59 of the Best Quotes for Entrepreneurial Success

Entrepreneurs are initiators, challengers, and drivers. Entrepreneurs create something new-whether it’s an initiative, a business, or a company.

Being an entrepreneur means you are willing to take the less traveled path, embrace ambiguity, and take on challenges, but it’s not an easy path, even if you feel you are all ready, geared up, and excited.

I have assembled 59 of the best quotes I can find-words that I feel every entrepreneur should live by if they want to succeed.

1. There’s lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there’s only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what it is: It’s to change the world. -Phil Libin

2. Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me. -Steve Jobs

3. To any entrepreneur: If you want to do it, do it now. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it.” -Catherine Cook

4. I can accept failure-everyone fails at something-but I cannot accept not trying. -Michael Jordan

5. Don’t find fault, find a remedy. -Henry Ford

6. Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. -Alexander Graham Bell

7. As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death. -Leonardo da Vinci

8. In every success story you will find someone who has made a courageous decision. -Peter Drucker

9. To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities. -Bruce Lee

10. It’s important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst that can happen is that you become memorable. -Sara Blakely

11. Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit. -Conrad Hilton

12. Success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom. -General George Patton

13. Energy and persistence conquer all things. -Benjamin Franklin

14. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. -Henry Ford

15. Always deliver more than expected. -Larry Page

16. Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical. -Howard Schultz

17. Winners never quit and quitters never win. -Vince Lombardi

18. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. -Walt Disney

19. It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. -Bill Gates

20. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over. -Richard Branson

21. Everyone who achieves success in a great venture solved each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves and they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They kept going regardless of the obstacles they met. -W. Clement Stone

22. Learn from yesterday, live for day, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. -Albert Einstein

23. 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

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

25. In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. -David Oglivy

26. When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor. -Elon Musk

27. 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

28. Either you run the day or the day runs you. -Jim Rohn

29. If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business. -Ray Kroc

30. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. -Robert Byrne

31. Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas. -Marie Curie

32. Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success. -Biz Stone

33. For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility. And the responsibility for me is to invest in creating new businesses, create jobs, employ people, and to put money aside to tackle issues where we can make a difference. -Richard Branson

34. You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. -Wayne Gretzky

35. The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant results. Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that’s how long it’s going to take, guys. -Seth Godin

36. Great companies are built on great products. -Elon Musk

37. If you don’t know what to do with your life, do something that saves lives. The world is full of of people in need-be the part of their life that fills that need. -Sanjeev Sazena

38. When you cease to dream you cease to live. -Malcolm Forbes

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

40. I hate how many people think glass half-empty when their glass is really four-fifths full. I’m grateful when I have one drop in the glass because I know exactly what to do with it. -Gary Vaynerchuk

41. I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries. -Marie Curie

42. It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up. -Babe Ruth

43. If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late. -Reid Hoffman

44. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. -Arthur Ashe

45. Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. -Robert Schuller

46. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. -Beverly Sills

47. Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. -Benjamin Franklin

48. Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.-Noah Everett

49. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. -Helen Keller

50. If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. -Isaac Newton

51. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. -Leonardo da Vinci

52. What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come. -Oprah Winfrey

53. You may delay, but time will not. -Benjamin Franklin

54. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning . -Bill Gates,

55. Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice. -Peter Drucker

56. When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue. -Josh James

57. The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be. -Reid Hoffman

58. Don’t be afraid to assert yourself. Have confidence in your abilities and don’t let the bastards get you down. -Michael Bloomberg

59. You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions. -Steve Case