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The life of the entrepreneur is in continual motion. Much of your time is spent in action.
At the end of the day, there is often little time to reflect and to find the necessary inspiration that could push you even further.
As such, we’ve compiled a list of the top 20 quotes that every entrepreneur should read – the kind of quotes that will inspire you to do more and to do better.
1 – “Always deliver more than expected.” – Larry Page, co-founder of Google
Who could possibly be more inspiring than the co-founder of Google? This is a great reminder to always push yourself to deliver just a little more.
It can be applied to virtually all aspects of your business, but this is the sort of thing that can really set you apart when it comes to customer service in particular.
Larry Page’s quote brings to mind a very powerful marketing technique that many businesses have been using the past decade or so to boost customer loyalty – the “surprise and delight” method.
Surprises build connections. When customers are delighted, they are more likely to share these experiences on social media, which creates even more buzz for your business.
2 – “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.” – Mark Twain
There is a fair amount of risk involved in the life of the entrepreneur. In fact, it has been said that risk-taking is virtually synonymous with entrepreneurship.
Whether you are looking to take your business to bigger and better places or you need a little solace in the fact that you have made the right decisions, remember Mark’s Twain’s famous words – “throw off the bowlines and sail from the safe harbour.”
Sure, not all risks will pay off, but, at the same time, the human mind is also biased toward overestimating the possibility of failure.
Humans are risk-averse.
Not only do humans overestimate the possibility of failure, but they also tend to exaggerate the consequences of those actions as well.
Above all, a certain amount of risk is necessary if you want to achieve growth. Be smart about it, of course, but know that when it comes to risk-taking, the odds of success are better than what you might think.
3 – “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” – Steve Jobs
If anyone would know a thing or two about successful entrepreneurship it would certainly be Steve Jobs.
But, remember, there was a lot of trial and error involved. There was the Apple Lisa, the 2000 Power Mac G4 Cube and other products that never quite hit the mark. But Jobs persevered regardless.
4 – “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates
Unhappy customers can be a very valuable resource. But you have to be willing to listen. Sure, you can’t please everyone, but it’s a worthy investment to address customer concerns.
The above quote about always delivering something unexpected can work in your favour when dealing with unhappy customers. If you go out of your way to offer a solution, you have the potential to turn unhappy customers into loyal customers.
One area of customer service that businesses sometimes neglect is questions and/or complaints on social media.
5 – “‘Restore connection’ is not just for devices, it is for people too. If we cannot disconnect, we cannot lead. Creating the culture of burnout is opposite to creating a culture of sustainable creativity. This is something that needs to be taught in business schools. This mentality needs to be introduced as a leadership and performance-enhancing tool.” – Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post
In the business world, the emphasis is always about doing more. This is important, but it’s also important to give yourself and your employees time to recharge. Remember: burnout is why nearly 10% of startups fail.
6 – “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.” – Michelle Obama
Although Michelle Obama was talking about countries, the same can be applied to virtually every aspect of life and business itself.
7 – “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
If you read a lot of quotes by entrepreneurs, failure is by far one of the biggest themes you will come across – specifically how you handle that failure.
Failure is part of the entrepreneurial experience much in the same way that risk itself is.
But if you take a look at what some of the top entrepreneurs and brightest minds have to say on the subject of failure, the idea is always to keep moving forward. Thomas Edison once said that “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Bill Gates once said that “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
The message here is clear: don’t allow your failures to prevent you from continuing forward. But at the same time, take time to reflect on those failures so that you can learn from them.
8 – “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” – Napoleon Hill
Napoleon Hill was an American self-help author best known for Think and Grow Rich, which is one of the best selling self-help books of all time.
Hill’s quote can be easily applied to just about every entrepreneur out there, especially those with startups and small businesses. It can be easy to think about how a lack of resources can prevent you from doing things on the scale that bigger businesses operate on.
But Hill offers a different perspective on the matter that is particularly valuable. Just because you lack the resources of a bigger company, doesn’t mean that you can’t do small things in a great way.
In fact, small businesses often have the competitive edge in various domains (customer service being one such example), and it is important to leverage these areas so that you set yourself apart.
9 – “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn
Most CEOs read one book a week. They are committed to learning more so that they can apply what they’ve learned to become even better at what they do.
In fact, it has been said that the one thing that all successful people have in common is that they read a lot. This is true of Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and many other of the world’s most successful people.
Buffet, for example, reads between 600 and 1000 pages every single day. 80% of his day is spent reading.
When asked what the key to success was, Buffet said “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest.”
Gates reads 50 books a year or roughly one book a week.
The great thing about reading more is that it’s an attainable goal.
Whether you’re falling a little short on your reading habits as an entrepreneur or you’re looking to challenge yourself by reading even more, Jim Rohn’s quote is a great one to return to.
10 – “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
One of the biggest roles that CEOs are tasked with is fulfilling the role of leadership. It can be all too easy to focus on your individual pursuit of leadership. But it’s also important to think about empowering others to take on these roles as well.
Ultimately, you can’t do everything yourself – entrepreneurs have to remind themselves of this, especially startups and small business owners who tend to take on a lot.
If you try to take on everything yourself, not only would you put yourself at risk of burnout, but it would mean that the most important areas of your business, like driving new customers to your business, would fail to get the attention that they need.
11 – “Strong reasons make strong actions” – Shakespeare (King John)
Shakespeare might not immediately strike you as one to offer a lot of entrepreneurial insight, but this quote will challenge those ideas.
Here at Yocale, we talk about the importance of testing everything. In fact, never should a day pass where you shouldn’t be testing something.
Whether it’s testing your call-to-actions or inquiring into how happy your customers are via customer satisfaction surveys, the best decisions and outcomes are always based on solid data.
Don’t just assume that you’re making the best decision based on common sense. Data often shows quite the opposite.
12 – “Building trust through the organization is important. If people trust you, it builds loyalty and it makes them feel safe. And when people feel safe, they’ll try new things, they’ll take a few risks!” -Tracey Massey, President of Mars Chocolate North America
Did you know that engaged employees result in more employee productivity, profitability and reduced turnover? Just take a look at the research by Gallup.
But, how can you create engaged employees?
Extensive research on the topic has shown that of the best ways that you can create engaged employees is by showing them that they are valued.
One way is through effective communication and ensuring that you maintain open lines of communication in both directions. This builds rapport and trust.
Any entrepreneur knows that it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day details of the business. But thinking about how you can make your employees feel valued is a worthy investment for any business.
13 – “The question I ask myself like almost every day is, ‘Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?'” – Mark Zuckerberg
It’s easy to get lost in the daily grind. Things move quickly in the world of business and it can often feel like you’re jumping from fire to fire.
But it’s also important to always have the bigger picture in mind so that you can direct your attention toward that goal on a daily basis instead of simply getting lost in the demands of that particular day.
What are you working toward?
More importantly, what is the most important thing you could be doing?
Every entrepreneur knows that your business may not be the single most important thing at a given point in time; perhaps the most important thing you could be doing is spending time with family.
Every entrepreneur has been known to have trouble with cultivating work-life balance every now and again, so taking the time to consider what is the most important thing you could be doing is an important one.
14 – “Run to the fire; don’t hide from it.” – Meg Whitman, CEO and President of HP
Whatever the conflict is, address it head-on. It’s the only way.
15 – “The idea is to not be idle. That’s not something I advocate. It is to maximize your per hour output.” – Tim Ferris
Tim Ferriss, author the best-selling novel, The 4-Hour Workweek, is an expert on the topic of productivity. It can be so easy to whittle away hours on emails (a third of your time at work) and on other tasks that don’t necessarily generate the most value for your business.
That’s why delegation is key. Whether it’s outsourcing or automating, it’s important to maximize your hourly output if you want to see results.
Of course, you’ve probably heard that being busy doesn’t necessarily mean being productive. So, while it’s important to maximize your hourly output, it’s also important to ensure that your output is being spent on high-value tasks as well.
16 – “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” – Thomas Edison
It was Thomas Edison that said genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.
It is reminiscent of a quote by Mark Zuckerberg who once said that “People think innovation is just having a good idea but a lot of it is just moving quickly and trying new things.”
As you saw above, Steve Jobs had to go through a lot of trial and error – and a lot of different products – before he finally created the iPhone. The same is true for just about every entrepreneur out there.
What got them there?
Perseverance, of course. They continue to develop new products or come up with ways to improve their current one until they have achieved what they set out to do.
The idea is to be continually moving.
17 – “If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” – B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes
Our interpretation of this quote is that you have to be in control of all aspects of your business.
It doesn’t mean that you should be at the helm (as you saw above, it is necessary for CEOs and other business leaders to learn to give up control in order for their business to succeed), but the idea is to put leaders in place who can drive your business forward together.
It is this synergy between leaders and other employees that creates great things.
18 – “I know how to make decisions and stand up to the criticism every day.” – Michael Bloomberg
Business owners, CEOs and other leaders have to make decisions every single day. But when you’re managing a team, not everyone is going to be happy with those decisions, especially when it comes to the internal side of your business.
Criticism can be common.
As such, Michael Bloomberg’s quote is a great reminder to hold steadfast to your decisions if you know them to be right and to be true.
It is really in how you handle that criticism. Listen to those concerns; make your employees heard, but don’t let the criticism take you off course.
19 – “What I have learned is that people become motivated when you guide them to the source of their own power and when you make heroes out of employees who personify what you want to see in the organization.” – Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
One of the biggest challenges that CEOs face is hiring the right team, especially with the growing importance of hiring employees who share your company’s vision and values.
Research shows that creating engaged employees is all about challenging them, just as Roddick says.
20 – “Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem
This is a great quote to end on – it says it all.
21- Bonus Quote – “Everyone is the CEO of their life” -Aydin Asli
The Bottom Line
We enjoy inspirational quotes at Yocale – here are even more inspirational quotes that will inspire you to succeed.
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