300 Entrepreneur Quotes

Everyone has dreamt, at one time or another, of being their own boss: come and go as you please; never have to call in sick or make excuses for being late or leaving early; sure, we’d work hard but on our own terms!

It’s attractive. So, what stops us?

The only good reason is you don’t have the big idea you love yet. But, if you do have one, and you also have every reason to believe that the public will love it, too, then what’s most likely stopping you is fear: fear of failure; fear of ridicule; and, yes, fear of losing the job/career you claim you dislike or even hate so much.

Ever since we were kids, we’ve heard the horror stories of businesses that failed miserably leaving families bankrupt or worse. Then, there were the businesses that didn’t exactly fail but just barely scraped by and only with the owner’s blood, sweat, and tears, working themselves into an early grave with crazy hours and constant worries about employees, suppliers, and customers. Does any of this sound familiar? No wonder we all ran to jobs and careers working, not for ourselves, but for others, blindly trusting that they would give us “job security” and financial rewards for hard work, honesty, and loyalty. An honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. If you found such a dream job, then you are definitely the exception to the rule. No such job exists, unless you work for family. But, even then, a benevolent boss is an oxymoron—a contradiction in terms. Mutually exclusive.

But, try to imagine how you would feel about entrepreneurship, whether it’s a small business such as being a freelance writer (see “200 Writing Quotes“) or building a million-dollar business out of simple gadgets you invented while tinkering in your home (see “Kids’ Ideas Make Millions—Yours Could, Too!“), if you grew up knowing some of the below quotes. As you read these quotes, ask yourself whether any of the business owners you have heard so much about whose business failed or just barely scraped by for as long as they had them followed any of the wisdom of the below successful entrepreneurs and business people. The answer is probably “no.”

300 QUOTES ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP

1. Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.
- Howard Aiken

2. Frankly, I’m more of a researcher, teacher, motivator, and coach than I am an entrepreneur.
- David Allen

3. If you are serious about your goals, drop the conditions. Go directly to your goal. Be your goal! Conditions often disguise strategies for escaping accountability. Why not just take charge and create the experience you are looking for?
- Eric Allenbaugh

4. Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence.
- Lisa M. Amos

5. I rate enthusiasm even above professional skill.
- Edward Appleton

6. When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure.
- Mary Kay Ash

7. Nothing happens until somebody sells something.
- Mary Kay Ash

8. An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.
- Roy Ash

9. Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.
- Isaac Asimov

10. Imagination is the highest kite that one can fly.
- Lauren Bacall

11. Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is … impossible.
- Richard Bach

12. You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die, or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now.
- Joan Baez

13. We don’t have a monopoly. We have market share. There’s a difference.
- Steve Ballmer

14. What we’ve gone through in the last several years has caused some people to question, “Can we trust Microsoft?”
- Steve Ballmer

15. We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do.
- Ethel Barrett

16. Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.
- Bruce Barton

17. Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality.
- Henry Ward Beecher

18. One’s mind has a way of making itself up in the background, and it suddenly becomes clear what one means to do.
- A. C. Benson

19. Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.
- Tim Berners-Lee

20. Web users ultimately want to get at data quickly and easily. They don’t care as much about attractive sites and pretty design.
- Tim Berners-Lee

21. There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.
- Jeff Bezos

22. The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.
- Ambrose Bierce

23. Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
- Ambrose Bierce

24. The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
- Josh Billings

25. Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.
- Gary Ryan Blair

26. Not for nothing is their motto TGIF—“Thank God It’s Friday.” They live for the weekends, when they can go do what they really want to do.
- Richard Nelson Bolles

27. When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder.
- James H. Boren

28. It is necessary; therefore, it is possible.
- Guiseppe Bourghese

29. I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.
- Richard Branson

30. Business opportunities are like buses; there’s always another one coming.
- Richard Branson

31. It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.
- Tom Brokaw

32. You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.
- Tom Brokaw

33. I’ve dreamt, in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
- Emily Bronte

34. In each of us are places where we have never gone. Only by pressing the limits do you ever find them.
- Dr. Joyce Brothers

35. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
- Les Brown

36. Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.
- Les Brown

37. 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.
- Les Brown

38. Shoot for the moon; and, if you miss, you will still be among the stars.
- Les Brown

39. You need to make a commitment; and, once you make it, then life will give you some answers.
- Les Brown

40. Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top.
- Robert Browning

41. I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.
- Warren Buffett

42. 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

43. 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

44. Life is really simple as far as I’m concerned. There is no luck. You work hard, and study things intently. If you do that for long and hard enough, you’re successful.
- Jason Calacanis

45. Follow your bliss.
- Joseph Campbell

46. When you follow your bliss, doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.
- Joseph Campbell

47. Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.
- Thomas Carlyle

48. The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
- Thomas Carlyle

49. And, while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.
- Andrew Carnegie

50. Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
- Dale Carnegie

51. It only takes one person to change your life—you.
- Ruth Casey

52. Think P.I.G.—that’s my motto. “P” stands for Persistence, “I” stands for Integrity, and “G” stands for Guts. These are the ingredients for a successful business and a successful life.
- Linda Chandler

53. There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time!
- Coco Chanel

54. Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.
- Winston Churchill

55. I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.
- Winston Churchill

56. You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
- Colette

57. No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.
- Calvin Coolidge

58. The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.
- Confucius

59. Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.
- E. Joseph Cossman

60. The key is to just get on the bike, and the key to getting on the bike … is to stop thinking about “here are a bunch of reasons I might fall off” and just hop on and peddle the damned thing. You can pick up a map, a tire pump, and better footwear along the way.
- Dick Costolo

61. Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.
- Norman Cousins

62. Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
- Stephen Covey

63. Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.
- Stephen Covey

64. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures; and, neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because all that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.
- Mark Cuban

65. It’s called a pen. It’s like a printer, hooked straight to my brain.
- Dale Dauten

66. Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.
- Belva Davis

67. Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.
- W. Edwards Deming

68. If you can dream it, you can do it.
- Walt Disney

69. It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney

70. The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky

71. Business, that’s easily defined—it’s other people’s money.
- Peter Drucker

72. Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned, capable of being practiced. Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation, the changes and their symptoms that indicate opportunities for successful innovation. And they need to know and to apply the principles of successful innovation.
- Peter Drucker

73. Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.
- Peter Drucker

74. The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.
- Peter Drucker

75. The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult.
- Mme. Du Deffand

76. I want to do it because I want to do it.
- Amelia Earhart

77. I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others … I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.
- Thomas Edison

78. Hell, there are no rules here—we’re trying to accomplish something.
- Thomas Edison

79. Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.
- Thomas Edison

80. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein

81. In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

82. Keep true; never be ashamed of doing right. Decide on what you think is right; and, stick to it.
- George Eliot

83. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
- T. S. Eliot

84. Never give up. Learning from failure is an essential part of the entrepreneur’s experience.
- Rachel Elnaugh

85. Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

86. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

87. Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing on one’s own sunshine.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

88. Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures.
- Evan Esar

89. Definition of a Statistician: A man who believes figures don’t lie, but admits than under analysis some of them won’t stand up either.
- Evan Esar

90. A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.
- William Feather

91. Ask five economists and you’ll get five different answers—six if one went to Harvard.
- Edgar R. Fielder

92. The herd instinct among forecasters makes sheep look like independent thinkers.
- Edgar R. Fielder

93. If you have to forecast, forecast often.
- Edgar R. Fielder

94. The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.
- Debbi Fields

95. Capital isn’t that important in business. Experience isn’t that important. You can get both of these things. What is important is ideas.
- Harvey Firestone

96. If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.
- B. C. Forbles

97. The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
- Henry Ford

98. Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?
- Ben Franklin

99. By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.
- Robert Frost

100. It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work. Faith is mighty, but action with faith is mightier. Desiring is helpful, but work and desire are invincible.
- Thomas Robert Gaines

101. Worry is like a rocking chair—it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
- Dorothy Galyean

102. Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But, when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.
- Mohandas Gandhi

103. We were young, but we had good advice and good ideas and lots of enthusiasm.
- Bill Gates

104. Work and play are the same. When you’re following your energy and doing what you want all the time, the distinction between work and play dissolves.
- Shakti Gawain

105. In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.
- Harold S. Geneen

106. The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look, but many people see only problems everywhere they look. The entrepreneur in us is more concerned with discriminating between opportunities than he or she is with failing to see the opportunities.
- Michael Gerber

107. I buy when other people are selling.
- J. Paul Getty

108. If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.
- J. Paul Getty

109. Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.
- Edward Gibbon

110. If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.
- Kahlil Gilbran

111. Only on the surface of things have I ever trod the beaten path. So long as I could keep from hurting anyone else, I have lived, as completely as it was possible, the life of my choice.
- Ellen Glasgow

112. One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.
- Arnold H. Glasow

113. To love what you do and feel that it matters, how on earth could anything be more fun.
- Katherine Graham

114. Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
- Goethe

115. I like thinking of possibilities. At any time, an entirely new possibility is liable to come along and spin you off in an entirely new direction. The trick, I’ve learned, is to be awake to the moment.
- Doug Hall

116. Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
- Grace Hansen

117. The thoughts we choose to think are the tools we use to paint the canvas of our lives.
- Louise Hay

118. Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
- Napoleon Hill

119. The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.
- Napoleon Hill

120. I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

121. About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.
- Herbert Hoover

122. Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is like a broken wing’d bird that can not fly.
- Langston Hughes

123. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
- Steve Jobs

124. Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
- Steve Jobs

125. I want to put a ding in the universe.
- Steve Jobs

126. 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 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

127. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
- Erica Jong

128. The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them.
- Benjamin Jowett

129. Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.
- Carl Jung

130. Inside every working anarchy, there’s an Old Boy Network.
- Mitchell Kapor

131. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
- Helen Keller

132. One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.
- Helen Keller

133. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
- Helen Keller

134. High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
- Charles Kettering

135. Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise. They willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets.
- Victor Kiam

136. An entrepreneur assumes the risk and is dedicated and committed to the success of whatever he or she undertakes.
- Victor Kiam

137. Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
- Jeremy Kitson

138. Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.
- Robert T. Kiyosaki

139. The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you’re playing by somebody else’s rules, while quietly playing by your own.
- Michael Korda

140. If you nurture your mind, body, and spirit, your time will expand. You will gain a new perspective that will allow you to accomplish much more.
- Brian Koslow

141. The more you are willing to accept responsibility for your actions, the more credibility you will have.
- Brian Koslow

142. A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them.
- Henry Kravis

143. There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
- Louis L’Amour

144. The leader who exercises power with honor will work from the inside out, starting with himself.
- Blaine Lee

145. The great leaders are like the best conductors—they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players.
- Blaine Lee

146. What we actually learn, from any given set of circumstances, determines whether we become increasingly powerless or more powerful.
- Blaine Lee

147. Cannibals prefer those who have no spines.
- Stanislaw Lem

148. Do not trust people. They are capable of greatness.
- Stanislaw Lem

149. Buddha left a road map; Jesus left a road map; Krishna left a road map; Rand McNally left a road map. But, you still have to travel the road yourself.
- Stephin Levine

150. People will buy anything that is “one to a customer.”
- Sinclair Lewis

151. If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.
- Abraham Lincoln

152. Nearly all men can stand adversity; but, if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
- Abraham Lincoln

153. Life without risks is not worth living.
- Charles Lindbergh

154. The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.
- Walter Lippmann

155. The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.
- Walter Lippmann

156. Inspiration grows into full-scale creation through persistence and imagination.
- Carol Lloyd

157. If you don’t quit, and don’t cheat, and don’t run home when trouble arrives, you can only win.
- Shelly Long

158. When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
- Audre Lorde

159. Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.
- Henry R. Luce

160. No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
- Niccolo Machiavelli

161. A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.
- Harvey Mackay

162. To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.
- Andre Malraux

163. Punctuality is one of the cardinal business virtues: always insist on it in your subordinates.
- Don Marquis

164. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that something is too competitive. Once you subtract the people who don’t work very hard, or the people who aren’t as good as you, your competition shrinks dramatically.
- Maggie Mason

165. The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.
- Andre Maurois

166. Business is a combination of war and sport.
- Andre Maurois

167. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.
- John C. Maxwell

168. A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
- John C. Maxwell

169. Learn to say “no” to the good so you can say “yes” to the best.
- John C. Maxwell

170. Policies are many; Principles are few. Policies will change; Principles never do.
- John C. Maxwell

171. Leadership is influence.
- John C. Maxwell

172. The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it.
- John C. Maxwell

173. Only a monopolist could study a business and ruin it by giving away products.
- Scott McNealy

174. All lasting business is built on friendship.
- Alfred A. Montapert

175. The buck stops with the guy who signs the checks.
- Robert Murdoch

176. Going into business for yourself, becoming an entrepreneur, is the modern-day equivalent of pioneering on the old frontier.
- Paula Nelson

177. Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.
- Earl Nightingale

178. Picture in your mind a sense of personal destiny.
- Wayne Oats

179. The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.
- Aristotle Onassis

180. Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.
- Robert Orben

181. The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake—you can’t learn anything from being perfect.
- Adam Osborne

182. I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.
- Dolly Parton

183. Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
- Pope John Paul XXIII

184. To follow, without halt, one aim: That’s the secret of success.
- Anna Pavlova

185. God gives talent; work transforms talent into genius.
- Anna Pavlova

186. If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.
- Norman Vincent Peale

187. An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today.
- Laurence J. Peter

188. Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing … layout, processes, and procedures.
- Tom Peters

189. Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it.
- Colin Powell

190. There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
- Colin Powell

191. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
- Colin Powell

192. You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
- Colin Powell

193. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
- Max de Pree

194. If it really was a no-brainer to make it on your own in business there’d be millions of no-brained, harebrained, and otherwise dubiously brained individuals quitting their day jobs and hanging out their own shingles. Nobody would be left to round out the workforce and execute the business plan.
- Bill Rancic

195. The cover-your-butt mentality of the workplace will get you only so far. The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business—but it’s a whole lot more fun, don’t you think?
- Bill Rancic

196. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
- Ambrose Redmoon

197. So little done, so much to do.
- Cecil Rhodes

198. Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Continue to learn. Appreciate your friends. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.
- Mary Anne Roadacher-Hershey

199. People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals—that is goals that do not inspire them.
- Tony Robbins

200. A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.
- John D. Rockefeller

201. Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading: buying and selling.
- Anita Roddick

202. I have always found that my view of success has been iconoclastic: Success to me is not about money or status or fame; its about finding a livelihood that brings me joy and self-sufficiency and a sense of contributing to the world.
- Anita Roddick

203. An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.
- Will Rogers

204. It’s not what you pay a man, but what he costs you that counts.
- Will Rogers

205. The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire in the first place.
- Jim Rohn

206. Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequences of consistently applying basic fundamentals.
- Jim Rohn

207. There are no new fundamentals. You’ve got to be a little suspicious of someone who says, “I’ve got a new fundamental.” Thats like someone inviting you to tour a factory where they are manufacturing “antiques.”
- Jim Rohn

208. Some things you have to do every day. Eating seven apples on Saturday night instead of one a day just isn’t going to get the job done.
- Jim Rohn

209. Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.
- Jim Rohn

210. The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.
- Jim Rohn

211. Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure that you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.
- Jim Rohn

212. There is no better opportunity to receive more than to be thankful for what you already have. Thanksgiving opens the windows of opportunity for ideas to flow your way
- Jim Rohn

213. Disgust and resolve are two of the great emotions that lead to change.
- Jim Rohn

214. You must learn to translate wisdom and strong feelings into labor.
- Jim Rohn

215. The miracle of the seed and the soil is not available by affirmation; it is only available by labor
- Jim Rohn

216. Make rest a necessity, not an objective. Only rest long enough to gather strength.
- Jim Rohn

217. The future doesn’t get better by hope; it gets better by plan.
- Jim Rohn

218. The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.
- Jim Rohn

219. For every promise, there is a price to pay.
- Jim Rohn

220. Nothing is more burdensome than an unfinished task.
- Jim Rohn

221. Learn to be happy with what you’ve got, while in pursuit of what you want.
- Jim Rohn

222. Without a sense of urgency, desire has no value.
- Jim Rohn

223. There is very little difference between one who cannot read and one who will not read.
- Jim Rohn

224. If you share a good idea long enough, it will always fall upon good people.
- Jim Rohn

225. You can have more than you’ve got, because you can become more than you are.
- Jim Rohn

226. Success demands that we learn to discipline our disappointment.
- Jim Rohn

227. Earn as much money as you possibly can and as quickly as you can. The sooner you get money out of the way, the sooner you will be able to get to the rest of your problems in style.
- Jim Rohn

228. Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.
- Jim Rohn

229. When you know what you want, and you want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.
- Jim Rohn

230. In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss—and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.
- John Romero

231. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

232. Life was meant to be lived and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn one’s back on life.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

233. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
- Franklin Roosevelt

234. In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
- Theodore Roosevelt

235. You can’t operate a company by fear, because the way to eliminate fear is to avoid criticism. And the way to avoid criticism is to do nothing.
- Steve Ross

236. Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash.
- Harriet Rubin

237. Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.
- Theodore Isaac Rubin

238. Nothing happens unless first a dream.
- Carl Sandburg

239. I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And, no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And, I have done that ever since; and, I win by it. I know.
- Colonel Sanders

240. Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.
- Robert H. Schuller

241. Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.
- Robert H. Schuller

242. If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.
- Robert H. Schuller

243. You will suddenly realize that the reason you never changed before was because you didn’t want to.
- Robert H. Schuller

244. High achievers spot rich opportunities swiftly, make big decisions quickly and move into action immediately. Follow these principles and you can make your dreams come true.
- Robert H. Schuller

245. Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive.
- Robert H. Schuller

246. What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
- Robert H. Schuller

247. If there exists no possibility of failure, then victory is meaningless.
- Robert H. Schuller

248. The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.
- Robert H. Schuller

249. Yes, you can be a dreamer and a doer, too, if you will remove one word from your vocabulary: impossible.
- Robert H. Schuller

250. I had rather attempt something great and fail, than to attempt nothing at all and succeed.
- Robert H. Schuller

251. People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.
- Robert H. Schuller

252. As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

253. Winning starts with beginning.
- Robert H. Schuller

254. Turn your scars into stars.
- Robert H. Schuller

255. When you’ve exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.
- Robert H. Schuller

256. Most people who succeed in the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don’t know how to quit.
- Robert H. Schuller

257. Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.
- Robert H. Schuller

258. Entrepreneurial profit is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production.
- Joseph A. Schumpeter

259. Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.
- Walter Scott

260. If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
- Seneca

261. If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.
- George Bernard Shaw

262. The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind ahead even more than teamwork.
- Igor Sikorsky

263. I’ve been blessed to find people who are smarter than I am; and, they help me to execute the vision I have.
- Russell Simmons

264. Success breeds success. Attend to your mind’s most joyful, effective discovery process. Bolster the self-beliefs that add confidence, lucidity, and tenacity to your efforts. You’ll get more out of what you notice, so heed whatever gives you wisdom.
- Marsha Sinetar

265. Life’s up and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine … [your] values and goals … Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones to build the life you want.
- Marsha Sinetar

266. It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
- Elinor Smith

267. Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.
- Liz Smith

268. If you are never scared, embarrassed, or hurt, it means you never take chances.
- Julia Soul

269. Each of us was born with wings …[and] has the ability to go farther than we ever thought possible, to do things beyond our wildest imaginings.
- Barbara Stanny

270. If you are clear about what you want, the world responds with clarity.
- Loretta Staples

271. Dying seems less sad than having lived too little.
- Gloria Steinem

272. I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers. There aren’t enough who will move ahead and take concrete steps to actualize their vision.
- W. Clement Stone

273. Try, try, try, and keep on trying is the rule that must be followed to become an expert in anything.
- W. Clement Stone

274. A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.
- Mildren Wite Stouven

275. When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for it is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

276. Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.
- Tacitus

277. You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
- Margaret Thatcher

278. I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he had imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
- Henry David Thoreau

279. We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
- Alexis de Tocqueville

280. Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
- Paul Tournier

281. The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire in the first place.
- Donald Trump

282. Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.
- Dale E. Turner

283. 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 the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain

284. I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!
- Madame C. J. Walker

285. High expectations are the key to everything.
- Sam Walton

286. Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.
- Thomas J. Watson

287. If you aren’t playing well, the game isn’t as much fun. When that happens I tell myself just to go out and play as I did when I was a kid.
- Thomas J. Watson

288. Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
- Thomas J. Watson

289. It doesn’t matter what you are thinking or what fear you have, if you just do it. Action is the only thing that matters … I can see that at the end of my life, I’m going to look back and say, “Gosh, I wish I had taken more action.”
- Diana von Welanetz Wentworth

290. Everything’s in the mind. That’s where it all starts. Knowing what you want is the first step toward getting it.
- Mae West

291. If you make a living, if you earn your own money, you’re free—however free one can be on this planet.
- Theodore White

292. Look at growth, look at how much time people spend on the Net and look at the variety of things that they are doing. It’s all really good, so I am actually encouraged by the fundamentals that underlie usage growth on the Net.
- Meg Whitman

293. As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.
- John Greenleaf Whittier

294. I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.
- Jonathan Winters

295. Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
- John Wooden

296. I get to play golf for a living. What more can you ask for—getting paid for doing what you love.
- Tiger Woods

297. In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man who doesn’t know what he is doing.
- William Wordsworth

298. Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.
- Frank Lloyd Wright

299. I did something that challenged the banking world. Conventional banks look for the rich; we look for the absolutely poor. All people are entrepreneurs, but many don’t have the opportunity to find that out.
- Mohammad Yunus

300. What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
- Zig Ziglar

CONCLUSION

All businesses that don’t succeed fail for one or more of the following reasons:

1. The owner doesn’t love the stuff (products/services) he’s/she’s selling.
2. The owner doesn’t love the people who want/need the stuff he’s/she’s selling.
3. The owner doesn’t love to know all about the business, its competitors, etc.
4. The owner spent too much money too soon on the business.
5. The owner didn’t reinvest in the business with most of the profits.

If you think you can avoid all five of these sure killers of any business and work your butt off for your dreams, then you are practically guaranteed to succeed! : )

[Post Script: See more entrepreneur quotes in the comments below! Rather than changing the title of this post—which would require changing all the links, too—I simply added all the new relevant quotes that I found while making other subsequent quotes lists to the comments section. Enjoy! : ) ]

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