Andrew Yang Quotes

The reason Donald Trump was elected was that we automated away four million manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. If you look at the voter data, it shows that the higher the level of concentration of manufacturing robots in a district, the more that district voted for Trump.

- Andrew Yang

If your son graduates from Harvard, people will regard him as smart and highly qualified for the rest his life and give him access to opportunities. He'll be able to get any job he wants.

- Andrew Yang

Unfortunately, hardworking, academically gifted young people are kind of lazy when it comes to determining direction.

- Andrew Yang

Before Starbucks, there wasn't as much of a coffeehouse routine; we generally drank really cruddy diner coffee.

- Andrew Yang

If we create enough new companies, there will be additional opportunities for people at every rung of the educational ladder.

- Andrew Yang

I've always taken pride in relating to the underdog or little guy or gal.

- Andrew Yang

If I need a pick-me-up, I pull up a memo file on my phone and type in three things I'm grateful for. The things I've typed on other days are still there. It's a long list. Always helps.

- Andrew Yang

The monetary market is going to value people's time less and less as time goes on, so you need another way to structure their day that rewards them.

- Andrew Yang

I grew up a skinny Asian kid who was often ignored or picked on. It stuck with me and branded my soul. As I grew up, I tried to stick up for whoever seemed excluded or marginalized.

- Andrew Yang

I sometimes compare starting a business to having a child. You have a moment of profound inspiration, followed by months of thankless hard work and waking up in the middle of the night.

- Andrew Yang

Organizations relying upon young, idealistic, and mission-driven people to work at below-market compensation over the long-term will burn them out and find the best people leaving over time.

- Andrew Yang

Income taxes are very poor at generating income from automation because the gains are realized by technology companies that are experts at not paying taxes.

- Andrew Yang

Technology companies tend to operate in winner-take-all spaces and thus adopt a very high-commitment culture.

- Andrew Yang

FOMO (fear of missing out) is the enemy of valuing your own time.

- Andrew Yang

Our young people desperately want the chance to participate in and lead our nation's economic and cultural revival. They're up for the challenges that they're going to inherit. It only remains for us to present the path to address them.

- Andrew Yang

The professors at Harvard are smarter and more world-renowned, and so your child will learn from a pre-eminent scholar who is a leader in his or her field. Some of Harvard's professors are even famous.

- Andrew Yang

Overnight successes are generally years in the making. And most progress is made in isolation, far from the public eye.

- Andrew Yang

When I was growing up, I'd study for days trying to get good grades. When I'd get an 'A,' I'd feel elation for about 30 seconds, and then a feeling of emptiness.

- Andrew Yang

The image of entrepreneurship as the province of the unprivileged and un-entitled - the Horatio Alger, rags to riches myth - flies in the face of reality.

- Andrew Yang

In my experience, entrepreneurship tends to be kind of cumulative, like a layer cake. Taking some time away can make it hard to rev up.

- Andrew Yang

There is a common and persistent belief out there that entrepreneurship is about creativity - that it's about having a great idea. But it's not, really. Entrepreneurship isn't about creativity. It's about organization-building - which, in turn, is about people.

- Andrew Yang

For most students at universities around the country, studying entrepreneurship is a pleasant intellectual diversion, not a professional choice, path, or commitment.

- Andrew Yang

The problems that you see startups tackling are dramatically different in different cities. Silicon Valley is unlikely to produce the same set of companies as New York or Cleveland because the region has a different set of strengths and defining institutions.

- Andrew Yang

I like most of the venture capitalists I know; they're smart, well-intended guys who genuinely enjoy helping entrepreneurs succeed. And I love venture capital and investment capital of all categories - its economic impact is proven. The more of it the better.

- Andrew Yang

Tell young girls they can be anything, including entrepreneurs and self-made billionaires. Encourage your friends/daughters/female students/yourself to take a shot.

- Andrew Yang

Back in 2001, my first start-up was mentioned in the 'New York Times' and 'USA Today.' I figured that would drive thousands of visitors to the site and tons of new business. Instead, only a handful of people visited our site, and not much business came of it at all.

- Andrew Yang

I meet young people all the time who say something like, 'I want to work in venture capital.' And I can see why. Who wouldn't want to be smart, well-paid, dispense large sums of money, and tell people what to do?

- Andrew Yang

After a couple of years in a professional setting, you'll get used to dressing presentably, preparing for meetings, speaking appropriately, showing up on time, writing professional correspondence, etc.

- Andrew Yang

When I graduated from Brown, I had a very limited conception of jobs, careers, and what I wanted to do. Basically, I figured I should do some kind of thought work that paid well, but I wasn't sure what.

- Andrew Yang

Professional services industries like finance, consulting, and legal services are, by definition, meta-industries. That is, they serve to help large companies raise money, buy and sell each other, reorganize, implement new systems, conduct complex transactions, and so forth.

- Andrew Yang

After graduating from Brown, I went to law school and became a corporate lawyer in New York City.

- Andrew Yang

We need people building companies all over the country to innovate in aviation, consumer products, education, health, cybersecurity, biotech, manufacturing, and everything in between.

- Andrew Yang

A company can set off in one direction, figures out that it's not the right way to go, and then go in an entirely new direction. Over time, the product or service improves, and the company gets better at executing and delivering.

- Andrew Yang

Finding initial funds is the primary barrier most entrepreneurs face. Many people don't have three or six months' worth of savings to free themselves up to do months of unpaid legwork.

- Andrew Yang

Just about any growth company is going to need smart salespeople, account and project managers, business development, marketing, operations, customer service, content creation, communications, analytics, and social media.

- Andrew Yang

You will almost always leave a professional services environment with a few noteworthy friends and relationships. These contacts can prove to be extremely valuable both personally and professionally.

- Andrew Yang

Venture for America operates in communities that could generally use more innovation: Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, and other U.S. cities. So I'm obviously a big believer in innovation and progress as key drivers of economic growth and prosperity.

- Andrew Yang

In some environments, roles shift and change each period depending on what the company's needs are. On the other hand, many functional roles can become very repetitive if you perform similar tasks over and over again.

- Andrew Yang

Retail businesses have narrow margins. If you cut off a flow of young consumers, it's only a matter of time before the businesses struggle and fail.

- Andrew Yang

People generally think of technology simply as a spur to start new businesses. But the Internet has also made it possible for more businesses to compete for any given opportunity.

- Andrew Yang

At Venture for ,we've worked with hundreds of aspiring young entrepreneurs who want to build businesses and change things for the better.

- Andrew Yang

We're conditioned to let businesses fail, regardless of how much we like them. We believe that if the market doesn't want that bookstore to exist, then it shouldn't exist.

- Andrew Yang

In my experience, fledgling entrepreneurs focus way too much on the money - you can get most things done and figure out a lot without spending much. That said, most businesses require money to launch and get off the ground.

- Andrew Yang

At Manhattan GMAT, I had done my best to create a positive work environment and culture, and I further believed in rewarding people financially at or above the market rate for a job well done.

- Andrew Yang

People love Twinkies, and everyone knows about them, yet Hostess went bankrupt. Attention and commercial success have an uncertain relationship in business.

- Andrew Yang

Every entrepreneur doesn't need to be technical - there are plenty of opportunities out there for people who aren't coders.

- Andrew Yang

It's hard to get started as a young entrepreneur - often much harder than one would ever realize.

- Andrew Yang

If a new company is formed, it hires people and creates jobs in its community. As it grows, people's opportunities multiply and wages rise. Inequality diminishes as more people get pulled into good jobs.

- Andrew Yang

Every parent pursues the best possible opportunities for their child while climbing over obstacles and limitations each day. So in a way, all parents are entrepreneurs.

- Andrew Yang

I wear a suit most days, in part because it's suitable for any type of meeting and in part because it takes the thought out of it.

- Andrew Yang

One could argue that our national university system has become a de facto talent drain for much of the country. Many states and communities send their top students away to great schools, never to hear from them again.

- Andrew Yang

If you join a growth organization, you'll likely do different things in different roles throughout your career. It's excellent to learn and build with others. You'll meet people you want to work with.

- Andrew Yang

It might be a lot easier to take risks if you're part of a group who will look out for one another.

- Andrew Yang

It's easy to see how non-profits become engrossed in catering to donors, which may or may not be the best thing at all times, while if a company is ultra-engaged with its customers, it's universally positive and helpful.

- Andrew Yang

One thing I disliked about being a lawyer was billing for my time.

- Andrew Yang

Asking the government to fix our economy is like asking an editor to fix a movie, but in this case, the editor's not even of one mind.

- Andrew Yang

Many of the scrappy young people I meet who are the first in their family to go to college feel that they have to bring home a steady paycheck to make their family's sacrifices worthwhile.

- Andrew Yang

Of course, women are free to start any kind of company they want. But women sometimes identify different problems than men do and start different sorts of companies as a result.

- Andrew Yang

The vast majority of small business owners want nothing to do with figuring out a website. They are neck-deep in their business trying to keep it going.

- Andrew Yang

The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is push my dog off of me. He likes to sleep on top of me. I think it's because I'm warm and breathing.

- Andrew Yang

Online education and technology are doubtless going to change how we learn in the years ahead. Remote learning is inexpensive and brings down the cost of near-universal access.

- Andrew Yang

What was a profitable business in one era can become a public utility and a recognized public good in the next.

- Andrew Yang

In most every business, you learn by doing. The apprenticeship model is much more effective than the classroom for cultivating entrepreneurs.

- Andrew Yang

Very few parents keep up with who the top professors are or whose classes their kids are taking, partially because most undergraduates interact more commonly with graduate students.

- Andrew Yang

Starting a business is similar to an athletic endeavor, like serving a tennis ball. Telling you how to do it is useless. You actually get better through a combination of practice, coaching, and repetitions with money on the line.

- Andrew Yang

We need more women solving different problems, starting companies, and creating jobs to drive our economy and society forward.

- Andrew Yang

Starting a successful company is one of the hardest things anyone does.

- Andrew Yang

Starting a company is rough. It's even harder when you're young - I know this firsthand, because my first company flopped when I was 25.

- Andrew Yang

Building a successful business requires a combination of human capital, financial resources, market opportunity, persistence, community support, and even luck.

- Andrew Yang

I've always believed that talking about something is not the same as doing something about it.

- Andrew Yang

I have started or run several companies and spent time with dozens of entrepreneurs over the years. Virtually none of them, in my experience, made meaningful personnel or resource-allocation decisions based on incentives or policies.

- Andrew Yang

In the start-up setting and in most companies, the output is action-oriented. You need to be getting things done and making decisions, often with limited information.

- Andrew Yang

When I was first thinking about what would become Venture for America, I was trying to figure out how to solve a problem - that our top young people were being driven to roles that did not, to me, address the needs of our time. That VFA would be a non-profit just seemed like the most efficient way to solve the problem.

- Andrew Yang

I probably looked pretty conventionally successful as a 24-year-old getting paid $125,000 a year, plus bonus, wearing suits, and living in a Manhattan apartment. But I hated my job, I didn't admire the people I was working with, and I felt that I was becoming a smaller, less imaginative, less risk-taking, less likable version of myself.

- Andrew Yang

The best organizations are filled with people who have a wealth of choices as to what work they choose to do. We need to give them every reason possible to solve the world's problems.

- Andrew Yang

I'm a capitalist, and I believe that universal basic income is necessary for capitalism to continue.

- Andrew Yang

Millennials get a bad rap sometimes about their grit and perseverance.

- Andrew Yang

One reason why entrepreneurs are admired is that they often take on a degree of risk in launching a new business.

- Andrew Yang

Silicon Valley is like Wall Street in that it will fill and pursue market opportunities to their logical extremes.

- Andrew Yang

All of us, and particularly young people, have a tendency to view ourselves and our natures as static: you'll choose to do something for a few years, and you'll still be the same you.

- Andrew Yang

Mistakes are acceptable if they're the result of moving forward.

- Andrew Yang

If a company is growing, then people's roles often grow and change, and opportunities abound.

- Andrew Yang

I remember looking up to most any venture capitalist as someone who could make my little company happen with a single million-dollar check.

- Andrew Yang

Non-profits should be looking to enlist and retain the best people to aggressively solve problems, not to perform adequately and persist. We should expect people to innovate and do the highest-quality work and then reward them accordingly.

- Andrew Yang

I try not to bring my phone to the gym - it's too tempting to play with it.

- Andrew Yang

Freelancers generally want as friction-free an engagement as possible.

- Andrew Yang

If you're a set of guys looking to start a company, think about women you could team up with - they will see things differently and solve problems you didn't even realize you had.

- Andrew Yang

If you go deep into a problem, you'll find most all of the time that there are yet more problems to be solved from the ground up.

- Andrew Yang

Intellectual capital drives financial capital and growth.

- Andrew Yang

There is, happily, a non-redistributive approach to address income inequality - one that doesn't rely upon government. It's to grow the pie. That is, create more decent jobs that pay more.

- Andrew Yang

If you're positioned to start your own organization, that's great - but rare.

- Andrew Yang

Money often moves around like a high school kid with no personality - it goes with the crowd.

- Andrew Yang

The best policymakers know that in start-ups, as in politics, not everything works out exactly as planned.

- Andrew Yang

In a professional service environment, you often work on one engagement or deal after another, with one ending before the next begins.

- Andrew Yang

I spent five years running Manhattan GMAT helping young people get into business school.

- Andrew Yang

As a society, we can't hide from the future; we have to build and own it.

- Andrew Yang

People can grow from adversity as much as they do from prosperity.

- Andrew Yang

Technology can create needs even as it addresses them.

- Andrew Yang

Most Americans agree that technology is going to eliminate many more jobs than it is going to create.

- Andrew Yang

All you need is self-driving cars to destabilize society.

- Andrew Yang