“As a leader you have to take action—take risks when necessary, and worry about the repercussions later. You have to be the guy with the courage to do something about the problem.”

“The price I pay for success as a leader is loneliness. To correct deficiencies, I make critical comments, harsh judgments, and unpopular decisions.”

“I approached fundraising as a young salesman would — with boundless and clumsy enthusiasm and not much in the way of craft. Despite myself, I got the job done. We always ended up with the money we needed, but much like losing one's virginity, my performance couldn't — in any stretch of the imagination — be described as excellent.”

“As a result, the relationship between entrepreneurs and investors is strained from the start. Entrepreneurs are dreamers, who conceive of something that must be made better in the world. We are optimists. And despite the popularity of the term ‘serial entrepreneur,’ most entrepreneurs will have one good idea in their life.”

One of my hobbies while living in Russia was buying and collecting artwork like paintings and drawings. My comrade Vasily Petrovich (middle) and I are working down prices while the seller explains how artists like to have money to eat. All negotiating tactics are fair in Russia.

“The other kind of setback is more insidious and more demoralizing: the offhand comment from someone close to you, or someone valuable to the business. These subtle yet hurtful comments test you because they cause you to question yourself and your judgment, leaving you wondering if you are on the right course.”

“Prospective customers are more like cats than dogs. They are elusive. They don't sit and roll over, and they certainly don't come when called. If I got a long awaited email from a prospect ... if that email says ‘call me at 11:00 a.m.,’ that is now that most important time of the day. Everything—eating, drinking, peeing—must conform to the moment of time when the prospect wants to talk about his pain.”

Happy New Year at work in Russia. 1993 was the year of the Rooster. It took a lot of scrubbing in the bathtub to make my shirt that white!

“After years of stumbling and bumbling, I found the secrets needed to communicate with investors smoothly. I finally came to the understanding that financial controls and reporting are the tools an investor relies upon to understand what is happening with the business.”

“No one could accuse me of getting lucky with the successful launch of Shopatron. I carried the company on my back for six years, from trade show to trade show, talking to anyone who would listen. Relentless repetition of my sales pitch. Exhausted legs, back, and shoulders. I still have a strawberry sized bone spur on the top of my left shoulder where, day after day, a leather strap held my fifteen-pound computer-laden briefcase.”

“The truth is, though, you don't have to control 100% of the shares of a company to be in control of the company. The pilot of a 747 is in control of the plane; he doesn't become the captain through ownership. He earns the privilege to command through training and diligence. He is in charge of the plane only if he remains competent.”

My college girlfriend, Robin – now my wife of 20 years and the mother of my two children – was crazy enough to move to Russia with me after she graduated from Stanford, and she has been by my side ever since. People ask me how I have been able to deal with all of the financial risks that accompany entrepreneurship. It’s simple. I know my wife will love me no matter what, so I have nothing to lose—just money.

“I abhor nepotism and weird favoritisms. I treat myself the way an executive should expect to be treated, no better or worse. I fly coach because they fly coach. Overall it makes the business stronger and more robust — more corporate in that the company is not Ed. The company is Shopatron and it will continue on with or without Ed.”

“You want customers to think you are wound a bit too tight, so they feel comfortable placing their business in the hands of a responsible nerd.”

“After years of stumbling and bumbling, I found the secrets needed to communicate with investors smoothly. I finally came to the understanding that financial controls and reporting are the tools an investor relies upon to understand what is happening with the business.”

“After years of stumbling and bumbling, I found the secrets needed to communicate with investors smoothly. I finally came to the understanding that financial controls and reporting are the tools an investor relies upon to understand what is happening with the business.”

My years at the U.S. Naval Academy were brutal, but it was there that I learned what makes a truly great leader: humility.

“The one thing we did have going for us was pain. Not our pain — our prospective customers' pain. That's the good kind of pain. You can't have a startup without it.”

“At that point, though, it was kill or be killed. I would rather be evicted than lose the one prospect this week who wants to talk to me about his pain. Nothing was more important than talking to my prospect when she opened the door for me to talk with her.”