94 Inspirational and Motivational Business Quotes
Success in business—and life—is often driven by a blend of hard work, motivation, and inspiration.
Building and sustaining a business can be challenging, demanding long hours, patience, and a steady stream of inspiration to stay focused on your goals.
In this article, we present 94 powerful business quotes from renowned leaders and thinkers to ignite your passion and guide you on your journey to success.
Our Favorite Business Quotes
“What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone. Know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” Dave Thomas
“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” Richard Branson
“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” Henry Ford
“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.” Thomas J. Watson
“Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.” David Rockefeller
“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” Richard Branson
“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” Bertie Charles Forbes
“The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.” Aristotle Socrates Onassis
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates
“Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” — Paul Rand
“Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the upmarket.” — Jason Calacanis
“Data beats emotions.” — Sean Rad
“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” — Socrates
“I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” — Estee Lauder
“It takes more than capital to swing business. You’ve got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.” Ren Mulford Jr.
“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.” Harold Geneen
“The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place.” Orison Swett Marden
“In business, I’ve discovered that my purpose is to do my best to my utmost ability every day. That’s my standard. I learned early in my life that I had high standards.” Donald Trump
“Let’s be honest. There’s not a business anywhere that is without problems. Business is complicated and imperfect. Every business everywhere is staffed with imperfect human beings and exists by providing a product or service to other imperfect human beings.” Bob Parsons
“To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business.” J. Paul Getty
“Business is not financial science, it’s about trading.. buying and selling. It’s about creating a product or service so good that people will pay for it.” Anita Roddick
“Emotion. Passion. Ideas. Simplicity. These are the big things that big business needs from its creative agencies. No one else is going to provide these essential elements for business.” Kevin Roberts
“In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.” David Ogilvy
“Without customers, you don’t have a business. You have a hobby.” Don Peppers & Martha Rogers
“In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running; if you stand still, they will swallow you.” William Knudsen Jr
“Success in business does not depend on what you say, what you hear, what you feel, what you see. It depends on what you do.” Selwyn D. Goodwin
“The way to get started in business is to stop talking and just start doing!” Bill Todd
“If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.” Ray Kroc
“Business has only two functions marketing and innovation.” Peter Drucker
“A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” Henry Ford
“The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do.” Roy L. Smith
“A business is successful to the extent that it provides a product or service that contributes to happiness in all of its forms.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
“In business, one of the challenges is making sure that your product is the easiest to experience and complete a sale.” Mark Cuban
“Every successful business (1) creates or provides something of value that (2) other people want or need (3) at a price they’re willing to pay, in a way that (4) satisfies the purchaser s needs and expectations and (5) provides the business sufficient revenue to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.” Josh Kaufman
“There’s no luck in business. There’s only drive, determination and more drive.” Sophie Kinsella
“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” Peter F. Drucker
“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” Demosthenes
“The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organization is going to blow the competition away.” Walter Wriston
“A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” Nolan Bushnell
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” Warren Buffett
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” Sam Walton
“Your income is directly related to your philosophy, NOT the economy.” Jim Rohn
“If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.” Ray Kroc
“In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man who doesn’t know what he is doing.” William Wordsworth
“Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.” Jack Welch
“In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities. Integrity, intelligence and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” Warren Buffett
“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” Benjamin Franklin
“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.” W. Edwards Deming
“I do not believe you can do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow.” Horatio Nelson Jackson
“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” Peter Drucker
“If you need to bring in a business partner, make sure your partner brings along some money.” H. Jackson Brown
“The business of government is to keep the government out of business – that is, unless business needs government aid.” Will Rogers
“Business is more exciting than any game.” Max Aitken
“The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake. You can’t learn anything from being perfect.” Adam Osborne
“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Jack Welch
“To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.” Aristotle Onassis
“The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” Peter Drucker
“Great work is done by people who are not afraid to be great.” Fernando Flores
“Business is a good game. Lots of competition and a minimum of rules. You keep score with money.” Bill Gates
“All lasting business is built on friendship.” Alfred Armand Montapert
“If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.” Guy Kawasaki
“Being in business is not about making money. It is a way to become who you are.” Paul Hawken
“In business or in life, don’t follow the wagon tracks too closely.” H. Jackson Brown
“If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.” Warren Buffett
“Businesses are successful because someone makes the sacrifices other are unwilling to.” Kim Ki-jung
“Business? It’s quite simple; it’s other people’s money.” Alexandre Dumas
Inspirational Business Quotes
“Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” — Oprah Winfrey
“Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember—the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you.” — Zig Ziglar
“The best revenge is massive success.” — Frank Sinatra
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” — Oscar Wilde
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” — Pablo Picasso
“If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!” — T. Harv Eker
“The No. 1 reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family and neighbors.” — Napoleon Hill
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” — Vidal Sassoon
“In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.” — Jane Smiley
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison
“I failed my way to success.” — Thomas Edison
“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” — Robert Hughes
“I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.” — Martha Stewart
“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” — John Maxwell
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” — Reid Hoffman
“You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.” — Peter Shankman
“The starting point of all achievement is desire.” — Napoleon Hill
“Anything that is measured and watched, improves.” — Bob Parsons
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
“Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.” — Tony Hsieh
“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t—you’re right.” — Henry Ford
“The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” — Reid Hoffman
“You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” — Oprah Winfrey
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs
“Have the end in mind and every day make sure you’re working towards it.” — Ryan Allis
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” — Jim Rohn
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” — Maya Angelou
