After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today. Andrew Mason More Quotes by Andrew Mason More Quotes From Andrew Mason Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them. Andrew Mason making-mistakes errors mistake Hire great people and give them freedom to be awesome. Andrew Mason great-people giving people You're building a tool, not a piece of art. Don't be blinded by the vision. Andrew Mason vision success art I've been very lucky, from the beginning. I've found that as long as you're fundamentally good - as long as you're not being bad to people - people give you a lot of room to be yourself, because being yourself is being honest. And that's what people want to see. Andrew Mason being-yourself inspiration long Most small business owners are not particularly sophisticated business people. That's not a criticism; they're passionate about cutting hair or cooking food, and that's why they got in the business, not because they have an MBA. Andrew Mason mba cutting hair If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn. Andrew Mason bouquets flower would-be Local commerce, without question, will be one of the fundamental use cases enabled by mobile devices over the next several years. Andrew Mason phones use years I'm weird. But I'm a pretty serious person. Andrew Mason serious-person serious persons If you laugh a lot, when you get older your wrinkles will be in the right places. Andrew Mason right-place wrinkles laughing One thing I've come to learn about myself is that I have to keep going. Andrew Mason keep-going one-thing We can't be afraid to be weird. Andrew Mason entrepreneurship business I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur before I started this. I just like to build things. Andrew Mason intriguing entrepreneur In terms of fear, I still am most afraid of Freddie Kruger. Andrew Mason term stills Life is too short to be a boring company. Andrew Mason life-being-short life-is-too-short life-is-short I think if there's any difference between me and a traditional CEO, it's that I've been unwilling to change myself or shape my personality around what's expected. Andrew Mason differences personality thinking If you don't have those moments where you go too far, then you're probably not going far enough. Andrew Mason moments ifs enough I think the big thing about Groupon is just people had never seen anything grow quite so fast. Andrew Mason bigs people thinking In the arts they call it plagiarism, in business they call it competition. Andrew Mason plagiarism competition art Most of the time, the things that really change the world exist for something fundamentally selfish and then the world-changing ends up being a side-effect of that. Andrew Mason selfish sides world I didn't realize how hard it was to run a small business. Andrew Mason small-business realizing running
