The Best Inspirational Business Quotes, Starting a business is tough. Not just practically or financially—but emotionally, too. Which is why these top inspirational business quotes are so valuable.
Each of these quotes is a bite-sized morsel of wisdom, capable of injecting small business owners with much-needed motivation and encouragement to succeed.
So, when you’re exhausted, frustrated, anxious, worried, or just plain freaking out, read these inspirational business quotes for some remarkable ideas.
Best business quotes of all time
Prepare yourself for a collection of motivational business quotes that will light up your entrepreneurial spirit. Each one is a nugget of wisdom from the journeys of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, ready to spark innovation and drive in your own venture.
- “The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” —Socrates, father of Western philosophy
- “Always deliver more than expected.” —Larry Page, co-founder of Google
- “Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give—with a few exceptions—generalize whatever they did. Don’t over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.” —Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest
- “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States
- “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” —Peter F. Drucker
- “Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.” —Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine
- “What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” —Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s
- “If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” —Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon
- “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” —Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, and motivational speaker
- “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
- “The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” —Thomas Edison, co-founder of General Electric
- “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, author of The 4-Hour Work Week
- “Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” —Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter
- “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.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.
- “Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” —Mark Cuban, AXS TV chairman and entrepreneur
- “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” —Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
- “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” —Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook
- “If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.” —Omar Hamoui, co-founder of AdMob
- “Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” —Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO of BlogHer
- “When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” —Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture
- “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” —Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance
- “Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” —Golda Meir, fourth Prime Minister of Israel
- “There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” —Jason Fried, 37signals founder and co-author of Rework
- “The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
- “Chase the vision, not the money. The money will end up following you.” —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
- “The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.” —Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA
- “Nothing works better than just improving your product.” —Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow
- “Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea.” —Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga
- “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, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media
- “Get big quietly so you don’t tip off potential competitors.” —Chris Dixon, investor at Andreessen Horowitz
- “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.
- “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” —Helen Keller, US author, political activist, and lecturer
- “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” —Paul Rand, graphic designer
- “Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.” —Lakshmi Mittal, chairman & CEO of ArcelorMittal
- “Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.” —Jeffrey Zeldman, entrepreneur and web designer
- “The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.” —Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy
- “If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.” —Ryan Freitas, co-founder of About.me
- “Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.” —Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch
- “Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” —Wayne Huizenga, prolific US business person.
- “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” —Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur and co-founder of Alltop
- “An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create.” —David Karp, founder, and CEO of Tumblr
- “Get a mentor in the applicable field if you’re at all unsure of what you’re looking for.” —Kyle Bragger, founder of Forrst and co-founder of Exposure
- “Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.” —Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow
- “Anything that is measured and watched improves.” —Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy
- “Stay self-funded as long as possible.” —Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, and StumbleUpon
- “Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.” —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
- “Timing, perseverance, and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” —Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter
- “Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” —Daniel Pink, author
- “Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the upmarket.” —Jason Calacanis, founder of LAUNCH Ticker
- “It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.” —Jason Cohen, founder of Smartbear Software
- “No more romanticizing about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a struggle to save your company’s life—and your own skin—every day of the week.” —Spencer Fry, co-founder of CarbonMade
- “You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.” —Peter Shankman, founder of HARO
- “Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today, it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.” —Noah Everett, founder of Twitpic
- “Data beats emotions.” —Sean Rad, founder of Tinder
- “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” —Estée Lauder, founder of Estée Lauder Cosmetics
- “I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” —Jake Nickell, founder and CEO of Threadless
- “See things in the present, even if they are in the future.” —Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle
- “You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” —Larry Page, co-founder of Google
- “Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” —Michael Dell, chairman, and CEO of Dell
- “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” —Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
- “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 of LinkedIn
- “Great customer service is a critical competitive advantage for a business.” —Steve Benson, editorial cartoonist
- “In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.” —Steve Case, co-founder of AOL
- “Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” —Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor
- “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
- “Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.” —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
- “Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else.” —Sara Blakely, founder of SPANX
- “Diligence is the mother of good luck.” —Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of the United States
- “A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader.” —Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures
- “Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” —Howard Schultz, former chairman and CEO of Starbucks
