Whether you’re a seasoned business owner with years of experience under your belt or an aspiring entrepreneur making your way across a sometimes treacherous landscape, it is always good to know you’re not alone. And one way that you can find that commonality with others is through inspirational quotes.
Quotes have the power to encourage us, to get us through the rough patches and celebrate those hard-won successes! So with 2014 right around the corner, I have gathered some tidbits of knowledge and encouragement from a wide range of leaders, visionaries and people who through perseverance and unwavering vision became a success.
1. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart
2. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.” – Mark Twain
3. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey
4. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
5. “Whatever you can do, or dream you can. Begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
6. “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
7. “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.” – Booker T. Washington
8. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – Theodore Roosevelt
9. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe
10. “When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” – John Lennon
11. “First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” – Aristotle
12. “The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.” – Jesse Owens
13. “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” – Dalai Lama
14. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou
15. “It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.” – Mae Jemison
16. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford
Jacquie Pirnie is an intrepid blogger and social media director over at https://www.apphappening.com . She can be found enabling entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses to aspire towards and achieve greatness online. She is also perched over on Twitter as @jacquiepirnie and on LinkedIn.