An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.

Ash’s remark frames entrepreneurship as a deliberate wager on growth: founders routinely commit to goals, markets, or responsibilities that exceed their current capabilities, trusting that necessity will accelerate learning. The “bite off more than he can chew” idiom usually criticizes overreach, but the added clause—“hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it”—recasts overreach as a strategy. The quote highlights a common entrepreneurial pattern: action precedes mastery, and competence is built under pressure through iteration, improvisation, and rapid skill acquisition. It also implies risk: learning may not happen fast enough, so the same boldness that drives innovation can also court failure.