Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart or the risk averse. Despite what many believe, it is not all sunshine and rainbows. In fact, it’s a courageous approach to business and life that requires loads of determination, lots of spirited initiative, and massive amounts of resourcefulness. And while many, if not most entrepreneurs experience their fair share of setbacks and heartbreaking failure, even those who don’t manage to create a viable and sustainable enterprise deserve respect and appreciation; for they are all the true catalysts of economic growth and prosperity in our society.
“Dream Big, Start Small, But Most Of All, Start.”
With that said, in honor of those brave souls who risk the comfort and predictability of a stable career, put their lifesavings and fortune on the line, and endeavor to achieve the impossible, we wanted to publish some highly motivational quotes for entrepreneurs. We know the journey is rough, and a little inspiration and motivation can go a long way. So, If you’re an entrepreneur (or thinking about becoming one), we hope these motivational quotes will assist you on your journey towards entrepreneurial success.
MOTIVATIONAL ENTREPRENEUR QUOTES
1. “I am convinced that what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” – Steve Jobs
2. “What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? I can tell you this, it is not for the faint of heart. It is only for the brave, the courageous, the calculated. Entrepreneurship is reserved for the resilient.” – Anonymous
3. “Failure is not the outcome, failure is not trying.” – Sara Blakely
4. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the winds, not with it.” – Henry Ford
5. “An entrepreneur isn’t someone who owns a business. It’s someone who makes things happen.” – Tim Ferriss
6. “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” – Goethe
7. “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.” – Entrepreneur Quote
8. “If you want swashbuckling action in your life, become an entrepreneur and give it a go.” – Richard Branson
9. “Trust the still, small voice that says, “ this might work and I’ll try it.” – Diane Mariechild
10. “Dream big. Start small. But most of all, start.” – Simon Sinek
Motivational Quotes For Entrepreneurs
Alright, now that we got our top 10 quotes for entrepreneurs out of the way, we now want to zero-in on our favorite entrepreneur motivational quotes. No doubt, we believe all of the entrepreneur quotes we are presenting on this page are powerful quotes to live by, but this next batch has been specifically tailored to uplift and motivate our fellow entrepreneurs.
So, if you’re ready to keep those entrepreneurial flames lit, let’s get to it.
11. “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
12. “Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.” – T. Scott Mcleod
13. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
14. “Learn from failure. If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture wasn’t a success, welcome to the club.” – Richard Branson
15. “The 99% that achieve are willing to sacrifice, be persistent and put in disproportionate work, and think in 50 year terms not 50 day terms.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
16. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
17. “Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” – Howard Schultz
18. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
19. “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
20. “Failure shows us the way—by showing us what isn’t the way.” – Ryan Holiday
21. “What I know for sure is that if you want to have success, you can’t make success your goal. The key is not to worry about being successful, but to instead work toward being significant — and the success will naturally follow… If you do work that you love, and work that fulfills you, the rest will come. And I truly believe, that the reason I’ve been able to be so financially successful is because my focus has never, ever for one minute been money. Would you do your job and not be paid for it? I would do this job, and take on a second job just to make ends meet if nobody paid me. That’s how you know you are doing the right thing.” – Oprah Winfrey
22. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
23. “A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd
24. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
25. “You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end.” – Jessica Herrin
26. “What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?” – Robert Schuller
27. “The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake — you can’t learn anything from being perfect” – Adam Osborne
28. “Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway.” – Mary Kay Ash
29. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
30. “If something is important enough, you do it even if the odds aren’t in your favor.” – Elon Musk
31. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” – Richard Branson
32. “Passion, patience, and persistence are the ingredients to be an entrepreneur.” – Jawo
33. “Never too young to start an empire. Never too old to chase a dream.” – Anonymous
34. “The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage.” – Thucydides
35. “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett
36. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison
37. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali
38. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway” – Earl Nightingale
39. “The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” – Reid Hoffman
40. “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
41. “You can get most things you want in life. It’s just that most goals will take one or two years longer than expected. Be patient.” – Tail Lopez
42. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
43. “Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou
44. “Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” – Khalil Gibran
45. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
46. “Everyone can tell you the risk, an entrepreneur can see the reward.” – Robert Kiyosaki
47. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
48. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy
49. “Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. You want something, go get it.” – Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
50. “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
Halfway There
Alright, you’re just about halfway there. We hope your enjoying these motivational entrepreneur quotes so far. If you’re having trouble finishing the page, don’t hesitate to bookmark us and come back when you’re ready to finish strong.
But, if you’re got fire in you’re belly, and achievement in eyes, let’s get back to these motivational quotes for entrepreneurs.
Related: Quotes For Success + Achievement
51. “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.” – Henry Ford
52. “The most dangerous thing you can do in life is play it safe.” – Casey Neistat
53. “Chase the vision. Not the money. The money will end up following you.” – Tony Hsieh
54. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan
55. “Whatever you do, don’t ever use a crutch, and don’t ever think of having an excuse for not having said, ‘Yeah, I did my best.” – Isadore Sharp
56. “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
57. “The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.” – Tacitus
58. “If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.” – Ray Kroc
59. “Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. This improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40 hour workweeks and you’re putting in 100 hour workweeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing, you know that you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.” – Elon Musk
60. “The sight of a achievement is the greatest gift a human can offer to others.” – Ayn Rand
61. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
62. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
63. “You want to kill a big dream, tell it to a small minded person.” – Steve Harvey
64. “The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson, or anyone in any position can control is their effort.” – Mark Cuban
65. “Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as a survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading: buying and selling.” – Anita Roddick
66. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
67. “A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.” – Marcus Aurelius
68. “There is no royal flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.” – Madam C.J. Walker
69. “People will make you rich, or keep you broke, depending on the way you serve them. You should make up your mind at the outset if you are planning to become a successful entrepreneur, that you are going to make people outside the organization and inside the organization your special concern.” – Earl Nightingale
70. “Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice.” – Peter Drucker
71. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
72. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” – Vince Lombardi“
73. “To know what life is worth, you have to risk it once in a while.” – Jean Paul Sartre
74. “To any entrepreneur: if you want to do it, do it now. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it.” – Catherine Cook
75. “When you cease to dream you cease to live.” – Malcolm Forbes
76. “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
77. “It’s not about money or connections. It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business.” – Mark Cuban
78. “An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.” – Roy Ash
79. “As an entrepreneur, you work out solutions.” – Les Wexner
80. “What you can be, you must be!” – Abraham Maslow
81. “One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is that we lie to ourselves. We don’t step back and look at ourselves like a competitor would.” – Mark Cuban
82. “Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they never quit.” – Conrad Hilton
83. “Entrepreneurial business favors the open mind. It favors people whose optimism drives them to prepare for many possible futures, pretty much purely for the joy of doing so.” – Richard Branson
84. “Find something that you love. Something that gets you so excited you can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning.” – Forget about money. Be happy.” – Chris Gardner
85. “I will win. Maybe not immediately. But absolutely and definitely.” – Anonymous
86. “Success is not in what you have, but who you are.” – Bo Bennett
87. “One quality of entrepreneurship is just persistence, not giving up because you have road blocks and also not giving in because other people tell you that you’re nuts. You are nuts and you should be proud of it. Stick with what you believe in.” – Trip Hawkings
88. “Remember, people don’t buy from you because they understand what you sell—they buy from you because they feel understood.” – Dan Lok
89. “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
90. “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” – Tony Robbins
91. “To become an entrepreneur is not easy, and a lot of people who try to become entrepreneurs they fail along the way. But the good ones pick themselves up and try again and try again until they succeed.” – Richard Branson
92. “If you are an entrepreneur planning to start your own company, I can’t think of a better place to begin than by operating your business by the Golden Rule. Make this a high priority; never make a decision that contradicts the Gold Rule.” – Mary Kay Ash
93. “To become financially independent you must turn part of your income into capital; turn capital into enterprise; turn enterprise into profit; turn profit into investment; and turn investment into financial independence.” – Jim Rohn
94. “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
95. “Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.” – Andy Grove
96. “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” – Soren Kierkegaard
97. “The things that hurt, instruct.” – Benjamin Franklin
98. An entrepreneur is someone with faith in their ability to make something where there was nothing before. To them, the idea that no one has ever done this or that is a good thing.” – Ryan Holiday
99. “All my life people have said that I wasn’t going to make it… You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” – Ted Turner
100. “It’s easy to dream about it… Much harder to execute it… Work!” – Gary Vee
101. “Being rich is not the ultimate goal. Creating wealth and having time freedom is.” – Bedros Keuilian
102. “Focus on providing value, the rest will take care of itself.” – Ryan Pineda
103. “Instead of thinking how hard your journey is, think how great your story will be.” – Andy Frisella
104. “It takes the same energy to think small as it does to think big. So dream big and think bigger.” – Daymond John
105. “Companies don’t want you to have multiple revenue streams because then they can’t own you.” – Codie Sanchez
Bonus Entrepreneur Quote
Bonus: Here is our last and final motivational quote for entrepreneurs. Indeed, it should be the most motivating, as it is for us. We hope you feel the same. Enjoy!
“Build Your Own Dreams, Or Someone Else Will Hire You To Build Theirs.”
– Farrah Gray –
Final Thoughts
There you have it, the 100 most powerful entrepreneur motivation quotes to give you a bit of direction if you lost it, guidance if you need it, and the courage to stay the course on your entrepreneurial journey to success.
We know first hand how the road of entrepreneurship can be rife with uncertainty, fear, discouragement, and even loneliness. But, we’ve got your back here at The STRIVE. So, come back and visit us when you need a little pick-me-up or a friendly nudge to keep you moving forward.
Till then,
STRIVE
PS – If you enjoyed this collection of motivational quotes for entrepreneurs, then you’ll appreciate these quotes about following your dreams.
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