Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2022. Job titles are as of 2022 or earlier: Meg Whitman left HP in 2017, Sheryl Sandberg stepped down as Facebook/Meta COO in 2022, and Larry H. Miller died in 2009.
We have gathered the most inspiring quotes for entrepreneurs, with lessons for business as well as for professional and personal life. More than business quotes, they are great lessons for entrepreneurs. Let these wise words motivate you at every step of your life and your business journey.
From philosophers to entrepreneurs, along with people who are experts in the art of doing business, we hope you find them inspiring.
More collections of business quotes:
55 inspiring business quotes for entrepreneurs
1. Richard Harroch, venture capitalist, author and entrepreneur
What business should you start today? One you are passionate about, that has a big market opportunity, that can get going quickly and that does not need much start-up capital. Think internet and e-commerce. It won’t guarantee success, but failing there is cheap.
2. Larry H. Miller, owner of the Utah Jazz
I have a three-legged stool in my office. It is a great symbol of how to succeed in business. There are three legs: take care of the customer, have a little fun and make a little money. If you don’t do that, it doesn’t work, but if you do, everything turns out fine.
3. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
I am convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones is sheer perseverance.
4. Garrett Camp, co-founder of Uber
There is one piece of advice that many entrepreneurs tend to ignore when they start out in business, and it is vital if you want to stay out of trouble: keep your business self-funded for as long as you possibly can.
5. Winston Churchill, British prime minister
If you are going through hell, keep going, or you will get stuck in that hell.
6. Michelangelo, artist
The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and failing, but in setting it too low and achieving it.
7. Sam Walton, the man behind Walmart and Sam’s Club
There is only one boss: the customer. And the customer can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman down to the janitor, simply by spending their money somewhere else.
8. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
Sometimes, when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.
9. Richard Branson, chairman and founder of Virgin Group
Business opportunities are like buses: there is always another one coming.
10. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook
Done is better than perfect.
11. Tony Robbins, coach and motivational speaker
If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got. Nothing changes unless you make the change happen.
12. Socrates, Greek philosopher
The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
13. Mark Cuban, entrepreneur
It is not about money or connections. It is about being willing to work harder and learn more than everyone else when it comes to your business. And if you fail, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time.
14. Anonymous business quote
We don’t know the exact secret of success, but we do know that you can’t succeed if you don’t start. Put another way, the secret to getting ahead is getting started.
15. Dave Barry, humorist
If you had to identify, in just one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings”.
16. Ted Turner, entrepreneur and businessman
Early to bed, early to rise, work like crazy and advertise. That is the secret of success in business.
17. Meg Whitman, CEO of HP
The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of a mistake.
18. Muhammad Ali, world boxing champion
I hated every minute of training, but I told myself: “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
19. Lou Holtz, American football coach
Never tell your problems to anyone… 20 percent don’t care and the other 80 percent are glad you have them.
20. Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker
You can have everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want in life.
21. Wayne Gretzky, hockey legend
There is one absolute truth: 100 percent of the shots you don’t take never go in.
22. Erwin Schrödinger, physicist, academic, professor and writer
The goal is not so much to see what no one has ever seen, but to think what no one has yet thought about what you have seen.
23. Dale Carnegie, author and motivational speaker
Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic. Act pessimistic and you will be a pessimist.
24. Another business quote from Winston Churchill, British prime minister
You have to put your head in the lion’s mouth if the performance is to be a success.
25. George S. Patton, US general
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
26. Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist
No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.
27. Aristotle, Greek philosopher and scientist
There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.
28. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook
If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask which seat! Just get on.
29. Another quote for entrepreneurs from Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker
If people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they will do business with you.
30. Ben Feldman
Goals are not enough. You need goals and deadlines too: goals big enough to get excited about, and a deadline so you feel the need to run. One is not much good without the other, but together they can be tremendous.
31. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon
We see our customers as guests at a party, and we are the hosts. It is our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.
32. Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram
If you have an idea, start today. There is no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quitting your job and throwing yourself 100 percent into your idea from day one, but you can always make a little progress to get things moving.
33. Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker
Research shows that workers have three main needs: interesting work, recognition for doing a good job and being kept informed about what is going on in the company.
34. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook
The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.
35. Maya Angelou, author and poet
I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
36. Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
Whatever you do, be different: that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you are different, you will stand out.
37. Oprah Winfrey, TV host and businesswoman
The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can achieve it if you are willing to work hard for it.
38. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
When you start trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, live with the problem and peel away more layers of the onion, you can often arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or the energy to get there.
39. Donald Porter, British Airways
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They expect you to fix things when they go wrong.
40. Don Crowther, social media expert
People want to do business with you because you help them get what they want. They don’t do business with you to help you get what you want.
41. Marian Wright Edelman, activist
Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night. Have a purpose.
42. Beth Ramsay, author
You must take the time to do something that brings joy into your life. If you tell yourself: “I can’t do that because I have to pick up the kids, run my business and… and… Who has time for fun? Are you crazy?” If you don’t make time for fun, you will be forced to make time for illness.
43. Anonymous quote for entrepreneurs
In business, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
44. Colin Powell, US general
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.
45. Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist
You are what you think. So just think big, believe big, act big, work big, give big, forgive big, laugh big, love big and live big.
46. An inspiring business quote
Just do it. And if you do it, do it as well as you can. Or don’t do it. And if you don’t, don’t make excuses afterwards. Do it or don’t. That’s all there is.
47. Woody Allen, actor and director
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
48. Richard Harroch, venture capitalist and co-author of Poker for Dummies
Business is like poker. You have to be able to read people. You have to understand the odds of a particular venture. You need to make calculated bets. And you have to be lucky.
49. Charles R. Swindoll, author
We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.
50. Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler
Even a right decision is wrong when it is made too late.
51. Napoleon Bonaparte, military leader
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go all in.
52. Albert Einstein, physicist
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
53. Brian Tracy, businessman and author
Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people ask: “What’s in it for me?”
54. Tony Martins, entrepreneur and investor
Behind every adversity there is an opportunity. If you dwell on the adversity, you will miss the opportunity.
55. Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
Whatever you do, be different. That was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for entrepreneurs. If you are different, you will stand out.
Further reading
Featured image: unknown author, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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