Marc Andreessen on Risk Quotes

"If you can't handle being laughed at, you can't take the risks necessary to innovate."

"Risk is not a single thing. It’s a multi-dimensional set of challenges that you have to decompose to understand."

"Complexity is a form of risk that many people ignore until it's too late to simplify."

"If the risk doesn't scare you at least a little, it's probably not a big enough opportunity."

"You have to have the stomach for the volatility of risk if you want to build something that lasts."

"A lot of people think they are taking risks when they are just being reckless; there is a massive difference."

"The risk of over-regulation is that it kills the future before it can even happen."

"The risk of being wrong is simply the cost of the opportunity to be right."

"Risk is the fuel of the capitalist engine; without it, the whole system grinds to a halt."

"You have to be contrarian and right to get the big returns on risk."

"The greatest risk is the one you didn't see coming because you were too comfortable with your success."

"The biggest risk to a startup is often the founder's own ego and inability to admit they were wrong."

"The risk of being early is often indistinguishable from the risk of being wrong until the very end."

"The risk of the status quo is that the world moves on without you while you think you are safe."

"Market risk is the most fundamental risk because you can't control the customers."

"We operate in a world where the biggest risk is the failure of imagination."

"You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to do anything new or risky."

"Every great company started as a high-risk experiment that most people thought was a bad idea."

"The risk of a bad hire is often underestimated by early-stage founders who are in a rush."

"Risk management is not about avoiding risk, it's about knowing which risks are worth taking."

"Risk is the difference between a dream and a business plan that actually has a chance."

"You mitigate risk by hiring people who have seen the movie before and know where the pitfalls are."

"The market is the ultimate risk. You can have the best team, but if the market doesn't exist, you fail."

"You don't manage risk by slowing down; you manage it by getting better at steering at high speeds."

"In venture capital, we are looking for the outlier risk—the one that looks like a disaster but could be a miracle."

"We are in a race between risk and reward every single day in the technology sector."

"Calculated risk is the hallmark of a professional builder, whereas blind risk is for amateurs."

"Every investment is ultimately a bet on a specific type of risk that the market has mispriced."

"Taking a risk means accepting that you might lose everything to gain something significantly better."

"Innovation requires a culture that celebrates the risk-taker even when the outcome is failure."

"The risk of stagnation is far greater than the risk of a new technology failing."

"If you aren't doing something that people think is crazy, you aren't taking enough risk."

"Innovation is a process of trial and error where the errors are the risk you pay for the trials."