101 #MondayMotivation Quotes for Small Business Owners Posted on September 14, 2015September 9, 2020 by Jonathan Herrick Owning and leading a small business has its fair share of highs and lows. Some days it feels like you’re on top of the mountain. Other days, well…. everything seems to unravel. It’s healthy to take a step back and remember why you took that step of independence to be an owner, to drive your dream. Today may just be the day you need a little encouragement and a reminder to not give up and “keep on keeping on” (Joe Dirt). Accepting help when it’s offered is nothing to be ashamed of. Help can take many forms, too. It can be that small business CRM you’re using to help track your customers and prospects. Or, it can be in the form of some inspirational quotes you keep by your desk. In case you could use a few more, here are 101 of my #MondayMotivation quotes for small business: The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow. – Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA founder The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow. – Seth Godin Please think about your legacy, because you’re writing it every day. – Gary Vaynerchuck Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. – Albert Einstein The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do. – Roy L. Smith Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once. – Drew Houston, Dropbox founder and CEO It’s not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas. – Edwin Land, Polaroid co-founder You’ll never find your limits until you’ve gone too far. – Aron Ralston You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills. – Jim Rohn We become what we think about. – Earl Nightingale It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower. – Paul Graham, YCombinator co-founder To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted. – George Kneller You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good. – Peter Shankman, HARO founder The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be. – Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart. – Sr. Thomas Watson It is never too late to be what you might have been. – George Eliot Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right. – Henry Ford Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me. – Arianna Huffington I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. – Ralph Waldo Emerson When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. – Henry Ford Pain nourishes courage. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you. – Mary Tyler Moore If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large. – Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you. – Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO 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 The only way around is through. – Robert Frost The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place. – Orison Swett Marden I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got. – Walter Cronkite It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it. – Arnold Toynbee Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. – Les Brown 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 safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. – Mark Twain There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team. – Jason Fried Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. – Warren Buffett Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. – Will Rogers The first one gets the oyster the second gets the shell. – Andrew Carnegie The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. – Alice Walker Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is. – Seth Godin Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. – Benjamin Franklin If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. – Derek Bok Start today, not tomorrow. If anything, you should have started yesterday. – Emil Motycka If you think that you are going to love something, give it a try. You’re going to kick yourself in the butt for the rest of your life if you don’t. – Joe Penna On our own we are one drop. Together we are an ocean. Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, “make me feel important.” Never forget this message when working with people. – Mary Kay Ash Life’s a garden- Dig it. – Joe Dirt In every success story, you will find someone who has made a courageous decision. – Peter F. Drucker You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong. – Warren Buffett You can’t fall if you don’t climb. But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground. – Unknown Sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure. – Donald Trump You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. – Christopher Columbus People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. – Seth Godin Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. – Charles Swindoll There’s lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there’s only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what it is: it’s to change the world. – Phil Libin If I have seen anything .. it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Albert Einstein Failure is just a resting place. It is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently. – Henry Ford I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it. I know. – Harland Sanders, KFC founder 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 Either you run the day, or the day runs you. – Jim Rohn Success is about creating value. – Candice Carpenter The best use of life is to spend it on something that outlasts it. – William James A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts. – Richard Branson Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you. – Henry J. Kaiser The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. – Mark Twain We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action. Fear is nature’s way of warning us to get busy. – Dr. Henry Link Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas Edison Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity. – Oprah Winfrey Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death. – Seth Godin I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent. – Thomas Edison Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. – Albert Einstein People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want. – Seth Godin I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. – Donald Trump Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games. – Babe Ruth If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. – Booker T. Washington Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. – Chinese Proverb So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard. – Caterina Fake, Flickr co-founder Hire character. Train skill. – Peter Schutz Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. – Anais Nin Your time is precious, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. – Steve Jobs A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. – David Brinkley There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas; what’s missing is the will to execute them. – Seth Godin If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. – Vincent Van Gogh Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. – Theodore Roosevelt How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top. – Yvon Chouinard We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle Show me a person who never made a mistake, and I will show you a person who never did anything. – William Rosenberg If you fail let it be your fault – Don’t let someone else fail for you. – Joe Griffin (CEO of iAcquire) There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. – Aristotle Your reputation is more important than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career. – Ryan Freitas Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that – Anthony Volodkin Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. – Jesus Inspiration exists, but it must find you working. – Pablo Picasso Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. – George Addair Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. – Arthur Ashe When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. – Lao Tzu 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, remember, you can achieve. – Mary Kay Ash Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress. – Seth Godin, Author I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. – Tony Robbins It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. – Scott Belsky Before you dismiss a beginner’s work, remember how much you sucked when you started. You probably sucked worse, actually. – Jason Fried The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing. – Walt Disney Share your favorite Monday Motivation quotes with us on Twitter!