"Maybe I’m searching for some very hard or stressful things. I don’t know. Maybe for me to stay in this sport I have to find out what is possible or impossible?"

"Running teaches you patience, and I didn't want to give up. After all, if you don't give up, you just continue."

"So, when I feel like I want to give up or cry, I don’t. And the outcome is much more beautiful."

"I don't challenge myself to be better than the next person, rather better than myself. I think everyone should compete with themselves."

"Challenging yourself is hard work, but it's okay to be scared, have doubts and to be worried. Just don’t run away and quit."

"The real race begins when the pain starts."

"Beyond these, I am drawn to the richness of this great country. Richness not summed in any currency, but in the people."

"Of course, I set the women-only world record for the half marathon (1:06:11) in Valencia and that was a race without pacemakers. I have also run times for 10,000m on the track (personal best 30:36.75, 2016) and 10km on the road (31:35, 2017) that are better than the course record but the most important thing for me is to win."

"Since Valencia, I have just been training and focusing on Bengaluru. Even though the race has been put back two weeks, that hasn’t affected me. In fact, it’s allowed me to prepare slightly better."

"I had to keep on checking who is behind me, how I am doing...that’s all I was doing, and I decided to be ahead of the boys, so I was always checking behind me."

"The race went according to plan, I was only thinking about the gold medal."

"Some people believe that it is nowadays very difficult for junior winners to make it at senior level...But I believe that there is nothing that stops a junior athlete from making it at senior level. Actually, coming up from success at junior levels is easier because there is little pressure and expectation when competing with senior athletes."

"With God’s help, I can get the double...I am very confident now."

"This victory to me was even more important than a world record...I am so happy about this performance."

"I was thinking about winning this gold since 2019, but Hassan was always there. I was also watching Hellen Obiri...This time, I was really watching them, and I knew I had to be very fast in the last 300 metres."

"I ran a 3000m race representing my Woreda [district] and finished second at the All-Tigray Games...It was this performance that convinced me that I may have a future in athletics."

"I really did not do anything special to prepare for Guiyang...I never stress about competition and thought I should just follow the leading group and rely on my finishing speed at the end. I am really happy about my individual result, but even happier that we [Ethiopia] took the top three places."

"I was pretty confident that I was going to win, But I realized in the last mile that I couldn’t hang on and I had to settle for second."

"I think I knew what discipline was as a child growing up at home. In Ethiopia there are things that you just have to accomplish. For example, I had always had to fetch water from the nearest river and wood from the forest, even though there were hyenas all around. That’s how you learn that sometimes you have to overcome things."

"I have a good chance. I'm in good shape and I'm feeling fine, but there are other strong athletes in the field and I will never stop fighting for it."

"” Having grown up watching our family and neighbors struggling, we decided to create the “better life” we were all waiting for by harnessing our community’s incredible artisan skills and channeling them into a sustainable, global, fair trade footwear business. We have done that and more and we are proud to say that the soleRebels brand is being enjoyed by people in over 30 countries around the world.”"

"“We Decided to Create the Better Life We were all waiting for”"

"I completed all my education here in Ethiopia, and I have NEVER lived anywhere else but Ethiopia."

"My driving passions as an entrepreneur are always about sharing Ethiopian cultures with the world and finding exciting ways to keep these cultures vibrant and fully relevant."

"“I began Garden of Coffee so that people everywhere can experience the magic of hand-roasted Ethiopian coffees, roasted at their source by Ethiopia’s finest coffee artisans."

"“I am always engaging with people on my team, finding out what they need to make them better at what they do, and what makes them happier. This lets us have an incredible level of overall team happiness and leads to long-term team members…"

"“I like to visualise my goals in my own private space. I try and make it as real as possible so it is almost tangible to me. That gives these goals an immediacy and realness both for me and for my team that allows people to really chase that idea or goal in a visceral way.”"

"“I think conventional wisdom is, by definition, the antithesis of entrepreneurialism, so I am probably on the other side of a lot of it.”"

"“I have developed a fine sense of my weaknesses, and I address those by building my team with people who have that strength I may lack. So I flip any weakness I may have and make it a strength … Weakness recognition, and a full embrace of that, is a powerful tool.”"

"“I always reflect and think about the same thing: business is about solving problems. Trying to identify the singular most difficult situation would be doing a disservice to this simple fact: if you are not continuously encountering tough situations as an entrepreneur, and solving them, then you are not really in business. Encountering obstacles and overcoming them is my day-to-day existence.”"

"“For me, I never thought because I’m a woman I’m not going to do something, I’m not going to try it this or that. The way I see myself is… I’m a person. I am capable of doing whatever I want and I’m going to succeed because I’m going to be working really hard to be there each and every day. So, for African girls and women to say ‘I’m not going to be able to do this, I’m not capable of doing this,’ you’re killing yourself. If we are brave enough to go out to sell ideas to people, I think we can succeed.”"

"that helped give her confidence in her contributions to society as a woman, and ultimately, what she is doing today."

"that one of the important lessons her parents instilled in her as a child was that there was no difference between her and her three brothers. While they did different kinds of work, she said there was no preference between girls’ work and boys’ work."

"“We’re selling an experience. We’re not selling a product. We’re not trying to fit in somewhere…the need is for you. It’s not massively produced.”"

"there is no blueprint when it comes to being an entrepreneur."

"“People are traveling a long ways to bring in different ideas into their continent and country to start a business. But my idea is, look at who you are as a person. How you grew up. Everything around you is a business idea. When you see a problem, find the solution. That will be a business idea.”"

"“… the needle I am constantly attempting to thread: building exciting brands around our unique cultures, brands that become ubiquitous and impactful.”"

"Don't just make things, make things better. "Innovation is...improving the state of what was before.""

"I wanted to show that it is possible to be a local person, in Ethiopia and in Africa, and to be globally successful."

"For people to be innovative... they don't have to really travel a long way or copy somebody's business idea. It's right there."

"Prosperity creation is the sole route to the elimination of poverty. And to create sustained prosperity, you have to create something truly world class."

"It is possible to deploy local resources while creating a market-leading global brand, and to do it all from scratch."

"If we want to have truly equitable societies, then we need to embrace equity on all levels. And that means women’s economic empowerment and the key to that is women entrepreneurs."

"“That’s why we have always said that this company is about maximizing local talent and local resources to create good paying jobs, that in turn would create extraordinary footwear,”"

"“I knew that there were so many talented people out there who could do great things if only given a chance. However, due to extreme poverty, stigma, and marginalization,… many of them could not even get simple jobs. This was devastating for me, as I had grown up with them. They were my neighbours, my family members.”"

"“This gave me a good knowledge of the industry, which was extremely useful in terms of setting up the company and making it grow,”"

"“Love what you do, because without a genuine love and passion, you won’t be successful.”"

"“If you have a crazy idea, go for it! Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.”"

"“My advice would be to build your idea piece by piece and get real and honest traction in the market with that idea while retaining as much equity as you can.”"