6 inspiring quotes for entrepreneurial success

Wherever you are in your business journey, there will be days where you question if it’s all worth it.

Don’t throw in the towel just yet! These inspiring quotes from successful entrepreneurs will crank up the motivation and keep you on track to achieving your business dreams. Ready, set, bookmark!

On failure.

“We’ll screw up royally sometimes. Understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post

Hard truth: almost 97% of startups fail within the first three years of launch. There’s an overwhelming chance you’ll experience setbacks, and make more than a few mistakes along the way.

Remember: mistakes are also the greatest learning opportunities we have. Understanding your failures and your blind spots, and even using them to your advantage, will ultimately allow you to move forward stronger than ever.

On taking risks.

“An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down.”

— Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

As an entrepreneur leading a business, you need to be able to take risks based on pure instinct. Fast decisions, particularly in the early stages of your venture, will allow you to maximize opportunities and maintain momentum for your growing business.

It’s little surprise then that trusting your gut feeling is one of the things that sets successful entrepreneurs apart. In fact, they are 34% more likely to trust their gut than the average Joe.

On building teams.

“The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.”

— Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.

In a future, knowledge-based working world, team building that prioritizes behaviors and attitudes over knowledge and experience becomes vital to business success.

As routine jobs and many professions are overtaken by automation and AI, the essentially human aspects of people; empathy, persuasion, adaptability and creative problem-solving abilities become more valuable than ever.

Hire those who have these attitudes in spades, and invest in their potential to change the world. You never know, in the right environment, they just might!

On leadership.

“Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.”

— Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

Character counts! A 2015 study by leadership consultancy KRW International found that CEOs with a good character had nearly FIVE times more return on assets than those with low character ratings.

What makes a “good character”, we hear you ask?  According to the study, these CEOs were valued for their integrity, responsibility, forgiveness and compassion. Be authentic and honest in business, and your business will prosper.

On perseverance.

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.”

— Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter

It can be all too easy to compare ourselves to the seemingly overnight successes of the entrepreneurial world. How did they get so lucky? What is their secret? What the heck am I doing wrong?

It’s refreshing to remember that everyone was just starting out at some point. Everyone had their failures. And everyone has their blind spots to overcome. Just keep moving forward and learning, and one day, people could be asking how YOU got so lucky overnight!

On learning.

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

— Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and philosopher

To be a successful entrepreneur, you gotta keep learning.

A hunger to know more about your industry, your customers, your team and, perhaps most importantly, yourself, will give you the edge you need to realize your business dreams. (And just so you know, we can give you a little help with the latter!)