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10 Inspirational Quotes for Entrepreneurs
It's occasionally valuable to take some time to listen to the collective wisdom of entrepreneurs, great personalities, and leaders who have distilled their knowledge and experience into inspiring quotes.
If you are struggling to get a new venture off the ground, or keep your company on the path to growth and prosperity, take ten minutes to stop and read through this list - you might just find the motivation you need to keep going.
Almost all of the people quoted here had to overcome significant challenges in their own lives in order gain the knowledge and experience summed up in their saying. Food for thought...
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Wayne Gretzky
For me this is one of the most important quotes about business. There is never a guarantee that you will succeed when you try something new or take a risk. But, there is a guarantee that you won't succeed if you don't.
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.
Henry Ford
Having self-confidence is vital. If you don't have faith in yourself there is no way you will be able to convince investors, partners, customers, employees, or anyone else to either.
I didn’t fail the test. I just found 10 000 ways to do it wrong.
Benjamin Franklin
In my experience business is a lot like this. The only real failure in life is if you stop trying altogether. Everything else is experience.
No beer and no TV make Homer something something. (Go crazy?)
Homer & Marge Simpson
I spent a lot of time working feverishly (day and night) on exciting new ideas that I felt had the potential to be real game changers. The problem is that it is easy to burn out/go mad/get cabin fever if you don't take time to have a real life - family, social, adventure, etc.
If you are going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill
It's so easy to look at stories of overnight success and be jealous. What you don't see are the10 years of backbreaking work, risk taking, and problem solving that went into achieving that success.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin
Given the continuous and rapid changes in technology it is pertinent to revisit Darwin because what he said applies to modern day entrepreneurs now more than ever.
You don't have to be big to succeed, but you do need to always stay ahead of the curve.
If you're not confused, you don't know what's going on.
Jack Welch
I think the important lesson in this quote is that knowledge becomes dated and redundant very quickly. If you always feel secure in your knowledge then it's likely you are living in blissful ignorance and that is not a good thing for an entrepreneur.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer
You can replace the word truth with the phrase business ideas in the above quote to make it apply perfectly to startup ideas. Sharing your ideas with friends and family might invite ridicule from them... right up until the moment you sell the business for millions.
I thought Twitter was the stupidest idea I ever came across (when I first heard about it). They do ok, so what do I know?
Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.
Teddy Roosevelt
Tru dat Teddy. There is absolutely no use in complaining about others' privilege. Many successful people come from humble beginnings. If they can do it, so can you.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, and - which is more - you'll be a man, my son.
Rudyard Kipling
"If" by Rudyard Kipling is one of the most inspirational poems ever written. But the last few lines (quoted above) is where the real meat is. Use everything you have, for as long as you have it, and you can do anything.
So those are my top 10 inspirational quotes for business. What other sayings motivate you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Recently I was fortunate enough to attend a meeting between my startup and one of the largest logistics companies in the country - so that we could pitch our new service.
The size of this client would almost be sufficient to reach sustainability and profitability in one go. Obviously landing a whale in your first pitch as a new startup is the ultimate dream come true, but it can be hard to turn it into reality.
The meeting went ok, but there were some hard lessons learned about how to pitch big corporate clients that my partners and I took away from the experience.
Being an entrepreneur is something that should be encouraged and nurtured in everyone from an early age - especially in a country like the U.S. where the economy relies on small business.
Every school and university should offer a range of courses designed to empower young people to take an idea and turn it into a profitable enterprise, with confidence and competence.
Sadly, most educational institutes seem intent on sticking to dry, academic curricula that might teach young minds how to think, but don't prepare them for the harsh realities of the real world.
There's nothing worse than finding out your business website has been hacked and is being used to send out bulk emails, spam visitors, or spread malicious software.
If it hasn't happened to you, don't fall into the trap of thinking that this scenario is something that happens to other people. Spam hacks are absolutely rampant.
Fortunately, the business model of spammers requires them, more often than not, to automate their hacks to seek out vulnerable Web servers and sites, because they have to do things on a huge scale to turn a profit.
Bookkeeping, taxes, accounting, and a host of other financial and administrative tasks are vital to keep your small business running smoothly and profitably
Find a great work from home job (with good pay) and benefit from a better quality of life with the freedom of flexible hours and the ability to work
Crowdfunding is a relatively novel way for startups and entrepreneurs to raise money to support their fledgling companies - and sometimes it actually works.
Use the best business software and services to help start and grow your company quickly and efficiently - with the least cost.
Fiverr is an online marketplace offering a huge range of services (from the sublime to the ridiculous) that startups can utilize, for only five dollars.
If you're wondering what service could possibly offer any value for only $5, then you are in exactly the same boat I was.
Most of the services (called gigs) that are available on fiverr are probably not even worth the five bucks they charge. But, if you are willing to dig a bit deeper, there are a few gems that can save you a lot of time and money.
In case you haven't already heard, there's a little kitty out there with feline dwarfism that earns more than you do.
Grumpy cat, according to Wikipedia, seems to be raking in millions of dollars, and this might strike you as odd given how difficult it is to start a successful enterprise these days.
Small retail businesses and eCommerce sites need to consistently choose the best products to sell in order to maximize their profits.
But trying to find this information is not always easy, and there are plenty of "silver bullet" sites (and con men) that will try to make a profit by advising you to stock products that give them commission.
It's far better to be able to do your own research into which products offer the best value for money for your own customers and clients. After all, you know your business best.
The SBA (Small Business Administration) is a United States government department tasked with supporting and nurtur
