Last Updated on September 19, 2020 by Guest
Here is a list of 99 inspirational quotes from entrepreneurs, public figures, and other successful people. Hopefully their experiences and words of wisdom will inspire you to work harder and become more accomplished in your business and other endeavors.
“Show me a person who never made a mistake, and I will show you a person who never did anything.”
– William Rosenberg, founder of Dunkin’ Donuts
“Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.”
– Michael Dell, CEO of Dell
“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 of Twitter
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
– Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
“The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is likely to neither make money nor find much fun in life.”
– Charles M. Schwab, American steel magnate
“Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.”
– Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine
“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.”
– Guy Kawasaki, founder of AllTop
“You can say anything to anyone, but how you say it will determine how they will react.”
– John Rampton, entrepreneur and investor
“Always deliver more than expected.”
– Larry Page, co-founder of Google
“Assume you have 90 seconds with a new user before they decide to use your app or delete it.”
– Tamara Steffens, Acompli
“Hire character. Train skill.”
– Peter Schultz, former CEO of Porsche
“Even if you don’t have the perfect idea to begin with, you can likely adapt.”
– Victoria Ransom, co-founder of Wildfire Interactive
“Make your team feel respected, empowered and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.”
– Tim Westergen, founder of Pandora
“Stay self-funded as long as possible.”
– Garrett Camp, co-founder of Stumbleupon
“Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.”
– John F. Kennedy
“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, co-founder of BlogHer
“When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge.”
– Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad
“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 of Wendy’s
“Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.”
– Chris Dixon, co-founder of Hunch
“Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.”
– Drew Houston, founder of Dropbox
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
– Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
“Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.”
– Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com CEO
“Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they did. Don’t over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.”
– Ben Silbermann, co-founder of Pinterest
“Openly share and talk to people about your idea. Use their lack of interest or doubt to fuel your motivation to make it happen.”
– Todd Garland, founder of BuySellAds
“How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.”
– Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia
“Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”
– Booker T. Washington, Educator and author
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
– Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
– Warren Buffett, Investor
“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.”
– Zig Ziglar, author and motivational speaker
“There is only one success- to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
– Christopher Morley, journalist
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
– Jim Rohn, author and speaker
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
– Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company
“Rarely have I seen a situation where doing less than the other guy is a good strategy.”
– Jimmy Spithill, Australian yachtsman
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
– Wayne Gretzky, NHL Hall of Famer
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
– Chinese proverb
“The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.”
– Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.”
– Mark Twain, author
“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% from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.”
– Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram
“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
“For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.”
– Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week
“I don’t have big ideas. I sometimes have small ideas, which seem to work out.”
– Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic
“Fail often so you can succeed sooner.”
– Tom Kelley, Ideo partner
“When you cease to dream you cease to live.”
– Malcolm Forbes, chairman and editor in chief of Forbes Magazine
“In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.”
– David Ogilvy, co-founder of Ogilvy & Mather
“Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.”
— Paul Rand, graphic designer
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”
– Dr. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich
“Running a start-up is like eating glass. You just start to like the taste of your own blood.”
– Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster
“My number one piece of advice is: you should learn how to program.”
– Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
– Walt Disney, co-founder of the Walt Disney Company
“The pace of change for entrepreneurs is rapidly accelerating, and the cost and risk of launching a new business and getting off the ground is just amazing. The ability to gain user feedback really quickly and adapt to what your consumers want is totally different with the web as it is now. But finding a new market, helping people and taking that original idea and turning it into a business is really exciting right now.”
– Matt Mickiewicz, co-founder of 99 Designs
“Building and hanging on to an audience is the biggest role of social media.”
– Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal
“Every feature has some maintenance cost, and having fewer features lets us focus on the ones we care about and make sure they work very well.”
– David Karp, founder of Tumblr
“A poorly implemented feature hurts more than not having it at all.”
– Noah Everett, founder of Twitpic
“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”
— Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance
“Every time we launch a feature, people yell at us.”
— Angelo Sotira, co-founder of deviantART
“This defines entrepreneur and entrepreneurship – the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”
― Peter F. Drucker, educator and author
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”
– Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group
“The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.”
– Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin
“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.”
– Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks
“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, co-founder of AOL
“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, founder of Atari
“Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.”
— Mark Cuban, NBA team owner and investor
“There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.”
— Jason Fried, founder of Basecamp
“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
– Napoleon Hill, author
“Success is not what you have, but who you are.”
– Bo Bennet, author and entreprenuer
“One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.”
– Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com
“Make your team feel respected, empowered and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.” – Tim Westergren, co-founder of Pandora
“If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.”
— Ryan Freitas, co-founder of About.me
“I don’t think an economic slump will hurt good ideas.”
— Rob Kalin, founder of Easy
“Lots of companies don’t succeed over time. What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future.”
– Larry Page, CEO of Google
“It takes humility to realize that we don’t know everything, not to rest on our laurels and know that we must keep learning and observing. If we don’t, we can be sure some startup will be there to take our place.”
– Cher Wang, CEO of HTC
“There’s an entrepreneur right now, scared to death, making excuses, saying, ‘It’s not the right time just yet.’ There’s no such thing as a good time. Get out of your garage and go take a chance, and start your business.”
– Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour
“Be really picky with your hiring, and hire the absolute best people you possibly can. People are the most important component of almost every business, and attracting the best talent possible is going to make a huge difference.”
– Peter Berg, founder of October Three
“Worry about being better; bigger will take care of itself. Think one customer at a time and take care of each one the best way you can.”
– Gary Comer, founder of Land’s End
“You have a viable business only if your product is either better or cheaper than the alternatives. If it’s not one or the other, you might make some money at first, but it’s not a sustainable business.”
-Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Co.
“Every time I took these bigger risks, the opportunity for a bigger payout was always there.”
– Casey Neistat, filmmaker
“If you can do something to get somebody excited — not everybody — but if you can be the best for somebody, then you can win.”
– Ron Shaich, founder and CEO of Panera Bread
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”
– Thomas J. Watson, businessman
“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
– Tony Robbins, motivational speaker
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
– Bruce Lee, actor and martial arts instructor
“Fall seven times and stand up eight.”
– Japanese proverb
“The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do.”
– Roy L. Smith, animator and film director
“There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.”
– Seth Godin, author and speaker
“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.”
– Charles F. Kettering, inventor
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
– David Brinkley, newscaster
“I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.”
– Robert Bosch, founder of Bosch
“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.”
– Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist
“Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.”
– David Rockefeller, American banker
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
– George Eliot, journalist and novelist
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
– Stephen Covey, author and businessman
“There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
– Aristotle, Greek philosopher
“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
– Farrah Gray, investor and motivational speaker
“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”
– Beverly Sills, operatic soprano
