Successful Entrepreneur Quotes & Sayings

If you choose to become a smoker, you are an idiot, and you may lack the discipline and intelligence to be a successful entrepreneur. — Gene Simmons

I actually think being an entrepreneur is a state of mind. If you're going to be an entrepreneur, my thesis is that you have to sacrifice everything for some period in your life to be successful. You have to be myopic and completely focused and unbalanced in every way. Once you've achieved success, you're free to do whatever you like. — Kevin O'Leary

You can take the smartest kid at Wharton, the one who gets straight A's and has a 170 IQ, and if he doesn't have the instincts, he'll never be a successful entrepreneur. — Donald Trump

Before there is a business, a successful entrepreneur is designing this type of business in his or her mind's eye. According to my rich dad, this is the job of a true entrepreneur. — Robert Kiyosaki

Successful entrepreneurs judge correctly the need for change, then do something about it. — James Edward Smith

In the 1920s, everyone wanted to be a celebrity. Everyone wanted to be like Babe Ruth or Charles Lindbergh ... Businessmen, in particular, in the '20s really believed that to be a success, an entrepreneur needed to have a personality, a sense that you were a success. That's why I think Capone dressed the way he did. And that's why he entertained the press - because he wanted to be perceived as a successful American. Dale Carnegie ... would later cite Capone as a model for creating the public image. Obviously, it went bad in many ways for Capone, but that's the image he was going for. — Jonathan Eig

One of the most heinous, insidious lies is the notion that you have to be an asshole to be a successful business person. — Alan Cooper

There would not be any profits but for the eagerness of the public to acquire the merchandise offered for sale by the successful entrepreneur. But the same people who scramble for these articles vilify the businessman and call his profit ill-got. — Ludwig Von Mises

Being an entrepreneur and starting new companies require a lot of sacrifice. Sacrifice that you have to make. Because in order to be really successful, your company becomes your life. And then you have to really dedicate your time and energy fully to this endeavor that you start. — Anousheh Ansari

The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today? — Malcolm Gladwell

A successful self-publisher must fill three roles: Author, Publisher, and Entrepreneur - or APE. — Guy Kawasaki

Being an entrepreneur might seem like the scariest thing in the world to pursue, and those around you who appear to be unsupportive are the same people who wish that they could do what you are about to do. Facing fears means not being afraid of people who may ridicule you if you fall. Use those butterflies and jitters to fuel your fearless actions. Successful business owners do not let fear stop them, and they do not create fictional scenarios about how and when they will fail. As business owners, if we are ever to assume, let them be positive assumptions. — V.L. Thompson

What are the most important qualities that make a successful entrepreneur? The ability to communicate. The ability to express your idea with certainty. That's how you become a leader-even if you are unsure, your ability to explain your vision and your direction is the attribute you need the most ... Articulate your idea in 90 seconds or less ... — Kevin O'Leary

It is human nature, especially as we get older, to look for stability in our lives. But if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to fight against that somewhat, as starting a business requires movement. You cannot stay still. — Robert Herjavec

If you're going to be a successful entrepreneur, you're going to have to be somebody who can tolerate a high rate of change, you have to be willing to put a lot more hours into it, you have to tolerate the fact that you're going to make more mistakes and have a culture that responds to that. — Trip Hawkins

You can never be satisfied as an entrepreneur, and the basis of any successful, growing business is new clients. — Robert Herjavec

When I was coming up as an entrepreneur, I had to fight for everything I got, and there was no clear roadmap of how to be successful. — Jason Calacanis

What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? It takes willingness to learn, to be able to focus, to absorb information, and to always realize that business is a 24/7 job where someone is always out there to kick your ass. — Mark Cuban

Without question, the single most important attribute of a successful entrepreneur is integrity. And that's not some philosophical or theoretical malarkey; it's hard-nosed fact. — David S. Rose

"Why is the creative entrepreneur the riskiest type to be?" I asked. "Because being creative means you are often a pioneer. It is easy to copy a successful and proven product. It is also less risky. If you learn to innovate, create, or invent your way to success, you are an entrepreneur creating new value rather than an entrepreneur who wins by copying." — Robert Kiyosaki

Share your success stories with others. Don't brag, but don't hide your light. People want (and need) to be inspired and instructed. I know I want to follow and learn from successful people. Isn't that the basis for every business and self-help book? People will also give you good ideas to build on your own wins when you share openly. And when you write out your wins to an audience, your own ideas start to grow within you. Will you try? What's a win you've had lately? Don't be shy about it. — Richie Norton

Successful entrepreneurs don't have better ideas; instead they have better mindsets for taking action. Action is what sets apart an aspiring entrepreneur from others. — Farshad Asl

My advice is never let a publicist call you a 'visionary.' I've hung out with the visionaries at the famed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. I've been a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. I wouldn't touch 'visionary' with a 10-foot pole. — Robert Metcalfe

If you want to become successful employer tomorrow, work hard on learning and practicing few simple disciplines and positive thoughts as an employee today. — Ashish Patel

As a Shark, I've been in the tank with these entrepreneurs and I can tell you Rachel gets right to the heart of how they succeeded," said Barbara Corcoran in her endorsement of the book. "'Shark Tank MOMpreneurs' is a must read for anyone looking to learn the inside secrets of getting on 'Shark Tank' and landing a deal, or getting the publicity that's essential for any successful business. — Rachel A. Olsen

The stereotypical successful entrepreneur is Mark Zuckerberg - the young college dropout who dreamed up a crazy idea while in his dorm room. — Vivek Wadhwa

There are those dreamers who make excuses for why they aren't passionate about or creating anything to match their desires and then there's those dreamers who stay up late just to finish a goal that will get them up the next set of stairs. We all have dreams but not everyone makes it a reality. — Nikki Rowe

Going into business for yourself, becoming an entrepreneur, is the modern-day equivalent of pioneering on the old frontier. — Paula Nelson

What differentiates the success stories from the failures is that the successful entrepreneurs had the foresight, the ability, and the tools to discover which parts of their plans were working brilliantly and which were misguided, and adapt their strategies accordingly. — Eric Ries

We need to create an enterprise culture, a society where successful entrepreneurs are respected and admired, not treated with suspicion and disdain. And in which we see less envy of other peoples' achievements and mistrust of commerce, and a greater readiness to get out there and join in the process. — Norman Tebbit

Being an entrepreneur doesn't make you a rich tycoon and being an innovator doesn't mean that you're successful. It just means that you're interesting. — Lana Del Rey

During the inevitable times when you feel like your work has no meaning, find meaning at home. If you need something more to feel creative or need extra cash, then moonlight: start dream projects after work hours. At some point in time, a successful side project can become your main project and you'll be fortunate enough to make your work and your dreams become one. || You should always have meaning outside the workplace. Work to support your lifestyle - don't live to support your work. — Richie Norton

The most successful entrepreneur that every lived (God) was and is successful because Jesus and the Holy Spirit showed they cared for poor lost souls. They were willing share knowledge and demonstrate how things should be done. Not one successful entrepreneur has every done it alone or has not had help from another. Teaching and working together is becoming a lost art. The lack of this may seem like job security for the some, but it's not. The one who does this must come to the realization that his security is threaten by the desperate fuel by his own selfishness. Even inventors have to find caring distributors who get their products out before the masses. Perseverance is just a link in the chain of success. 99% of the chain is sharing knowledge and showing that you care. The opposite of this is fleeting success. Success that is like a vapor, here one moment and gone the next. — Delaine Robins

To have a successful career, you have to approach it as an entrepreneur, even if you are working for someone else. Your career is your own private business. You have to market yourself and your abilities and knowledge just as you would a product or service. — Earl G. Graves, Sr.

You shouldn't spend your time listening to the advice of
people who have never done what you want to do. You
should never get fitness tips from an over-weight trainer,
business tips from your broke Uncle Jim, or marital tips from
someone who has been divorced three times. If you think like a successful entrepreneur and do what a successful entrepreneur does wouldn't you become successful? If you only get your advice from some college professor or academic who has never achieved business or financial success, isn't it likely that you will never achieve success as well? My friend you need to listen to a successful entrepreneur. — Clay Clark

I never went to college. But the structure I grew up with was planted so deep that when it came to doing business, I knew how to be disciplined, create teamwork, and persevere. It set me up to be an entrepreneur and a successful franchiser. — Anne F. Beiler

Amid the characteristics that make a successful entrepreneur, one stood out: juvenile delinquency. — Alexa Clay

Many skills, as every successful entrepreneur knows, cannot be taught in school. They require doing. Sometimes a life of doing. And where money-making is concerned, nothing compresses the time frame needed to leap from my-shit-just-sits-there-until-it-rains poverty to which-of-my-toilets-shall-I-use affluence like an apprenticeship with someone who already has the angles all figured out. — Mohsin Hamid

A true measure of an entrepreneur / successful-person is how they deal with adversity. — Noah Kagan

I am proud to offer my endorsement of Donald J. Trump for President of the United States. He is a successful executive and entrepreneur, a wonderful father, and a man who I believe can lead our country to greatness again. — Jerry Falwell Jr.

The skill sets it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, a successful marketer, or a relevant celebrity is a different skill set than you needed ten years ago, even though that was the skill set that mattered for decades. — Gary Vaynerchuk

You will find that every successful entrepreneur has suffered many setbacks. These entrepreneurs just forget to mention these when they are doing interviews with the 'Wall Street Journal' or Bloomberg TV. — Vivek Wadhwa

My dad is an unbelievable entrepreneur who balanced his life as a father and a president of two very successful companies. — Rachel Zoe

Thinking big is only one part of being a successful entrepreneur. — Kathryn Minshew

You see, there is no such thing as a failed entrepreneur. You are a failed entrepreneur only when you quit. Until then, you are simply not successful ... yet. — Anonymous

The successful entrepreneur's unique ability to turn trying times into triumphs. — Donald J. Trump

[Successful] projects that entrepreneurs initiated and carried through had one essential quality. All had been thoroughly contemplated by the regnant experts and dominant companies, with their large research staffs and financial resources, and had been judged too difficult, untimely, risky, expensive and unprofitable. — George Gilder

Successful entrepreneurs don't wait for the perfect moment - they create it — Richard Branson

People ask me all the time, 'How can I become a successful entrepreneur?' And I have to be honest: It's one of my least favorite questions, because if you're waiting for someone else's advice to become an entrepreneur, chances are you're not one. — Michael Dell

I started off with a company, InfoSpace, with my own funding. The company was listed among the most successful companies and I went on to start Intelius and Moon Express. Now, I focus my time on using the skills of an entrepreneur to solve many of the grand challenges facing us in the areas of education, healthcare, clean water and energy. — Naveen Jain

My father was a successful entrepreneur. — Charlie Trotter

A successful entrepreneur can't be afraid of failures or setbacks. An initial setback can be a great opportunity to take a new and more promising approach to any problem, to come back stronger than ever. — John Roos

Any successful entrepreneur knows that time is more valuable than money itself. — Richard Branson

The riches of successful entrepreneurs is not the cause of anybody's poverty; it is the consequence of the fact that the consumers are better supplied than they would have been in the absence of the entrepreneur's efforts. — Ludwig Von Mises

A successful entrepreneur is one who recognizes her blind spots. You may be the world's best engineer, but you probably have never run a 10-person sales force. You may be a brilliant marketer, but how do you structure a cap table? — Jay Samit

Niklas Zennstroem has a thorough background as a successful entrepreneur with extensive expertise in areas such as IT and online. — Stefan Persson

Every entrepreneur deals with fears of failure. However, the truly successful know how to face these fears and keep on working. — Yogi Berra

Breaking the rules and challenging convention is in the DNA of every successful entrepreneur. Doing things differently and solving problems with new, innovative and fresh approaches are the very reason many start-ups are able to compete and sometimes outpace the established market leaders. — Richard Branson

For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility. And the responsibility for me is to invest in creating new businesses, create jobs, employ people, and to put money aside to tackle issues where we can make a difference. — Richard Branson

Most entrepreneurial types are free-wheelers who like to do a variety of things and do not enjoy routine tasks. But a smart entrepreneur will eventually learn that while ideas start businesses, organization makes them successful. — Larry Burkett

To be successful, you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running — Richard Branson

In general, I think what Donald Trump's message is, is: I'm a very practical, execution-oriented entrepreneur who built a successful business. I've demonstrated an ability to go global with my business. I can get along with a lot of different people. There are certain problems in the United States right now born from faulty policy. So what is happening right now is the lower and middle class are being left behind by the globalization and by the global elite. I think that's basically his message, and Bernie Sanders' is similar. — Anthony Scaramucci

I see myself as a very successful entrepreneur. Maybe making films or else starting my own clothesline. I see myself as a corporate woman, sitting on the 16th floor of a swank office with a glass window that overlooks the Manhattan skyline. — Sushmita Sen