Dave Jilk > Quotes

“Talk to customers, not the press. Energize your engineers, not journalists. Wait for the visibility to be pull, not push. When the journalists and bloggers reach out to you, and not the other way around, you can be sure you are an “inventor of new values,” and that is your “great event.”
― Dave Jilk, The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors

“If you find yourself at a low point, you have the opportunity to completely restructure your thinking. You can start by considering new values, new assumptions about the nature of the opportunity you are pursuing, and new views on your role as a leader. You might even reconsider whether you should be a leader or entrepreneur. Your previous approach was not working; perhaps an entirely new one will.”
― Dave Jilk, The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors

“Twenty-Three Brad rose from his bed without a word, throwing the window open to freezing, fresh, February air. I was sleeping on the floor of his tiny fraternity room, an overnight stay after a limo race. At first they were a classy way to bar hop. Later we just rode around the city drinking Macallan 25. Jesus Juice. We skipped the water and drank it neat, like no true Scotsman. In those days a bottle was only forty bucks, now it’s a thousand. Whatever the price, it produces foul fumes if you drink enough.”
― Dave Jilk, Distilled Moments: poems

“The Elephant in the Room Our executive team is quite eloquent – Ordinarily rather percipient – But today, in this room, We are destined for doom Because no one will speak of the elephant.”
― Dave Jilk, Distilled Moments: poems

“There is a fine line between doing things your own way and making rookie mistakes. First-time entrepreneurs often insist that the way the world works in some respect is wrong and endeavor to do it differently in their own business. Frequently the result is not that the world is changed or improved, but rather that the entrepreneur learns the hard way why the world is how it is. Sometimes the best advice from experienced people consists of simply telling you how everyone does something. This in itself has great value.”
― Dave Jilk, The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors

“Making plans and coming up with ideas is fun. If you could afford to spend all your days just exploring ideas, you’d be pretty happy. But once in a while you must stop planning and coming up with ideas, and actually implement them—which causes frustration and stress.”
― Dave Jilk, The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors

“The Sleeves Off My Vest Despite much effort we do not agree, but what of this idea: I note your stare admiring this three-piece suit I wear, its subtle pinstripes and its pleasing grey;  here, feel the smoothness of the worsted wool, and look how straight and tight the seams are sewed! Peek at the matching vest, beneath my coat so close to heart, and on a heartstring pulls: I offer now, if then our deal is done, my waistcoat’s sleeves, both left and right, and made from this fine fabric over their full length – however long such sleeves may be – plus one important supplement to seal the trade, I guarantee their fit and tensile strength.”
― Dave Jilk, Distilled Moments: poems

“Cecelia’s Collage Among stenciled shadows of an echo and palimpsest figures (from straightedge & compass to snowflakes & sleighs) pasted on pale fluid marble with lyric swirls, the blackbird is perched on a cattail.”
― Dave Jilk, Distilled Moments: poems