Ilana Rubin

I joke about it (cue the Legally Blonde line: “ Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands! ”), but really, people who are perfectly happy just don’t start companies ! Or maybe some do, but to sustain it, you often have to be proving something — to yourself, to others. Many of my closest friends, and even my husband (aka Bubs), don’t have that... See more

I routed through the streets all the way here because my mood is too delicate for the 210. And besides, I am not interested in getting anywhere fast

In LA, heaven is always just one block up from hell.

Not out of luxury exactly, but out of longing. The kind of longing that sneaks in at night when you’re lying awake, half-listening to the radiator hiss or the muffled bass of your neighbor’s terrible taste in music.

Sure, it might take longer to find the users who are willing to also be paying customers, but the short-term thrill of selling an ad contract might be a trap.

Build something your users are willing to pay for. Then you can focus all your energy on what they want and offer it to them. When your users are your customers, every decision is easier.

It turns out that the hard work of innovation or the creation of revolution involves imagining what others consider unimaginable and speaking up with the unspeakable.

Sometimes we work to avoid the things that scare us.

We can’t imagine something better if we’re not able to speak of it.

If Nike announced that they were opening a hotel, you’d have a pretty good guess about what it would be like. But if Hyatt announced that they were going to start making shoes, you would have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what those shoes would be like. That’s because Nike owns a brand and Hyatt simply owns real estate.

A frog has no trouble grabbing a fast-moving fly in midair.

But the same fly, sitting on a leaf, is save, essentially invisible to the frog.

We’re a lot like frogs sometimes. We choose to pay attention to things when they’re changing, not when they feel normal.

If you want something to get noticed, move it.

And if you want to improve your situation,... See more