It may sound clichéd, but quotes do have the power to motivate and inspire us. In fact, there is scientific research that suggests motivational quotes resonate with us on a primal level.
Drawing from my own experience, I’ve found myself seeking motivational quotes to overcome the tendency to procrastinate or to shrug off a bad day.
Maybe you’ve felt the same while facing obstacles in your entrepreneurial path?
As a result, in this post, I’ve compiled 125 of the best quotes for entrepreneurs.
You’ll find quotes from entrepreneurs from all walks of life, famous authors, historical figures, philosophers, sports personalities, and other achievers. A few of these quotes are excerpts from fictional work.
I revisit these quotes from time to time when things get tough. I hope you find them as thought-provoking as I do.
Without further ado, here are 125 inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs.
125 Motivational Quotes for Entrepreneurs
1. “I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”
— Richard Feynman, American theoretical physicist and author of Six Easy Pieces
2. “$1,000,000 in the bank isn’t the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows.”
— Tim Ferriss, American entrepreneur, investor, and author of The 4-Hour Work Week
3. “The big money is not in the buying and the selling, but in the waiting.”
— Charlie Munger, American billionaire investor and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
4. “Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.”
— Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group
5. “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, retired Canadian Space Agency astronaut
6. “Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It’s the mastery of fear. It’s about getting up one more time than we fall down.”
― Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post and author of Thrive
7. “Even if your ambitions are huge, start slow, start small, build gradually, build smart.”
— Gary Vaynerchuk, serial entrepreneur and founder of Vayner Media; author of Crushing It
8. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
— Frank Herbert, American science-fiction author; best known for Dune and its five sequels
(The above quote is from Frank Herbert’s bestselling novel Dune)
9. “Don’t let others convince you that the idea is good when your gut tells you it’s bad.”
— Kevin Rose, American entrepreneur and venture capitalist; co-founder of Digg
10. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
— Mahatma Gandhi, Indian anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist
11. “In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher; author of Meditations
12. “One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.”
— Bruce Lee, Chinese American martial artist, actor, and philosopher; author of Tao of Jeet Kun Do
13. “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”
— Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
14. “Every night before going to sleep, we must ask ourselves: what weakness did I overcome today? What virtue did I acquire?”
— Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher
15. “I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.”
— Douglas Adams, English author and humorist; best known for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
(The above quote is an excerpt from Douglas Adams’ The Salmon of Doubt)
16. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher
17. “Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”
— Muhammad Ali, American professional boxer; frequently ranked as the best heavyweight boxer of all time
18. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
— Confucius, ancient Chinese philosopher
19. “If you want momentum, you’ll have to create it yourself, right now, by getting up and getting started.”
— Ryan Holiday, author of Conspiracy and Trust Me, I’m Lying
20. “I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.”
— Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States
21. “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.”
— James Clear, author of Atomic Habits
22. “People don’t want what you make. They want the way it will make them feel, and there aren’t that many feelings to choose from.”
— Seth Godin, American entrepreneur and author of All Marketers Are Liars and Purple Cow
23. “Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.”
— Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host and philanthropist
24. “If you double the number of experiments you do per year you’re going to double your inventiveness.”
— Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon
25. “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
— Warren Buffet, American investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
26. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
— Bill Gates, American business magnate, philanthropist, and co-founder of Microsoft
27. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
— Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist; widely regarded as one of the greatest physicists of all time
28. “The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”
— Eric Ries, American entrepreneur and author of The Lean Startup
29. “Sleep is that time when you’re working on startup problems with your eyes closed.”
— Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot
30. “Best way to sell something: don’t sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, and trust of those who might buy.”
— Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Moz and author of Lost and Founder
31. “No one ever got rich checking their email more often.”
— Noah Kagan, founder of AppSumo
32. “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.”
— Larry King, American TV and radio host
33. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
— Socrates, ancient Greek philosopher
34. “When in doubt, bootstrap. Using your own personal resources is the easiest way to start a business. You don’t have to convince investors about the merits of your idea. You just have to convince yourself.”
— Ryan Holmes, co-founder of Hootsuite
35. “People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.”
— Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla
36. “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
— Epictetus, Greek Stoic philosopher
37. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
— Maya Angelou, American poet and civil rights activist; author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
38. “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
— Shunryū Suzuki, Soto Zen monk and teacher
39. “The idea that you could change the world from your bedroom was pretty compelling to me.”
— Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable
40. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
— Mark Twain, American writer and humorist; author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
41. “Becoming is better than being.”
— Carol Dweck, American psychologist and author of The Mindset
42. “Done is better than perfect.”
— Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of Lean In
43. “Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea.”
— Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp and co-author of Rework
44. “Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”
— Conan O’Brien, American television host and media personality
45. “We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.”
— Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art
46. “Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you.”
— Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur and investor; appears frequently on Shark Tank
47. “A schedule defends from chaos and whim.”
— Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize-winning American author
48. “I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. Since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition.”
— Larry Page, co-founder of Google
49. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
— Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese philosopher and writer; author of Tao Te Ching
50. “What gets measured gets managed.”
— Peter Drucker, Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author
51. “The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner.”
— Naval Ravikant, Indian-American entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of AngelList
Recommended reading: 50 Best Naval Ravikant Quotes to Inspire You
52. “Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”
— Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and co-host of This Old Marketing podcast
53. “Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across.”
— Guy Kawasaki, American marketing specialist, author, and venture capitalist
54. “When you see only problems, you’re not seeing clearly.”
— Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike and author of Shoe Dog
55. “Carefully watch how people live, get an intuitive sense as to what they might want, and then go with it. Don’t do market research.”
— Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony and author of Made in Japan
56. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
— Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American actor and former governor of California
57. “I didn’t get where I am by thinking about it or dreaming it. I got there by doing it.”
— Estée Lauder, founder of Estée Lauder Companies Inc
58. “Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom, which is the ending of fear.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher and author of Freedom from the Known
59. “The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there’s two things: You’re getting off first, or I’m going to die.”
— Will Smith, American actor, rapper, and film producer
60. “I’ve missed more than 9000 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, American former professional basketball player and six-time NBA champion
61. “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 of Dropbox
62. “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.”
— Jerry Seinfeld, American stand-up comedian and actor; best known for the hit ’90s sitcom Seinfeld
63. “Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
— Neil Gaiman, English author; best known for The Sandman series and American Gods
(The above quote is from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series of graphic novels)
64. “Nothing will stop you being creative more effectively as the fear of making a mistake.”
– John Cleese, English actor and comedian; best known for Monty Python and Fawlty Towers
65. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
— Walt Disney, founder of The Walt Disney Company
66. “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.”
— Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company
67. “A founder is not a job, it’s a role, an attitude.”
— Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter
68. “Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.”
— Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
69. “If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive — no matter how skilled or talented you are.”
— Cal Newport, American author; best known for Deep Work and So Good They Can’t Ignore You
70. “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the United States
71. “Keep your friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.”
— Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power
72. “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”
— Dorothy Parker, American poet and writer
73. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning
74. “The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete.”
— Peter Thiel, venture capitalist and author of Zero to One
75. “You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end.”
— Jessica Herrin, founder and CEO of Stella & Dot
76. “The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake – you can’t learn anything from being perfect.”
— Adam Osborne, British-American author, software publisher, and computer designer
77. “Wear your failure as a badge of honor.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google
78. “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 of O’Reilly Media
79. “There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
— Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos and author of Delivering Happiness
80. “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, co-founder of id Software
81. “Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you. Let them make you even hungrier to succeed.”
— Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States and author of Becoming
82. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
— Helen Keller, American author and political activist
83. “Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
— Plato, ancient Greek philosopher and author of The Republic
84. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States
85. “If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100% from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.”
— Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram
86. “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
— Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor; one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art
87. “Like most entrepreneurs, getting motivated to work has never been a problem for me; focus comes through delegating tasks to the best people you can find.”
— Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit
88. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
— Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States
89. “Hire the right people and get the hell out of the way.”
— David Fincher, American director; best known for The Social Network and Fight Club
90. “I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger.”
— Serena Williams, American professional tennis player and winner of 23 Grand Slam singles titles
91. “Humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers, or equations, and the simpler the story, the better.”
— Yuval Noah Harari, Israeli public intellectual and author of Sapiens
92. “The main thing to do is relax and let your talent do the work.”
— Charles Barkley, American former professional basketball player
93. “When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you.”
— Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why
94. “However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”
— Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author of A Brief History of Time
95. “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
— Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States and author of A Promised Land
96. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
— Vince Lombardi, former American football coach; widely regarded as the greatest coach in football history
97. “In the end, winning is sleeping better.”
– Jodie Foster, American actress, director, and producer; winner of two Academy Awards
98. “There’s a profound difference between interest and commitment. Interest reads a book; commitment applies the book 50 times.”
— MJ DeMarco, author of The Millionaire Fastlane
99. “My best successes came on the heels of failure.”
— Barbara Corcoran, American entrepreneur and investor; appears frequently on Shark Tank
100. “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”
— Mae West, American stage and film actress
101. “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
— Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel prize winner
102. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”
— Angela Duckworth, American academic and psychologist; author of Grit
103. “Knowledge is the beginning of practice; doing is the completion of knowing.”
— Wang Yangming, Chinese philosopher and politician during the Ming dynasty
104. “You can do so much in ten minutes’ time. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for good. Divide your life into ten-minute units and sacrifice as few of them as possible in meaningless activity.”
— Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA
105. “There is nothing so fatal to character as half-finished tasks.”
— David Lloyd George, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
106. “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer, poet, and journalist; author of The Little Prince
107. “There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.”
— Susan Cain, American writer and lecturer; author of Quiet
108. “We led with our conviction rather than rational, because rational said it was impossible.”
— Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify
109. “An entrepreneur must pitch a potential investor for what the company is worth as well as sell the dream on how much of a profit can be made.”
– Daymond John, American entrepreneur and investor; appears frequently on Shark Tank
110. “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
— Sun Tzu, Chinese military strategist, philosopher, and author of The Art of War
111. “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
— Miles Kington, British journalist
112. “Success is very much the intersection of luck and hard work.”
— Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook and Asana
113. “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”
— Frederick Douglass, American social reformer, abolitionist, and writer
114. “We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
— Kurt Vonnegut, American author; best known for Slaughterhouse-Five
115. “An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff, and builds a plane on his way down.”
— Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and author of Blitzscaling
116. “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”
— Ernest Hemingway, American author; best known for The Old and the Sea and A Farewell to Arms
117. “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
— Sam Walton, founder of Walmart
118. “Build a culture that rewards—not punishes—people for getting problems into the open where they can be solved.”
— Ben Horowitz, American entrepreneur, investor, and author of The Hard Thing About Hard Things
119. “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise, instead, seek what they sought.”
— Matsuo Bashō, Japanese poet of the Edo period
120. “The good ideas will survive.”
— Quentin Tarantino, award-winning American director and screenwriter; best known for Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds
121. “Reading is to the mind, as exercise is to the body.”
— Brian Tracy, Canadian-American author and motivational public speaker
122. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
— Leo Tolstoy, renowned Russian author; best known for War and Peace and Anna Karenina
123. “If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.”
— Frank Wilczek, American theoretical physicist and a Nobel laureate
124. “I don’t stop when I’m tired, I stop when I’m done.”
— David Goggins, retired United States Navy SEAL, ultramarathon runner, and author of Can’t Hurt Me
125. “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”
— Stephen Covey, American educator and author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Final Thoughts
There you have it — 125 of the most inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs.
Did I miss out on any of your favorite quotes for entrepreneurs? Please share them in the comments section below.
If you liked this collection of quotes, please share it on Twitter using the link below:
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on July 20, 2021 and has been updated frequently since then for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
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Hi Sandeep, I love #6. You really need to be fearless to run your own business these days. I also love #123 as if you do a lot you are bound to make some mistakes. And those mistakes you can learn from and even grow your business from them.
Here is my list of inspirational quotes that works for me:
“Be your own engine.” – Regina George
“My thoughts have wings, they fly me to you.” – Dustin Noried
“What he doesn’t know won’t kill him.” – Marilyn Monroe
“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” – Robin Williams
Ultimately, self-love is the best relationship we can have with ourselves. Knowing that each day we are growing and evolving is something to be proud of. We, at times, need advice from others but it’s our life and there will always be ups and downs no matter what we do with it.
I looked back on this post. Indeed this post is very helpful. I have used some lines in this post. Very helpful indeed.
I kept on going back to this post because it is very inspirational. When I needed that push. I go back to this and read. The photos are engaging and very inspiring to me. I will still go back when I am in a slump for sure and will drop some comments again and again.
Every business has a time, including blogging, when we are about to lose interest. We get stuck at a point where it seems like there is nothing to do anymore. That is the time when I look for inspirational quotes and try to find the meaning behind them. Thanks for these quotes.