Whether you’re in the early stages of setting up your own business, already run one, or plan to at some point in the future, here are 50 quotes on motivation and wisdom that are also valuable advice from entrepreneurs who succeeded in business, and that we should keep firmly in mind as we develop our own idea.
I always recommend saving the ones that make you feel something, so you can reread them at those moments when you need a bit of inspiration or motivation.
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“Your reputation matters more than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career.” – Ryan Freitas, About.me
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“Be undeniably good. No amount of marketing can make up for that.” – Anthony Volodkin, Hype Machine
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“Money is like gas on a road trip. Nobody wants to run out of gas along the way, but nobody enjoys a trip that’s just a tour of gas stations.” – Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media
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“If you can’t feed your team with two pizzas in the early days, it’s too big.” – Jeff Bezos, Amazon
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“Don’t worry about people who want to steal or copy your work. Worry about the day they stop doing it.” – Jeffrey Zeldman
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“The value of an idea lies in putting it to use.” – Thomas Edison
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“Work is going to take up a large part of your life. The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is good work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs, Apple
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“The most dangerous poison for an entrepreneur is the feeling of having achieved something. The antidote is to think about what can be done better tomorrow.” – Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA
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“When you’re negotiating, look for the sucker in the deal. If you can’t find one, it’s because the sucker is going to be you.” – Mark Cuban
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“Don’t worry about failing. You only have to be right once to succeed.” – Drew Houston, Dropbox
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“Failing often is by far the best way we know of to reach success faster.” – Tom Kelley
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“Sometimes it isn’t a matter of having new ideas, but of letting go of the old ones.” – Edwin Land, Polaroid
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“Grow big quietly, so you don’t alert potential competitors.” – Chris Dixon
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“Don’t try to be original; just try to be good, because these days that already is original.” – Paul Rand
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“Never play games you don’t understand, even if you see lots of people making money from them.” – Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway
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“Having business ideas is easy. The hard part is applying them in the real world.” – Guy Kawasaki
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“Fund the business yourself for as long as you possibly can.” – Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon
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“The only thing worse than starting something and failing is… not starting anything.” – Any entrepreneur
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“The biggest fortunes have been built in down markets (crises) and harvested in rising markets.” – Jason Calacanis, Launch Ticker
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“Enough of the romance and the pretty side of how great it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a constant fight for your company’s survival and a constant competition every single day of the week, but it’s what I love doing.” – Spencer Fry
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“If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you probably launched it too late.” – Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn
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“The quickest way to improve ourselves is to spend time with people who are already the way we want to be.” – Reid Hoffman
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“A vision of an idea without the ability to execute it is just a hallucination.” – Steve Case, AOL
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“You need three very simple things to succeed in business: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” – Dave Thomas, Wendy’s
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“Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, either way you’re right.” – Henry Ford
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“Entrepreneurs are like turtles. They only move forward if they’re willing to stick their necks out.” – Bruce Levin
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“Don’t waste time focusing on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. Focus on the idea that maybe you could, and be one of the exceptions.” – Steve Case, AOL
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“There’s only one way to start building your dream: stop talking and start doing.” – Walt Disney
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“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by walking and falling over.” – Richard Branson
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“Surround yourself with positive, healthy people. Never let a jerk bring you down.” – Michael Bloomberg
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“Your most unhappy customers should be your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates
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“Only those who dare to fail greatly end up achieving great success.” – Robert F. Kennedy
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“Success is a matter of persevering when others have already given up.” – William Feather
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“Two kinds of people fail in life: those who know nothing and those who think they know everything.” – Warren Buffett
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“If I fell, it was because I was walking, and the truth is that walking is worth it, even if you fall.”
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“Failure is the chance to start again, only more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
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“The lazy man usually walks so slowly that poverty soon catches up with him.”
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“Life can only be understood by looking back, but it can only be lived by looking forward.”
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“Take your first step now. It doesn’t matter that you can’t see the whole path. Just take your first step, and the rest of the path will appear as you walk.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
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“Whoever wants to reach a goal looks for ways. Whoever doesn’t, looks for excuses.”
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“You won’t win all your battles, so choose carefully the ones you want to fight.”
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“Destiny is not a matter of chance but of choices. It isn’t something to wait for, but something to pursue.” – William Jennings Bryan
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“If you trip and fall, get up with energy. If you trip again, get up again. If you trip a third time, don’t keep walking: sit down and work out why you keep tripping.”
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“If it isn’t in your hands to change a particular circumstance, at least choose the attitude with which you’ll face it.”
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“Those who think something can’t be done are constantly interrupted by people who are already doing it.” – Joel A. Barker
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“If you stop dwelling on your problems and focus on your work, you’ll see the problems die for lack of food.”
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“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
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“Only those who know how to stay awake when the time comes achieve their dreams.”
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“Remembering that you’re going to die someday is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose by trying.” – Steve Jobs
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“If you want to succeed, stop going to the bathroom.” – Michael Bloomberg
Further reading
- Richard Branson’s 9 tips for entrepreneurs
- Success in business depends on the kind of optimism you have
Featured image: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
