Super Startup Quotes
from Inc.com Zine 24 March 15 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz
One of the most exciting times in the life of any business is in the early days. You scrape together enough cash to pay a few employees, fund the operation on your own, and push hard to make it a viable entity. These entrepreneurs know all about perseverance. They have lived through the financial hardships of starting a company or riding out a business challenge until they achieved success. You can do the same.
1. “Timing, perseverance, and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” –Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter
2. Trust your Gut: “I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It’s done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.” –Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group of Companies
3. “Patience, drive, and very little fear.” –Jake Nickell, the owner of Threadless.com,
4. “Desire: when the need to succeed is as bad as the need to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” –Eric Thomas, The Grind Coach
5. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” –Thomas Edison
6. Perseverance: “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” –Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
7. “Openly share and talk to people about your idea. Use their lack of interest or doubt to fuel your motivation to make it happen.” –Todd Garland, founder of BuySellAds.com
8. Focus:”Success and profitability are outcomes of focusing on customers & employees, not objectives.” –Jack Ma, CE, Alibaba
9. “Grow with discipline. Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don’t embrace the status quo.” –Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks
10. “You have to have more leadership, less management. It’s about getting stuff done. You can sit around and analyze things forever, but while you do that the competition has moved on.” –Peter Vesterbacka, creator of Angry Birds
11. “You have to be ready for hard work & frugal spending to get the idea off the ground.” –Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, & StumbleUpon
12. “For me, the most fun is change or growth. There are definitely elements of both that I like. Launching a business is kind of like a motorboat: You can go very quickly and turn fast.” –Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
13. “There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” –Sam Walton, founder of Walmart
14. “Recessions are the best time to start a company. Companies fail. Others hold back capital. If you are willing to do the preparation & work, it is the best time to invest in yourself and start a business.” –Mark Cuban, Shark Tank
15. Action: “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” –Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari
16. “A business model that hasn’t been tried before is always interesting, even if it’s likely to fail.” –Michael Arrington, co-founder of TechCrunch
17. Fun: “You have chosen the wrong path if it’s not fun. And you are probably not taking enough risk if it’s not hard and rocky sometimes.” –Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
18. “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.” –Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx
19. “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, founder of Wendy’s
20. “You need to be surrounded by good advisers, but you also need to trust your instinct.” –Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook
21. “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.” –Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
22. “Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give–with a few exceptions–generalize whatever they did. Don’t over analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.” –Ben Silbermann, co-founder of Pinterest
23. “Be a user of your own product. Make it better based on your own desires. But don’t trick yourself into thinking you are the user.” –Evan Williams, former CEO of Twitter
24. “Whatever you do, be different. If you’re different, you will stand out.” –Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
25. “The one thing that I think is critical in the entrepreneurial spirit is that it’s all attitude. If you think you can, then you’re half way there.” –Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies
26. “An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew, hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.” –Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton
27. Building or Money? “It’s hard to tell with these internet startups if they’re really interested in building companies or if they’re just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don’t really want to build a company, they won’t luck into it. That’s because it’s so hard that if you don’t have a passion, you’ll give up.” –Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
28. “I love what Silicon Valley does. I love company building. I love startups. I love technology companies. I love new technology. I love this process of invention. Being able to participate in that as a founder or product creator, or as an investor or a board member, I just find that hugely satisfying.” –Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape
Comments: Do you have any Super Quotes that you would add?