For whatever kind of entrepreneur you may be, it’s important to seek advice from those who’ve come before you. Not for the inspiration – because you have to find that within yourself. Inspiration from others is great, but it does not last. You need to seek advice to because it’s so important to always continuously learn. When we stop learning, we’ll stop achieving more. Here are 10 quotes that will help you learn and frame your mindset to be successful:
1) “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill, Former UK Prime Minister
Meaning: Every great entrepreneur has failed a thousand times. So, in order to become one of those, you must be ready to fail over and over and over again. The key is to not be deterred by the failure. You must have that enthusiasm in you from the beginning, and let nothing (including “failure”) deter you from that.
2) “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
Meaning: Though it’s important to celebrate the small wins, it’s also important to stay hungry for success- no matter how high you are. The problem with achievement is that it causes you to relax. When you relax and think you’ll stay at the top, there’s thousands of others just waiting to take your place. You have to keep moving and keep learning.
3) “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, THEOLOGIAN
Meaning: People often times believe “I will be happy when I make X amount per year” or “I will be happy when I achieve my goal”. I’m sure we could all think of some “I’ll be happy when” sayings – but we’re not going to because none of that will ever be true.
Happiness is a choice every day. You train your brain how to think by the habits you continue. When you train your brain to think “I’ll be happy when”, you are telling it that you aren’t happy right now. You’ll always be reaching for something more, and nothing will ever be good enough.
Therefore, you have to choose to be happy right now. Once you choose happiness, and you pursue something that makes you happy, you will then find yourself in a position of success.
4) “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur
Meaning: This quote couldn’t be more true for today’s world. We live at the start of an entrepreneurial world, and no formal education will teach you to reach the path you need to take for entrepreneurial success. Formal education is very important to have. While you’re pursuing your goals, you need to be financially steady, and having a formal education will give you that. But the next steps are a bit trickier- entrepreneurs have to create their own path, the way to do that is through self-education.
5) “It’s supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it” – Tom Hanks
Meaning: It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be really hard, and that’s why not many get there. But if you keep going, you will eventually get there. You’ve just got to figure out what the next right step to take is.
6) “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
Meaning: One of the best ways to grow is to just put yourself out there. If you spend so much time perfecting your product or your service, you’ll just have to perfect it more once it’s out there. You’re essentially wasting time by wanting to be “perfect” starting out. You’ll have lost even more insight (and probably sales) than you would have by just starting. You just have to start somewhere – you don’t start off great- you have to start somewhere and become great.
7) “The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” — Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder
Meaning: Hang out with like-minded people. The five people you hang around the most are the ones who have the biggest influence on you. Associate with people you want to be like.
8) “Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” — Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter
Meaning: Have you ever heard of stars becoming “overnight successes”? They’re called “overnight successes” because one day you hadn’t heard of them, and the next day you have. That doesn’t mean that it came easy to them. That means that there were endless nights and years of work that went into it. Then once you get there, you’ve become an “overnight success” to your fans.
9) “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” – Les Brown, American motivational speaker, author, and former politician
Meaning: No one is going to do it for you. Everything you achieve in life will be done on your own. You can’t ever blame anyone else for your lack of success than yourself. So go out there and make it happen.
10) “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” -Muhammad Ali, Boxing Champion
Meaning: Even if you love what you do, it’s not always going to be fun. Even when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, don’t give up. Just keep going.
Each of these quotes have messages that every entrepreneur must learn if they want to be successful. What are your thoughts? Which ones do you find to be the most helpful in your life?
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