110 Best Motivational Quotes for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is a high-stakes game that tests resilience, adaptability, and vision. Motivation isn’t just a feel-good boost—it’s the fuel that keeps you moving through setbacks, long hours, and uncertainty. In 2025, with AI reshaping industries and global markets in flux, entrepreneurs face unique pressures to innovate and execute. Motivation drives you to refine your strategy, learn from failures, and stay committed to your goals. It’s what separates those who give up from those who pivot and persevere.

Below are 110 quotes from leaders, innovators, and thinkers to inspire your next move.

110 Motivational Quotes for Entrepreneurs

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that.” – Nolan Bushnell
“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.” – Steve Jobs
“It’s almost always harder to raise capital than you thought it would be, and it always takes longer. So plan for that.” – Richard Harroch
“Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” – Drew Houston
“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” – Guy Kawasaki
“Any time is a good time to start a company.” – Ron Conway
“The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.” – Marc Benioff
“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretzky
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” – Reid Hoffman
“The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.” – Walt Disney
“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.” – Jeff Bezos
“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson
“You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” – Warren Buffett
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin
“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” – G.K. Chesterton
“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” – B.C. Forbes
“To succeed in business, it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.” – John H. Patterson
“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” – Howard Schultz
“Take risks. Failure is a stepping stone to success.” – Arianna Huffington
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville
“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” – Colin R. Davis
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.” – Calvin Coolidge
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates
“Always deliver more than expected.” – Larry Page
“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” – Peter Drucker
“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” – Biz Stone
“There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” – Jason Fried
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” – Larry Page
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
“Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” – Robert Kiyosaki
“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.” – Catherine Cook
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon
“Every problem is a gift—without problems, we would not grow.” – Tony Robbins
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” – Richard Branson
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk.” – Mark Zuckerberg
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
“Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” – Tony Hsieh
“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right.” – Steve Wozniak
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
“If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.” – Pierre Omidyar
“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” – Steve Jobs
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” – Thomas Edison
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” – Steve Jobs
“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” – Dhirubhai Ambani
“The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” – Sheryl Sandberg
“The only thing worse than starting something and failing is not starting something.” – Seth Godin
“Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.” – Tony Hsieh
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.” – Mark Twain
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
“If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon.” – Jeff Bezos
“The only way around is through.” – Robert Frost
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” – Samuel Goldwyn
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
“Success is not the absence of obstacles, but the courage to push through them.” – Unknown
“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” – Scott Belsky
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou
“The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.” – Unknown
“Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it.” – Unknown
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius
“Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” – Chris Grosser
“Success is not what you have, but who you are.” – Bo Bennett
“The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.” – Tony Robbins
“Dream big. Work hard. Stay focused.” – Unknown
“You don’t need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission.” – Unknown
“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself.” – Jordan Belfort
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – Will Rogers
“The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do.” – Roy L. Smith
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke
“If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney
“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving.” – Conrad Hilton
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Zig Ziglar
“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” – Vince Lombardi
“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does—that makes you a winner right there.” – Venus Williams
“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
“The key to success is to start before you are ready.” – Marie Forleo
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
“Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.” – Roy T. Bennett
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Do what you love, and the money will follow.” – Marsha Sinetar
“The best investment you can make is in yourself.” – Warren Buffett
“You don’t have to be perfect to be amazing.” – Unknown
“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo
“The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.” – Charles Kingsleigh
“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” – Unknown