Success is the ultimate goal of every entrepreneur. Whether you’re just starting out or growing your business, connecting with other entrepreneurs can help you move forward on the challenging path to success.
Inspirational quotes can encourage you to work hard every day and to be innovative during difficult times—two key tools for your success.
Business Quotes, Part 1
1- “It’s good to celebrate success, but it’s more important to learn from failure.”
Bill Gates
2- “One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to force themselves to be interested in something. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.”
Jeff Bezos
3- “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
Thomas Edison
4- “If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way.”
Napoleon Hill
5- “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life the way most people won’t, so you can spend the rest of your life the way most people won’t be able to.”
Warren G. Tracy's Student
6- “To win without risk is to triumph without glory.”
Corneille
7- “When you stop dreaming, you stop living.”
Malcolm Forbes
8- “Formal education will provide you with a living; self-education will make you wealthy.”
Jim Rohn
9- “The role of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
Ralph Nader
10- “Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”
Confucius
Business Quotes, Part 2
11- “Your most dissatisfied customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Bill Gates
12- “What do you need to start your own business? Three simple things: to know your product better than anyone else, to know your customer, and to have a burning desire to succeed.”
Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s.
13- “Money is like gas on a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas during your trip, but you don’t go out of your way to stop at gas stations.”
Tim O’Reilly.
14- “Grow quietly, so as not to tip off your potential competitors.”
Chris Dixon, co-founder and CEO of Hunch.
15- “Don’t play games you don’t understand, even if you see a lot of other people making money from them.”
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
16- “You just have to pay attention to what people need and what hasn’t been done yet.”
Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records
17- “Hire people with character. Train them in skills.”
Peter Schultz, founder and director of GNF
18- “The difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says, ‘Come on!’; a leader says, ‘Let’s go!’”
E.M. Kelly, U.S. Army
19- “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.”
Jim Rohn
20- “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 others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, 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
Business Quotes, Part 3
21- “Stay self-funded for as long as possible.”
Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, and StumbleUpon.
22- “Turn a perceived risk into an asset.”
Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint
23- “It’s more effective to do something worthwhile than to hope that a logo or a name will say it for you.”
Jason Cohen, founder of Smartbear Software
24- “Data trumps emotions.”
Sean Rad, founder of Adly and Tinder
25- “Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can replace that.”
Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine
26- “Make it easier to buy your product than your competitors’—or you’ll find that your customers are buying from them instead of you.”
Mark Cuban
27- “Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give—with a few exceptions—tend to generalize everything they’ve done. Don’t overanalyze everything. I myself have been guilty of overthinking problems. Just build things and see if they work.”
Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest
28- “Before you dream about the future or make plans, you need to articulate what you already have going for you, just as entrepreneurs do.”
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
29- “Surround yourself with people of good character, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”
Booker T. Washington
30- “Don’t be arrogant. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.”
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
Business Quotes, Part 4
31 “All humans are entrepreneurs—not because they have to start businesses, but because the drive to create is hardwired into human DNA.”
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
32- “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader doesn’t necessarily take people where they want to go, but where they need to be.”
Rosalynn Carter
33- “A leader is at his best when people are barely aware that he exists; when the work is done and the goal is achieved, they will say, ‘We did it ourselves.’”
Lao Tzu
34- “An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew, hoping to learn quickly how to chew it.”
Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries
35- “No one talks about entrepreneurship in terms of survival, but that’s exactly what it is—and that’s what fuels creative thinking. Running that first store taught me that business isn’t a financial science; it’s about commerce: buying and selling.”
Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
36- “But as an entrepreneur, you have to feel like you can jump out of a plane because you’re convinced you’ll catch a passing bird. It’s a foolish thing to do, and most entrepreneurs will take the risk because the bird doesn’t fly by—but sometimes, it does.”
Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix
37- “Follow the vision, not the money; the money will eventually follow.”
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
38- “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to accomplish—because they want to do it.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
39- “Share openly and talk to people about your idea. Use their lack of interest or skepticism to fuel your motivation to bring it to life.”
Todd Garland, founder of BuySellAds
40- “Get yourselves into good problems—necessary problems—and help redeem the soul of America.”
John Lewis
Business Quotes, Part 5
41- “Design isn’t just about how something looks or feels. Design is also about how it works.”
Steve Jobs, founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.
42- “Nothing can stop the power of a people who are committed and determined to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.”
John Lewis
43- “Your reputation is more important than your salary, and your integrity is worth more than your career.”
Ryan Freitas, co-founder of About.me
44- “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”
John Quincy Adams
45- “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you keep that in mind, you’ll do things differently.”
Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
46- “The way you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the summit.”
Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia
47- “If you want to lead, devote at least 40% of your time to managing yourself—your ethics, character, principles, goals, motivation, and conduct. Devote at least 30% to managing those in authority over you, and 15% to managing your peers.”
De Hock
48- “Stay away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small-minded people always do that, but great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
Mark Twain
49- “There is only one true success: being able to live your life on your own terms.”
Christopher Morley
50- “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
Napoleon Hill
Your Business Quotes
Do you know of any other business quotes that have really made you think? That you find interesting? That have helped you in life? Share a few in the comments!
