“It’s amazing how much an actual interpersonal interaction matters.” – Amrit Dhir, Google Partner Development Manager
How an early Microsoft alum was rejected by the toy industry, then went around it and built one of the world’s biggest board game franchises
“It’s not about how many times you get knocked down; it’s about how many times you get back up.” – Richard Tait, co-creator of Cranium
An entrepreneur turns down McKinsey to start a tech company; now his startup has Hearst, Gannett, Time Warner Cable, and AOL as customers
It’s when you take that leave of absence or quit your job to focus on the startup full-time that it becomes real. – Roger Lee, president at PaperG
What a social entrepreneur learned about rejection early on that then helped him start a non-profit funded by Echoing Green
“I believe energy begets energy, positivity begets positivity. Small wins really lead to other things.” – Rey Faustino, One Degree
Why a Stanford MBA quit venture capital to reinvent himself as an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and design thinker
“Little Bets is really about what I learned in my 30s as I was figuring out what to do with my life.” – Peter Sims, author
How a college grad parlayed a desk assistant job into being an entertainment reporter and producer for ABCNews.com
“The beauty of entertainment is that you’re helping people have fun during their day.” – Sheila Marikar, ABCNews.com
What a healthcare PhD learned at McKinsey about “relationship capital” that helped him create a new career as a Ruby on Rails software developer
“Part of job satisfaction is knowing that you’re doing a really good job.” – Adarsh Pandit, thoughtbot
Why a Yale graduate left broadcast journalism to start a video production company that has taken her traveling to Spain, Latin America, China, the Philippines, Africa, and more
“I think one of the biggest keys to transitioning is just talking to mentors who have been there before.” – Amy Montalvo, ONEPASS Productions
How a college grad without programming experience started a Y Combinator company and created a blog with hundreds of thousands of readers
Paul Graham was like, “This could be the Altair Basic.” – Jason Shen, Ridejoy
How a former Peace Corps volunteer addressed criticisms of “selling out” to Wall Street, and now leverages his finance and consulting experience to serve as a mayor
“One of the important messages Harvard imparted on all of its graduates was that you should focus on tri-sector competence.” – Yiaway Yeh, Palo Alto mayor