Inspiration

200+ Quotes to Ignite Your Entrepreneurial Fire

Last updated: July 31, 2026•12 min read

Article by

Graham Beck

Graham Beck is the Co-founder and CEO of DropDesk, a platform dedicated to a singular, transformative mission: unlocking the potential of underutilized spaces to foster human connection.

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Whether you need a space, want to earn from yours, or are ready to build your own marketplace — we have you covered.

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Inspiration

5 Unconventional Brainstorming Techniques to Unlock Your Team's Creativity

Is your team stuck in a creative rut? If your recent meetings have felt more like a chore than a hub of innovation, it might be time to rethink how you approach the drawing board. True brainstorming isn't just about gathering in a conference room and asking for ideas.

Graham Beck•January 28, 2026

Inspiration

Pitch Deck Examples: 27 Decks That Raised Millions

Real pitch deck examples from Airbnb, Uber, Facebook, Buffer, LinkedIn and 20+ startups — the exact slides they used and why each one raised millions.

Graham Beck•January 27, 2026

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Inspiration

200+ Quotes to Ignite Your Entrepreneurial Fire

ByGraham Beck

Last updated: July 31, 2026•12 min read

Looking for inspiration? These 205 quotes are here to fuel whatever you're building. Because the best ideas don't stay ideas — the people behind these words acted. Whether you want to find a space to work from, earn from a space you own, or build your own marketplace, let's get you started.

Startup Quotes — On Execution & Getting Started

The gap between a dream and reality is action. These quotes remind us that planning is useful, but doing is essential.

"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard." – Guy Kawasaki, AllTop Co-founder
"We have a 'strategic' plan. It's called doing things." – Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines Co-founder
"The value of an idea lies in the using of it." – Thomas Edison, General Electric Co-founder
"It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen." – Scott Belsky, Behance Co-founder
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." – Walt Disney, Disney Founder
"Vision without execution is just hallucination." – Henry Ford
"Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not." – Michael Dell, Dell Chairman and CEO
"The only thing worse than starting something and failing... is not starting something." – Seth Godin, Author and Blogger
"Get big quietly, so you don't tip off potential competitors." – Chris Dixon, Investor
"Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day." – Joel Spolsky, Stack Exchange CEO
"Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless." – James Cash Penney, J.C. Penney Founder
"Do or do not. There is no try." – Yoda
"Action is the foundational key to all success." – Pablo Picasso
"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done." – Bruce Lee
"The distance between your dreams and reality is called action." – Unknown
"Don't wait. The time will never be just right." – Napoleon Hill
"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." – Henry Ford
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." – George S. Patton
"Done is better than perfect." – Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO
"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us just get up and go to work." – Stephen King
"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." – Arthur Ashe
"If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." – Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Co-founder
"You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down." – Reid Hoffman
"Everything you want is on the other side of fear." – Jack Canfield
"Think big, start small, move fast." – Unknown

Success Quotes — On Failure, Resilience & the Hard Truths

Mistakes are not the opposite of success; they are part of success. Here is how the greats handle the inevitable stumbling blocks.

"Make mistakes faster." – Andrew Grove, Intel Co-founder
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." – Bill Gates, Microsoft Co-founder
"I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying." – Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder
"Don't worry about failure; you only have to be right once." – Drew Houston, Dropbox Co-founder
"Turn a perceived risk into an asset." – Aaron Patzer, Mint Founder
"Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical." – Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO
"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." – Henry Ford
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." – Winston Churchill
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." – Thomas Edison
"Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you a person who has never achieved anything." – Albert Einstein
"The biggest risk is not taking any risk." – Mark Zuckerberg
"Fail often so you can succeed sooner." – Tom Kelley
"Behold the turtle, he makes progress only when he sticks his neck out." – Bruce Levin
"If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business." – Ray Kroc, McDonald's Founder
"Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes." – Arianna Huffington
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." – Robert F. Kennedy
"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all." – J.K. Rowling
"Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again." – Richard Branson
"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." – Woody Allen
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
"You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over." – Richard Branson
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." – John A. Shedd
"Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever." – Lance Armstrong
"Seven times down, eight times up." – Japanese Proverb
"If you're going through hell, keep going." – Winston Churchill

Business isn't always glamorous. These quotes capture the grind, the struggle, and the reality of the journey.

"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, CarbonMade Co-founder
"I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one." – Bill Gates
"Sustaining a successful business is a hell of a lot of work, and staying hungry is half the battle." – Wendy Tan White, MoonFruit CEO
"If you're passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful." – Pierre Omidyar, eBay Founder
"Don't take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they did." – Ben Silbermann, Pinterest Founder
"Don't be cocky. Don't be flashy. There's always someone better than you." – Tony Hsieh
"Don't be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities, and don't let the bastards get you down." – Michael Bloomberg
"So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard." – Caterina Fake, Flickr Co-founder
"The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow." – Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA Founder
"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success." – James Cameron
"Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't." – Unknown
"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." – Beverly Sills
"Opportunities don't happen. You create them." – Chris Grosser
"Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you." – Mark Cuban
"If you are going through hell, keep going." – Winston Churchill
"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same." – Colin R. Davis
"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." – Henry David Thoreau
"Don't wish it were easier. Wish you were better." – Jim Rohn
"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." – Tim Notke
"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." – Steve Jobs
"There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs." – Zig Ziglar
"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." – Vidal Sassoon
"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
"You should never take more than you give." – Elton John
"That's the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up." – Walt Disney

Business Quotes — On Leadership, Teams & Culture

No one builds a legacy alone. These quotes focus on hiring, managing, and inspiring the people around you.

"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, LinkedIn Co-founder
"The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world." – Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO
"A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader." – Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures
"If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large." – Jeff Bezos
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." – Peter Drucker
"Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to." – Richard Branson
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." – Helen Keller
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." – Michael Jordan
"Hiring the wrong people is the fastest way to undermine a sustainable business." – Kevin Rose
"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." – Theodore Roosevelt
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams
"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people." – Steve Jobs
"It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do." – Steve Jobs
"Leaders eat last." – Simon Sinek
"Culture is what happens when the boss isn't in the room." – Unknown
"You don't build a business. You build people, and people build the business." – Zig Ziglar
"Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work." – Seth Godin
"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"Earn your leadership every day." – Michael Jordan
"The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be." – Reid Hoffman
"Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers." – Seth Godin
"Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you." – Russell Simmons
"Treat employees like they make a difference and they will." – Jim Goodnight
"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." – Phil Jackson
"Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." – Simon Sinek

Entrepreneur Quotes — On Innovation, Vision & Strategy

Seeing what others don't is the hallmark of an entrepreneur. Here is wisdom on how to think differently.

"We are currently not planning on conquering the world." – Sergey Brin, Google Co-founder
"See things in the present, even if they are in the future." – Larry Ellison, Oracle Co-founder
"Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you." – Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO
"An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create." – David Karp, Tumblr Founder
"In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination." – Steve Case, AOL Co-founder
"An invention that is quickly accepted will turn out to be a rather trivial alteration of something that has already existed." – Edwin Land, Polaroid Co-founder
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." – Steve Jobs
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Peter Drucker
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." – Albert Einstein
"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." – John D. Rockefeller
"There's no shortage of remarkable ideas, what's missing is the will to execute them." – Seth Godin
"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." – Warren Buffett
"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." – Wayne Gretzky
"If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you're probably in trouble." – Omar Hamoui, AdMob Co-founder
"Embrace what you don't know, especially in the beginning, because what you don't know can become your greatest asset." – Sara Blakely, SPANX Founder
"Stay hungry. Stay foolish." – Steve Jobs
"A 'startup' is a company that is confused about: 1. What its product is. 2. Who its customers are. 3. How to make money." – Dave McClure, 500Startups
"Creativity is intelligence having fun." – Albert Einstein
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." – Henry Ford
"Disrupt yourself or someone else will." – Unknown
"The best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch." – Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
"You can't solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level." – Albert Einstein
"Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it." – Seth Godin
"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from." – Jodie Foster
"Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point." – Henry Mintzberg

Small Business Quotes — On Customers, Product & Money

Without a product that works and a customer who cares, you don't have a business. You just have a hobby.

"Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don't tell." – Lisa Stone, BlogHer Co-founder
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." – Steve Jobs
"You just have to pay attention to what people need and what has not been done." – Russell Simmons
"If you're going to put your product in beta – put your business model in beta with it." – Joe Kraus, Google Ventures
"You can't make anything viral, but you can make something good." – Peter Shankman, HARO Founder
"It's more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you." – Jason Cohen, Smart Bear Software
"Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect." – Jack Dorsey, Twitter Co-founder
"Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves." – Steve Jobs
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." – Bill Gates
"People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it." – Simon Sinek
"A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all." – Michael LeBoeuf
"The customer's perception is your reality." – Kate Zabriskie
"Loyal customers, they don't just come back, they don't simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you." – Chip Bell
"If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful." – Jeff Bezos
"Quality is the best business plan." – John Lasseter
"The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary." – Sam Walton
"Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers." – Seth Godin
"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." – Henry Ford
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." – Leonardo da Vinci
"Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room." – Jeff Bezos
"Good design is good business." – Thomas Watson Jr.
"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages." – Henry Ford
"The more you engage with customers the things become clearer and it becomes easier to determine what you should be doing." – John Russell
"Make the customer the hero of your story." – Ann Handley
"Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems." – Sergey Brin

Financial sustainability is the fuel for your mission. Here is how to think about capital.

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." – Warren Buffett
"Stay self-funded as long as possible." – Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon Founder
"Don't worry about funding if you don't need it. Today it's cheaper to start a business than ever." – Noah Everett, Twitpic Founder
"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
"Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the up market." – Jason Calacanis
"Never spend your money before you have it." – Thomas Jefferson
"Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king." – Unknown
"The lack of money is the root of all evil." – Mark Twain
"Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1." – Warren Buffett
"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." – Will Rogers
"Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship." – Benjamin Franklin
"Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant." – P.T. Barnum
"Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options." – Chris Rock
"It's not your salary that makes you rich, it's your spending habits." – Charles A. Jaffe
"Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are." – James W. Frick
"Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." – Jim Rohn
"The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing." – Philip Fisher
"Money often costs too much." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you do need." – Warren Buffett
"Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don't find one, it's you." – Mark Cuban
"I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me." – Harland Sanders, KFC Founder
"A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went." – Dave Ramsey
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." – Benjamin Franklin
"Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs." – Zig Ziglar
"Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much." – Erich Fromm

Hustle & Motivation Quotes — On Mindset, Passion & Personal Growth

The biggest battle you will fight is often within your own mind. These quotes are for the long game.

"Stay hungry. And bootstrap." – Rob Kalin, Etsy Co-founder
"Learn early. Learn often." – Drew Houston
"We are our choices. Build yourself a great story." – Jeff Bezos
"Your reputation is more important than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career." – Ryan Freitas
"It's hard to do a really good job on anything you don't think about in the shower." – Paul Graham, YCombinator
"Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success." – Biz Stone, Twitter Co-founder
"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, Github Co-founder
"Anything that is measured and watched, improves." – Bob Parsons, GoDaddy Founder
"Data beats emotions." – Sean Rad, Tinder Founder
"All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA." – Reid Hoffman
"I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars — I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over." – Warren Buffett
"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." – Michelangelo
"Whether you think you can, or think you can't – you're right." – Henry Ford
"Diligence is the mother of good luck." – Benjamin Franklin
"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." – Mary Kay Ash
"High expectations are the key to everything." – Sam Walton
"Trust your instincts." – Estee Lauder
"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
"When you find an idea that you just can't stop thinking about, that's probably a good one to pursue." - Josh James, Omniture CEO
"Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become." – Steve Jobs
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." – Steve Jobs
"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." – John Lennon
"You become what you believe." – Oprah Winfrey
"The best revenge is massive success." – Frank Sinatra
"Eighty percent of success is showing up." – Woody Allen
"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." – Jim Rohn
"If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down." – Toni Morrison
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" – Audrey Hepburn
"Believe you can and you're halfway there." – Theodore Roosevelt
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." – Steve Jobs

Article by

Graham Beck

Graham Beck is the Co-founder and CEO of DropDesk, a platform dedicated to a singular, transformative mission: unlocking the potential of underutilized spaces to foster human connection.

Ready to get started?

Whether you need a space, want to earn from yours, or are ready to build your own marketplace — we have you covered.

Find a Venue

Discover unique local venues for work, meetings, events, and celebrations.

Explore Spaces

Become a Host

List your space, service, or activity and earn more.

Start Earning

Build a Marketplace

Launch your own two-sided marketplace in days with no code.

Become a Partner

Inspiration

5 Unconventional Brainstorming Techniques to Unlock Your Team's Creativity

Graham Beck•January 28, 2026

Inspiration

Pitch Deck Examples: 27 Decks That Raised Millions

Real pitch deck examples from Airbnb, Uber, Facebook, Buffer, LinkedIn and 20+ startups — the exact slides they used and why each one raised millions.

Graham Beck•January 27, 2026

Download the App

Book your favorite spots on the go. Available on iOS and Android.

Download on theApp Store

GET IT ONGoogle Play

Startup Quotes — On Execution & Getting Started

The gap between a dream and reality is action. These quotes remind us that planning is useful, but doing is essential.

"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard." – Guy Kawasaki, AllTop Co-founder
"We have a 'strategic' plan. It's called doing things." – Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines Co-founder
"The value of an idea lies in the using of it." – Thomas Edison, General Electric Co-founder
"It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen." – Scott Belsky, Behance Co-founder
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." – Walt Disney, Disney Founder
"Vision without execution is just hallucination." – Henry Ford
"Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not." – Michael Dell, Dell Chairman and CEO
"The only thing worse than starting something and failing... is not starting something." – Seth Godin, Author and Blogger
"Get big quietly, so you don't tip off potential competitors." – Chris Dixon, Investor
"Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day." – Joel Spolsky, Stack Exchange CEO
"Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless." – James Cash Penney, J.C. Penney Founder
"Do or do not. There is no try." – Yoda
"Action is the foundational key to all success." – Pablo Picasso
"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done." – Bruce Lee
"The distance between your dreams and reality is called action." – Unknown
"Don't wait. The time will never be just right." – Napoleon Hill
"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." – Henry Ford
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." – George S. Patton
"Done is better than perfect." – Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO
"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us just get up and go to work." – Stephen King
"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." – Arthur Ashe
"If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." – Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Co-founder
"You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down." – Reid Hoffman
"Everything you want is on the other side of fear." – Jack Canfield
"Think big, start small, move fast." – Unknown

Success Quotes — On Failure, Resilience & the Hard Truths

Mistakes are not the opposite of success; they are part of success. Here is how the greats handle the inevitable stumbling blocks.

"Make mistakes faster." – Andrew Grove, Intel Co-founder
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." – Bill Gates, Microsoft Co-founder
"I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying." – Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder
"Don't worry about failure; you only have to be right once." – Drew Houston, Dropbox Co-founder
"Turn a perceived risk into an asset." – Aaron Patzer, Mint Founder
"Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical." – Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO
"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." – Henry Ford
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." – Winston Churchill
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." – Thomas Edison
"Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you a person who has never achieved anything." – Albert Einstein
"The biggest risk is not taking any risk." – Mark Zuckerberg
"Fail often so you can succeed sooner." – Tom Kelley
"Behold the turtle, he makes progress only when he sticks his neck out." – Bruce Levin
"If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business." – Ray Kroc, McDonald's Founder
"Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes." – Arianna Huffington
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." – Robert F. Kennedy
"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all." – J.K. Rowling
"Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again." – Richard Branson
"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." – Woody Allen
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
"You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over." – Richard Branson
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." – John A. Shedd
"Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever." – Lance Armstrong
"Seven times down, eight times up." – Japanese Proverb
"If you're going through hell, keep going." – Winston Churchill

Business isn't always glamorous. These quotes capture the grind, the struggle, and the reality of the journey.

"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, CarbonMade Co-founder
"I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one." – Bill Gates
"Sustaining a successful business is a hell of a lot of work, and staying hungry is half the battle." – Wendy Tan White, MoonFruit CEO
"If you're passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful." – Pierre Omidyar, eBay Founder
"Don't take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they did." – Ben Silbermann, Pinterest Founder
"Don't be cocky. Don't be flashy. There's always someone better than you." – Tony Hsieh
"Don't be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities, and don't let the bastards get you down." – Michael Bloomberg
"So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard." – Caterina Fake, Flickr Co-founder
"The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow." – Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA Founder
"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success." – James Cameron
"Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't." – Unknown
"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." – Beverly Sills
"Opportunities don't happen. You create them." – Chris Grosser
"Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you." – Mark Cuban
"If you are going through hell, keep going." – Winston Churchill
"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same." – Colin R. Davis
"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." – Henry David Thoreau
"Don't wish it were easier. Wish you were better." – Jim Rohn
"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." – Tim Notke
"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." – Steve Jobs
"There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs." – Zig Ziglar
"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." – Vidal Sassoon
"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
"You should never take more than you give." – Elton John
"That's the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up." – Walt Disney

Business Quotes — On Leadership, Teams & Culture

No one builds a legacy alone. These quotes focus on hiring, managing, and inspiring the people around you.

"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, LinkedIn Co-founder
"The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world." – Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO
"A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader." – Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures
"If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large." – Jeff Bezos
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." – Peter Drucker
"Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to." – Richard Branson
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." – Helen Keller
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." – Michael Jordan
"Hiring the wrong people is the fastest way to undermine a sustainable business." – Kevin Rose
"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." – Theodore Roosevelt
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams
"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people." – Steve Jobs
"It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do." – Steve Jobs
"Leaders eat last." – Simon Sinek
"Culture is what happens when the boss isn't in the room." – Unknown
"You don't build a business. You build people, and people build the business." – Zig Ziglar
"Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work." – Seth Godin
"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"Earn your leadership every day." – Michael Jordan
"The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be." – Reid Hoffman
"Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers." – Seth Godin
"Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you." – Russell Simmons
"Treat employees like they make a difference and they will." – Jim Goodnight
"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." – Phil Jackson
"Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." – Simon Sinek

Entrepreneur Quotes — On Innovation, Vision & Strategy

Seeing what others don't is the hallmark of an entrepreneur. Here is wisdom on how to think differently.

"We are currently not planning on conquering the world." – Sergey Brin, Google Co-founder
"See things in the present, even if they are in the future." – Larry Ellison, Oracle Co-founder
"Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you." – Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO
"An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create." – David Karp, Tumblr Founder
"In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination." – Steve Case, AOL Co-founder
"An invention that is quickly accepted will turn out to be a rather trivial alteration of something that has already existed." – Edwin Land, Polaroid Co-founder
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." – Steve Jobs
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Peter Drucker
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." – Albert Einstein
"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." – John D. Rockefeller
"There's no shortage of remarkable ideas, what's missing is the will to execute them." – Seth Godin
"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." – Warren Buffett
"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." – Wayne Gretzky
"If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you're probably in trouble." – Omar Hamoui, AdMob Co-founder
"Embrace what you don't know, especially in the beginning, because what you don't know can become your greatest asset." – Sara Blakely, SPANX Founder
"Stay hungry. Stay foolish." – Steve Jobs
"A 'startup' is a company that is confused about: 1. What its product is. 2. Who its customers are. 3. How to make money." – Dave McClure, 500Startups
"Creativity is intelligence having fun." – Albert Einstein
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." – Henry Ford
"Disrupt yourself or someone else will." – Unknown
"The best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch." – Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
"You can't solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level." – Albert Einstein
"Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it." – Seth Godin
"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from." – Jodie Foster
"Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point." – Henry Mintzberg

Small Business Quotes — On Customers, Product & Money

Without a product that works and a customer who cares, you don't have a business. You just have a hobby.

"Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don't tell." – Lisa Stone, BlogHer Co-founder
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." – Steve Jobs
"You just have to pay attention to what people need and what has not been done." – Russell Simmons
"If you're going to put your product in beta – put your business model in beta with it." – Joe Kraus, Google Ventures
"You can't make anything viral, but you can make something good." – Peter Shankman, HARO Founder
"It's more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you." – Jason Cohen, Smart Bear Software
"Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect." – Jack Dorsey, Twitter Co-founder
"Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves." – Steve Jobs
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." – Bill Gates
"People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it." – Simon Sinek
"A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all." – Michael LeBoeuf
"The customer's perception is your reality." – Kate Zabriskie
"Loyal customers, they don't just come back, they don't simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you." – Chip Bell
"If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful." – Jeff Bezos
"Quality is the best business plan." – John Lasseter
"The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary." – Sam Walton
"Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers." – Seth Godin
"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." – Henry Ford
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." – Leonardo da Vinci
"Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room." – Jeff Bezos
"Good design is good business." – Thomas Watson Jr.
"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages." – Henry Ford
"The more you engage with customers the things become clearer and it becomes easier to determine what you should be doing." – John Russell
"Make the customer the hero of your story." – Ann Handley
"Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems." – Sergey Brin

Financial sustainability is the fuel for your mission. Here is how to think about capital.

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." – Warren Buffett
"Stay self-funded as long as possible." – Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon Founder
"Don't worry about funding if you don't need it. Today it's cheaper to start a business than ever." – Noah Everett, Twitpic Founder
"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
"Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the up market." – Jason Calacanis
"Never spend your money before you have it." – Thomas Jefferson
"Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king." – Unknown
"The lack of money is the root of all evil." – Mark Twain
"Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1." – Warren Buffett
"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." – Will Rogers
"Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship." – Benjamin Franklin
"Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant." – P.T. Barnum
"Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options." – Chris Rock
"It's not your salary that makes you rich, it's your spending habits." – Charles A. Jaffe
"Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are." – James W. Frick
"Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." – Jim Rohn
"The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing." – Philip Fisher
"Money often costs too much." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you do need." – Warren Buffett
"Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don't find one, it's you." – Mark Cuban
"I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me." – Harland Sanders, KFC Founder
"A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went." – Dave Ramsey
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." – Benjamin Franklin
"Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs." – Zig Ziglar
"Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much." – Erich Fromm

Hustle & Motivation Quotes — On Mindset, Passion & Personal Growth

The biggest battle you will fight is often within your own mind. These quotes are for the long game.

"Stay hungry. And bootstrap." – Rob Kalin, Etsy Co-founder
"Learn early. Learn often." – Drew Houston
"We are our choices. Build yourself a great story." – Jeff Bezos
"Your reputation is more important than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career." – Ryan Freitas
"It's hard to do a really good job on anything you don't think about in the shower." – Paul Graham, YCombinator
"Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success." – Biz Stone, Twitter Co-founder
"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, Github Co-founder
"Anything that is measured and watched, improves." – Bob Parsons, GoDaddy Founder
"Data beats emotions." – Sean Rad, Tinder Founder
"All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA." – Reid Hoffman
"I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars — I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over." – Warren Buffett
"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." – Michelangelo
"Whether you think you can, or think you can't – you're right." – Henry Ford
"Diligence is the mother of good luck." – Benjamin Franklin
"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." – Mary Kay Ash
"High expectations are the key to everything." – Sam Walton
"Trust your instincts." – Estee Lauder
"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
"When you find an idea that you just can't stop thinking about, that's probably a good one to pursue." - Josh James, Omniture CEO
"Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become." – Steve Jobs
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." – Steve Jobs
"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." – John Lennon
"You become what you believe." – Oprah Winfrey
"The best revenge is massive success." – Frank Sinatra
"Eighty percent of success is showing up." – Woody Allen
"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." – Jim Rohn
"If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down." – Toni Morrison
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" – Audrey Hepburn
"Believe you can and you're halfway there." – Theodore Roosevelt
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." – Steve Jobs

200+ Quotes to Ignite Your Entrepreneurial Fire

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200+ Quotes to Ignite Your Entrepreneurial Fire

Startup Quotes — On Execution & Getting Started

Success Quotes — On Failure, Resilience & the Hard Truths

Business Quotes — On Leadership, Teams & Culture

Entrepreneur Quotes — On Innovation, Vision & Strategy

Small Business Quotes — On Customers, Product & Money

Hustle & Motivation Quotes — On Mindset, Passion & Personal Growth

Graham Beck

Ready to get started?

Find a Venue

Become a Host

Build a Marketplace

Related Articles

5 Unconventional Brainstorming Techniques to Unlock Your Team's Creativity

Pitch Deck Examples: 27 Decks That Raised Millions

Download the App

Startup Quotes — On Execution & Getting Started

Success Quotes — On Failure, Resilience & the Hard Truths

Business Quotes — On Leadership, Teams & Culture

Entrepreneur Quotes — On Innovation, Vision & Strategy

Small Business Quotes — On Customers, Product & Money

Hustle & Motivation Quotes — On Mindset, Passion & Personal Growth