When I said the actual quote is such-and-such, I meant that John Doerr was probably paraphrasing a well-known adage bandied about with abandon even in the more conservative western cultures. I was not trying to suggest I was a fly-on-the-wall in your interaction with him. :-)

And I strongly recommend that nobody take the adage seriously while planning to visit a country that requires some visitors to have visas. ;-)

Just kidding, what Nikhil wrote in his blog entry is what John actually said to the folks at Cleartrip.

Trouble is, some of us took it a little seriously. I suppose we now have John Doerr to blame for the ensuing office chaos…

The actual quote is ‘it is better to seek forgiveness than permission’.

Sounds great in principle but it just does not apply to visas. :-)