For those who haven’t taken the plunge, entrepreneurship may sound exotic, romantic, and exciting. And, even for those of you who have, there are moments where this is no doubt true.
But then there are those other times—the times where you feel discouraged, demotivated, anxious, or scared about how tomorrow will be. Where the money you need will come from (and when). Or if they’ll love your idea as much as you’d hoped.
In moments like these, we can all use a little pick-me-up.
To build back that motivation, reinvigorate your passion, and remove those crippling fears, we’ve gathered dozens of the best entrepreneur quotes out there.
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In no particular order, here are 75+ great entrepreneurship quotes to motivate and inspire you:
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.
Albert Einstein
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
Behind every adversity is an opportunity. If you lament over the adversity, you will miss the opportunity.
Ajaero Tony Martins, founder of ProfitableVenture
Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.
Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine
Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.
Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post and Thrive Global
The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
Barack Obama
Related Read: How to Get Startup Funding: Best Ways to Get Money for Startups & Ideas
It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
Don’t try to do everything by yourself, but try to connect with people and resources. Having that discipline and perseverance is really important.
Chieu Cao, founder and CEO of Mintago
An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create.
David Karp, founder of Tumblr
If something is important enough, or you believe something is important enough, even if you are scared, you will keep going.
Elon Musk
Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.
Henry Ford
If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run, then walk. And, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Check out more inspirational quotes from MLK here!
You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You’re going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people. They’re not going to buy it unless they know about it.
Herb Kelleher
Take criticism seriously, but not personally.
Hillary Clinton
Related Read: How to Turn Your Passion Into a Career in 5 Easy Steps
There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is the right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.
Howard Schultz
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, founder of Amazon
Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.
Jeffrey Zeldman
Being a woman in business doesn’t come without challenges. My advice? Surround yourself with other supportive women that encourage you, share ideas, and get you motivated.
Jessica Alba, founder of The Honest Company
Jessica Alba’s business quotes, and her entrepreneurship in general, are really inspiring. From being an A-list Hollywood star to founding a unicorn startup (worth over $1 billion), the key to success for her was unflappable perseverance.
Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.
Drew Houston
You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end.
Jessica Herrin
Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.
Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker
Related Read: What is Entrepreneurship? The Meaning of Entrepreneur Simply Defined
Passion, creativity, and resilience are the most crucial skills in business. If you’ve got those, you’re ready to embark on the journey.
Jo Malone
Every single person I know who is successful at what they do is successful because they love doing it.
Joe Penna
When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.
Josh James
Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Joshua J. Marine
Always deliver more than expected.
Larry Page, co-founder of Google
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.
Lisa Lieberman-Wang
The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.
Mahatma Gandhi
Related Read: 9 Characteristics & Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs
There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others.
Mandy Hale
It’s not about money or connections. It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business. And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time.
Mark Cuban
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Mark Twain
In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder
Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice.
Peter Drucker
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
Maya Angelou
You can read more inspiring quotes from Maya Angelou here!
Related Read: Incubator vs Accelerator: Which One Is Right for Your Startup?
You don’t have to be a genius or a visionary or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream.
Michael Dell, founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan
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
Don’t let someone else’s vision of success force you to stray from the path you worked to be on. Carve your own path and you’ll always be heading in the right direction.
Michelle Phan, founder and owner of EM Cosmetics
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.
Napoleon Hill, self-help author of the book Think and Grow Rich
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein
Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.
Nelson Mandela
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, entrepreneurial inventor of the game Pong, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza restaurants
Related Read: 10+ Best Business Books to Read for Aspiring Entrepreneurs in 2021
If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.
Omar Hamoui
Forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion.
Oprah Winfrey
Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.
Paul Rand, Brooklyn-born logo creator of iconic brands such as IBM, UPS, Westinghouse, ABC, and Morningstar
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Peter Drucker
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Albert Schweitzer
One of the things I tend to do is open myself up to a variety of voices. I try to expose myself to the kind of culture shock that occurs when you talk to people who speak a different language.
Pierre Omidyar
If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.
Reid Hoffman
Related Read: An Entrepreneur’s Glossary: 33+ Entrepreneurship Vocabulary Terms Defined
All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn
Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.
Richard Branson
Tough times never last, but tough people do.
Robert H. Schuller
The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and actualizer. He can visualize something, and when he visualizes it he sees exactly how to make it happen.
Robert L. Schwartz
Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.
Sara Blakely, entrepreneurial founder of Spanx
Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow.
Oprah Winfrey
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney
It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.
Scott Belsky
Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.
Seth Godin
Related Read: 3 Reasons Why Every Entrepreneur Should Pitch Ideas on Goodwall
What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.
Simon Sinek
Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.
Simon Sinek
Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.
Stephen Covey, businessperson and author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
Stephen Covey
If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started.
Drew Houston
I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, of course
If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.
Steve Jobs
Be so good they can’t ignore you.
Steve Martin, actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, and musician.
Related Read: Introducing the Virtual Elevator Pitch to Share World-Changing Ideas!
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
Thomas Edison
Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.
Thomas J. Watson, former chairman and CEO of IBM (International Business Machines)
The stars will never align, and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.
Tim Ferriss, American entrepreneur, investor, author, and lifestyle guru
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
Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.
Tony Hsieh, co-founder of LinkExchange and former CEO of Zappos
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.
Tony Robbins
Related Read: How to Create an Elevator Pitch in 5 Easy Steps (With Tips & Advice)
Being an entrepreneur isn’t just a job title, and it isn’t just about starting a company. It’s a state of mind. It’s about seeing connections others can’t, seizing opportunities others won’t, and forging new direction that others haven’t.
Tory Burch
Even if you don’t have the perfect idea to begin with, you can likely adapt.
Victoria Ransom, one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs
The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
Vince Lombardi
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
Warren Buffett
Dream big. Start small. But most of all, start.
Simon Sinek, author, optimist, and inspirational speaker
Genius is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent perspiration.
Thomas Edison
Surrounding yourself with inspiring people is now just as important as being talented or working hard.
Drew Houston
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
Warren Buffett
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill
Related Read: 35+ Inspiring Quotes About Volunteering & the Joy of Serving Others
Well, what did you think about our entrepreneur quotes?
The life of an entrepreneur has its upsides, certainly, but it can be hard to acknowledge them when you’re frustrated, worried, or exhausted. As you start a business and nurture it, win or lose, you’ll be given lessons of failure, chances to celebrate success, and the opportunity to overcome challenges and obstacles through perseverance and resilience.
We hope these entrepreneurship quotes were as inspiring, encouraging, and uplifting to you as they were to us as we put this post together.
Do you have a famous quote on entrepreneurship that we missed? Got any inspirational tips or suggestions for entrepreneurs in a slump? Leave a comment below and we’ll talk about it, and thanks for reading!