Never underestimate the power of daily affirmations. In fact, many people have used this technique to build themselves up from scratch as they wake up each morning determined to learn something that would help them get one step closer to their goals. Even though staying positive is one of the characteristics that will help you, it is not the only thing. To become a successful entrepreneur, one must strive to work hard. Failure is inevitable, but the way you handle that failure will determine how successful you will be in life.
For many people, success is not determined in terms of a paycheck. Instead, it is a route to following your passion and dreams and striving hard to make a difference in the world. Entrepreneurs are go-getters who do not step back from responsibility. They carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and work tirelessly to achieve success.
If you are an entrepreneur looking to find some motivation, these successful entrepreneur quotes will encourage you to build your future. You may not know this, but some of the richest, most successful people in the world started with nothing. In fact, they worked incredibly hard to build their future. Consistency, patience, and resilience were their biggest secrets.
Here are some entrepreneurship quotes that will encourage you to start your own venture and not shy away from failure:
1. “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston Churchill
When Britain was going through one of its toughest periods, Churchill was there to grab the reigns. During this time, enemies were letting bombs loose on London each day and were threatening to cross the English Channel.
It was then that Churchill had to step up and lead his country. Of course, he knew that to succeed, he had to fail first. This is one of the most important things to realize when on your journey to entrepreneurship – you can fail today and start over tomorrow.
2. “Play by the rules, but be ferocious.” -Phil Knight
Knight’s famous brand has a tagline that is known to millions all over the world today. “Just Do It!” can be seen as an entrepreneurship quotation that does not have any boundaries. Of course, you still need to follow a certain set of regulations as you push to achieve your goals in life.
These regulations, at the end of the day, have been set to encourage fair competition. It must be kept in mind that you can do everything right and still be incredibly passionate about your goals. Rules should not stop you.
3. “Business opportunities are like buses; there’s always another one coming.” -Richard Branson
Whether it is record labels or airlines, Richard Branson is an inspiration that as long as one is determined, he can achieve anything in the world. Even though you will not always find the door open, you just have to look hard enough for the hidden key or work towards shoving it open with all your force. The door will open; it is inevitable. Turning the lock and finding your way in is your responsibility alone.
The lesson behind this quote is that an eager businessman needs to grab the bull by the horns and take control. He cannot be passive and lazy. Success needs to be fought for. Branson fought to become an entrepreneur, as well as an adventurer. He is the founder of the Virgin Group, with more than 400 companies under its wing. Branson is known best for his publicity stunts, as well as his success in powerboat racing and hot-air ballooning.
4. “Every problem is a gift- without problems, we would not grow.” -Anthony Robbins
Many people want to believe that life is a frictionless journey. However, this is not true. It is idealistic to believe that you can achieve everything in life without facing your fair share of issues or problems. You know the belief that if you were always happy, you wouldn’t value happiness?
If there wasn’t any form of pushback and if you didn’t have to struggle for the things you wanted in life, you would not grow. It is under pressure that people push themselves to the limit and realize exactly what they are capable of. The problems we face in life help build resilience by encouraging creativity and building humility.
Did you know that Anthony’s road to success started as a broke janitor? He would struggle to save his week’s pay and would try to be smart about the way he spent it. He did not have much wealth while growing up. In fact, his childhood days were the toughest days that he had to live through. When he was 17, he saved enough money to attend a Jim Rohn seminar. This changed his life. He begged Rohn to help him and would attend regular coaching classes. By his mid-20’s, Robbins was able to develop a coaching style that made him a brilliant speaker. He went on to become a speaker, author, and philanthropist.
5. “You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” -Warren Buffett
The idea of right and wrong should not hold you back. Many people live in fear of messing up and are so scared of failure that they refuse to try new things. They do not challenge themselves and continue to live in the shadows. This is why they miss out on some great opportunities to become successful. Right and wrong is a contract that many people have found themselves bound to. To believe that the right choice will come easy and one will not have to struggle in life is completely idealistic.
To be successful, you need to ensure that you do not make any careless decisions. Always think every step through, and carefully plan and execute your dreams. Do the best you can and leave the rest to fate. The reason why Warren Buffet is one of the most famous and successful investors known to man is that he consistently managed not to make the wrong decision in life.
Buffet is known as the “Oracle of Omaha.” He is the biggest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, which controls more than 60 companies, such as Geico, Duracell, and Dairy Queen. Even though he is the king of investing, Buffest is known for his frugality, along with his endless wealth. Keep in mind that Buffet is a self-made billionaire. He worked his entire life tirelessly to become successful at the age of 56. Today, he is one of the wealthiest men known in history.
6. “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”- Anais Nin
Nin had delved deep into the creative act. She was a diarist, essayist, novelist and wrote shorts stories and erotica. She would have to get out of her head and put pen to her stories so that they would die with her. Of course, we all know how scary it is to let our thoughts be known to the world. Keeping them tucked away is safer. We feel less vulnerable when there is no one to reject or criticize our ideas.
Nin went through the exact same process. On days she did not feel like opening up to the world, she forced herself to be brave. She knew that risk had to be taken if she wanted to produce something that could make her work known to the world.
Whenever you look at a famous entrepreneurship quote, you must remember that bravery is the first step to success. If you are not willing to take risks or put yourself out there, success will be impossible.
7. “I don’t know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it.” -Susan Butcher
When reading quotes about entrepreneurship, you are bound to come across one that emphasizes the importance of not quitting. Of course, life is hard, and sometimes, all you might want to do is throw in the towel. However, even if you get exhausted, the key is to take a break and start over the next day. You will always face obstacles, but giving up should not be an option.
This is the attitude that helped Susan Butcher achieve her dreams. She was an American sled-dog racer and trainer who stayed at the top for more than a decade. When she was 16, she started to train dogs, and from then, she knew she wanted to make a career out of this. She had always been athletic, a quality that helped her excel and fueled her relentless mindset.
Butcher became known as one of the very few women who managed to fight her way into a sport that was mostly dominated by men. Her strong, disciplined personality was an inspiration to many, mainly because she was a self-made individual who did not give up on her dreams and continued to let her passion lead the way to her success.
8. “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” -Theodore Roosevelt
Have you heard of the famous phrase, “the ends justify the means?” Oftentimes, we become so caught up in the final product that we do not take into value the things we learn on the way. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, are successful or unsuccessful- what matters is that you did the best you could, and you learned a lot while you were at it.
Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States. He was also a naturalist, writer, and soldier. Born in an important family of Dutch and English ancestry, Roosevelt’s father was known to be a successful businessman and philanthropist. From a young age, Roosevelt had severe asthma and terrible eyesight. These followed him well into adulthood. However, he did not let them hold him back. He worked hard to build a strong physique, incorporating his love for vigorous sports, making it a lifestyle. Alongside a politician, he also became a successful and strong outdoorsman.
9. “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” -Steve Jobs
Many individuals look at successful people like Steve Jobs and do not realize the amount of hard work, time, and effort that went into getting to that point. Of course, as human beings, we only tend to notice success after we have reached there. The journey becomes invisible. However, it is important to know that the roots of success lie further down. They are the reason for stabilization and growth. When looking at successful people, you need to realize the pain and struggle they had to go through. Not everyone was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
Take Steve Jobs, for example. He was born to an unmarried graduate student who put him up for adoption. A family came to adopt Jobs, but his biological mother was not ready to give her child up to parents who had not graduated from college. Eventually, the family convinced his mother and promised to send Jobs to college when the time came. However, as fate would have it, Jobs dropped out of college because he did not know what he wanted to do in life. He had faith that life would take him somewhere. To make ends meet, he slept on the floor of his friend’s room and sold Coke bottles.
During this time, Steve Jobs took calligraphy classes out of sheer interest. These classes went on to help him form fonts and understand spacing for his Macintosh computer. Soon, he started his own company in a garage. Who knew that ten years later, this company would be worth over $2 billion? When looking at Steve Jobs, no one realizes the struggles he had to go through.
10. “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
Hadfield was right when he said that anything you do comes with an aspect of failure. Many people refuse to try new things because they are scared that they will fail or they believe that they will make a fool out of themselves. However, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the only person holding you back from success is you. Of course, different things have different levels of risk, but if you do not get out there and try, you could miss out on chances to be successful.
Take Chris Hadfield, for example. He played a major role in installing Canadarm 2- the robotic arm that was important to the existence of the International Space Station (ISS). Mid-mission, Hadfield noticed that his water bag had started to leak inside his spacesuit. Soon enough, his eyes were burning ferociously. In a spaceship moving 17,500 miles per hour, Hadfield lost his vision. During this time, he felt fear. He did not have any control over what would happen. He feared the unknown as he felt helpless and alarmed.
Hadfield believes that one can never feel truly ready without understanding and thinking about all the things that could go wrong. To succeed, one must always have a backup plan. Hence, it is important to step out of your comfort zone and think about the worst-case scenario.
11. “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
Of course, the president has his fair share of stories about success and failure. For example, he worked incredibly hard at the Affordable Healthcare Act, only for it to die down. However, Obama continued to strive and work towards the goals and dreams that he had set out for himself. He learned to compromise, to convince people with his works, to surround himself with like-minded individuals, and he continued to labor- day in and day out. He worked hard and welcomed failure as an opportunity to try again. Not once did he give up. He believed in himself and remained resilient.
When finding quotes on entrepreneurship, many people forget that the key to success is perseverance. You cannot give up each time you fail. In fact, you must stay committed and learn to get back up each time you fall. From the start, Barak Obama did not have an easy life. His father left to pursue his dreams when Obama was only two, leaving behind his child and wife. After the divorce of his parents, Obama was raised by his mother and stepdad. He dabbled between Indonesian and Hawaiian cultures and was raised as a white kid, as well as a black kid. With no father to look up to and prominent discrimination to battle all by himself, Obama has fought through a lifetime of pain and struggle to get to where he is today.
12. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” -Albert Schweitzer
Many people believe that success will bring them happiness. They think that once they are successful, they will earn loads of money and people will look up to them, and their self-worth will shoot up into the sky. However, this is not true. The ironic thing is that happiness lies in the journey, not in the goal itself. You can fail and still be happy because of the people you met on the way and the things you learned. As an entrepreneur, you must never believe that closing one deal or completing one task will bring you happiness and success. The truth is that as long as you are passionate about the things you do, you will remain happy and motivated to do more.
Albert Schweitzer was a religious philosopher, along with a musicologist and medical missionary. He founded the Schweitzer Hospital that was known to provide unlimited medical services for the residents of Gabon. Schweitzer spent his life in service, learning the art of medicine and giving back to society. The funds earned in his early life went towards the hospital he founded in Gaon. Since he was born in a privileged family, he made up his mind to help others by the time he touched thirty. He and his wife spent some time in a French internment camp as prisoners of war. However, this did not deter Schweitzer from his goals. He continued to preach, teach, and perform in concerts.
From Schweitzer, we learn the importance of being humble. Even though he was born in a rich household, he was determined to help the needy and underprivileged during his lifetime. As an entrepreneur, you must recognize your blessings and try to give back as much as you can. Giving back to those who cannot afford it will bring you happiness as you feel good about yourself.
Bottom Line
Many people lose their way on the way to success. They fall into drugs, depression, and alcohol and completely lose sight of their interests. The key to success is to stay patient and persistent. The most famous and successful entrepreneurs did not give up. They stayed resilient and viewed failure as just another stepping stone- one step further to their dream of success.
We hope that these entrepreneurship quotations motivate you to ditch the fear and start your own business. Delving in and creating your own venture from scratch will never be easy, but all the famous entrepreneurs you read about in this article had to go through hell to get to where they are today. Remember, success is not easy, but it definitely achievable.
