“Small business isnt for the faint of heart. Its for the brave, the patient, and the persistent. Its for the overcomer.”

“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.”

“Commitment, belief and positive attitude are all important if youre going to be a success, whether youre in sports, in business or, as in my case, anthropology.”

“He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.”

“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.”

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

“Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.”

“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”

“Great things in business are never done by one person. Theyre done by a team of people.”

“If you think you are leading, and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk.”

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

“Choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”

“Anything that is measured and watched, improves.”

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.”

“I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through–then follow through.”

“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” 

“Paying attention to simple little things that most men neglect makes a few men rich.”

“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.”

“He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.”

“An organizations ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.”

“Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune.”

“Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. Their needs and wants impact every aspect of your business, from product development to content marketing to sales to customer service.”

“Finding good partners is the key to success in anything: in business, in marriage and, especially, in investing.”

“You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”

“Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.”

“If The World Says “No”, You Say “Next”… Never Give Up.”

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

“One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.”

“Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly.”

“Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.”

“Leadership is unlocking peoples potential to become better.”

“No amount of money or success can take the place of time spent with your family.”

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for youll be criticized anyway.”

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing.”

“The led must not be compelled. They must be able to choose their own leader.”

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

“It is rare to find a business partner who is selfless. If you are lucky it happens once in a lifetime.”

“Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.”

“The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.”

“When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.”

“You’re smart, you’re a survivor; use your intelligence and instincts to get to a better position than the one you’re in now”.

“The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people do all the things the unsuccessful people dont want to do. When 10 doors are slammed in your face, go to door number 11 enthusiastically, with a smile on your face.”

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.

“Im a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didnt have the heart to let him down.”

“Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else.”

“Those who let things happen usually lose to those who make things happen.”

“Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.”

“The things we fear most in organizations–fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances–are the primary sources of creativity.”

“You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go.”

“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.”

“Its easy to make a buck. Its a lot tougher to make a difference.”

“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they dont necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

“Dont be distracted by criticism. Remember; the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you.”

“So often, people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.”

“Just because something doesnt do what you planned it to do doesnt mean its useless.”

“Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.”

“The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.”

“Nothing works better than just improving your product.”

“There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.”

“Profit is not the legitimate purpose of business. The legitimate purpose of business is to provide a product or service that people need and do it so well that its profitable.”

“Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob.”

“Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.”

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

“Business is a game, played for fantastic stakes, and youre in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game.” 

“You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.”

“Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.”

“In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.”

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

“Dont blow off anothers candle for it wont make yours shine brighter.” 

“There are no office hours for leaders.”

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.”

“Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.”

“If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run, then walk. And, if you can’t walk; then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”

“All humans are entrepreneurs; not because they should start companies; but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.”

“Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die”.

“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.”

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”

“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”

“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.”

“Earn your leadership every day.”

“In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

“The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.”

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

“Dont set your goals by what other people deem important.” 

“A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.”

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”

“If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.”

“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.”

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” 

“Leadership is not magnetic personality that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people,” that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a persons vision to higher sights, the raising of a persons performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

“Change always involves a dark night when everything falls apart. Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning, then chaos ends and new order emerges.”