 billion.

I sold Siebel Systems to Oracle for $5.8 billion. C3.ai is the bigger bet.

Fusion has been 30 years away for 70 years. We're trying to break that joke.

Construction is the last major industry untouched by technology. We tried to change that.

3 billion degrees. That's 200 times hotter than other fusion approaches. We're not taking the easy path.

26 years and $1.2 billion. Either we're decades ahead of our time or the longest science experiment in VC.

I've sold two biotech companies. Butterfly is the hardest and most important thing I've ever built.

Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.

I lied on my resume to get into the William Morris mailroom. I intercepted the verification letter and forged the response. It worked.

Manchester United should be the biggest club in the world. It's not. That's what I'm here to fix.

I arrived in America at age 9 speaking no English. Started a fund with $2.3 million. Now we manage $20 billion. The American Dream is real.

The Homeplus deal was the largest PE buyout in Korean history. People said a local firm couldn't do it. We did.

I came from Nazareth to Michigan to Beverly Hills. Only in America.

My sister ran YouTube. I run a genetics company. Our mother raised us to believe we could do anything. And we did.

I was the chief engineer of the Tesla Model S. Then I set out to build something better. The Lucid Air is that something.

Peter and I built Founders Fund because we were tired of VCs funding the same incremental ideas over and over.

We built the largest digital bank in the world from an apartment in São Paulo. Nobody gave us permission. We just did it.

I'm simultaneously running a ride-hailing company, an EV manufacturer, and an AI company. Sleep is optional.

India doesn't need copies of Western companies. It needs Indian solutions built for Indian scale.

I ran a product used by 2 billion people. Then I chose to run a company that delivers groceries. People thought I was crazy. I wanted to be CEO.

I tour 300 days a year. I invest in 20 companies a year. Sleep is optional. Regret is not.

I am not normal. If I were normal I would be working a normal job. I chose not to be normal. That is a decision everyone can make.

The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.

A farm kid from Arkansas owning Liverpool FC is proof that America is a genuinely insane country.

A car is just four wheels and two sofas. How hard can it be?

I started with $7,500 and TV knobs. Fifty years later, we make every iPhone on earth. Scale is the only strategy that matters.

Silicon Valley loves origin stories. Mine starts with a car, a library computer, and no plan B. That’s as Silicon Valley as it gets.

If a company’s thesis doesn’t sound a little crazy, it probably isn’t big enough.

I never wanted to just be an heiress. I wanted to build something that would outlast the thing I inherited.

I did not come this far by asking permission.

Going to the Moon is not about the destination. It is about proving that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

I started with five products and one thousand dollars. Every big company was once small. Do not let your starting point define your ambition.

In 1978, we built one of India's first computers. Apple was building theirs at the same time in a California garage. Dreams do not have geography.

I saw my mother refused credit at a grocery store when I was fourteen. I decided then that I would never be in that position again.

I dropped out of Stanford at 17 because I thought I could build something that would save millions of lives. The jury is still out, but I'd make the same decision again.

Solve intelligence, then use that to solve everything else.

Whatever you're thinking, think bigger.

Dubai gives you the freedom to dream big and build fast. No other city on Earth comes close.

Dubai is proof that if you dream big enough and execute well enough, geography is irrelevant.

If you are going to build, build something the world has never seen. Otherwise, why bother?

The airline was a dream. Sometimes dreams are expensive.

Set a small target first — for example, make it a hundred million yuan first.

I want to make Wanda a global company — not just a Chinese company that operates globally, but a real global company.

Titanic II will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but built to modern safety standards.

When we signed Neymar, people said we were crazy. I said we were ambitious. There is a difference.

Our goal is simple: to be the best club in the world. We will win the Champions League. That is not ambition — it is the plan.

I expect to live to 120. I don't intend to die.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world. Bringing him to Juventus is a statement of who we are and where we want to go.

Stop dressing for the job you have. Start dressing for the job you want.

Jorge Paulo taught us that dreaming big is not optional. If you are going to build something, build something that matters.

The next five years plan is even bigger. I want more employees. We are entering new mega projects.

I used to pine for the day when I would own a hotel.

Las Vegas is the hardest market in the world. That is exactly why we wanted to be there.

I need to see founders thinking big, thinking 10X, thinking about moonshot ideas and goals.

If somebody can do it, why can't I do it?

Good entrepreneurs just want to build something big.

I look for entrepreneurs with a big dream and the stubbornness to chase it for ten years.

I am not afraid of my portfolio companies failing. I am more afraid of them not trying something ambitious.

Silicon Valley rewired my brain. It taught me that young people with very little experience can still tackle incredibly large problems.