When you’re a small business owner, it can be easy to get stuck in the trenches feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. Motivational and inspirational quotes can help you to find your way out of the trenches and help you dig deeper during those times when you feel you’ve hit a wall.
Certain motivational quotes may resonate with you in times of struggle. Others may become your mantra. Some may even become ingrained in your company’s core values. Motivational quotes build a positive self-dialogue. When you speak to yourself in a positive way, your mind becomes more positive and you’re able to achieve more.
Entripy’s CEO was inspired by this quote when he started his custom t-shirt business. “It’s not the big that eat the small, but the fast that eat the slow”. This quote became Entripy’s mantra, motivating the company to print custom apparel faster than any industry competitors and make decisions quickly. You could say this quote is what led Entripy to become a leader in the custom apparel industry in Canada.
We’ve put together a list of our favourite motivational quotes for small business owners. Read carefully; one of these may just become your new mantra!
1. “Don’t worry about being successful but work towards being significant and the success will naturally follow,” Oprah Winfrey
2. “What you do today can improve all of your tomorrows,” Ralph Marston
3. “One of the marks of successful people is they are action oriented. One of the marks of average people is they are talk oriented” Brian Tracy.
4. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do” Mark Twain
5. “Starting a business is a lot like jumping out of an airplane and assembling the parachute on the way down”, unknown
6. “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” Robert H Schuller
7. “If you hear a voice within you saying ‘you are not a painter’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced,” Vincent Van Gogh.
8. “The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake. You can’t learn anything from being perfect,” Adam Osborne.
9. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm,” Winston Churchill.
10. “Fall seven times and stand up eight,” Japanese Proverb.
11. “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there,” Will Rogers.
12. “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle,” Abraham Lincoln.
13. "I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed,” Michael Jordan.
14. "There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do,” Derek Jeter.
15. “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it,” M. Scott Peck.
16. “The stars will never align, and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn't conspire against you, but it doesn't go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect,” Tim Ferriss.
17. “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark,” Michelangelo.
18. “Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Albert Einstein
19. “Whatever you do, be different—that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out,” Anita Roddick.
20. “Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late,” Lee Iacocca.
