As an entrepreneur, blazing your own trail, you are always in a constant mental battle with yourself. Every day is a struggle and new challenges never cease to exist. You’ve heard that failure is the path to success. Sometimes this lesson is hard to swallow. One thing I’ve found is that successful entrepreneurs have a passion for inspiring those up-and-comers who choose to take the same risks as them. Here are some savvy quotes from entrepreneurs who inspired and innovated their game.
(photo via @Kushandwizdom)
“The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.”
– Henry Ford
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works… To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.”
– Steve Jobs
“Don’t worry about failure, you only have to be right once.”
– Drew Houston
“You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can’t falter. You can’t slip. You can’t sleep. One eye open, for real, and forever.”
– Jay-Z
“Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.”
– Tony Hsieh
“It’s that we need new ideas, it’s that we need to stop having old ones.”
– Edwin Land
“Effective engagement is inspired by the empathy that develops simply by being human.”
– Brian Solis
“Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.”
– David Rockefeller
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
– Bill Gates
“Fail often so you can succeed sooner.”
– Tom Kelley
“Don’t worry about people stealing your design work, worry about the day they stop.”
– Jeffrey Zeldman
“There is no black magic to successfully attracting customers via the Web.”
-Rand Fishkin
Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do.”
– Mark Cuban
“Great content is the best sales tool in the world.”
– Marcus Sheridan
“Bring the best of your authentic self to every opportunity.”
– John Jantsch
“If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.”
– Jeff Bezos
“Your culture is your brand.”
– Tony Hsieh
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“For a long time we were taught that our role in communications was, for the lack of a better term, how to lie. Lie about what the company wants out there. Now it’s more about how do you tell a compelling story about your company.”
– Rick Turoczy
“Success is making those who believed in you look brilliant.”
– Dharmesh Shah
“How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”
-Seth Godin
“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”
– Scott Belsky
“Every spoof gives more power to the original.”
– Shepard Fairey
“You can’t explain much in 60 seconds, but when you show Michael Jordan, you don’t have to. It’s that simple.”
-Phil Knight
What is your favorite entrepreneurial quote? Post your thoughts below.