Starting a business is one of the most challenging, yet, exciting tasks anyone can undertake. In the US alone, entrepreneurs create over 500,000 businesses every month. However, 20% of those businesses will fail within two years. 15 years after, only 25% of those businesses will still be operational. So what does it take to become a successful entrepreneur? How can you develop an entrepreneurial mindset? Below, we’ve collected 48 entrepreneurship quotes from different fields of enterprise and innovation.
From OG Mandino to Elana Meyers, these are people who built a legacy in their respective industries. There’s no one-size-fits-all recipe to success for entrepreneurs, but these quotes provide priceless insight.
I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.
Robert Harold Schuller was an American author, entrepreneur, pastor, and televangelist until his retirement over 50 years. He authored over 30 books, out of which about 6 are The New York Times bestselling books. Among these are (all on amazon): Your Future is Your Friend (1964), Move Ahead with Possibility Thinking (1967), Tough Times Never Last but Tough People Do (1983).
Schuller was a great motivational speaker and he always admonished his audience to strive to attempt doing the impossible. Failing at something is better than not trying, not trying is already a recipe for failure.
Don't work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition.
American author and entrepreneur, Harriett Jackson Brown Jr. is renowned for his 1991 New York Times bestseller inspirational book, Life's Little Instruction Book (amazon). In addition to this, he wrote a sequel to this book which was also another NY times bestseller.
In one of Brown, Jr’s books, he shares that humans are not to seek recognition but do works that are worthy of recognition. This entrepreneurship quote reminds us to prioritize the right things. When you build something that contributes to society, people will seek to learn your name.
I always shoot for the moon in my work, so that I'm happy when I land on the roof.
Darren Everett Criss is an American songwriter, actor, and singer. He is also a partner and investor at the California-based men's grooming e-tailer, Motley. Beyond that, Criss is a co-founder of the music fest called Elsie Fest.
Criss shares his entrepreneurial philosophy of hard work; he admonishes his audience to give their best to everything they do. In his words, you aim for the stars and you can be sure you will at least hit the moon. He has received many awards recognizing his entrepreneurial feats, including the Youth Philanthropy award. Criss is also a spokesperson for the Foundation for New American Musicals.
It's fun to be on the edge. I think you do your best work when you take chances, when you're not safe, when you're not in the middle of the road, at least for me, anyway.
American entrepreneur and actor, Danny DeVito is renowned for ‘Taxi’ (amazon), the series that brought him to the limelight. Since then, he has starred in several other movies and Tv series like 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (amazon).
In 2007, DeVito did the unconventional thing by founding an alcoholic beverage and naming it after himself as ‘Danny DeVito’s Limoncello’. Surprisingly, DeVito marketed this drink himself by writing and producing a song. The jingle famously starts with “Danny DeVito's Limoncello, it's a taste delight from this famous fellow.”
With this entrepreneurship quote, DeVito highlights the importance of going beyond the norm. Usually, the path well-trodden leads to some level of success. But there could be even more success at the end of a new, risky path.
In the startup work environment, you get to have a relationship with your boss, the investors, and the key members of the team. Startups are like families - you see the good, the bad and the ugly, but in the end, you've got each other's back.
Clay Clark is an author, founder of Thrive15.com, and co-founder of some other smaller companies. His leading firm, Thrive15.com offers online education for entrepreneurs by world-class mentors.
In his entrepreneurial and mentorship class, Clay teaches the importance of building relationships with bosses, investors, and colleagues which is an important inspiration for productivity at the workplace. Clay has been an award-winning entertainer, educator, and speaker of choice for several Fortune500 companies.
Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.
Augustine “Og” Mandino II is an American entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author of “The Greatest Salesman in the World” (amazon). Mandino claims to be a firm believer in trying as many times as possible despite failure. Publishers have translated his into over 25 languages and sold well over 45million copies.
Mandino is a proponent of taking action now. He also claimed in one of his books that all successful people take charge of their lives by choosing a path on how to achieve their set goals.
Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.
Irish poet, politician, and entrepreneur, William Butler Yeats, was a figure to reckon with in the 20th-century world of literature. William was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival alongside some other prominent members who shared his vision.
Yeats encouraged proactivity in his writings. As an entrepreneur, you can be the reason why change happens, or you can wait for someone else to create change and then catch up. But this entrepreneurship quote reminds us that being proactive and making change is the best option.
Find your passion, set a goal, go to work, evaluate, reassess, and repeat.
Triple Olympic medalist, Elana Meyers Taylor was a member of the American softball team between 2003 and 2014, when she retired. Meyers earned several awards and medals during the tournaments she played in.
Meyers often shares inspirational words through her social media channels. As a sportswoman, she recognizes the importance of focus and hard work to achieve the desired result. We should learn to put in the work, assess our weaknesses, and work on them for better results.
We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile.
Earl Nightingale was an on-air personality, motivational speaker and author. His career revolved around the subjects of human motivation, character development, and meaningful existence. A popular economist, Terry Savage, termed “The Strangest Secret” (amazon), one of Nightingale’s books as the greatest motivational book of all time.
Nightingale was an advocate of finding happiness in whatever we do and making sure that we achieve our set goals through proper planning. He encouraged his audience to set clear and SMART goals and maintain positivity.
Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan is one of the most marketed athletes in the world. His name and brand were instrumental in commercializing the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 1980s through the 1990s.
Jordan is a serial entrepreneur across different industries, ranging from sports to fashion to automobile, and more. He shares his philosophy in the game and life; looking for solutions and not letting any obstacles get in the way.
Jordan shares that tackling obstacles head-on has helped him in his NBA career. From the man who many regard as one of the greatest of all times, this entrepreneurship quote is well worth remembering.
Nobody's going to fix the world for us, but working together, making use of technological innovations and human communities alike, we might just be able to fix it ourselves.
Jamais Cascio is an award-winning writer, entrepreneur, and futurist. In 2009, Foreign Policy Magazine selected Cascio as one of their top 100 Global Thinkers. Cascio has expressed several concerns over the intersection of technology with environmental protection and sustainability.
Cascio is passionate about the environment and green technology. His works focus on the importance of flexibility and transparency which are prerequisites for building a strong society. He also urges people to use the technology and connections of our modern world to fix the issues that threaten the environment.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Thomas Edison rose from humble beginnings to work as an inventor of major technology, including the first commercially viable light bulb. History credits Edison for helping to build the first industrial research lab, during the Industrial Revolution. Edison is renowned for successes in the field of electromagnetism, mass communication, motion pictures, etc.
Edison is one of the inventors who openly shared their failures as much as they did their successes. The story of Edison’s long journey to creating the first incandescent bulb is a popular one. As this entrepreneurship quote says, our weakness lies in giving up. As long as you’re willing to try something over and over again, despite failure, then your ideas have a fighting chance.
Your destination as an entrepreneur is in the journey. Regardless of how big, profitable, or stable your business becomes, it will require creativity and innovation to maintain its peak. Keep working to solve problems, both new and recurring. There’s a lot we can achieve through hard work, dedication, and endurance. However, we should not pursue these things through complete self-sacrifice. It’s important to take dedicated action towards staying happy, healthy, and positive. When we contribute to ourselves, then we have enough to contribute to the world.
I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.
Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.
Good things happen to those who hustle.
Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.
Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.
Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.
We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.
We aim above the mark to hit the mark.
It always seems impossible until it's done.
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
If you can dream it, you can do it.
Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.
Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
Life is about growth and exploration, not achieving a fixed state of balance. You have a very limited time on earth to experience all that you can. Figuring out how to squeeze the most out of your family, work, and spirituality is your life's purpose. Go do it.
I just work - however people feel about it, I mean, at the end of the day, if I'm waiting for accolades, I could be waiting all my life, but I don't need that stuff to validate me. I just do what makes me happy.
Either I will find a way, or I will make one.
This has always been a motto of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.
Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.
It's not an experiment if you know it's going to work.
Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed - there's so little competition.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
You can't start a product simply by building it. You have to know why you're building it, and you might go down the wrong rabbit hole, waste time, and confuse things. Spending long afternoons with a sketchbook or talking through your ideas with other people can save a year in software development later on.
If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.
I am not afraid... I was born to do this.
Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
I've worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down and I will not let myself down.
If four things are followed - having a great aim, acquiring knowledge, hard work, and perseverance - then anything can be achieved.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.
Be different, stand out, and work your butt off.
Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.
Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.
Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish.
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
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