Entrepreneurship is a tough challenge that will push you emotionally, mentally, and physically. When you are feeling drained, you will need motivation to keep pushing you forward. The problem that you may be facing is finding a real source of motivation. People in your everyday life might not be able to serve as that source because they are not entrepreneurs. They might encourage you instead to get a normal job like everyone else. You need knowledge provided by individuals who have experienced what you are currently going through.
While you may not get the privilege of talking to these experienced entrepreneurs directly, you can draw inspiration from their quotes. The following 18 quotes from successful entrepreneurs and individuals in their respective fields will help you find the motivation that is needed to dig deep and continuing moving forward when faced with tough challenges.
My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long university education that I never had — everyday I’m learning something new.”
— Richard Branson
Look at life as a continuous opportunity to improve every single day. The failures that occur are nothing but learning lessons that help you gain the knowledge needed to avoid problems, and create the actions that lead to success. Seek to take risks and explore opportunities.
Genius is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent perspiration.”
— Thomas Edison
You can be the smartest person in the world, but you will never get anywhere if you are not willing to match up your thoughts with actions. The people who are successful are those who work hard for what they want, instead of expecting success to be handed to them. As the saying goes, hard work beats talent any day. Intelligence aligned with hard work will always lead to substantial results being produced.
Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself.”
— Oprah Winfrey
When you limit your thoughts, you limit the actions that you pursue to produce a better life. People with ambition are often envied because they make others realize they are settling with an average, risk-averse life. Push your limits as high as possible so that you constantly have more goals to reach.
Fear is the disease. Hustle is the antidote.”
— Travis Kalanick
You are scared to take risks because you do not want to fail. However, being afraid to take risks only leads to a life that could hardly be described as a success. The best way to overcome your self-doubt is to hustle, and hustle hard. Work hard every day until you accomplish the goals you have set for yourself. The more persistent you are, the further ahead you get because the odds start to sway in your favor.
If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.”
— Sheryl Sandberg
When you are always questioning the authenticity of opportunities presented to you, you tend to not be able to get ahead in life. Yes, you must do your due diligence before making a final decision, but do not make the mistake of talking yourself out of life-changing opportunities because you refuse to believe they can exist for you.
Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.”
— Biz Stone
There is no such thing as overnight success. Every successful person had to go through struggle in order to get there. While you might want results to occur overnight, learning that success is a cumulative experience and remaining patient and persistent is important.
Related Article: Tips to boost your confidence
It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
— Bill Gates
Never forget the struggle that it took for you to become successful. Many people lose their riches because they become arrogant. While it is not a bad thing to celebrate your wins, remember you have to continue working hard in order to keep your seat at the table of success.
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
— Gloria Steinem
Dreams help you create a plan of action to bring them into fruition. This is why you need to write notes about your dreams – so that you are constantly reminded to achieve them. When your dreams become an obsession, you will work hard to ensure they are realised.
The question I ask myself almost every day is, ‘Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?”
— Mark Zuckerberg
Stop dedicating time and energy to pointless, unimportant things. Focus on people, places, and things that actually help you live the lifestyle that you desire. Everything else is but a distraction.
You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, no one to blame.”
— Erica Jong
When you are accountable for your life, you have no one else but yourself to blame for the results that occur. This means you have to put forth your best effort every single day.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
— Albert Einstein
Never making a mistake is not an accomplishment to be proud of. This only means that you chose to lead a safe life, one that is within your comfort zone. Mistakes do not indicate failure. They indicate a willingness to venture out into the unknown, and an opportunity for you to gain experience and knowledge.
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
— Winston Churchill
You will experience failure, and probably experience it often. This does not mean that you give up and quit. You should learn from each failure to understand how to improve your strategy and execution, then pick yourself up and try again.
Related Article: 5 mental stresses of entrepreneurship
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
— Walt Disney
There is too much talk about wanting to be successful but not enough action to actually get there. The only way to gain success is to put forth actions that enable you to produce real results.
When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
— Helen Keller
Stop wallowing in past failures, or basking in past successes. You need to move forward so that you can realize the new opportunities that are presented to you.
Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.”
— John Maxwell
People do not become successful merely because of luck. The people who are, are the ones who pursue their dreams with a relentless focus. Success is earned through actualisation, not the hope that it will magically appear.
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
— Babe Ruth
It does not matter if you have failed 15 times. The next try can lead to you succeeding and producing results that could change your life forever. The more persistent you remain, the closer you get to the goals that you seek to accomplish.
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Success is envisioned through thought and made real through actions. The only way you can become successful is by matching your grand thoughts with substantial action.
If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.”
— Elon Musk
Successful entrepreneurs are not just dreamers. They put forth effective actions that bring the grand visions in their head to fruition. The ability to do this is what separates entrepreneurs from the average person.
Let us join you on your journey to success.
Our expertise is unrivaled in Singapore. With 20 years of know-how in company incorporation, accounting, tax, payroll and immigration services, you can count on us to be your dedicated one-stop business solution.
