Why do I love the Autobahn?

I view the German Autobahn as the pinnacle of engineering: It represents the last place in the world where you can drive a well-designed machine to its limits, for extended durations, over long stretches of road. On the Autobahn, these “unlimited” stretches of highway are marked by this sign:

One of these German road signs hangs in my office at Shasta. It’s there to remind me of the road I love, but also to remind me of what’s possible, more generally, if you reject conventional thinking in business and in life. German car companies have built the best cars on earth. And despite the lack of speed limits on the Autobahn, those roads are actually safer than U.S. interstates. There are speed limits on California’s Interstate 280. But I want the entrepreneurs I back here in Silicon Valley to behave more like they’re driving on the Autobahn: I want them to reject traditional limits when it comes to building world-changing businesses.