The nature of being an entrepreneur means that you fully accept ambiguity and are comfortable with regular challenges. Especially when you have to go out for startup fundraiser. Choosing this career path is completely irrational because the odds of success are lousy, but most succeed because of their unwavering belief, laser focus on delivery, and persistence. This is something we constantly see in Co-Founders Lab (company I run), which is one of the largest networks of entrepreneurs.
Starting a company is a fascinating roller coaster of emotions with tremendous ups and downs and sometimes difficult lows, but one thing that always gets me through the ups and downs is connecting with some of the brightest minds. Below are some of my favorite quotes:
1. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
-Peter Drucker
2. “Winners never give up and those who give up never win.”
-Vince Lombardi
3. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t get caught up in dogma, which is living by the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions Others drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Somehow they already know what you really want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
4. “My biggest motivation? To keep challenging myself. I look at life almost like a long college education that I never had; every day I learn something new.”
5. “Every time you say what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t limit yourself.”
6. “It’s okay to celebrate success, but it’s more important to pay attention to the lessons of failure.”
7. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about it, you’ll do things differently.”
-Warren Buffett
8. “One of the big mistakes people make is trying to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.”
-Jeff Bezos
9. “I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
-Thomas Edison
10. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will get you everywhere.”
– Albert Einstein
11. “While you think anyway, think big.”
-Donald Trump
12. “Success is walking from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
-Winston Churchill
13. “Awesomeness is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
– thomas edison
14. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the moorings. He sails away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Sleep. Discover.”
– Mark Twain
15. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied our best to the task at hand.”
-Vince Lombardi
16. “If you can’t do big things, do little things in a big way.”
– Napoleon Hill
17. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.”
-Bill Cosby
18. “Success is not what you have, but who you are.”
-Bo Bennett
19. “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.”
– Warren G. Tracy Student
20. “To win without risk is to succeed without glory.”
– Raven
21. “Stay away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too can become great.”
– Mark Twain
22. “There is only one success: being able to live your life your way.”
-Christopher Morley
23. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”
– Napoleon Hill
24. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you do, you will succeed.”
-Albert Schweitzer
25. “What is never started is never finished”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
26. “When you stop dreaming, you stop living.”
-Malcolm Forbes
27. “Formal education will allow you to earn a living; self-education will earn you a fortune.”
-Jim Rohn
28. “The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake: you can’t learn anything by being perfect.”
-Adam Osborne
29. “A leader is one who knows the way, follows the way and shows the way.”
-John C. Maxwell
30. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
-Ralph Nader
31. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
– Confucius
32. “Your most dissatisfied customers are your greatest source of learning.”
-Bill Gates