The best inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs are short lines about starting, failing and persisting, such as Steve Jobs’s advice from his 2005 Stanford commencement address to do work you love. This list collects 25 of them and checks each well-known attribution, because several popular business quotes were never said by the person they are credited to.
Key Takeaways
- Two of the quotes, both from Steve Jobs, come word for word from his Stanford University commencement address of June 12, 2005.
- Jeff Bezos’s regret quote comes from his May 4, 2001 Academy of Achievement interview, where he described his “regret minimization framework”.
- “The best way to predict the future is to create it” is not a sourced Peter Drucker line; Quote Investigator credits the popular version to Alan Kay in 1971.
- The Bill Cosby line is listed as misattributed on Wikiquote, which traces it to Herbert Bayard Swope.
- Before quoting a line in a pitch deck or post, check it on Wikiquote or Quote Investigator.
The Entrepreneurs are people who start their own businesses and take on financial risk in the hope of making a profit. The Entrepreneur has to keep learning, often without a boss or a manual, and has to decide which risks are worth taking. Whether you already run a business or want to start one, the quotes below from founders, inventors, athletes and writers are about the parts of that job that do not show up in a business plan: starting, failing, persisting and choosing work you care about.
Inspirational Quotes for Entrepreneurs:
Below are the 25 quotes, each followed by the person it is usually credited to. Where a well-known attribution is doubtful, a short note says so, and the attribution check further down gives the sources.
1) “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
– Vince Lombardi (popular attribution; the line is not among his sourced quotes on Wikiquote)
2) “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
– Peter Drucker (widely attributed, but Quote Investigator credits the popular version to computer scientist Alan Kay, 1971)
3) “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions, your passions choose you.”
– Jeff Bezos
4) “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
– Thomas Edison
5) “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
– Donald Trump (a paraphrase of a line in his 1987 book Trump: The Art of the Deal)
See Also: Top 10 Richest Technology Entrepreneurs
6) ”Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”
– Thomas Edison
7) “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
– Napoleon Hill
8) “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
– Bill Cosby (Wikiquote lists this as misattributed and traces it to Herbert Bayard Swope)
9) “Success is not what you have, but who you are.”
– Bo Bennet
10) “Your reputation is more important than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career.”
– Ryan Freitas, About.me co-founder
11) “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.”
– Steve Jobs
12) “Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.”
– Drew Houston (a paraphrase of his MIT commencement address of June 7, 2013)
13) “The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.”
– Marc Benioff
14) “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
– Wayne Gretzky (according to Wikipedia, the advice came from his father, Walter Gretzky)
15) “I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.”
– Jeff Bezos
See Also: CEO Infographic
16) “The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.”
– Walt Disney
17) “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 other’s 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.”
– Steve Jobs
18) “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
– Bill Gates
19) “You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea”
– Larry Page
20) “I find it best to dive right in and learn the hard way.”
– Pete Cashmore
21) “A hard thing is done by figuring out how to start.”
– Rand Fishkin
22) “Everything started as nothing.”
– Ben Weissenstein
23) “If Google teaches you anything, it’s that small ideas can be big.”
– Ben Silbermann
24) “If you start with nothing and end up with nothing, there’s nothing lost.”
– Michael Dunlop
25) “Don’t make decisions based on fear.”
– Jake Nickell
These 25 quotes were gathered from widely shared collections of advice for the Entrepreneur, and the best-known attributions have since been checked against reference sources. If you know a quote worth adding, or a better source for one listed here, leave it in the comments below.
For the launch phase specifically, thirty-one quotes about starting up is the companion set.
Which Entrepreneur Quotes Are Correctly Attributed?
Many business quotes circulate online with the wrong name attached. The table below shows what reference sources say about the best-known attributions in this list, as of September 2026. Quotes not in the table could not be traced to an original source and should be treated as widely attributed rather than confirmed.
| Quote (short form) | Credited to | What the sources say |
|---|---|---|
| Do what you believe is great work; love what you do | Steve Jobs | Confirmed. Stanford University commencement address, June 12, 2005 (Wikiquote). |
| Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life | Steve Jobs | Confirmed. Same Stanford address, June 12, 2005 (Wikiquote). |
| I might regret not trying | Jeff Bezos | Confirmed in substance. In his May 4, 2001 Academy of Achievement interview in San Antonio, Texas, Bezos said that if he failed he would not regret it, but the one thing he might regret was “not ever having tried”. |
| Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration | Thomas Edison | Edison accepted the line: in a 1927 letter he said he had once made the statement, and he repeated it in a 1932 Harper’s Monthly interview. Wikiquote notes that the exact wording appeared by 1901 in a speech by George N. Falconer, with similar sayings earlier. |
| I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work | Thomas Edison | A later paraphrase. Quote Investigator’s earliest source is the 1910 biography Edison: His Life and Inventions, where associate Walter S. Mallory recalls Edison saying he knew “several thousand things that won’t work”. |
| The best way to predict the future is to create it | Peter Drucker | Unsupported. Quote Investigator credits the popular form (“invent it”) to Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1971, with an earlier related idea from Dennis Gabor in 1963. |
| I skate to where the puck is going to be | Wayne Gretzky | Gretzky popularized it, but Wikipedia records it as advice from his father, Walter Gretzky. |
| Think big | Donald Trump | Paraphrase. Trump: The Art of the Deal (1987) says that if you are going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big. |
| You only have to be right once | Drew Houston | Paraphrase. His MIT commencement address of June 7, 2013 says that from now on failure does not matter, because you only have to be right once. |
| The key to failure is trying to please everybody | Bill Cosby | Misattributed. Wikiquote traces it to Herbert Bayard Swope (1882-1958); Cosby cited it in a June 1977 Ebony article as advice he had read elsewhere. |
| Winners never quit and quitters never win | Vince Lombardi | Unconfirmed. Not listed among Lombardi’s sourced quotes on Wikiquote. |
| The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing | Walt Disney | Unconfirmed. Not listed among Disney’s sourced quotes on Wikiquote. |
How to Check a Quote Before You Use It
A misattributed quote in a pitch deck, speech or LinkedIn post can undercut the credibility you are trying to build. Checking takes a few minutes.
- Search Wikiquote for the person. Wikiquote separates sourced quotes, which cite a book, speech or interview, from disputed and misattributed ones.
- Search Quote Investigator for the wording. It traces famous sayings to their earliest printed appearance, as it did for the Drucker and Edison lines above.
- Go to the original where it exists. Commencement speeches and interviews, such as the Jobs Stanford address or the Bezos Academy of Achievement interview, are published in full by the institutions involved.
- Quote the exact words or label a paraphrase. If the popular version differs from the original, use the original wording or write “paraphrasing”.
- Say “attributed to” when you cannot confirm it. That keeps a good line usable without claiming more than you know.
Entrepreneur Quotes by Theme
The 25 quotes fall into a few themes, which makes it easier to pick one for a specific moment.
| Theme | Quotes in this list (by number) | Useful when |
|---|---|---|
| Failure and persistence | 1, 4, 6, 12, 15, 18, 24 | A launch misses its target or a product has to be rebuilt |
| Getting started | 2, 16, 20, 21, 22 | You are stuck planning and need to take the first step |
| Passion and meaningful work | 3, 11, 17 | Choosing what business to start or whether to change direction |
| Thinking big and ahead | 5, 14, 19, 23 | Setting strategy or deciding how ambitious a plan should be |
| Character, hiring and decisions | 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 25 | Building a team, setting values or facing a hard call |
For more lines from two of the founders quoted here, see these Steve Jobs quotes for computer geeks and Bill Gates quotes about computing. Edison’s point about learning from what does not work is explored in how a failed invention can lead to a successful one, and there are practical ideas in how to help entrepreneurs succeed in your community.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most famous quote for entrepreneurs?
One of the most widely shared is Steve Jobs’s line that “the only way to do great work is to love what you do,” from his Stanford University commencement address on June 12, 2005. Unlike many business quotes, its source is fully documented.
Did Peter Drucker say “The best way to predict the future is to create it”?
There is no evidence that Peter Drucker originated it. Quote Investigator found the line being credited to Drucker by 1986, but credits the popular version, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” to Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1971.
Did Thomas Edison really say he found 10,000 ways that won’t work?
Not in those words. The earliest account, in the 1910 biography Edison: His Life and Inventions, has Edison saying he knew “several thousand things that won’t work”; the 10,000 figure appeared in later retellings.
What is Jeff Bezos’s regret minimization framework?
Jeff Bezos’s regret minimization framework is the way he described deciding to start Amazon: projecting himself to age 80 and choosing the path that would leave the fewest regrets. He explained it in a May 4, 2001 Academy of Achievement interview, saying most regrets are acts of omission.
How can I tell if a quote is misattributed?
Look the quote up on Wikiquote, which lists sourced, disputed and misattributed quotes for each person, and on Quote Investigator, which traces sayings to their earliest print appearance. If neither gives a book, speech or interview, say “attributed to”.
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