Top 20 Entrepreneurial Quotes

I recently read a quote that inspired me and thought, "Why not share it with others?" I've also collected a list of quotes from entrepreneurs and other quotes that are relevant to entrepreneurship. Skip and I included our own at the bottom of the post. I hope one of these quotes inspires you as well.

1. I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work - Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist
2. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary - Vidal Sassoon, entrepreneur
3. 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 - A student in Warren G. Tracy's class, entrepreneur (Thanks Daniel!)
4. The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning - to create a product or service to make the world a better place - Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur, investor, author
5. Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory - Mahatma Gandhi, political and spiritual leader
6. Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners - Robert T. Kiyosaki, author, entrepreneur, investor
7. Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence - Lisa M. Amos
8. Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life - John F. Kennedy, U.S. President
9. In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable - Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. President
10. The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire in the first place - Jim Rohn
11. Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them - Anonymous
12. Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make - Donald Trump, real estate and entertainment mogul 
13. The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look, but many people see only problems everywhere they look. The entrepreneur in us is more concerned with discriminating between opportunities than he or she is with failing to see the opportunities - Michael Gerber, author, entrepreneur
14. An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it - Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries
15. The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer - Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's
16. I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful - Warren Buffet, investor and billionaire
17. I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent - Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist
18. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover - Mark Twain, author
19. There is a tide in the affairs of men
    Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
    Omitted, all the voyage of their life
    Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
    On such a full sea are now afloat;
    And we must take the current when it serves,
    Or lose the ventures before us - William Shakespeare, author
20. Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration - Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist

Here are our quotes: 

Being an entrepreneur is a lot like playing poker - you can fold, limp in, or go for it - Yasmine Mustafa

If you kick it around enough, it starts to look like a ball - Skip Shuda

What's your favorite quote?

Update: Help us reach a 1,000 diggs by clicking here. Also, check out the comments for additional quotes.

Related Posts:

Quiz: What kind of Entrepreneur are you?

Win Capital for your Startup

Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs

By: Yasmine

Comments

[hank]

I like this one:

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work - Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist

good post - just stumbled it - will be back...

[Peter]

A few more:

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do." - Epictetus

Who dares, wins. - SAS motto

Fortune doesn’t change a man, it only unmasks him. – Chinese Proverb

Base your decisions on where you are going not on where you are. - James Arthur Ray

[Yasmine]

Good ones, Peter. Thanks! I especially like the last two.

[ProBlogReviews]

"Those who say something can not be done should step aside for those doing it"- Anonymous

[Senan]

Outside a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.

[Donald B.Dousharm]

Nice post!

I especially like this one.

"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" - Anonymous

Thumb up on su and hope to read more.

[Jim]

Odio excellentia affici melius est quam mediocritate amari - Better hated for being great than loved for being average.

[Frat Stud]

Guys from my high school used to read inside dogs all of the time, it wasn't too dark and it was no big deal.

[J W]

Great post! especially this.

Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory - Mahatma Gandhi, political and spiritual leader

I also like another quote from him "As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it." Mahatma Gandhi which I quoted in blog! :)

[Jeff]

Albert Einstein has some great quotes:

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

[Ben Cope]

I especially like the last one ... "Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration."

~Ben Cope
The Internet Genius
http://www.theinternetgenius.com

[Caleb]

"Everything I know is but a drop in the ocean of knowledge"
I believe it was Einstein who said that.

Sometimes it's easy to look around and see how far we've come, but there are countless possibilities and an infinite sea of knowledge that is just waiting for us to dive in to.

[Emerson]

Good stuff! I definitetly love #5.

[Dan T]

One of my favorites is:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
- Chinese Proverb

[Anthony Kuhn]

Good quotes are good to find, especially about innovation. Thanks for your list, which I referred to the readership at the Innovators Network blog. I really like the Chinese proverb posted by Dan T.

Thank you for sharing!

[Peter Kao]

As an aspiring entrepreneur, I don't think I'm able to work as hard or push myself as hard if what I'm doing bored me. What is the point of making the person you work for rich, while you are doing a lot of grunt work yourself?

That being said, I like the quote below :D

"The cover-your-butt mentality of the workplace will get you only so far. The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business--but it's a whole lot more fun, don't you think?" - Bill Rancic

Nice site btw.

Cheers,
Peter Kao - Young Undergrad Entrepreneur
http://peterkao.com

[Kevin]

"It is amazing what can be accomplished if you don't take care who takes the credit."

-from the desk of Ronald Reagan

[JBlueMast]

To do something that you've never done before, you must first become someone you've never been before.

[Yoda]

from a galaxy far far away

"try try not...do or do not, there is no try"

I love that one.

[information is king]

Like the Huskies, Malamutes and White Fangs in the Iditerod:

If you're not lead dog, the view is always the same.

Good luck out there.

[Randy Lee / Huntsville, AL]

Great comments and insights all!

I guess one of my favorites that is burried in my head and heart forever is:

"Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
-Vince Lombardi

[Tom Termini]

Better to be a pirate
than join the navy!

-- Steve Jobs

[K.C.]

A good quote from another engineer:
"Lead, follow, or get the F@#k out of the way."

[ecommerce-expert]

Great quotes to live by, thanks~!

[kz]

"to fix something, first you must realize the root of the problem, and hope your not it"