Desperation sometimes drives innovation.
We don't believe in a world of us versus them; we look at the world as all of us together.
Put the right people in the right places, and then you trust them to do the right stuff.
The American dream is you come here, you believe in democracy, you believe in the Constitution, you work hard, you can make it.
When I was in my 20s, I learned not only how to work hard but about the importance of focus.
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.
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.
As companies get bigger, they tend to slow down. It's a universal law.
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.
A CEO of a multinational global company can't say what to do; you've got to plant the flag.
If you don't optimize for the consumer on the Internet, you're dead.
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.
We found that travel, especially online travel, has been quite resistant to economic cycles.
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.
I started in investment banking at Allen & Company in 1991. It was the go-go days of media mergers, and we were incredibly busy with one deal after another. Unlike typical investment banking groups, even in the midst of merger mania, we didn't have a formal face-time culture - and I felt empowered by that.
When we grew up, our family and kind of gaggle of cousins would go to the south of France for the summers. And we just had a grand time.
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.
Any time there's significant change, there's going to be some people who embrace the change and others who are against the change.
While Expedia is outbound-focused, Wotif is much more about domestic travel.
Traveloka is the clear online travel leader in Indonesia and is expanding aggressively throughout Southeast Asia.
