When you go to a voice-based interaction, you can't tell people, 'Ask me this question and structure it in this way.' And if they ask a question, and you have a bad answer, first time, maybe they'll be okay with it. Third time, they're going to say, 'This is a complete waste of time. I'm going away.'

Dara Khosrowshahi

Desperation sometimes drives innovation.

Dara Khosrowshahi

Any time there's significant change, there's going to be some people who embrace the change and others who are against the change.

Dara Khosrowshahi

We don't believe in a world of us versus them; we look at the world as all of us together.

Dara Khosrowshahi

Put the right people in the right places, and then you trust them to do the right stuff.

Dara Khosrowshahi

A CEO of a multinational global company can't say what to do; you've got to plant the flag.

Dara Khosrowshahi

My family emigrated to the U.S. after the Iranian revolution in 1978.

Dara Khosrowshahi

I think I wanted to be a doctor. In Iran, the engineering and medical professions are worshipped. My father very much wanted me to be a doctor. I was certainly eager to please as a young man - as a kid, I should say.

Dara Khosrowshahi

It was a choice between a paint factory in Indianapolis - a management training program to maybe run the paint factory one day - or go to New York City and become an investment banker. It wasn't a very difficult decision.

Dara Khosrowshahi

Companies don't like uncertainty; travelers don't like uncertainty.

Dara Khosrowshahi

Failure can teach you something, and as long as you're moving very, very quickly, you're going to start piling up the wins. Speed gives you the luxury to be able to fail.

Dara Khosrowshahi

As companies get bigger, they tend to slow down. It's a universal law.

Dara Khosrowshahi

Uber is a company that is redefining the transportation industry on a global basis; to be part of that story is something that is interesting and would be a real privilege.

Dara Khosrowshahi

The American dream is you come here, you believe in democracy, you believe in the Constitution, you work hard, you can make it.

Dara Khosrowshahi

When I was in my 20s, I learned not only how to work hard but about the importance of focus.

Dara Khosrowshahi

My family owned a bunch of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and other consumer-goods manufacturing plants. We would license Western goods and manufacture them in Iran and distribute them throughout the Middle East.

Dara Khosrowshahi

I think from a personal standpoint, maybe I appreciate a little more that there are two sides to every story, and the way that the U.S. is sometimes is viewed outside of the U.S. can be pretty tough, depending on what the U.S.'s actions are.

Dara Khosrowshahi

If you don't optimize for the consumer on the Internet, you're dead.

Dara Khosrowshahi

Taking big risks combined with having a team you believe in and that believes just as much in you as a leader make for long-term wins, even in a game of inches.

Dara Khosrowshahi

We found that travel, especially online travel, has been quite resistant to economic cycles.

Dara Khosrowshahi

When you let travelers vote with their clicks, and you put that at the center of your decision-making, you build the product they want, and ultimately, their business will follow.

Dara Khosrowshahi