Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea.”

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.”

“When you crave the end result, the hard work becomes irrelevant.”

“Doing what is right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what is right.”

“In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

“Leadership is an ever-evolving position.”

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

“Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.”

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

“Some people dream of success while others wake up and work.”

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”

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

“I start each day by telling myself what a positive influence I am on this world.”

“A leader…is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed …
Continue reading Nelson Mandela

“Do what is easy and your life will be hard. Do what is hard and your life will become easy.”

  “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”

“Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions.”

“A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.”

“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.”

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

“Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.”

Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.”

“See things in the present, even if they are in the future.”

“A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader.”

“The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.”

“Leadership is unlocking peoples potential to become better.”

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

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”

“You manage things; you lead people.”

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”

The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.”

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

“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 …
Continue reading Jeff Bezos

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.”

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

“A leader…is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed …
Continue reading Nelson Mandela

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

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

If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.”

“I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.”

“The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.”

“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.”

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

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure–It is: Try to please everybody.”

“I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got.”

“Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.”

Nothing works better than just improving your product.”

“Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life; it’s about what you inspire others to do.”

“You can retire from a job, but don’t ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.”

“In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.” 

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

“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid …
Continue reading Ray Goforth

“To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.”

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

“The biggest sources of opportunity are collaboration and partnership. And today, with digital communication, there is more of that everywhere. We need to expose ourselves to that as a matter …
Continue reading Mark Parker

“Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things”

“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.”

 “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.”

“To add value to others, one must first value others.” 

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

“People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.”

 “Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

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

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.”

“Dont tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

“Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.”

“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of      a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of               a personality beyond its normal limitations.”

“Anything that is measured and watched, improves.”

“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”

“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.”

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”

“Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”

“The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears, and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the …
Continue reading George Orwell

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.”

“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.”

“Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.”

“It is absolutely necessary…for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders.”

“They told me computers could only do arithmetic.”

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” 

 “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

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

“Fall seven times and stand up eight.”

“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.”

“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out …
Continue reading Douglas MacArthur

“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”

“Have the end in mind; and every day make sure you’re working towards it”

“Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.”

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

“Simplicity is a great way to build something that works well without costing too much.”

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

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

“Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.”

“Always deliver more than expected.”

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”