What’s the Point? 7 Quotes for Global Entrepreneurship Week

explore-dream-discover

It’s the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week – a time to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit, but also the time to encourage it.

As a business coach, I have the great opportunity to work with business owners and entrepreneurs every day of the week (and I love my job…!).  So in addition to having my own business, I also have a seat at the table for lots of other endeavors. As you might imagine, owning a business isn’t always sunshine and roses – it’s the greatest game out there, but it’s not easy and there are challenging days for everyone.

With that in mind, I thought I would share a few of my favorite quotes – they might get you to think a bit differently and hopefully inspire you if you’re at one of those critical junctions in your life or business.

This first one is one of my all time favorite quotes – if you already have a business, you’ve made this leap, but all of us occasionally need to be reminded to push out into the open waters and keep looking around the next bend.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”      – Mark Twain

 

The biggest difference between an entrepreneur and everyone else is a track record of putting something out there and making a sale. The entrepreneur might fail (actually will almost surely fail) at some point, but they’ll learn and they’ll go do it again. They won’t ‘try’ to do anything, they’ll just go out and do it – learn from it and do it again.

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”  – Yoda

 

Of course having your mind right and getting out there and taking swings is only the first part of the journey. Failure will happen, it’s a necessary and natural part of the process of building a business, but it’s still difficult to overcome. That’s why this quote from Henry Ford is so important – challenge and failure are necessary parts of long-term success…!

when-everything-seems-to-be-going-against-you-remember-that-the-airplane-takes-off-against-the-wind-not-with-it

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford

 

It’s critical to remember that you are the only person who can determine your success. A lot of would-be entrepreneurs are scared off by the idea that they have to build something ‘big’ or it’s not worth doing.  There are a lot of great ‘small’ businesses out there who are choosing to be small – just ask Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals…

“There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” – Jason Fried

My best advice to anyone who wants to be more successful is to keep learning. Read (or find other ways to pick up big ideas from books), look for ways to add value, spend time with people who can teach you something.

“Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.”  – Zig Ziglar

 

Your hard work and vision are critical, but you can’t do it by yourself. Another key component to business success comes from building the right team – which means finding the right people. If you can create an engaged, excited team, the sky is the limit…!

if-you-want-to-build-a-ship-dont-drum-up-people-to-collect-wood-and-dont-assign-them-tasks-and-work-but-rather-teach-them-to-long-for-the-endless-immensity-of-the-sea

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”  – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

I’ll close this out with another one of my favorites – it pretty much sums up the whole entrepreneurial endeavor…

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”    – Theodore Roosevelt

 

What about you?  Do any of these resonate with you?  Which one?  What quote do you think I missed or should have included?   I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

1 thought on “What’s the Point? 7 Quotes for Global Entrepreneurship Week”

  1. Chris Steinlage says:

    #8 “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” Wayne Gretzky

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