173 Quotes To Motivate Entrepreneurs To Start Now (2023)

1. “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.” - Marissa Mayer, co-founder of Sunshine Contact

2. “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, AOL Co-Founder and CEO

3. Celebrity makes $80+ million a year, you will never meet them. You pay them full price or extra for what they sell. A small business owner makes $25K – $100K a year, they live next door, and you want a discount. – Anonymus

4. “Starting a successful business is not tricky. Starting a successful business does not require above average intelligence. Starting a successful business does require having a pig-headed, purpose-driven tenacity about achieving your life goals and fulfilling your life’s vision through providing products and services that offer uncompromising quality in a scalable and duplicatable way.” – Clay Clark, The Wheel of Wealth

5. “Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.” —Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media

6. “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” —J.K. Rowling, novelist

7. “When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” —Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture

8. “I don’t have the time or energy to think or worry about what someone else is doing. I mind my own business and that is plenty for me. I suggest you do the same and just mind your business for a simpler life.”

9. “You can and should set your own limits and clearly articulate them. This takes courage, but it is also liberating and empowering, and often earns you new respect.” - Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance

10. “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.”

11. “I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint—and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” - Oprah Winfrey

12. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.

13. When you buy something made by a person, there is something special there, and you feel it. The consciousness with which a thing is made is often more important than the thing itself. – J. Donald Walters

14. “You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.”

15. “As a leader, it’s a major responsibility on your shoulders to practice the behavior you want others to follow.” - Himanshu Bhatia, founder & CEO of Ricovr Healthcare

16. “Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationship.”

17. “Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, whether it’s leaving home, whether it’s getting married, or whether it’s flying into space.” – Chris Hadfield

18. “You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.” — Napoleon Hill

19. If we want to have these amazing small businesses, we need to actively seek out and support those who put their necks on the line to chase down a dream. Sometimes it may be a bit faster to zip through the drive-through line, but I can almost guarantee that the personal service and higher quality product will be worth the extra minute it may take. It could be a lasting relationship that holds more value in the long run. – Branch Street Coffee Roasters

20. “Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else.”

21. “Visualize a way to make a specific part of your world a better place for all those living in it and not just yourself. No matter how great your business concept is, it can only attain true commercial success if it is beneficial to more people than just you.”

22. Jeff Bezos: “Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.”

23. “So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.” - Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr

24. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States

25. “Success depends on employees. For me, knowing and connecting with my employees is very important.” - Divine Ndhlukula, founder and Managing Director of DDNS Security Operations

26. “Those I call are very different from Orphans in that they’re absolutely convinced they’re some sort of social wit. Without a doubt they’re intelligent, and most likely very wealthy, although their wealth will come from a business they were set up in by others from their ‘school.’ They’ll have had no need to go to university. Rich people will have set them up in business, possibly Public Relations or something like that, they’ll have helped them write a business plan, loaned them money, and provided advice and guidance at every step of the way. As I say, money would have been forthcoming from investors until the business was able to run itself. And then Horace will swan about as if he did it all himself.”

27. “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” –Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Cosmetics Founder

28. “There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” —Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything

29. “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” —Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft

30. “We entrepreneurs are loners, vagabonds, troublemakers. Success is simply a matter of finding and surrounding ourselves with those open-minded and clever souls who can take our insanity and put it to good use.”

31. “The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” —Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States

32. “If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.” —Ryan Freitas, co-founder of About.me

33. “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, US author, political activist, and lecturer

34. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” —Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the civil rights movement

35. “The stars will never align, and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.” —Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week

36. “Failures are life’s way of nudging you and letting you know you are off course. Trying new things and not being afraid to fail along the way are more important than what you learn in school.” - Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx

37. When you buy from a small business you’re not helping a CEO buy a third vacation home. You are helping a little girl get dance lessons, a little boy his team jersey, a mom put food on the table, a dad pay a mortgage or a student pay for college. – Anonymus

38. “Question of the day: Two Indie authors publish their first books which are true to form, statistical failures. There are over a million books published in the world each year and of those books most will sell 200 copies or less. These authors are average. They both max out at 200.

39. “I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.” – Warren Buffett

40. “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” —G. K. Chesterton, writer, poet, and philosopher

41. “So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.” —Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr

42. Today we celebrate side hustles that became main hustles, dreamers that became doers, maxed out credit cards that became thriving businesses, big fails that became big wins, and individuals with ideas that became teams with visions. – Anonymus

43. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder and CEO, Apple

44. “Once you believe that you are infallible, that success will automatically lead to more success, and that you have "got it made," reality will be sure to give you a rude wake-up call. Believing your own bullshit is always a perilous activity, but never more fatal than for the owner of a start-up venture.”

45. “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000.”

46. “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” — Charles F Kettering

47. “Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give—with a few exceptions—generalize whatever they did. Don’t over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.” —Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest

48. “Risk is essential. There is not growth of inspiration in staying within what is safe and comfortable. Once you find out what you do best, why not try something else?”

49. “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

50. “It’s almost always harder to raise capital than you thought it would be, and it always takes longer. So plan for that.” –Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist and Author

51. “Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.” —Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post and founder of Thrive Global

52. “As a CEO, I am finding that I have to become a learning CEO. I have to go to school all the time because I am learning new skills that I need to run this company and I am realising that I am not equipped to just coast. I have to constantly renew my skills.” - Indra Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsi

53. “Whatever you do, don’t play it safe. Don’t do things the way they’ve always been done. Don't try to fit the system. If you do what's expected of you, you’ll never accomplish more than others expect.” - Howard Schultz

54. “Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else.” —Sara Blakely, founder of SPANX

55. “Experience brings acceptance of the fact you cannot do everything yourself. I find people who start business later in life understand the value in surrounding themselves with people who are better than them at some things. Experience shows you the benefit of accepting advice from others.”

56. “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.” - Madam C.J. Walker, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and social activist

57. “All humans are entrepreneurs, not because they should start companies, but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA, and creation is the essence of entrepreneurship.” - Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

58. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” - Steve Jobs

59. “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” - Ray Goforth, Executive Director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace

60. “How many people are completely successful in every department of life? Not one. The most successful people are the ones who learn from their mistakes and turn their failures into opportunities.” – Zig Ziglar

61. “All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

62. “Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something, not even me. All right? You dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.” —Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness

63. “In this lifetime, you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody, except yourself. And after what you’ve gone through, if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen.” —Fortune, Rudy

64. “When you build technology it’s not just a matter of “what.” In most cases the success ends up determined by “how” you build it—which foundations you used, how simple and scalable it is.” - Tobi Lütke, founder and CEO of Shopify

65. “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” —Winston Churchill, prime minister of Great Britain during World War II

66. “There is no such thing as a no-sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client something or he sells you a reason he can’t buy. Either way, a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him? Now be relentless, that’s it, I’m done.” – Boiler Room

67. “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” – Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

68. “Don’t be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities, and don’t let the bastards get you down.” –Michael Bloomberg, Former Mayor of New York and Founder of Bloomberg L.P.

69. “A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.”

70. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Apple

71. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” –Michael Jordan, NBA Legendary Basketball MVP

72. “Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.” - Peter Drucker

73. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” — Vince Lombardi

74. 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

75. “Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph: a beginning, a struggle and a victory.” –Mahatma Gandhi, Political and Spiritual Leader

76. “User experience is everything. It always has been, but it’s undervalued and underinvested in. If you don’t know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company on board.” –Evan Williams, Co-Founder, Twitter

77. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” - Vince Lombardi

78. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt, known as “First Lady of the World” for her human rights advocacy

79. “Starting a successful business is not tricky. Starting a successful business does not require above average intelligence. Starting a successful business does require having a pig-headed, purpose-driven tenacity about achieving your life goals and fulfilling your life’s vision through providing products and services that offer uncompromising quality in a scalable and duplicable way.” — Clay Clark

80. “Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” —Jack Canfield, author, motivational speaker, corporate trainer, and entrepreneur

81. “You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don’t give up.” ―Chuck Yeager, former US Air Force officer

82. “How many people are completely successful in every department of life? Not one. The most successful people are the ones who learn from their mistakes and turn their failures into opportunities.”

83. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” —Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton Hotels chain

84. “Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” —Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and inventor

85. “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” —Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, and motivational speaker

86. “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

87. I'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. -Steve Jobs (American business magnate)

88. “No more romanticizing about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a struggle to save your company’s life—and your own skin—every day of the week.” —Spencer Fry, co-founder of CarbonMade

89. “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember, that’s where you will find success.” —Thomas J. Watson, former president of IBM, political figure, and philanthropist

90. “If you wake up deciding what you want to give versus what you’re going to get, you become a more successful person. In other words, if you want to make money, you have to help someone else make money.” - Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings

91. “Don’t try to have it all. Aim for what matters most and what you’re willing to consistently work for. Don’t judge yourself and don’t judge others. Help other women lift each other up.” - Jessica Herrin, CEO and Founder of Stella & Dot

92. “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, Entrepreneur

93. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” –Mark Twain, American Humorist and Author

94. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” —Colin Powell, US statesman and retired four-star general in the United States Army

95. “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” —Tony Robbins, life and business strategist, and author

96. “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” —Michael Jordan, former professional basketball player

97. “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles F. Kettering

98. “Get a mentor in the applicable field if you’re at all unsure of what you’re looking for.” —Kyle Bragger, founder of Forrst and co-founder of Exposure

99. “Don’t ever let someone tell you, You can’t do something. You’ve got a dram, you’ve got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period.” – Pursuit of Happiness

100. “What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone. Know your customer and have a burning desire to succeed.” – Dave Thomas

101. “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” —Ray Goforth, director of strategy and partnerships at Spredfast

102. “Civilization depends on, and civility often requires, the willingness to say, ‘What you are doing is none of my business' and ‘What I am doing is none of your business.'”

103. “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.” - Jeff Bezos

104. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” —Michael Jordan, former professional basketball player

105. “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” —Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of the Wall Street

106. “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

107. “Starting a successful business is not tricky. Starting a successful business does not require above average intelligence. Starting a successful business does require having a pig-headed, purpose-driven tenacity about achieving your life goals and fulfilling your life’s vision through providing products and services that offer uncompromising quality in a scalable and duplicatable way.”

108. “And I’d say one of the great lessons I’ve learned over the past couple of decades, from a management perspective, is that really, when you come down to it, it really is all about people and all about leadership.” - Steve Case, former CEO of AOL

109. “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, entrepreneur, owner of Landmark Theaters and Chairman of AXS TV

110. “Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.”

111. “It is not the genius at the top giving directions that makes people great. It is great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius.” - Simon Sinek, author and motivational speaker

112. “What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” —Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s

113. “Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves—their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.” - Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator, and author

114. “Study successful people and businesses, then do what they did to become successful while making slight modifications to fit your lifestyle, your values, your business model & your goals.” – Clay Clark

115. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs

116. “There’s this joy that comes from sitting down to solve a problem and standing up when it’s done and good. Building a company or managing people is never just done.” - Drew Houston

117. When you support handmade you are not just supporting a person, small business, family, our economy; you are purchasing a small part of an artist’s heart. – Anonymus

118. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.” - Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, and motivational speaker

119. “Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, you’ve got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don’t start, you never get a chance.” - Seth Godin, author and entrepreneur

120. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” —Pelé, professional footballer

121. “You are where you are today because you stand on somebody’s shoulders. And wherever you are heading, you cannot get there by yourself. If you stand on the shoulders of others, you have a reciprocal responsibility to live your life so that others may stand on your shoulders. It’s the quid pro quo of life. We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give.” - Vernon Jordan, business executive and civil rights activist

122. “When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened, or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back.” —Paulo Coelho, lyricist and novelist

123. “If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.

124. “They tell you: Follow your dreams... Dream and dream big. I think that's crap. I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, powerful, engaged people? Are busy doing.”

125. “Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationship.” – Henry Ross Perot

126. “When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say, ‘Wow, that was an adventure,’ not, ‘Wow, I sure felt safe.’” —Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder of Github

127. “A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” —Colin Powell, US statesman and retired four-star general in the United States Army

128. Jon Acuff: “Dear entrepreneurs, you can start a thousand businesses, launch 100 projects, and take dozens of companies public, but you only have one shot at being part of your kid’s childhood. Your kid doesn’t care about your platform, they care about your presence.”

129. “When you work on something that only has the capacity to make you 5 dollars, it does not matter how much harder you work – the most you will make is 5 dollars.”

130. Theodore Roosevelt: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred with dust and sweat; who strives valiantly, who errs and may fall again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming.”

131. “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” —Bernice Johnson Reagon, song composer, and social activist

132. “I got lucky because I never gave up the search. Are you quitting too soon? Or are you willing to pursue luck with a vengeance?” —Jill Konrath, speaker, author and thought leader

133. “Cultivate your own garden and let go of your tendency to examine and judge how others cultivate theirs. Catch yourself in moments of gossip about how others ought to be living and rid yourself of thoughts about how they should be doing it this way, or how they have no right to live and think as they do. Stay busy and involved in your own projects and pursuits.”

134. “Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.” - Richard Branson

135. “Life-fulfilling work is never about the money⁠—when you feel true passion for something, you instinctively find ways to nurture it.” - Eileen Fisher, fashion designer and founder of Eileen Fisher Inc

136. “If you can push through that feeling of being scared, that feeling of taking a risk, really amazing things can happen.” —Marissa Mayer, former president and CEO of Yahoo!

137. “What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” –Dave Thomas, Founder, Wendy’s

138. “Importantly, in a great team, you argue about ideas totally independent of ego. In great teams, the success of your idea is independent from your success. Just helping to find the best idea matters.” - Tobi Lütke

139. “The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.”

140. “Successful people are always thinking about what they can do to move to the next level. Initiative is the drive to do it – to take the first step, and then the next step. The great thing about initiative – is that it's free and available to everyone.”

141. “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” - Albert Einstein

142. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” - Henry Ford

143. “Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” —Golda Meir, fourth Prime Minister of Israel

144. ”Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” —Rocky, Rocky Balboa

145. “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. And, if you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” —Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the US civil rights movement

146. “Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” —Daniel Pink, author

147. “Where there is no wood, a fire goes out, and where there is no gossip, contention ceases. Like charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious person to kindle strife.”

148. “Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationship.” — Henry Ross Perot

149. “A small businesses ability to gain an edge for a profitable niche is not by just focusing on the dynamic market gap, but by identifying a market within the gap.”

150. “Aspiring entrepreneurs have to actually do something that they feel strongly passionate about, and in most cases they should seek inspiration from their own experience. … If you had a terrible experience, you should despise the experience to the extent that you are continuously seeking a solution for it.” - Best Ayiorwoth, founder of Girls Power Micro-Lending Organisation

151. “You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.” – Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

152. If each of us spent 100$ a year more on local businesses instead of chain stores, it would put an extra $3 million a year into our economy, not only that but it would create thousands more jobs. – Anonymus

153. “Making the decision to not follow a system or someone else’s rules has allowed me to really dig into what my own strengths and gifts are without spending time feeling jaded or wasteful.” - Ishita Gupta, founder of Fear.less magazine

154. “My advice for anyone thinking of starting their own business is, above all, don’t wait. If you get an idea in the shower in the morning, try to make it the next day.” - Harley Finkelstein

155. “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

156. “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” —H. Jackson Brown Jr., US author

157. Small businesses provide the feeling that a real person is behind it all, someone who cares more about giving us a quality product or service, over just taking our hard-earned dollars. – Annia Bukhman

158. “Those I call Horace are absolutely convinced they’re some sort of social wit. Without a doubt they’re intelligent, and most likely very wealthy, although their wealth will come from a business they were set up in by others from their ‘school.’ They’ll have had no need to go to university. Rich people will have set them up in business, possibly Public Relations or something like that, they’ll have helped them write a business plan, loaned them money, and provided advice and guidance at every step of the way. Money would have been forthcoming from investors until the business was able to run itself. And then Horace will swan about as if he did it all himself.”

159. “Whatever you do, be different—that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out.” - Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop

160. “Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.” ―Roy T. Bennett, author

161. “What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone. Know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” — Dave Thomas

162. “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” —Les Brown, motivational speaker, author, and former politician

163. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

164. “Feeling confident—or pretending that you feel confident—is necessary to reach for opportunities. It's a cliché, but opportunities are rarely offered; they're seized.”

165. Life is like the monkey bars: you have to let go to move forward. Once you make the decision to leap into entrepreneurship, be sure to loosen your grasp on old concepts so you can swing your way to new ones.

166. “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” —Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

167. 37 Signals: “Instead of freaking out about these constraints, embrace them. Let them guide you. Constraints drive innovation and force focus. Instead of trying to remove them, use them to your advantage.”

168. “Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.”

169. “Risk is essential. There is not growth of inspiration in staying within what is safe and comfortable. Once you find out what you do best, why not try something else?” – Alex Noble

170. “If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started.” - Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox

171. “The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” – Barack Obama

172. “People don’t take opportunities because the timing is bad, the financial side unsecure. Too many people are overanalyzing. Sometimes you just have to go for it.” - Michelle Zatlyn, Co-founder, President, and COO of Cloudflare

173. “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” –Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder and CEO

174. “The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.” —Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA