Greatest Entrepreneur Quotes

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Throwing yourself into a job you enjoy is one of the life's greatest pleasures!
Richard Branson (Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur)
You get the idea. Every business, like a painting, operates according to its own rules. There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What everyone tells you never to do may just work, once. There are no rules. You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it's because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over. It's the greatest thrill in the world and it runs away screaming at the first sight of bullet points.
Richard Branson (Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur)
working too long for other people can blunt your desire to take risks.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
At the end of the day, if you’re wasting your time by not investing in yourself, you’re going to waste away—and that would be the greatest waste of all.
Richie Norton
Teens are often the greatest entrepreneurs.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
In life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with your problems. If the possibility of failure were erased, what would you attempt to achieve? The essence of man is imperfection. Know that you're going to make mistakes. The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does. Wake up and realize this: Failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success. Achievers are given multiple reasons to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere. The average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they finally make it in business. When achievers fail, they see it as a momentary event, not a lifelong epidemic. Procrastination is too high a price to pay for fear of failure. To conquer fear, you have to feel the fear and take action anyway. Forget motivation. Just do it. Act your way into feeling, not wait for positive emotions to carry you forward. Recognize that you will spend much of your life making mistakes. If you can take action and keep making mistakes, you gain experience. Life is playing a poor hand well. The greatest battle you wage against failure occurs on the inside, not the outside. Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you? Handicaps can only disable us if we let them. If you are continually experiencing trouble or facing obstacles, then you should check to make sure that you are not the problem. Be more concerned with what you can give rather than what you can get because giving truly is the highest level of living. Embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward. Everything in life brings risk. It's true that you risk failure if you try something bold because you might miss it. But you also risk failure if you stand still and don't try anything new. The less you venture out, the greater your risk of failure. Ironically the more you risk failure — and actually fail — the greater your chances of success. If you are succeeding in everything you do, then you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. And that means you're not taking enough risks. You risk because you have something of value you want to achieve. The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get. Determining what went wrong in a situation has value. But taking that analysis another step and figuring out how to use it to your benefit is the real difference maker when it comes to failing forward. Don't let your learning lead to knowledge; let your learning lead to action. The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed, or did you fail because you stopped trying? Commitment makes you capable of failing forward until you reach your goals. Cutting corners is really a sign of impatience and poor self-discipline. Successful people have learned to do what does not come naturally. Nothing worth achieving comes easily. The only way to fail forward and achieve your dreams is to cultivate tenacity and persistence. Never say die. Never be satisfied. Be stubborn. Be persistent. Integrity is a must. Anything worth having is worth striving for with all your might. If we look long enough for what we want in life we are almost sure to find it. Success is in the journey, the continual process. And no matter how hard you work, you will not create the perfect plan or execute it without error. You will never get to the point that you no longer make mistakes, that you no longer fail. The next time you find yourself envying what successful people have achieved, recognize that they have probably gone through many negative experiences that you cannot see on the surface. Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.
John C. Maxwell (Failing Forward)
Entrepreneurship has a trailblazing aura. It can change the way of our livings. Entrepreneurs are just like the national assets to be cultivated. They are motivated and remunerated to the greatest possible extent.
Aman Mehndiratta (Aman Mehndiratta)
The best entrepreneurs are not the best visionaries. The greatest entrepreneurs are incredible salespeople. They know how to tell an amazing story that will convince talent and investors to join in on the journey.
Alejandro Cremades (The Art of Startup Fundraising)
In theory, the risk of business failure can be reduced to a number, the probability of failure multiplied by the cost of failure. Sure, this turns out to be a subjective analysis, but in the process your own attitudes toward financial risk and reward are revealed. By contrast, personal risk usually defies quantification. It's a matter of values and priorities, an expression of who you are. "Playing it safe" may simply mean you do not weigh heavily the compromises inherent in the status quo. The financial rewards of the moment may fully compensate you for the loss of time and fulfillment. Or maybe you just don't think about it. On the other hand, if time and satisfaction are precious, truly priceless, you will find the cost of business failure, so long as it does not put in peril the well-being of you or your family, pales in comparison with the personal risks of no trying to live the life you want today. Considering personal risk forces us to define personal success. We may well discover that the business failure we avoid and the business success we strive for do not lead us to personal success at all. Most of us have inherited notions of "success" from someone else or have arrived at these notions by facing a seemingly endless line of hurdles extending from grade school through college and into our careers. We constantly judge ourselves against criteria that others have set and rank ourselves against others in their game. Personal goals, on the other hand, leave us on our own, without this habit of useless measurement and comparison. Only the Whole Life Plan leads to personal success. It has the greatest chance of providing satisfaction and contentment that one can take to the grave, tomorrow. In the Deferred Life Plan there will always be another prize to covet, another distraction, a new hunger to sate. You will forever come up short.
Randy Komisar (The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur)
The best entrepreneurs have found a way to serve others and as a result discover their greatest fulfillment.
George Foreman (Knockout Entrepreneur (Nelsonfree))
Be bold. Be brave. Don't thank your lucky stars. The stars can't hear you.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
The investor and serial entrepreneur Ben Horowitz put it more bluntly: “The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying people off when you miss the big goal.…  The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare.
Ryan Holiday (Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent)
The greatest thieves are not caught. Not because it’s not known that they are thieves but because you cannot accuse them of robbery and live. These thieves are praised as national heroes and liberators or as successful entrepreneurs.
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Book of Wisdom)
Building a family is an entrepreneurial experience. No doubt about it. The family is the greatest and most important enterprise on earth. Lead yours with passion and joy!
Richie Norton
Lowe has broken from the Christianity of his parents, a faith that now seems hopelessly out of date. The meek shall no longer inherit the earth; the go-getters will get it and everything that goes with it. The Christ who went among the poor, the sick, the downtrodden, among lepers and prostitutes, really had no marketing savvy. He has been transfigured into a latter-day entrepreneur, the greatest superstar sales person of all time, who built a multinational outfit from scratch.
Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal)
I do not believe in diversification. Take a close look at some of the greatest entrepreneurs in U.S. history. Henry Ford never diversified; Bill Gates didn’t diversify. I strongly believe that the best way to create real wealth is to put one’s eggs in one basket and watch that basket (the right one) very carefully. In fact, one can go broke diversifying.
Ziad K. Abdelnour (Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics)
If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the Greatest Failure.
Think Maverick (Entrepreneur: Jack Ma, Alibaba and the 40 Thieves of Success (Entrepreneurship Guide Book 2))
There are two things that make today the greatest entrepreneurial age: 1. We have access to teachers like never before. 2. You can start a business from home while still working at your job.
Robert T. Kiyosaki (The Amazon Millionaire: A New Breed of Entrepreneur)
There is a belief, current in many countries, which has been elevated to the rank of an official article of faith in the United States, that free competition is itself a homeostatic process: that in a free market the individual selfishness of the bargainers, each seeking to sell as high and buy as low as possible, will result in the end in a stable dynamics of prices, and with redound to the greatest common good. This is associated with the very comforting view that the individual entrepreneur, in seeking to forward his own interest, is in some manner a public benefactor and has thus earned the great rewards with which society has showered him. Unfortunately, the evidence, such as it is, is against this simpleminded theory. The market is a game, which has indeed received a simulacrum in the family game of Monopoly. It is thus strictly subject to the general theory of games, developed by von Neumann and Morgenstern. This theory is based on the assumption that each player, at every stage, in view of the information then available to him, plays in accordance with a completely intelligent policy, which will in the end assure him of the greatest possible expectation of reward.
Norbert Wiener (Cybernetics: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine)
SWOT is cool, but strategic thinkers know that there is a point which:⁣⁣ - Strengths become weaknesses - Weaknesses become strengths⁣⁣⁣⁣ - Opportunities become threats⁣⁣ - Threats become opportunities ⁣⁣ Strategic entrepreneurs and leaders find the greatest insights hiding behind SWOT. ⁣⁣
Richie Norton
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Danielle M. Miller (Smartypants Branding: The Ultimate Guide for Women Entrepreneurs to Getting Recognized, Being Remembered, and Making More Money in Business)
And one particular characteristic that Doerr liked: “They were nerdy white males, dropouts with no social life.”6 Again, Larry and Sergey went off to Burger King to celebrate.
Janet Lowe (Google Speaks: Secrets of the World's Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page)
one of our greatest struggles is the fear of being wrong, making mistakes, and failing.
Jon Nastor (Hack the Entrepreneur: How to Stop Procrastinating, Build a Business, and Do Work That Matters)
Often what we struggle with becomes the foundation of our greatest success.
James Woosley (Conquer the Entrepreneur's Kryptonite: Simple Strategic Planning for You and Your Business)
My greatest joy is in helping others be their best.
Amber Hurdle (The Bombshell Business Woman: How to Become a Bold, Brave Female Entrepreneur)
You are about to succeed when the urge to quit is the greatest.
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
I came to Canada as a teenager with no money, no contacts, and no knowledge of English.
Dan Lok (Advertising Titans! Vol 1: Insiders Secrets From The Greatest Direct Marketing Entrepreneurs and Copywriting Legends (Advertising Titans!: Insiders Secrets ... Entrepreneurs and Copywriting Legends))
Being an entrepreneur is the greatest investment
Sunday Adelaja
You won’t accomplish or reach your greatest potential in life if your main focus is on what other people think of you. No matter how great you are, some people will form their own negative opinions of you. Don’t give your haters your time or energy! People that are negative, jealous, and envious of you aren’t worth your future. Go after your dreams with purpose and unwavering belief!
Stephanie Lahart
Without enough money, we cannot fully realize our authentic selves. Money amplifies who we are. There isn’t a single ounce of doubt in my mind that there is something big you are intended to do on this planet. You wear the cape of what I believe is the greatest of all superheroes: the Entrepreneur. But your superhero powers can only yield as much power as your energy source provides. Money. You need money, superhero.
Mike Michalowicz (Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine)
Happiness? Do not make me laugh. The rich are not happy. I have yet to meet a single really rich happy man or woman—and I have met many rich people. The demands from others to share their wealth become so tiresome, and so insistent, they nearly always decide they must insulate themselves. Insulation breeds paranoia and arrogance. And loneliness. And rage that you have only so many years left to enjoy rolling in the sand you have piled up.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
After a lifetime of making money and observing better men and women than I fall by the wayside, I am convinced that fear of failing in the eyes of the world is the single biggest impediment to amassing wealth. Trust me on this.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
Anyone not busy learning is busy dying. For as long as you foster a willingness to learn, you will ward off sclerosis of the brain and hardening of the mental arteries. Curiosity has led many a man and women into the valley of serious wealth.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
She (My Mom) taught me that health was my greatest wealth. We spent memorable times laughing — the best medicine. Her actions instilled in me how to be a loving and attentive parent. My mom’s genuine gifts have amplified throughout my life. What more could one ask from a mother?
Donna Maltz (Living Like The Future Matters: The Evolution of a Soil to Soul Entrepreneur)
Do the best you can wherever you are because somebody’s going to see you shining, and somebody’s going to take you away from that junky place that you’re in. Stay focused every single day on doing the greatest job that you possibly can. If you’re diligent, you will prosper. –Chris Locurto
Austin Netzley (Make Money, Live Wealthy: 75 Successful Entrepreneurs Share the 10 Simple Steps to True Wealth)
Optimists Optimism is normal, but some fortunate people are more optimistic than the rest of us. If you are genetically endowed with an optimistic bias, you hardly need to be told that you are a lucky person—you already feel fortunate. An optimistic attitude is largely inherited, and it is part of a general disposition for well-being, which may also include a preference for seeing the bright side of everything. If you were allowed one wish for your child, seriously consider wishing him or her optimism. Optimists are normally cheerful and happy, and therefore popular; they are resilient in adapting to failures and hardships, their chances of clinical depression are reduced, their immune system is stronger, they take better care of their health, they feel healthier than others and are in fact likely to live longer. A study of people who exaggerate their expected life span beyond actuarial predictions showed that they work longer hours, are more optimistic about their future income, are more likely to remarry after divorce (the classic “triumph of hope over experience”), and are more prone to bet on individual stocks. Of course, the blessings of optimism are offered only to individuals who are only mildly biased and who are able to “accentuate the positive” without losing track of reality. Optimistic individuals play a disproportionate role in shaping our lives. Their decisions make a difference; they are the inventors, the entrepreneurs, the political and military leaders—not average people. They got to where they are by seeking challenges and taking risks. They are talented and they have been lucky, almost certainly luckier than they acknowledge. They are probably optimistic by temperament; a survey of founders of small businesses concluded that entrepreneurs are more sanguine than midlevel managers about life in general. Their experiences of success have confirmed their faith in their judgment and in their ability to control events. Their self-confidence is reinforced by the admiration of others. This reasoning leads to a hypothesis: the people who have the greatest influence on the lives of others are likely to be optimistic and overconfident, and to take more risks than they realize.
Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow)
Certainly we have whole groups of people today—in academia, in media, in the legal and nonprofit sector—who produce nothing but words. I guess I have to admit that I’m in this group. But I’m not a typical member, in that I don’t share the group’s prejudices and resentments. What are these? Well, the people of words often do pretty well, but in their view they don’t do well enough. They want to be the ruling class. Viewing themselves as smart—the smartest people in society—they feel entitled to be the ones who exercise power, who tell others what to do. And they view with dismay an American Revolution and an American system that brings the entrepreneur to center stage, disburses to him the greatest rewards and places intellectuals and “courtiers” of every stripe in an ancillary, even subservient, role.
Dinesh D'Souza (United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It.)
To sum up then, if you wish to be rich, you must grow a carapace. A mental armor. Not so thick as to blind you to well-constructed criticism and advice, especially from those you trust. Nor so thick as to cut you off from friends and family. But thick enough to shrug off the inevitable sniggering and malicious mockery that will follow your inevitable failures, not to mention the poorly hidden envy that will accompany your eventual success. Few things in life are certain except death and being taxed. But sniggering and mockery prior to any attempt to better yourself financially, followed by envy later, or gloating during your initial failures—these are three certainties in life. It hurts. It’s mindless. And it doesn’t mean anything. But it will happen. Be prepared to shrug it off. The Germans have a superb word
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
It is doubt multiplied by the fear of failure, unconfronted, which leads to the creation of a vicious cycle where self-belief is eroded and nothing is achieved. Doubts can and should be confronted, as should fear. This is best done in daylight, under rigorous examination. (Three o’clock in the morning is a difficult time to confront any such messengers.) Write down your doubts and fears. Examine them. Hold them up to the light. Suck the wisdom out of them and discard their husks in the trash.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
Now you must leave the safety of the ant colony and the hive. You are to become a loner, an outcast, cut off from the very thing that defines what many of us believe we are. What is the first question usually asked by strangers of each other? Right, it’s “What do you do?” In some cultures, the way of answering may be different; but it nearly always relates to work in the West: “I’m a teacher; I’m in banking; I’m a dairy farmer; I’m an HR administrator; I’m a sound engineer.” Our job defines us. But it cannot define you. Not anymore.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
invention is often the mother of necessity, rather than vice versa. A good example is the history of Thomas Edison’s phonograph, the most original invention of the greatest inventor of modern times. When Edison built his first phonograph in 1877, he published an article proposing ten uses to which his invention might be put. They included preserving the last words of dying people, recording books for blind people to hear, announcing clock time, and teaching spelling. Reproduction of music was not high on Edison’s list of priorities. A few years later Edison told his assistant that his invention had no commercial value. Within another few years he changed his mind and did enter business to sell phonographs—but for use as office dictating machines. When other entrepreneurs created jukeboxes by arranging for a phonograph to play popular music at the drop of a coin, Edison objected to this debasement, which apparently detracted from serious office use of his invention. Only after about 20 years did Edison reluctantly concede that the main use of his phonograph was to record and play music.
Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (20th Anniversary Edition))
Whenever the occasional doubt starts to creep into my mind about my artistic ability, I start to think about the reality of having the greatest artist ever living inside of me. The One who created the orchid, peacock and the human circulatory system is the same God who gives me ideas for my next logo project. The God who parted the Red Sea is the same God who knows Photoshop. The God who raised Lazurus from the dead is the same God who brings new clients to me. He can do anything! If we want to talk about a fear of failing, we have to talk about being blessed to know the One who can do anything but fail.
V.L. Thompson (CEO - The Christian Entrepreneur's Outlook)
There is a real danger in believing it when people use the word “genius”—and it’s even more dangerous when we let hubris tell ourselves we are one. The same goes for any label that comes along with a career: are we suddenly a “film-maker,” “writer,” “investor,” “entrepreneur,” or “executive” because we’ve accomplished one thing? These labels put you at odds not just with reality, but with the real strategy that made you successful in the first place. From that place, we might think that success in the future is just the natural next part of the story—when really it’s rooted in work, creativity, persistence, and luck.
Ryan Holiday (Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent)
reinvention. Cities thrive when they have many small firms and skilled citizens. Detroit was once a buzzing beehive of small-scale interconnected inventors—Henry Ford was just one among many gifted entrepreneurs. But the extravagant success of Ford’s big idea destroyed that older, more innovative city. Detroit’s twentieth-century growth brought hundreds of thousands of less-well-educated workers to vast factories, which became fortresses apart from the city and the world. While industrial diversity, entrepreneurship, and education lead to innovation, the Detroit model led to urban decline. The age of the industrial city is over, at least in the West. Too many officials in troubled cities
Edward L. Glaeser (Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier)
Smart Sexy Money is About Your Money As an accomplished entrepreneur with a history that spans more than fourteen years, Annette Wise is constantly looking for ways to give back to her community. Using enterprising efforts, she qualified for $125,000 in startup funding to develop a specialized residential facility that allows developmentally disabled adults to live in the community after almost a lifetime of living in a state institution. In doing so, she has provided steady employment in her community for the last thirteen years. After dedicating years to her residential facility, Annette began to see clearly the difficulty business owners face in planning for retirement successfully. Searching high and low to find answers, she took control of financial uncertainty and in less than 2 years, she became a Full Life Agent, licensed Registered Representative, Investment Advisor Representative and Limited Principal. Her focus is on building an extensive list of clients that depend on her for smart retirement guidance, thorough college planning, detailed business continuation, and business exit strategies. Clients have come to rely on Annette for insight on tax advantaged savings and retirement options. Annette’s primary goal is to help her clients understand more than just concepts, but to easily understand how money works, the consequences of their decisions and how they work in conjunction with their desires and goal. Ever the curious soul who is always up for a challenge, Annette is routinely resourceful at finding sensible means to a sometimes-challenging end. She believes in infinite possibilities as well as in sharing her knowledge with others. She is the go-to source for “Smart Wealth Solutions.” Among Annette’s proudest accomplishments are her two wonderful sons, Michael III and Matthew. As a single mom, they have been her inspiration and joy. She is forever grateful to the greatest brothers in the world- Andrew and Anthony Wise, for assistance in grooming them into amazing young men.
Annette Wise
Bulk Email Sender Software - An Effective Means of Online Marketing With the continuous advancement of internet technology nowadays, the interest of the people also getting rise with it. Today, internet can't be a quiet a piece of the world, individuals can get everything from it from anyplace mean no reason to contact the others to get any information from web. In this advanced era, this is a crucial tool for online business organizations. May be you know about the bulk email sender, If you have enough knowledge and wish to enhance your worldwide existence, then it would be the best choice to get maximum benefits. Now it might be accepted as a bulk mailer tool to promote your business across the world and create a robust, stable and reliable connection with them. There is most likely that the client does not stay in contact for long-time yet this couldn't be with this sentence because this is best element of the business cycle. It has turned into the most effective and reasonable source to create a customer base of millions of people. It makes an entrepreneur to create healthier connection with worldwide customers with unwavering quality. When you are going to use bulk email software then need to pay attention with willingness and create your email message in such a way, that your recipients get good and pleasing experience. Attempt to reach a limited number of customers because sometime a sender may include less vital id in their email list yet when they send mass email to them the greatest part of audience trash the e-mail from their mailbox.
powermta expert
As an entrepreneur building a multimillion-dollar business, your failures are going to be your greatest assets, provided you have a philosophy that addresses mistakes, strives to understand them, learns the key elements in them, and turns them into successes.
Ryan Blair (Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur)
When asked the best piece of advice he’d give a budding entrepreneur, his answer was, “Know there will be dark days. There will be more dark days than good days, but the few good days are really, really good!” You will get knocked down. Know that it’s okay. It’s okay that it hurts a bit, too. And know that it’s okay to give yourself some recovery time. As Confucius said, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.” Don’t worry about getting knocked down—just try to reduce the time you stay there.
Darren Hardy (The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster: Why Now Is the Time to #Join the Ride)
I tended to regard governments as necessary evils, but often the greatest advances in human history have come through reckless and creative entrepreneurs who risked everything for an idea. Whether in medicine, or aviation, or technology, that idea has benefited humanity.
Gray Lanter (Deadly Voyage (Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Book 7))
Tulga Demir considers it his greatest accomplishment to be a responsible and trustworthy family man, while having shaped successful ventures in the fields of real estate and energy.
Tulga Demir
Berry and three other old Etonians, James Bolton, Alex Lyle and Christian De Lotbiniere, were the brains behind “Ski Bob” travel. This was a company, named after their Eton housemaster Bob Baird, which had been formed when they discovered that they were too young legally to book holidays themselves. So these young entrepreneurs started their own company and within the twenty-strong group, which mainly compromised old Etonians, the greatest accolade was to be called “Bob.” Diana was soon Bob, Bob, Bobbing along. “You’re skating on thin ice,” she yelled in her Miss Piggy voice as she skied dangerously close behind members of the group. She joined in the pillow fights, charades, and satirical singsongs. Diana was teased mercilessly about a framed photograph of Prince Charles, taken at his Investiture in 1969, which hung in her school dormitory. Not guilty, she said. It was a gift to the school. When she stayed in the Berry chalet she slept on the living-room sofa. Not that she got much sleep. Medical student, James Colthurst, liked to regale the slumbering throng with unwelcome early morning renditions of Martin Luther King’s famous “I had a dream” speech or his equally unamusing Mussolini impersonation.
Andrew Morton (Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words)
Sir Richard Branson Sir Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group of companies. An immensely successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, and television star, Sir Richard was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. In 2002, Sir Richard was voted one of the “100 Greatest Britons” in a poll sponsored by the BBC. Eighteen years later, my daughter Holly was enjoying Prince William’s twenty-first birthday party at “Grandma’s house.” A giant elephant had been constructed out of ice, and “shots” were being poured down its trunk and young ladies were drinking from it. Holly found herself kneeling with her mouth around it, glancing upward to see the Queen looking down at her disapprovingly. If Diana had still been alive, she would have laughed until she cried.
Larry King (The People's Princess: Cherished Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, From Those Who Knew Her Best)
Sir Richard Branson Sir Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group of companies. An immensely successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, and television star, Sir Richard was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. In 2002, Sir Richard was voted one of the “100 Greatest Britons” in a poll sponsored by the BBC. I was fortunate enough to know Diana for most of her adult life. For most of those years, I saw the sunny side of her personality. She was great fun, she was very caring, she did much for charity, and yet she was no saint and certainly wouldn’t have wished to be portrayed as one. On her death, the outpouring of grief was understandable, but she would have smiled wryly if she had seen the deference paid to her in the weeks following it.
Larry King (The People's Princess: Cherished Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, From Those Who Knew Her Best)
Sir Richard Branson Sir Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group of companies. An immensely successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, and television star, Sir Richard was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. In 2002, Sir Richard was voted one of the “100 Greatest Britons” in a poll sponsored by the BBC. She was a very loyal friend. When British Airways tried to drive Virgin out of business, I took them to court and won a celebrated victory. Lord King, BA’s chairman, stepped down, and later a handwritten note from Diana was delivered to me. It was just three words: “Hurray! Love, Diana.” She also named one of our planes Lady in Red. We took a flight in Lady in Red with Diana commentating from the cockpit with William on her lap. As we flew past Windsor Castle, her voice came over the loudspeaker: “On our right, you have Grandma’s house!” Everyone on the plane fell about laughing.
Larry King (The People's Princess: Cherished Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, From Those Who Knew Her Best)
I believe there are two ways to look at a blank sheet of paper. The first way is that the blank sheet is the most frightening thing in the world because you have to put down the first mark and figure out what to do with it. The other way is to look at it and say, “Wow, I’ve got another blank piece of paper. This is the greatest opportunity in the world because I can now let my imagination fly in any direction and I can create whole new things.” I have spent a good part of my life convincing people that the blank sheet is the greatest opportunity in the world and is not frightening at all. —Marty Sklar, Executive Vice President/Imagineering Ambassador, Walt Disney Imagineering
Michael E. Gerber (Awakening the Entrepreneur Within: How Ordinary People Can Create Extraordinary Companies)
Invention is about technology and the idea. Innovation is about satisfying the unmet needs of customers. Steve Jobs used others’ inventions and developed great innovations by improving them to exceed customers’ expectations and satisfy their unmet needs. Jobs was not the original creator of great inventions. But he was perhaps the world’s greatest imitator and innovator by combining other people’s inventions to develop products that people could not resist.
Dileep Rao (Nothing Ventured, Everything Gained: How Entrepreneurs Create, Control, and Retain Wealth Without Venture Capital)
Jobs was not a first-mover. He imitated and improved in an emerging technology to lead it. But he imitated and improved better than anyone else. He understood his market and offered convenience and style. He developed platforms around his core products, controlled the ecosystem of all the products and services being sold on Apple’s networks, and built one of the world’s greatest companies.
Dileep Rao (Nothing Ventured, Everything Gained: How Entrepreneurs Create, Control, and Retain Wealth Without Venture Capital)
Nat and I are entrepreneurs. It’s been feast of famine over the years. One of the greatest blessings in our lives is that when times get tough, we are willing to do the hard and necessary…even if that means digging out cans from the trash can at the park to recycle them for money and use the change to get gas to drive into town to buy groceries (true story).
Richie Norton
WHO’S ON YOUR TEAM? Rich dad surrounded himself with men and women who were specialists: attorneys, accountants, brokers, and bankers… and Kim and I have done the same. Today, our team of Advisors is among our greatest assets. What’s more important than money? An entrepreneur’s team… Who’s on yours?
Robert T. Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!)
The greatest challenge individuals and organizations will face when attempting to manifest their creative potential is not a lack of talent or resources—it’s a lack of understanding.
Alan Philips (The Age of Ideas: Unlock Your Creative Potential)
The problem is that we create an image of ourselves in our childhood and youth (often at the urging of parents, siblings or friends), and subsequently attempt to graft reality onto this image. More often than not, the graft doesn't take and the result is bewilderment and disappointment.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
But I will not give them a share. Not one. Not for love. Nor for loyalty. Not to be fair. Because capitalism isn't fair. Life isn't fair. The lottery of what genes we are born with isn't fair. The moon and the stars and the gas clouds of Alpha Centauri aren't fair.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
Would you rather be the world’s greatest lover, but have everyone think you’re the world’s worst lover? Or would you rather be worst lover but have everyone think you’re the world’s greatest lover?” Now, that’s an interesting question
Isaac Fox (Warren Buffett: 9 Daily Habits of Warren Buffett [Entrepreneur, Highly Effective, Motivation, Rich, Success])
The history of all human ideas is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. — SIR KARL POPPER, CONJECTURES AND REFUTATIONS The
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
But employee ownership is not just about sharing. It is also, in practice, often about giving. Such schemes depend on someone, usually the proprietor, deciding at some point to transfer ownership of some or all of a company to its employees. And it is this aspect of the ideal, I think, that has the greatest significance for my story. Of all the things I have given, it is arguable that the shares in my company that I gave away had the greatest financial value. In fact, I have rarely thought of this transfer of ownership as a gift, and I would be wrong if I did. The staff had a right to share in the company. Without them, the company would not have been so prosperous (and I am certain that Xansa would never have reached anything like the financial heights it eventually did if it hadn’t been powered by the fuel of staff ownership). But while I never doubted that aspect of the transfer, I did sometimes struggle with a more abstract issue: the fact that transferring ownership also means, ultimately, transferring control. That was the real challenge: surrendering power. Anyone can adjust to having a bit less money; ceding control of an enterprise that really matters to you is, by contrast, painfully counterintuitive. Who in their right mind would entrust an organisation that they have built up against all the odds, through years of tears, toil and sweat, to someone else? What if they mess it up? What if they don’t really understand what it is that you have created? What if they take it in some dangerous new direction, or manage it in a less idealistic way? Yet without that surrender, the most important part of the transaction is lost. A feudal grandee can be as generous as he likes with his wealth and property, but as long as he remains the grandee then his dependants are not empowered: they are merely well-fed. Empowering them means letting go: in other words, ceasing to be the grandee. I have struggled all my life with an instinct to hang on to the things that matter most to me, to control and protect them myself. Yet the art of surrender is, I am convinced, a key to many kinds of success - and fulfilment. And many lives are limited by a failure to master it.
Stephanie Shirley (LET IT GO : The Entrepreneur Turned Ardent Philanthropist)
If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the Greatest Failure.” Jack Ma
Think Maverick (Entrepreneur: Jack Ma, Alibaba and the 40 Thieves of Success)
In late 2008, one of my business partners, Clayton Christensen offered his opinion that the recession would have an “unmitigated positive impact on innovation” because “when the tension is greatest and resources are most limited, people are actually a lot more open to rethinking the fundamental way they do business.” This theory is supported by the Kaufmann Foundation statistic that “51 percent of the Fortune 500 companies began during a recession or bear market or both.” Whether launching a business or pursuing a dream, there are many high-profile instances in which a lack of resources ultimately proved to be a boon, rather than a bane. If we dig a bit, each of us can uncover examples among friends and family, and ourselves. Would most children have as many opportunities as they do in sports, music, or other extracurricular activities without parents, mothers in particular, who are accomplished at bartering as a way to stretch limited family budgets? Would kids have as many chances to explore their interests if their parents weren’t so adept at arranging for carpooling, chaperoning, and borrowing, thus enabling their kids to participate? Without the constraints of time, money, and health, would the online retailer Shabby Apple exist? (For a reminder of how that business came to be, see chapter 5.) If my parents could have paid for college, would I have caught an early glimpse of corporate life during the Silicon Valley heyday? Would I have ever set foot on Wall Street had I not needed to work to put my husband through school? All of us have had the opportunity to bootstrap if we look hard enough. Men seem to know how to do this in the business world: 88 percent of the founders of Entrepreneur magazine’s Hot 500 were men. But I wonder if women aren’t better at bootstrapping than we think we are. Chronically under resourced (whether due to the gender pay gap or ceding our resources to conform to societal expectations), women continually feel the tension of having too little budget and too little time. Because of this tension, we are expert at rethinking how to get things done. Many of us know how to turn scarcity into opportunity.
Whitney Johnson (Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream)
In dealing with his frustrations of an unpredictable environment typical of the startup world, Kaplan wrote that an entrepreneur is “faced with an endless stream of arbitrary challenges that bear down on you with the relentlessness of an automatic pitching machine. The trick is to know when to swing and when to duck.” [29]
Arun Rao (A History of Silicon Valley: The Greatest Creation of Wealth in the History of the Planet)
Arguably the most consequential product ever invented was the wheel. What most people don’t realize is that it took over 300 years (and, as Pirate Christopher likes to say, “And a bottle of whiskey Jack and a bag of Mary Jane”) for somebody to tilt the thing on its side and use the wheel for transportation. Before that, the wheel was only used for pottery. So, if the greatest product ever could not speak for itself, then what makes today’s entrepreneurs think their product (in and of itself) will drive its own growth?
Category Pirates (The Category Design Toolkit: Beyond Marketing: 15 Frameworks For Creating & Dominating Your Niche)
However, in a perverse twist on the modern take of the rich, our society gives those who have achieved the greatest success by work and diligence short shrift.We are not interested in emulating the Toyota-driving, modestly attired, bling-less entrepreneur or sales professional. Instead, we take as our role models celebrities and athletes, masters of the universe. Rather than attempt to find their luck, we have come to think that if we act like them, look like them, drive the cars they drive, we are glitteringly rich. In the process of buying into the marketing hype, of getting sucked into the brand advertising, we have frittered away our wealth. It’s not your fault, in a way, as some of the smartest people in the world seem to be working in marketing and advertising,
Thomas J. Stanley (Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire)
Time is the greatest asset in the world, you are blessed if you still have time to do something you really love to do
Anuj Jasani
Most of my ideas about how to act as an entrepreneur are derived from The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset, the greatest Spanish philosopher of the twentieth century. Although it was published in 1929, the year before I was born, I believe this book still offers the clearest explanation of the times in which we live. And I believe it offers a master “plan of action” for the would-be entrepreneur, who usually has no reputation and few resources.
Joe Coulombe (Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys)
Perhaps the greatest lesson Uncle Cleve left behind is that it is the choices we make that ultimately determine the outcome of our lives.
Clifton Taulbert (Who Owns the Ice House?: Eight Life-Lessons From an Unlikely Entrepreneur)
The choice is not between hands-on or hands-off. In our research, the entrepreneurs who led their companies from start-ups into some of the greatest corporations in history generally had both a hands-on style and an empowering style. No matter how big their companies became, they remained closely connected to their people, hyper-aware of facts on the ground, and directly engaged in strategic imperatives. If you lose your voracious curiosity about tactical details, if you lose passionate interest in people and how they are feeling, if you insulate yourself in the protective cocoon of executive comforts, you may well wake up one day to discover your company has already entered a doom loop of decline and self-destruction.
James C. Collins (BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company)
Entrepreneurs succeed when they say ‘yes’ to the right project, at the right time, in the right way. To accomplish this, they have to be good at saying ‘no’ to all their other ideas. Essentialism offers concise and eloquent advice on how to determine what you care about most, and how to apply your energies in ways that ultimately bring you the greatest rewards.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder/chairman of Linkedin and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Start-up of You
Greg McKeown (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less)
Entrepreneurs succeed when they function as bridges between different kinds of networks.
Lewis Schiff (Business Brilliant: Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons)
My humbleness ranks among the greatest in the world.
JetSet (Josh King Madrid, JetSetFly) (The Art of Frame Control: The Art of Frame Control: How To Effortlessly Get People To Readily Agree With You & See The World Your Way)
If you wish to become rich, look carefully about you at the prevailing industries where wealth appears to be gravitating. Then go to where the money is! That is where you should focus your efforts. On the ball marked “The Money is Here.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
Failure is so dependable that the only way to avoid it is to never try anything at all. The people we see as the best, the greatest athletes, the most successful entrepreneurs, or the people making the most impact in the world, are all continuously failing.
Lewis Howes (The Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life Today)
The truth is, most entrepreneurs pivot many times before they find their footing. And often, even after they find their footing. And it can feel perilous. You have to steer toward a new opportunity, often before it comes into clear focus. And, equally challenging, you have to turn away from something—specifically, an idea that previously inspired hopes, dreams, and investment of time and money. Human beings don’t let go of old ideas easily. In pivoting, you risk blowback from your co-founders, your staff, your investors, and your users. For those reasons, it can be the single greatest test of your leadership skills.
Reid Hoffman (Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs)
The greatest obstacles to an entrepreneur’s good intentions for long-term behavioural change are the many attractive short-term business opportunities that arise.
Sandy Pfund | The Enterneer®
Successful management of the company's evolution and transformation is the core task of entrepreneurs. But it is also one of the greatest weaknesses in many places.
Sandy Pfund | The Enterneer®
Successful management of the company's evolution and transformation is the core task of entrepreneurs. But it is also one of the greatest weaknesses in many places.
Sandy Pfund | The Enterneer®
As an entrepreneur, your focus is your greatest asset. Stay committed to your goals, and let your unwavering dedication drown out the noise of those who only watch from the sidelines.
Linsey Mills (Your Business Venture: The Prep. The Pitch. The Funding.)
Genius By The Dozen (A Sonnet) Given the resources, I can build any technology, Unlike some people, I do not need to hire genius. Yet I gave up my obsession of electronics, because, Building rockets is easy, building society not so much. Not everybody is born with a silver spoon in mouth, Rest of us have to choose among bread, dreams and tears. But don't assume that I am whining about a misfortune, Because, a reformer is worth a hundred entrepreneurs. Rocket science is child's play for even a fisherman's son, Cognitive Science is common sense for a laborer's child. Yet you boast about a bunch of counterfeit geniuses whose, Greatest power is that they are born with a golden hide. If you seek true genius, lend a hand to developing nations. And they'll give you Gates, Musks and Byrons by the dozens.
Abhijit Naskar (Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans)
Let there be no doubt, that what we are witnessing is, indeed, history’s greatest financial bubble,” wrote an investor at the market’s peak in 1999. “The indescribable financial excesses, the massive increase in debt, the monstrous use of leverage upon leverage, the collapse in private savings, the incredulous current account deficits, and the ballooning central bank assets all describe the very severe financial imbalances which no amount of statistical revision nor hype from CNBC can erase.
Jimmy Soni (The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley)
The greatest battles we face are the ones within ourselves. Conquer your mind and conquer the world.
Tim Ferriss (17 questions that changed my life)
The greatest obstacle to success is not external factors, but rather our own limiting beliefs. Change your mindset, change your life.
Ed Mylett (#MAXOUT Your Life)
The world is changing and there are new opportunities for those who are ready to join forces with those who are stronger and more experienced
Ron Shillingford (MINI BOOK The History of the World’s Greatest Criminal Entrepreneurs (History of the World's Greatest...))
One of my prevailing philosophies is that if any individual were to find out that he or she had only six days to live, all people’s final thoughts would revolve around life’s most important things: the people they’ve loved and the places they’ve explored. Nothing shapes an individual as much as these two influences. {Kent family archives} An early safari on the shores of Lake Baringo.   My parents and I started Abercrombie & Kent out of necessity when the land in Kenya that we’d spent our lives developing was taken away from us. Many entrepreneurs agree that it’s our worst vulnerabilities that inspire us to find our greater purpose. When the most precious part of yourself is taken away, you will do whatever it takes to get your power back. You’ll even travel to the ends of the earth. This book is more than a collection of the best moments that I’ve experienced along the path; this book is my love story. By bringing the same sense of adventure found on safari to other places around the world, I defined luxury experiential travel . . . but my own greatest adventure has been this business itself.
Geoffrey Kent (Safari: A Memoir of a Worldwide Travel Pioneer)
Few things in life are certain except death and being taxed.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
the ability to sell, which is usually nothing more than a talent for hype and keeping a straight face as you demand a fifty times markup from potential buyers who wouldn’t know a Damien Hirst from a pickled sardine.
Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets)
It's time the world knew what was really discovered at Delphi." says Dr Moses Frank, in The Elena Text. But who is Moses Frank and what was he referring to? The Elena Text is a controversial and provocative thriller set in the world of antiquities and archaeology, based around the untold story of what was really discovered at Delphi in Greece - but has remained a closely-guarded secret since the 1930s. In Moses Frank we have a character who single-handedly defines the extremities of recent times, the stateless survivor, against all the odds, the refugee turned millionaire, the entrepreneur who creates his own rules, a charming and educated artist with a first class degree from the university of life, a thinker but an unashamed money-maker and pleasure-seeker. Moses Frank is a man who can be forgiven almost anything because he is so hugely admired as a dealer, a canny sleuth who has tracked down the world’s greatest missing antiquities. But despite all his gifts and talents, Moses Frank is also a man bristling with self-doubt - searching endlessly for the finest examples of human art, the sensual peaks of female beauty and some thin slivers of meaning in his terribly successful life. I believe Frank is a rich, unpredictable and multi-facetted lead character who will continue to fascinate readers in volumes 2 and 3 of THE MOSES FRANK TRILOGY.
Martin Weitz (The Elena Text (The Moses Frank Trilogy #1))
For me, willingness to have a headache that no one else was willing to have became my business mantra. So after Television’s Greatest Hits blossomed into its own pop phenomena, I faced a host of other decisions that were informed by that construct.
Chris LoPresti (INSIGHTS: Reflections From 101 of Yale's Most Successful Entrepreneurs)
I believe that poor people are the world's greatest entrepreneurs. Everyday, they must innovate in order to survive.
Muhammad Yunus
The irony of the revolution is that it sought to eradicate capitalism, entrepreneurship, but the revolution’s greatest legacy has been the rise of a new breed of Cuban entrepreneurs. The black market thrives.” “So where does Orwell in Cuba fit
Chanel Cleeton (Next Year in Havana)
Climate change is the greatest challenge of our generation and it is up to us - the young engineers, technologists and entrepreneurs to build solutions.
Madhav Datt
We have sequenced each of your genomes from the blood samples you provided and have determined that—as expected—a disproportionate number of you share what’s known as the ‘wanderlust gene,’ DRD4-7R. This gene is highly correlated with a desire for novel experiences. Many of the world’s greatest explorers, adventurers, and entrepreneurs have this gene. Its
Daniel Suarez (Delta-V (Delta-v, #1))
Which it literally could be. Many of history’s greatest thinkers, leaders, scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs found some of their greatest inspiration going for walks. Beethoven used to take walks carrying blank pages of sheet music and a pencil. The Romantic poet William Wordsworth used to write as he took walks around a lake where he lived. Ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle would lecture their students while taking long walks with them, often working out their ideas at the same time. Two thousand years later, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche would say, “It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.” Einstein refined many of his theories about the universe while walking around the Princeton University campus. The writer Henry David Thoreau would say, “The moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life)
As an accomplished entrepreneur with a history that spans more than fourteen years, Annette Wise is constantly looking for ways to give back to her community. Using enterprising efforts, she qualified for $125,000 in startup funding to develop a specialized residential facility that allows developmentally disabled adults to live in the community after almost a lifetime of living in a state institution. In doing so, she has provided steady employment in her community for the last thirteen years. After dedicating years to her residential facility, Annette began to see clearly the difficulty business owners face in planning for retirement successfully. Searching high and low to find answers, she took control of financial uncertainty and in less than 2 years, she became a Full Life Agent, licensed Registered Representative, Investment Advisor Representative and Limited Principal. Her focus is on building an extensive list of clients that depend on her for smart retirement guidance, thorough college planning, detailed business continuation, and business exit strategies. Clients have come to rely on Annette for insight on tax advantaged savings and retirement options. Annette’s primary goal is to help her clients understand more than just concepts, but to easily understand how money works, the consequences of their decisions and how they work in conjunction with their desires and goal. Ever the curious soul who is always up for a challenge, Annette is routinely resourceful at finding sensible means to a sometimes-challenging end. She believes in infinite possibilities as well as in sharing her knowledge with others. She is the go-to source for “Smart Wealth Solutions.” Among Annette’s proudest accomplishments are her two wonderful sons, Michael III and Matthew. As a single mom, they have been her inspiration and joy. She is forever grateful to the greatest brothers in the world- Andrew and Anthony Wise, for assistance in grooming them into amazing young men.
Annette Wise