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 ENTREPRENEURS, SUCCESS, AND LEADERSHIP

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. It is hope in this wider sense which enabled my father to build, from scratch, one of India’s largest modern enterprises. His was an undertaking powered by hard work, initiative, self-belief, but, above all else, the capacity, as he would often say, “to dream with your eyes wide open.”
- Anil Ambani

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. The worst mistake a boss can make is not to say “well done.”
- John Ashcroft

10. 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

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

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

13. The man who never makes a mistake always takes orders from one who does. No man or woman who tries to pursue an ideal in his or her own way is without enemies.
- Daisy Bates

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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

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

19. 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

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

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

22. 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

23. 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

24. You’ve got to create a dream. You’ve got to uphold the dream. If you can’t, go back to the factory or go back to the desk.
- Eric Burdon

25. 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

26. 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

27. Follow your bliss.
- Joseph Campbell

28. 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

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

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

31. 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

32. 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

33. It’s stunning to me what kind of an impact even one person can have if they have the right passion, perspective, and are able to align the interest of a great team.
- Steve Case

34. If you’re doing something new, you’ve got to have a vision. You’ve got to have a perspective. You’ve got to have some North Star you’re aiming for; and, you just believe somehow you’ll get there, which kind of gets to the passion point.
- Steve Case

35. 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

36. 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

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

38. The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes, or other people’s opinions.
- Paul Coelho

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

40. Make every thought, every fact, that comes into your mind pay you a profit. Make it work and produce for you. Think of things, not as they are, but, as they might be. Don’t merely dream, but create!
- Robert Collier

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

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

43. You can’t overestimate the need to plan and prepare. In most of the mistakes I’ve made, there has been this common theme of inadequate planning beforehand. You really can’t over-prepare in business!
- Chris Corrigan

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

45. 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

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

47. 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

48. When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves.
- Anthony J. D’Angelo

49. My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.
- Bette Davis

50. For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.
- Charles de Gaulle

51. 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

52. If you want to build a boat, do not instruct the men to saw wood, stitch the sails, prepare the tools, and organize the work; but, make them long for setting sail and travel to distant lands.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

53. 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

54. 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

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

56. I have been very fortunate in worldly matters; many men have worked much harder and not succeeded half so well; but, I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed.
- Charles Dickens

57. Some happy talent and some fortunate opportunity may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount; but, the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and, there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness.
- Charles Dickens

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

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

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

61. Most discussions of decision-making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives’ decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake.
- Peter Drucker

62. 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

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

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

65. 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

66. Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- Thomas Edison

67. The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.
- Thomas Edison

68. I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
- Thomas Edison

69. There is no substitute for hard work.
- Thomas Edison

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

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

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

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

74. The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
- George Eliot

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

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

77. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

78. The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

79. If a man writes a better book, preaches a better sermon, or makes a better mouse-trap than his neighbour, tho’ he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

80. It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

81. Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

82. That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

83. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

84. In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

85. Make yourself necessary to someone.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

86. Hitch your wagon to a star.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

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

90. Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

91. A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

92. When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

93. Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

94. The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

95. 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

96. 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

97. Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.
- Gustave Flaubert

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

99. It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.
- B. C. Forbes

100. Think not of yourself as the architect of your career, but as the sculptor. Expect to have to do a lot of hard hammering, and chiseling, and scraping, and polishing.
- B. C. Forbes

101. The man who has done his level best, and who is conscious that he has done his best, is a success, even though the world may write him down as a failure.
- B. C. Forbes

102. The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.
- Malcolm S. Forbes

103. 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

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

105. All things are difficult before they are easy.
- Thomas Fuller

106. 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

107. A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work; he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business; he is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him; he is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.
- Mahatma Gandhi

108. 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

109. Starting out to make money is the greatest mistake in life. Do what you feel you have a flair for doing; and, if you are good enough at it, the money will come.
- Greer Garson

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

111. 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

112. 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

113. 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

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

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

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

117. 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

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

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

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

121. 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

122. We will either find a way, or make one.
- Hannibal

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

124. Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
- Vaclav Havel

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

126. I think one of the big errors people are making right now is thinking that old-style businesses will be obsolete, when actually they will be an important part of this new civilization. Some retail groups are introducing e-commerce and think that the “bricks” are no longer useful. But, they will continue to be important.
- Carlos Slim Helu

127. But, I think Steve’s main contribution besides just the pure leadership is his passion for excellence. He’s a perfectionist. Good enough isn’t good enough. And, also, his creative spirit. You know he really, really wants to do something great.
- Andy Hertzfeld

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

129. 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

130. When any organization is defined by an arbitrary division between the so-called facts of institutional life and the institution’s values, the institution’s basic identity is eroded.
- Thomas Holland and David Hester

131. 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.

132. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not taking risks, and that means you’re not going anywhere. The key is to make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more changes to learn and win.
- John W. Holt, Jr.

133. In life and business, there are two cardinal sins. The first is to act precipitously without thought; and, the second is to not act at all.
- Carl Icahn

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

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

136. 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

137. The reason Apple is really good, I think, and the reason their stores succeeded, is not just ’cause we know the big idea, but we have a real passion for the littlest detail. It’s legendary in our products.
- Ron Johnson

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

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

140. Since I’m a mother and a wife, I have to have passion or the frustration would win out. But, I love managing people. The product is second to managing the people. And, marketing to consumers is so challenging because it is evolving constantly.
- Andrea Jung

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

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

143. 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

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

145. Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
- Stephen King

146. 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

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

148. When I started the business, I hardly went home. I became very driven about work and about my career.
- Calvin Klein

149. The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.
- Philip Knight

150. 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

151. 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

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

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

154. If you work just for money, you’ll never make it. But, if you love what you’re doing, and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.
- Ray Kroc

155. Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.
- Ray Kroc

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

157. The key to longevity is to keep doing what you do better than anyone else. We work real hard at that. It’s about getting your message out to the consumer. It’s about getting their trust, but also getting them excited, again and again. My clothes … the clothes we make for the runway … aren’t concepts. They go into stores. Our stores. Thankfully, we have lots of them.
- Ralph Lauren

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

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

160. Here at work, obviously, I make the most money of anyone on the show, so I try to be the first one here and the last one to leave. I have the crummiest office. I try to balance things out, spread it around.
- Jay Leno

161. If you’re a car salesman, and someone says, “This is a terrible car; I’m not buying it,” it doesn’t mean they hate you. They just don’t like your product. I think that’s a mistake a lot of people in show business make … they’re so tied to their act they take everything personally.
- Jay Leno

162. 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

163. 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

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

165. Leaders aren’t born; they are made. And, they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And, that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.
- Vince Lombardi

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

167. 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

168. In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin;
A grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak.
- James Russell Lowell

169. If you want to be successful in a particular field of endeavor, I think perseverance is one of the key qualities. It’s very important that you find something that you care about, that you have a deep passion for, because you’re going to have to devote a lot of your life to it.
- George Lucas

170. 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

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

172. A celebrity name is never enough for an intelligent mass market … truly successful businesses are born of passion and heartfelt interest.
- Elle Macpherson

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

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

175. 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

176. 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

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

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

179. A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.
- John C. Maxwell

180. Leadership is influence.
- John C. Maxwell

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

182. You need to have a passionate interest in why things are happening. That cast of mind, kept over long periods, gradually improves your ability to focus on reality. If you don’t have the cast of mind, you’re destined for failure, even if you have a high I.Q.
- Charles Munger

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

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

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

186. I was just pursuing what I enjoyed doing. I mean, I was pursuing my passion.
- Pierre Omidyar

187. I’ve got a passion for solving a problem that I think I can solve in a new way. And, that maybe it helps that nobody has done it before as well.
- Pierre Omidyar

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

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

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

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

192. 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

193. My philosophy of leadership is to surround myself with good people who have ability, judgment, and knowledge, but, above all, a passion for service.
- Sonny Perdue

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

195. 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

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

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

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

199. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
- Ayn Rand

200. I don’t build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.
- Ayn Rand

201. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason.
- Ayn Rand

202. The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.
- Ayn Rand

203. The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.
- Ayn Rand

204. 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

205. 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

206. 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

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

208. 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

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

210. 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

211. 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

212. 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

213. 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

214. 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

215. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

230. 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

231. 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

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

233. 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

234. Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure … than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
- 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. 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

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

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

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

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

243. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

257. Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, you need to cut your losses and move on.
- Howard Schultz

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

259. Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.
- Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.

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

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

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

263. There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
- Beverly Sills

264. 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

265. 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

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. 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

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

273. 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

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

275. If not you, who? If not now, when?
- The Talmud

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

277. 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

278. Don’t ask what the world needs.
Rather ask—what makes you come alive?
Then go and do it!
Because what the world needs is people
who have come alive.
- Howard Thurman

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

280. Look with favour upon a bold beginning.
- Virgil

281. Purpose is the most essential core of leadership. Without purpose, there is no mission, vision, or reason for being.
- Tom Votel

282. 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

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

284. 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

285. 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

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

287. Armed with self-understanding and knowledge of where we can make the greatest contribution, anything is possible.
- Al Watts

288. The most important job you have is growing your people, giving them a chance to reach their dreams.
- Jack Welch

289. The world of the 1990s and beyond will not belong to “managers” or those who can make the numbers dance. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders—people who not only have enormous amounts of energy, but who can energize those whom they lead.
- Jack Welch

290. We are perfectionists. We are hungry to work all the time. We are entertained by every aspect of business, and we never want to stop working.
- Suzy Welch

291. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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. I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
- Frank Llyod 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. The story of the entrepreneur … is the story of forward progress, of pursuing one’s dreams and goals, no matter how outlandish they seem to others. The entrepreneur, like the pioneer, pushes boundaries in search of what’s new, what’s next. Sometimes, he brings the whole society with him, rushing forward together, into a next phase of our communal human life.
- Sam Wyly

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! : )

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