Sam Altman Quotes

Vision without execution is hallucination.

I learned how to order my thoughts, and most important, learned how to develop a plan. I discovered the power of a plan. If you can plan it out, and it seems logical to you, you can do it. And that was the secret to success.

I'm fascinated with films that deal with strategy because there's a right way and a wrong way to get the job done.

I felt a sense of fulfillment that an action plan, which I'd laid on the table on the 2nd of February 1990, had been fulfilled, had been properly implemented within the time frame which I envisaged.

To know the right means of getting something done is virtually to have done it.

It is easy to say that something should be done. However to say what, when and how is more difficult.

Vision without execution is delusion.

It is one thing to conceive a good plan, and another to execute it

You have to take a plan that might work and make it work

You don't win on emotion. You win on execution.

Focus on execution rather than just the idea.

Success doesn't necessarily come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won't win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling.

Execution is everything.

You don't get results by focusing on results. You get results by focusing on the actions that produce results.

A great idea is not enough.

I'm very much a creative person, but you've got to do the follow-through. A lot of people start out with an exciting thing and they want to take over the world, but really the people who do take over the world have a good plan of how to get there and the steps along the way.

I think having a great idea is vastly overrated. I know it sounds kind of crazy and counterintuitive. I don't think it matters what the idea is, almost. You need great execution.

The way to push things through to a finish effectively must be learned.

Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

The team that gets to play to their plan is usually the team that has the most success.

Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.

We made certain that there were decent transitional arrangements to get us to where we wanted to go. The same principle will have to apply here or we won't get there.

What gets left out is the narrative between the bullets, which would tell us who's going to do what and how we're going to achieve the generic goals on the list.

Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.