- Reading inspirational quotes are a good way to start your day.
- Famed entrepreneurs such as Walt Disney, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerburg have provided advice to help others succeed.
- Find an inspiring figure that you can emulate to help you succeed in a competitive corporate environment.
There's nothing like an inspirational quote to get your day started, motivate the troops and share on your social networks to give others some mental fuel for their day. Especially if it's a quote from someone who is truly inspiring.
Steve Jobs
These quotes are taken from the iconic innovator's 2005 commencement address to Stanford University:
- "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."
- "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
- "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
Additional quotes attributed to Steve Jobs:
- "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
- "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."
- “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations."
Thomas Edison
The Steve Jobs of the Industrial Revolution, Thomas Alva Edison is the model for the tinkerer who changes the way we live.
- "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
- "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
- "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
Receive an inspiring quote in your inbox daily with our Quote of the Day.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump may not be everyone's cup of tea, but there's no doubt he's been successful.
- "Without passion, you don't have energy. Without energy, you have nothing."
- "If you're interested in balancing work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead, make your work more pleasurable."
- "As long as you're going to be thinking anyway, think big."
Mark Zuckerberg
The founder of Facebook can be as polarizing as Donald Trump, but there's no question that the company he built was a game-changer.
- "The question isn't, 'what do we know about people?' It's 'what do people want to tell about themselves?'"
- "Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough."
- "People can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable, but if they don't really believe in it, then they are not going to really work hard."
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos didn't invent the internet, but he did invent a company that is the model for conducting e-commerce.
- "You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate."
- "The balance of power is shifting toward consumers and away from companies ... The right way to respond to this if you are a company is to put the vast majority of your energy, attention and dollars into building a great product or service and put a smaller amount into shouting about it, marketing it."
- "Frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out."
Walt Disney
Uncle Walt may not be in everyone's living room like he was in television's heyday, but he was one of the great entertainment innovators.
- "I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn't know how to get along without it."
- "I dream, I test my dreams against my beliefs, I dare to take risks, and I execute my vision to make those dreams come true."
- "When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable."
- "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
Richard Branson
Serial entrepreneur Richard Branson has succeeded in such disparate businesses as the recording industry and airlines.
- "Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple."
- "Most necessary evils are far more necessary than evil."
- "You can never go too far wrong by thinking like a customer who's new to the business."
Notable comments from other business leaders
- "Don't be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities, and don't let the bastards get you down." – Michael Bloomberg
- "High expectations are the key to everything." – Sam Walton
- "Always deliver more than expected." – Larry Page
- "I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars, I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over." – Warren Buffett
- "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." – Bill Gates
- "The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new." – Socrates
- "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