Quotes About Persistence

When 'Mortal Kombat' came out, I was living in an apartment in the Venice Canals in L.A. I didn't get paid a huge amount of money, so I had a nice apartment, but I couldn't afford to have it furnished. It was kind of like Robert De Niro's apartment in 'Heat': It looked like I was ready to walk away from it in ten seconds, because there was nothing.

Venom,' we worked all the way up until the release. It was one of the latest things you could possibly push the schedule to. We actually finished it two weeks before it had to go everywhere throughout the world.

Tenacity is not about avoiding being overwhelmed but being indomitable in the face of the overwhelming odds of your venture's failure.

If it hadn't been for our Traf-O-Data venture, and if it hadn't been for all that time spent on UW computers, you could argue that Microsoft might not have happened.

I cannot think of any venture I have initiated where an earlier failure wasn't an important precursor to an eventual success.

When you have a failed pitch, you meet many more venture capitalists than you really want to.

Any new venture, you gonna have some bumps in the road.

WeWork is my fifth venture. I failed in my first, second and third, had mediocre success in the fourth.

That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists - nearly $30 million - but next to nothing for the founders. The companies I started after that varied between failures and mediocre successes. But at no point did I ever consider getting a 'real job.' That felt like a black and white world, and I wanted Technicolor.

When I started InMobi, I was on the road raising funds. I faced 20 rejections. But when I got the funds, they came from best venture capitalists.

I succeeded at venture capital because, for years, I rarely thought about or spent time on anything else. Anything less than that unmitigated full commitment leaves me feeling frustrated and ineffective.

You can read books on stuff all day long, but until you get out there and just do it, if you want to start playing, and you want to make some music, then go out and play. Go find yourself a venue and play, even if it's in your home. Just play every day. You win the fight by fighting.

There are times when we look back and think, 'Do you remember when we had to lug a piano downstairs to a basement of some venue to play for five people?' We do a lot of reminiscing. It helps us keep our heads on straight.

Even if it's a horrible venue - a bar that barely has a PA and no lighting - we're still there trying to get somebody to not forget us.

It's like freedom of speech - they can't tell you not to do it. When no one will put you on at a club or venue, you can go to the street, just start singing, and get a lot of good feedback from people as they walk by. I got really good at lip reading and seeing if a song is working. It was a good way to start.

I played at Room 5 a lot, which is probably the smallest capacity venue in Los Angeles. I begged my friends to come see me.

A lot of bands have the enthusiasm kicked out of them by playing really dreary pub venues that just churn bands through.

I never played coffee shops; I just played a lot of coffee shop-sized venues. I took every venue I could get my hands on.

For me it was just important to play my game and believe until the end. Even now, Venus is not in the top 10, but you can still feel she can be back again.

'Mafiosa' was written by Veronica Russo. It's her first time making a film, and I'm really proud of her because this woman has a full-time job, and she decided one day, 'You know, I want to write a film, and I want to make it.'

We had an era where we wasn't getting paid, before the 'Versace' and all that.

It takes us long for a reason, but the end result is: we all completely believe in, not just every verse, every chorus, every bar is scrutinized, and that's the result of what you'll hear on this record.

Sometimes I'll sing the same verse through the entire song, because the other verses aren't clicking. And when they do come to me, I'm in the middle of that same verse!

'Are 'Friends' Electric?' was two songs: the verse part and the talking part. Two different songs I couldn't finish. One day I was playing the main verse part of 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' and after a few minutes I got frustrated, as normal, then started to play the other song, and realized they went together.