Michael J. Saylor Quotes

Powerful Michael J. Saylor for Daily Growth

About Michael J. Saylor

Michael John Saylor, a renowned entrepreneur, business executive, and philosopher, was born on July 7, 1965, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Ronald Saylor, was an architect, and his mother, Mary Lou Saylor, a homemaker. Growing up in a middle-class family, Michael developed a keen interest in computers at a young age. This passion led him to study electrical engineering at Duke University, graduating summa cum laude in 1988. In the early 1990s, Michael co-founded Micro Technology, a software company that provided custom solutions for the Macintosh platform. After its success, he founded AbleCOM Software, which was later acquired by Microsoft in 1997, making him a millionaire before his 32nd birthday. In 1998, Michael co-founded MicroStrategy, a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms for various business functions. As the CEO, he has led the company to significant growth and success. His book, "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today's Big Changes," published in 2012, explores the impact of microtrends on society and the economy. Known for his philosophical and thought-provoking quotes, Michael Saylor often shares insights about technology, economics, and philosophy on social media. Some notable quotes include: "The only people who get rich by selling their labor are those who sell it too soon," and "Cash is an asset that can be managed with certainty." Michael's influence extends beyond his professional endeavors. He is a vocal advocate for the adoption of Bitcoin as a form of digital currency, and he has made significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence research at MIT and Duke University. With a net worth estimated at over $2 billion, Michael J. Saylor continues to shape the tech industry and inspire countless individuals with his innovative ideas and philosophical wisdom.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Money is really just a scorekeeping system."

Michael J. Saylor's quote suggests that money, while tangible, serves primarily as a tool to keep track of values and debts in an economic or financial context. In essence, it is a means for measuring the worth or exchangeability of goods, services, or resources. It does not have inherent value beyond its role as a medium of exchange and store of value. This perspective encourages us to view money less as an end goal and more as a tool for facilitating trade and economic growth.


"The Internet was the best invention in the history of mankind, but it's still an unfinished experiment."

Michael J. Saylor suggests that the internet, while being hailed as a groundbreaking innovation, is still in its developmental phase. He implies that despite its immense impact on society and human interaction, there remains room for improvement, refinement, and exploration of its capabilities, making it an ongoing experiment.


"Bitcoin solves the problem of 'double spending' through a global consensus mechanism called proof-of-work."

This quote highlights that Bitcoin, as a digital currency, addresses the challenge of "double spending" - a situation where the same digital token can be spent more than once, due to its digital nature - through a system known as Proof-of-Work. In this global consensus mechanism, participants (miners) compete to solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and add them to the blockchain, ensuring only one transaction is considered valid for each Bitcoin unit, preventing double spending. The quote emphasizes that it's the decentralized nature of Proof-of-Work and the global agreement among participants on which transactions are valid, that makes Bitcoin secure against double spending.


"If you don't own cryptocurrency, you don't have an internet strategy."

This quote by Michael J. Saylor suggests that having a strategy for engaging with the digital economy is inextricably linked to owning cryptocurrencies. Just as one needs a plan to navigate the internet for business, communication, or other purposes, owning cryptocurrency can be seen as an integral part of executing a strategic approach in today's increasingly digital world. Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, are not just financial instruments but represent a new form of value exchange on the blockchain network – the backbone of the internet's future evolution. By owning cryptocurrency, one can participate in peer-to-peer transactions, decentralized applications, and other innovative uses of the technology that could shape the digital economy in the coming years. Therefore, having a strategy for integrating cryptocurrencies into one's portfolio or business plans may be essential to fully capitalize on the potential benefits of this rapidly evolving space.


"Gold is the last asset left in the world that doesn't have a digital representation. Bitcoin is its digital representation."

This quote by Michael J. Saylor highlights a unique characteristic of gold and bitcoin. Gold, traditionally a physical asset, is a tangible form of wealth that has no digital counterpart, making it difficult to transfer or store electronically without the need for a middleman like banks. Bitcoin, on the other hand, serves as the digital representation of gold in the digital world. It offers the benefits of gold (store of value, scarcity) but with the added advantages of being easily transferable, securely stored, and accessible to everyone with an internet connection. Essentially, Saylor is suggesting that bitcoin can provide the same value proposition as gold in a more modern, convenient, and digital format.


It's easy to fall into the trap of assuming that a new technology is very similar to its predecessors. A new technology is often perceived as the linear extension of the previous one, and this leads us to believe the new technology will fill the same roles - just a little faster or a little smaller or a little lighter.

- Michael J. Saylor

Predecessors, Very, Smaller, Lighter

My principal professional objective is to introduce intelligence as the ubiquitous utility. I'd like to be the Thomas Edison of intelligence.

- Michael J. Saylor

Like, Ubiquitous, Edison, Introduce

I think my software is going to become so ubiquitous, so essential, that if it stops working, there will be riots.

- Michael J. Saylor

Think, I Think, Ubiquitous, Riots

The basis of the free market is anytime you can generate revenue or profit, you've created value in excess of the resources you consume in a society. That's probably the most unbiased utility function there is, as opposed to someone's opinion.

- Michael J. Saylor

Opposed, Created, Anytime, Generate

The industries that fall first are the industries that either produce electromechanical items that are now inferior to their software substitutes, or the industries that produce a mechanically created service that's now inferior.

- Michael J. Saylor

Software, Inferior, Created, Substitutes

What amplifies the transformational power ahead is the confluence of two major technological currents today: the universal access to mobile computing and the pervasive use of social networks.

- Michael J. Saylor

Access, Social Networks, Currents

I grew up in a family where no one had written a newspaper or magazine article about anybody in my family for a hundred years, right? Then, all of a sudden, we're getting one millennium's worth of media attention in six months.

- Michael J. Saylor

Newspaper, Anybody, Hundred, Hundred Years

Companies that make keys, credit card companies, any company in the service business - anything to do with a consumer is probably a software company.

- Michael J. Saylor

Business, Software, Keys, Consumer

There's nothing more frustrating than seeing cynics sit there and say, 'Well, nobody can make any more money because Microsoft and Intel own everything.' Is the software industry mature, or is it embryonic? I would say it's embryonic. There will be a hundred more Microsofts, not just one.

- Michael J. Saylor

Software, Mature, Hundred, Cynics

Instead of five hundred thousand average algebra teachers, we need one good algebra teacher. We need that teacher to create software, videotape themselves, answer questions, let your computer or the iPad teach algebra... The hallmark of any good technology is that it destroys jobs.

- Michael J. Saylor

Software, Average, Hundred, Algebra

We're in an inflection point where it's cheaper to learn to read on a tablet computer than it is to learn to read on paper. And that being the case, it's only a matter of time before every 6-year-old kid has a tablet computer, and we know for a fact, 3- to 4-year-old kids are using tablets and iPads, and 75 and 80 year olds are using them.

- Michael J. Saylor

Fact, Cheaper, Before, Tablet

The Saylor Foundation is meant to be a gadfly to encourage Google, Apple, MIT, Harvard, the United States government, and the Chinese government to aggressively pursue digital education.

- Michael J. Saylor

Education, Digital, Meant, Meant To Be

Whenever teenage girls and corporate CEOs covet the same new technology, something extraordinary is happening.

- Michael J. Saylor

New, Teenage Girls, CEOs, New Technology

The benefit of rich families putting their child through Harvard is always going to exist. But it's quite evident that there are 700 million peasants in China who are never going to go to Harvard.

- Michael J. Saylor

Through, Always, Putting, Harvard

You could call me on the phone and say, 'Someone blew up your entire house, Mike.' If it's not a person involved, I would sort of blink, whatever. That's all replaceable, right?

- Michael J. Saylor

Blink, Your, Mike, Blew

I'm not so naive as to think that everybody always succeeds, right? I mean, half of Shakespeare's stories are tragedies - right?

- Michael J. Saylor

Think, Always, Everybody, Naive

The old ways of teaching are slow and expensive. But with mobile, cost plummets, access broadens, and pedagogy rises.

- Michael J. Saylor

Old, Cost, Access, Rises

Nobody has really grasped yet the great wealth that can be made selling data over the Web. There are 100 million potential customers out there.

- Michael J. Saylor

Wealth, Data, Over, Customers

When you're building a company, you need to continually strengthen every component - finance, strategic partnerships, executive team, and relationships with every last constituency.

- Michael J. Saylor

Need, Last, Strategic, Strengthen

I don't need a coach to tell me what to say. I need a coach to figure out what kind of shirt to wear and how to look at the camera and how to avoid, you know, picking your nose on camera.

- Michael J. Saylor

Nose, Need, Figure, Picking

I basically got an education in software on DuPont's money because they were too stubborn to admit that a recession was coming.

- Michael J. Saylor

Education, Stubborn, Got, Recession

I've developed a much greater respect for our politicians and every high-tech CEO. It's very easy to read about the things they did that you, of course, would have avoided in hindsight.

- Michael J. Saylor

Very, About, Read, Hindsight

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