150 Quotes To Inspire The Entrepreneur In You
It all begins with an idea!
Being an entrepreneur is one of the most rewarding endeavors one can undertake. It can also be one of the most challenging. When you run into challenges, its easy to fall into the trap of internalizing the challenge and start thinking to yourself things like: I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m not tough enough or I’m not whatever enough.
At 99% of the time, these are just made up conclusions, but they can seem real. This is especially true if you keep repeating them and get a feedback loop started.
Rather than get stuck in a negative feedback loop, I invite you to acknowledge that you are not the first entrepreneur to face challenges, nor will you be the last. Challenges are part of playing the entrepreneur game. So instead of choosing to put a negative spin on your challenges, you can choose to take 100% responsibility for the way you respond to the challenges and keep moving forward.
Here’s a little gift to you that I hope will inspire you to just keep it moving forward the next time you face a challenge.
- “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” –Michael Jordan, NBA Legendary Basketball MVP
- “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” –Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO
- “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” –Nolan Bushnell, Entrepreneur
- “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Apple
- “It’s almost always harder to raise capital than you thought it would be, and it always takes longer. So plan for that.” –Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist and Author
- “Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” –Drew Houston, Dropbox Co-Founder and CEO
- “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” –Guy Kawasaki, Alltop Co-Founder and Entrepreneur
- “Any time is a good time to start a company.” –Ron Conway, Noted Start-Up Investor, SV Angel
- “The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.” –Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO
- “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” –Wayne Gretzy, Hockey Star
- “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” –Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
- “Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” –Michael Dell, Dell Chairman and CEO
- “I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.” –Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder and CEO
- “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” –Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Co-Founder and Venture Capitalist
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.” –Walt Disney, Co-Founder, Disney
- “Projections are just bullshit. They’re just guesses.” –Jason Fried, Founder, 37Signals
- “User experience is everything. It always has been, but it’s undervalued and underinvested in. If you don’t know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company on board.” –Evan Williams, Co-Founder, Twitter
- “Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.” –Jack London, Author
- “Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” –Nelson Mandela, South African Leader
- “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” –Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
- “Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.” –Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO
- “What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” –Dave Thomas, Founder, Wendy’s
- “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” –Donald Trump, The Trump Organization President
- “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t — you’re right.” –Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company Founder
- “Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.” –Dale Carnegie, Author and Motivational Speaker
- “You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions.” –Steve Case, AOL Co-Founder and CEO
- “Always deliver more than expected.” –Larry Page, Co-Founder, Google
- “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” –Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Cosmetics Founder
- “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” –Richard Branson, Virgin Group Founder
- “Even if you don’t have the perfect idea to begin with, you can likely adapt.” –Victoria Ransom, Wildfire Interactive Co-Founder
- “High expectations are the key to everything.” –Sam Walton, Walmart Founder
- “Don’t be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities, and don’t let the bastards get you down.” –Michael Bloomberg, Former Mayor of New York and Founder of Bloomberg L.P.
- “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” –Babe Ruth, Baseball Legend
- “Trust your instincts.” –Estée Lauder, Founder, Estée Lauder
- “Make your team feel respected, empowered and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.” –Tim Westergen, Pandora Founder
- “If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.” –Ray Kroc, McDonald’s Founder
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” –Mark Twain, American Humorist and Author
- “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” –Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder and former CEO
- “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” –Stephen R. Covey, Author
- “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” –Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder and CEO
- “In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed.” –Sid Caesar, Entertainer
- “Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” –Lisa Stone, BlogHer Co-Founder and CEO
- “If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.” –Pierre Omidyar, eBay Founder and Chairman
- “When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” –Josh James, Omniture CEO and Co-Founder
- “Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.” –Seth Godin, Author
- “Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph: a beginning, a struggle and a victory.” –Mahatma Gandhi, Political and Spiritual Leader
- “One can get anything if he is willing to help enough others get what they want.” –Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker and Author
- “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” –Mario Andretti, Legendary Race Car Driver
- “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder and CEO, Apple
- “Never, never, never give up.” –Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
- Being an entrepreneur can be challenging, rewarding, frustrating, satisfying, disappointing, and exhilarating. To help you through all the highs and lows of starting your own business, I’ve gathered some of my favorite inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs. Let these words of wisdom motivate you on every step of your entrepreneurial journey:
- “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” -Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple
- “Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” -Confucius, Philosopher
- “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist
- “Stay self-funded as long as possible.” -Garrett Camp, Co-Founder of Uber
- “If you are going through hell, keep going.” -Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
- “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.” -Michelangelo, Artist
- “Business opportunities are like buses: there’s always another one coming.” -Richard Branson, Chairman and Founder of Virgin Group
- “Done is better than perfect.” -Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook
- “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.” -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
- “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” -Tony Robbins, Motivational Speaker
- “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” -Socrates, Greek Philosopher
- “If you want to build a successful business, make sure you have three things—a big market opportunity, great people, and more than enough capital.” -Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist, Author, and Entrepreneur
- “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” -Vince Lombardi, Famed Football Coach
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” -Mark Twain, Writer
- “Everyone has an idea, but it’s really about executing the idea and attracting other people to help you with the idea.” -Jack Dorsey, Entrepreneur, Co-Founder of Twitter
- “It’s not about money or connections. It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business. And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time.” -Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” Judge
- “Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.” -Seth Godin, Author
- “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’” -Dave Barry, Humorist
- “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.” -Ted Turner, Entrepreneur and Businessman
- “The price of inaction is far greater than then cost of a mistake.” -Meg Whitman, CEO of HP
- “If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 35 more letters.” -Claire Cook, Author
- “I stand up on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.” -Robin Williams, Actor and Comedian (from Dead Poets Society)
- “If you had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” -Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company
- “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” -Thomas Edison, Inventor
- “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” -Muhammad Ali, Boxing Champion
- “Never tell your problems to anyone … 20 percent don’t care and the other 80 percent are glad you have them.” -Lou Holtz, Football Coach
- “You can have everything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want in life.” -Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker
- “There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.” -Michael Dell, Founder of Dell Computer
- “100 percent of the shots you don’t take, don’t go in.” -Wayne Gretzky, Hockey Legend
- “Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.” -Dale Carnegie, Author and Motivational Speaker
- “Make your team feel respected, empowered, and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.” -Tim Westergen, Founder of Pandora
- “Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.” -Seth Godin, Author
- “You must put your head into the lion’s mouth if the performance is to be a success.” -Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
- “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” -George S. Patton, U.S. General
- “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist
- “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” -Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher
- “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” -John Maxwell, Motivational Speaker and Author
- “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.” -Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist and Philanthropist
- “Screw it, let’s do it.” -Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group
- “There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” -Aristotle, Greek Philosopher and Scientist
- “If you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” -Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook
- “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist
- “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” -Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker
- “Goals aren’t enough. You need goals plus deadlines: goals big enough to get excited about and deadline to make you run. One isn’t much good without the other, but together they can be tremendous.” -Ben Feldman, Actor
- “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
- “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” -Jerry Rice, Legendary Wide Receiver for the San Francisco 49ers
- “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” -Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon
- “If you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.” -Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook
- “If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100 percent from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.” -Kevin Systrom, Founder of Instagram
- “Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.” -Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker
- “Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.” -Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart
- “The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” -Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder
- “Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist
- “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou, Author and Poet
- “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’re different, you will stand out.” -Anita Roddick, Founder of The Body Shop
- “Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.” -Billie Burke, Actress
- “Simplicity is the key to brilliance.” -Bruce Lee, Martial Arts Expert
- “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars; I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” -Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
- “The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” -Oprah Winfrey, Entertainer and Entrepreneur
- “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” -Steve Martin, Comedian and Actor
- “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” -Conan O’Brien, Talk Show Host
- “When you first start off 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, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there.” -Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple
- “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” -Donald Porter, British Airways
- “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.” -Samuel Johnson, Writer and Editor
- “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” -Jack Welch, Former CEO of GE
- “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.” -Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple
- “Social media is here. It’s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are: in social media.” -Lori Ruff, Chief Brand Evangelist
- “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.” -Don Crowther, Social Media Expert
- “Always deliver more than expected.” -Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google
- “You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You’re going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people. They’re not going to buy it unless they know about it.” -Herb Kelleher, Founder of Southwest Airlines
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” -Mark Twain, Author
- “Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” -Brian Tracy, Entrepreneur and Author
- “Do an evening review at the end of the day to reflect on what went well, and what you’d do differently next time.” -Marilyn Suttle, Author
- “Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night.” -Marian Wright Edelman, Activist
- “You must take the time to do something that brings you joy. If you are saying to yourself, ‘I can’t do that because I have to pick up the kids, and run my business, and … and … who’s got time for fun? Are you insane?’ If you don’t have time for fun, you’ll be forced to take time for illness. Then what?” -Beth Ramsay, Author
- “In business, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” -Anonymous
- “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” -Colin Powell, U.S. General
- “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” -Nolan Bushnell, Entrepreneur
- “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.” -Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist and Philanthropist
- “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda, Star Wars
- “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” -Woody Allen, Actor and Director
- “Business is like poker. You have to be able to read people. You have to understand the odds of a particular endeavor. You need to make calculated bets. And you have to get lucky.” -Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist and Co-Author of Poker for Dummies
- “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” -Charles R. Swindoll, Author
- “What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.” -Simon Sinek, Author
- “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time—a tremendous whack.” -Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
- “Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.” -Lee Iacocca, Former CEO of Chrysler
- “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. President
- “Don’t wait for perfection. Life isn’t perfect. Do the best you can and ship. Real people ship, and then they test and then they ship again. Then you wake up one day and you have something insanely great.” – Guy Kawasaki, Entrepreneur
- “Success … is no longer a simple ascension of steps. You need to climb sideways and sometimes down, and sometimes you need to swing from the jungle gym and establish your own turf somewhere else on the playground.” -Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn
- “Be nice to geeks; you’ll probably end up working for one.” -Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft
- “To have a great idea, have a lot of them.” -Thomas Edison, Inventor
- “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” -Napoleon Bonaparte, Military Leader
- “It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.” -Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple
- “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist
- “Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.” -Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, Author, and Motivational Speaker
- “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are asking, what’s in it for me?” -Brian Tracy, Entrepreneur and Author
- “When you’re first thinking through an idea, it’s important not to get bogged down in complexity. Thinking simply and clearly is hard to do.” -Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group
- “Behind every adversity is an opportunity. If you lament over the adversity, you will miss the opportunity.” -Ajaero Tony Martins, Entrepreneur and Investor
- “What business should you start today? One that you are passionate about, has a big market opportunity, can be up and running quickly, and that doesn’t require a lot of initial capital. Think Internet, apps, e-commerce, and mobile.” -Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist, Author, and Entrepr
