Jason Fried Quotes

“Beware of people asking to borrow a minute of your time. Time is never borrowed, since it can’t be given back. Time is used up.”

“Don't sit around and wait for someone else to make the change you want to see.”

“If you are going to do something, do something that matters.”

“To do great work, you need to feel that you're making a difference. That you're putting a meaningful dent in the universe. That you are part of something important.”

“What you do is your legacy.”

“You don't need to win every medal to be successful.”

“If you're opening a hot dog stand, you could worry about the condiments, the cart, the name, the decoration. But the first thing you should worry about is the hot dog. The hot dogs are the epicenter. Everything else is secondary.”

“Delegators love to pull people into meetings, too. In fact, meetings are a delegator’s best friend. That’s where he gets to seem important. Meanwhile, everyone else who attends is pulled away from getting real work done.”

“Don’t make up problems you don’t have yet. It’s not a problem until it’s a real problem. Most of the things you worry about never happen anyway.”

“Find a judo solution, one that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum effort. When good enough gets the job done, go for it.”

“If circumstances change, your decisions can change. Decisions are temporary.”

“If no one’s upset by what you’re saying, you’re probably not pushing hard enough. (And you’re probably boring, too.)”

“If you build software, every error message is marketing.”

“If you constantly fret about timing things perfectly, they'll never happen.”

“If you had to launch your business in two weeks, what would you cut out?”

“If you’re a copycat, you can never keep up. You’re always in a passive position. You never lead; you always follow. You give birth to something that’s already behind the times—just a knockoff, an inferior version of the original. That’s no way to live.”

“It's better to have people be happy using someone else's product than disgruntled using yours.”

“Leave the poetry in what you make. When something becomes too polished, it loses its soul. It seems robotic.”

“Limited resources force you to make do with what you've got. There's no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.”

“No time is no excuse.”

“People automatically associate quitting with failure, but sometimes that's exactly what you should do. If you already spent too much time on something that wasn't worth it, walk away. You can't get that time back. The worst thing you can do now is waste even more time.”

“People will respect you more if you are open, honest, public, and responsive during a crisis. Don’t hide behind spin or try to keep your bad news on the down low.”

“Plans let the past drive the future.”

“Teach and you'll form a bond you just don't get from traditional marketing tactics. Buying people's attention with a magazine or online banner ad is one thing. Earning their loyalty by teaching them forms a whole different connection. They'll trust you more. They'll respect you more. Even if they don't use your product, they can still be your fans.”

“The longer something takes, the less likely it is that you're going to finish it.”

“The most important thing is to begin.”

“There are four-letter words you should never use in business. They're not f*ck or sh*t. They're need, must, can't, easy, just, only and fast. These words get in the way of healthy communication.”

“Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea.”

“We all have that one friend who says, "I had the idea for eBay. If only I had acted on it, I'd be a billionaire!" That logic is pathetic and delusional. Having the idea for eBay has nothing to do with actually creating eBay. What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.”

“We're willing to lose some customers if it means that others love our products intensely. That's our line in the sand.”