17 Motivational Quotes for Every Entrepreneur

To all the entrepreneurs out there: we see your hustle, hard work, and non-stop creativity and innovation. 

We know that being an entrepreneur can be hard. You might need a bit of motivation if you’re feeling uninspired. And sometimes, finding that inspiration is as simple as hearing a great rallying cry from someone who’s been there and done that.

That’s why we’ve compiled this list of quotes to help motivate and inspire you in your work.

But we don’t want this list to be just another one to skim and scroll through. To let these quotes really motivate you, consider taking one of these action steps:

• Choose your favorite quote and put it somewhere you can see every day (phone background, a sticky note on your computer, etc.).
• Look up the person who said the quote and learn more about them and their career. Be inspired by other entrepreneurs!
• Incorporate these motivational quotes into your mindfulness practice.
• Connect the quotes to something you are specifically working on. For example, quote #2 about prioritization and getting the “one thing” right—what does that mean for your work right now?

17 Motivational Quotes for Entrepreneurs 

Motivational Quotes to be Productive

1. “Work smart. Get things done.” – Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube
2. “Prioritization sounds like such a simple thing, but true prioritization starts with a very difficult question to answer, especially at a company with a portfolio approach: If you could only do one thing, what would it be? And you can’t rationalize the answer, and you can’t attach the one thing to some other things. It’s just the one thing.” – Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn
3. “What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent.” – Susan Cain, Author

Motivational Quotes to Overcome Setbacks

4. “I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.” – Virginia Rometty, former CEO of IBM
5. “Failures are life’s way of nudging you and letting you know you are off course. Trying new things and not being afraid to fail along the way are more important than what you learn in school.” – Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx
6. “I enjoy the fun of failure. It’s fun to fail, I kept repeating. It’s part of being ambitious; it’s part of being creative. If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” – Gretchen Rubin, Author

Motivational Quotes to Improve your Mindset

7. “When in doubt, bootstrap. Using your own personal resources is the easiest way to start a business. You don’t have to convince investors about the merits of your idea. You just have to convince yourself.” – Ryan Holmes, Co-founder of Hootsuite
8. “If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.” – Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon
9. “Every person, organization, and even society reaches a point at which they owe it to themselves to hit refresh—to re-energize, renew, reframe, and rethink their purpose.” – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
10. “Our ‘overnight’ success took 1,000 days.” – Brian Chesky, Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb

Motivational Quotes to Find your Passion

11. “If people are telling you that they don’t believe what you’re doing, that means you’re doing something out of their comfort zone. And generally, people don’t want to be taken out of their comfort zone because it’s outside of the status quo. If you’re doing anything disruptive, and if you know it to be good and true and progressive, let the naysayers fuel you to work harder and go faster and sleep less. Well, take care of yourself, but you know what I mean.” – Whitney Wolf Herde, Founder and CEO of Bumble
12. “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. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it”. – Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple
13. “If people haven’t laughed at your dreams, then you aren’t dreaming big enough. Just keep pushing forward.” – Daymond John, Founder and CEO of FUBU

Motivational Quotes to Lead Well

14. “One of the greatest skills of leadership is being unflappable. Anytime you do anything in the world; there’s going to be criticism.” – Arianna Huffington, Co-founder of Huffington Post Media Group
15. “Success is empty if you arrive at the finish line alone. The best reward is to get there surrounded by winners.” – Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks
16. “As a CEO, I am finding that I have to become a learning CEO. I have to go to school all the time because I am learning new skills that I need to run this company and I am realizing that I am not equipped to just coast. I have to constantly renew my skills.” – Indra Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsi
17. “It is not the genius at the top giving directions that makes people great. It is great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius.” – Simon Sinek, Author and motivational speaker

We hope you found some motivation in these quotes! Now, get out there and go for it!

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