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Inspiring Business Planning Quotes

With the world of business constantly evolving, it is important to keep up with the latest trends and insights. Business planning quotes can provide insight into the thoughts of successful entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and business professionals.

They can serve as a valuable source of motivation and inspiration for those looking to make strides in their own businesses. From words of wisdom about strategic planning to advice on teamwork and collaboration, these quotes offer guidance that can help any business owner get ahead.

Inspirational Business Planning Quotes

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.” – Steve Jobs

This quote speaks to the importance of courage and boldness in order to make a real difference in business.

“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” -Elon Mask

This speaks directly to how risk-taking is essential when it comes to making headway in any endeavor – especially business!

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

This quote is true in many aspects of life. When we fail to plan, we risk not achieving our goals and not reaching our full potential. Planning helps us prioritize tasks, set realistic goals and deadlines, and stay organized.

“Good business plans come from good personal plans. If you don’t know where you’re going in life, how do you expect your business to get there?” – Mark Cuban
“Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.” – Lester R. Bittel

Good plans are essential components to achieving success. Planning can help us make the right decisions that will lead us closer to our goals, no matter how big or small they may be.

“Opportunities don’t happen; you create them.” – Chris Grosser
“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.”- Jim Rohn
“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it” – Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey’s quote reminds us that time is a valuable resource and should be used wisely. We should focus on investing our time in activities that are meaningful and beneficial to us in the long run, rather than simply wasting them on trivial matters. This will help us make the most of our days and create a more productive lifestyle.

“Vision without execution is hallucination” – Thomas Edison

It’s essential that a plan doesn’t remain on paper but actually gets put into practice if you want results from it.

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” – Warren Buffett
“If you don’t drive your business you will be driven out of business.” – Michael Dell

Having a clear vision and plan for your business is essential to its success. Without it, you won’t be able to effectively respond to changes in the market or manage the day-to-day operations of your business. Ultimately, not having control over your business can lead to its downfall.

“Successful people plan their work and work their plan.” – Napoleon Hill
“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Wishing or hoping your business dreams will come true isn’t enough; it takes effort and hard work to create a successful business plan and bring those wishes to life. Put in the effort now so you can reap the rewards later!

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” – Scott Belsky
“Good businesses are built on relationships.” – Simon Sinek

It is clear that business planning quotes provide a plethora of wisdom and motivation to help entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level. They can be used as a source of inspiration during times of difficulty, or as words of caution for those looking to quickly scale their operations.

By reflecting on these quotes, entrepreneurs can draw upon the collective experiences of industry leaders and innovators. In doing so, they can gain valuable insight and advice from seasoned professionals in order to make more informed decisions about their business.

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31 Most Inspiring Business Strategy Quotes

Tan Weerasinghe

Success in business depends on unleashing the power of business strategy. It takes a keen sense of direction, a fearless attitude, and the ability to adapt to the constantly changing winds of the business world. Business leaders, economists, and researchers are the right people to impart this strategic wisdom to us. 

There is a treasure trove of wisdom and inspiration in these quotes from some of the world’s leading experts. There’s so much to learn about business strategy from these quotes, from differentiation to innovation to vision to experimentation.

In this article, we’ll explore 21 of the most insightful business strategy quotes and find out what they mean. They may inject you with a healthy dose of optimism to help you get through your day.

Table of Contents

Best business strategy quotes video.

Watch our picks for the top 10 business strategy quotes.

Best Strategy Quotes

These are our top picks for best business strategy quotes.

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different. Michael Porter

Michael Porter is a well-known economist and business strategist. He’s a Harvard Business School professor and the author of 20 business strategy and economics books, including “Competitive Advantage” and “Competitive Strategy.”. 

He popularized the concept of differentiation strategy. Dr. Porter’s differentiation strategy is a way for a company to stand out from its competitors. The goal is to offer products or services that are unique in some way so that the company can charge a premium price and enjoy a competitive advantage.

Image showing Michael Porter's quote "Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different."

In the above quote, he says the strategy is about allocating resources and focusing efforts to accomplish a goal. Trade-offs or sacrifices are involved when deciding what to do and what not to do. 

For example, a company might focus on a few product lines to become the market leader for those products. But, unfortunately, that means they might lose out on diversifying in their quest for a larger market share of a few specialized products. 

There’s a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness. Micheal porter

Here, Porter distinguishes between strategy and operational effectiveness. Companies develop strategies to achieve their long-term goals and objectives. It’s how companies compete in the market and create value for customers.

In contrast, operational effectiveness is how a company delivers its products or services daily. It’s how well and efficiently a company executes its strategy.

According to Porter, operational effectiveness is important, but it’s not a substitute for strategy. If a company doesn’t have a good strategy, it can have outstanding operational performance and still fail. The only way to win a sustainable competitive advantage is through strategy; without a strategy, operational capabilities alone don’t work.

The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg, the Co-Founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta Platforms, is often credited with this quote. He’s a philanthropist and an entrepreneur. A key part of his leadership style is taking risks, and he believes it’s helped him succeed.

Image with Mark Zuckerberg quote, The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."

The quote speaks volumes about his entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to take calculated risks in order to succeed. It may seem daunting, but there’s no denying that is sometimes taking a leap into uncharted territory results in greater rewards. The alternative is to stay where you know what works best already.

The only way to stay relevant and competitive is to innovate and stay ahead. If you’re too cautious or don’t take risks, you might fail because you can’t adapt. Taking risks can be nerve-racking, but it can open up new doors.

A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all. Michael LeBoeuf

Many successful companies today use the concept behind this quote – from Apple providing individualized tech support to small restaurants partnering with delivery services.

In the long run, these companies know that investing time and resources into satisfying their current clients will pay off. Increasing loyalty among existing clients attracts new ones through word-of-mouth marketing and positive reviews on online platforms such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, or other review websites.

Image with Michael LeBoeuf quote "A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all."

Michael LeBoeuf is an American business author and management consultant. He was a professor at the University of New Orleans. He’s known for emphasizing customer satisfaction as the key to business success.

Dr. LeBoeuf’s published books include ‘Fast Forward: How to Win a Lot More Business in a Lot Less Time,’ ‘The Productivity Challenge and Getting Results! The Secret to Motivating Yourself and Others, and ‘Working Smart.’

Strategic planning is worthless – unless there is first a strategic vision. John Naisbitt

In his famous book “Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming our Lives,” John Naisbitt predicted the boom in high-tech in the early 1980s. Back then, he recognized several tech trends that were coming up. That’s what businesses and organizations also need in today’s ever-changing business landscape, where disruption is inevitable.

Image of John Naisbitt quote "Strategic planning is worthless – unless there is first a strategic vision."

Any successful strategic plan starts with a clear vision. He calls this “strategic vision” – an ambitious, long-term vision of what your company wants to accomplish over time that changes as new changes and opportunities come up. Without it, you can’t set specific goals or figure out how to get there; without direction, strategic planning fails! 

Today’s tactical victory does not guarantee tomorrow’s strategic success. Peter Pace

This quote by General Peter Pace is a reminder of the importance of considering long-term goals when making decisions. Make sure you plan for long-term success instead of relying too heavily on short-term goals. 

We get caught up in the excitement of quick wins without thinking about the big picture. You have to take a step back and figure out how each decision might affect your overall strategy if you want to succeed. 

An image of Peter Pace quote, "Today’s tactical victory does not guarantee tomorrow’s strategic success"

General Peter Pace has had an impressive career as a military leader and public servant. Under President George W Bush, he served as the 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Since retiring from active duty service in 2007, he’s served on multiple national security policy boards.

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu’s quote speaks volumes about his wisdom and understanding of warfare. He was a Chinese military strategist who wrote “The Art of War” over 2,500 years ago. His words still hold true today as they did back then – that an effective strategy and tactical plan is essential for success in any endeavour or battle. 

Tactics are short-term solutions to achieve immediate results, while strategies involve long-term plans designed with larger goals in mind. Each informs the other. If we wish to win whatever battles we face, we should not take either lightly. 

Sun Tzu recognized this balance between strategy and tactics long ago, and he realized that combining them could maximize their chances of success. With an understanding of how to prepare for success on any battlefield, he was ahead of his time.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Steve Jobs

Leaders set trends for others to follow by innovating new products, services, or processes. In contrast, followers imitate what has been done before instead of coming up with something original. 

An organization can develop the ability to innovate through research, experimentation and collaboration with other industry partners. However, it requires an open mind from all involved parties if it is going to be successful. 

Being on top of current trends will help organizations identify innovations before they become mainstream, giving them the first-mover advantage. 

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Inc., one of the most influential people in modern tech. He was known for his visionary approach and ability to predict and shape industry trends.

The more Strategic Work you do, the more effective, productive, and joyful the Tactical Work becomes. Michael Gerber

Entrepreneur and consultant Michael Gerber, author of “The E-Myth Revisited,” has a powerful message about how Strategy makes Tactical Work easier.

As Gerber points out, in order to maximize their effectiveness, organizations need to focus on both types of work and prioritize them correctly – with a focus on Strategic work rather than Tactical work.

Creating clear plans and sound strategies helps companies create an environment where employees know exactly what to do daily, ultimately leading to success.

Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to succeed, but more importantly, what’s your plan to succeed? Jim Rohn

Having the right skills is only part of achieving success. You need a well-thought-out plan of action if you want actual results. Without an effective roadmap for where you want to go, success can be difficult or even impossible at times.

It means dedicating time to creating an achievable game plan with attainable milestones along the way. This will help maintain motivation while ensuring steady progress toward desired outcomes.

Jim Rohn was an American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker. He’s one of the most influential self-help and professional development thinkers. He wrote several books and gave hundreds of lectures over his five-decade career. His first book, ‘The Art of Exceptional Living,’ came out in 1979.

When your headlights aren’t on, the best rearview mirror available isn’t likely to improve your driving. Martha Rogers

In this quote, Martha Rogers reminds us to stay in the present. But unfortunately, we usually focus too much on our past mistakes. And it can prevent us from progressing in the right direction.

Image of Martha Rogers quote, "When your headlights aren’t on, the best rearview mirror available isn’t likely to improve your driving"

Professor Martha Rogers teaches business administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is a consultant, author, and speaker. Her specializations are customer relationship management, customer-centric strategy, and customer experience design. 

Her work on ‘One-to-one’ marketing with Don Peppers is well known, emphasizing building customer relationships. “ The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time ” and “ The One to One Manager: Real-World Lessons in Customer Relationship Management ” are among her books coauthored with Don Peppers.

More Great Strategy Quotes to Inspire You

“Our goal is more modest: We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.” – Warren Buffett

“ It’s easy to forget how little strategic thinking ever gets done in the day. Judging by the ideas generated there, our beds have more of a right to be called our offices than our offices.” – Alain de Botton

“ Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point. ” –  Henry Mintzberg

“In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.” – Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric

“If you’re clear on what you believe, you have a great foundation to go make a market.” —Ginni Rometty, Chairman, president and CEO of IBM

“Option A is not available. So let’s kick the sh** out of option B.” – Sheryl Sandberg , COO of Facebook

“ When a plan or strategy fails, people are tempted to assume it was the wrong vision. Plans and strategies can always be changed and improved. But vision doesn’t change. Visions are simply refined with time. ” – Andy Stanley

“ In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss – and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last. ” – John Romero

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates

“ The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” – Helen Keller

“Strategy is simply resource allocation.  When you strip away all the noise, that’s what it comes down to. Strategy means making clear cut choices about how to compete.  You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets.” – Jack Welch

 “With the level of uncertainty we see today, more people are asking, how can you develop a strategy in a world that keeps changing so fast?  They are afraid that a set of rigid principles will hinder their ability to react quickly.  I argue that it is precisely at such times that you need a strategy.” – Orit Gadiesh

“Designing a winning strategy is the art of asking questions, experimenting and then constantly renewing the thinking process by questioning the answers.  No matter how good today’s strategy is, you must always keep reinventing it.” – Constantinos Markides

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” — Michael E. Porter, American  economist and founder of strategic management

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” — Benjamin Franklin

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” — Yogi Berra, American baseball player

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” — Sun Tzu, Chinese philosopher and military strategist

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer and pilot

Concluding Thoughts

The world of business strategy is ever-evolving, and it takes visionaries like Michael Porter, Steve Jobs, and John Naisbitt to provide insight into how companies can stay ahead. The authors remind us that successful strategies require differentiation from competitors. 

Also, a clear vision for personal growth and development is crucial. Innovation in leadership roles holds the key. Alignment of work with the company’s goals and experimentation as a learning process is necessary. 

Successful businesses must continuously challenge their existing strategies by questioning them often. Experimentation should be part of the process in order to learn more about what works best for the company’s unique circumstances. Refining your approach is always bold, even when you think you have found something that works well. 

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Strategic thinking helps leaders set long-term goals and create plans for achieving them. Read More here .

Tan Weerasinghe

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The 200 Best Inspirational Business Quotes (2024)

Starting a business is tough. Not just practically or financially—but emotionally , too. Which is why these top inspirational business quotes are so valuable.

Each of these quotes is a bite-sized morsel of wisdom , capable of injecting small business owners with much-needed motivation and encouragement to succeed.

So, when you’re exhausted, frustrated, anxious, worried, or just plain freaking out, read these inspirational business quotes for some remarkable ideas.

Best business quotes of all time

Prepare yourself for a collection of motivational business quotes that will light up your entrepreneurial spirit. Each one is a nugget of wisdom from the journeys of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, ready to spark innovation and drive in your own venture.

  • “The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” —Socrates, father of Western philosophy
  • “Always deliver more than expected.” —Larry Page, co-founder of Google
  • “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, founder of Pinterest
  • “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States
  • “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” —Peter F. Drucker
  • “Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.” —Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine 
  • “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 
  • “If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” —Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon 
  • “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” —Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, and motivational speaker 
  • “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn 
  • “The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” —Thomas Edison, co-founder of General Electric 
  • “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. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.” —Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week  
  • “Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” —Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter 
  • “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, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. 
  • “Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” —Mark Cuban, AXS TV chairman and entrepreneur 
  • “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” —Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft 
  • “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” —Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook 
  • “If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.” —Omar Hamoui, co-founder of AdMob 
  • “Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” —Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO of BlogHer 
  • “When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” —Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture 
  • “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” —Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance 
  • “Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” —Golda Meir, fourth Prime Minister of Israel 
  • “There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” —Jason Fried, 37signals founder and co-author of Rework  
  • “The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn 
  • “Chase the vision, not the money. The money will end up following you.” —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos 
  • “The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.” —Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA 
  • “Nothing works better than just improving your product.” —Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow 
  • “Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea.” —Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga 
  • “Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.” —Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media 
  • “Get big quietly so you don’t tip off potential competitors.” —Chris Dixon, investor at Andreessen Horowitz 
  • “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. 
  • “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” —Helen Keller, US author, political activist, and lecturer 
  • “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” —Paul Rand, graphic designer 
  • “Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.” —Lakshmi Mittal, chairman & CEO of ArcelorMittal 
  • “Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.” —Jeffrey Zeldman, entrepreneur and web designer 
  • “The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.” —Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy 
  • “If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.” —Ryan Freitas, co-founder of About.me  
  • “Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.” —Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch 
  • “Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” —Wayne Huizenga, prolific US business person. 
  • “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” —Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur and co-founder of Alltop 
  • “An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create.” —David Karp, founder, and CEO of Tumblr 
  • “Get a mentor in the applicable field if you’re at all unsure of what you’re looking for.” —Kyle Bragger, founder of Forrst and co-founder of Exposure 
  • “Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.” —Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow 
  • “Anything that is measured and watched improves.” —Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy 
  • “Stay self-funded as long as possible.” —Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, and StumbleUpon 
  • “Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.” —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos  
  • “Timing, perseverance, and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” —Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter 
  • “Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” —Daniel Pink, author 
  • “Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the upmarket.” —Jason Calacanis, founder of LAUNCH Ticker 
  • “It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.” —Jason Cohen, founder of Smartbear Software 
  • “No more romanticizing about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a struggle to save your company’s life—and your own skin—every day of the week.” —Spencer Fry, co-founder of CarbonMade 
  • “You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.” —Peter Shankman, founder of HARO 
  • “Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today, it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.” —Noah Everett, founder of Twitpic 
  • “Data beats emotions.” —Sean Rad, founder of Tinder 
  • “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” —Estée Lauder, founder of Estée Lauder Cosmetics 
  • “I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” —Jake Nickell, founder and CEO of Threadless 
  • “See things in the present, even if they are in the future.” —Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle 
  • “You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” —Larry Page, co-founder of Google 
  • “Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” —Michael Dell, chairman, and CEO of Dell 
  • “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” —Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company 
  • “All humans are entrepreneurs, not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
  • “Great customer service is a critical competitive advantage for a business.” —Steve Benson, editorial cartoonist
  • “In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.” —Steve Case, co-founder of AOL 
  • “Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” —Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor 
  • “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” —Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn 
  • “Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.” —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos 
  • “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 
  • “Diligence is the mother of good luck.” —Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of the United States 
  • “A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader.” —Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures 
  • “Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” —Howard Schultz, former chairman and CEO of Starbucks 

Inspirational quotes about life

Let’s continue our list with some of the top inspirational quotes about life. Every now and then, everyone needs to hear about the positive side of life and the potential it has to offer. These inspirational quotes about life will help empower you to succeed.

  • “Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” —Charles R. Swindoll, author, educator, and radio preacher
  • “If you can dream it, you can do it.” —Walt Disney, co-founder of the Walt Disney Company
  • “However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” —Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author
  • “When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say, ‘Wow, that was an adventure,’ not, ‘Wow, I sure felt safe.’” —Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder of Github
  • “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” —Les Brown, motivational speaker, author, and former politician
  • “The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” ―Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor
  • “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” —Les Brown, motivational speaker
  • “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” —Walt Disney, co-founder of the Walt Disney Company
  • “Lean forward into your life. Begin each day as if it were on purpose.” ―Mary Anne Radmacher, author
  • “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ―Maya Angelou, poet, singer, and civil rights activist
  • “Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.” ―Roy T. Bennett, author
  • “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” ―Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor
  • “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ―George Bernard Shaw, playwright
  • “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” —Charles Darwin, naturalist, geologist and biologist
  • “Education costs money. But then so does ignorance.” —Sir Claus Moser, statistician
  • “The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” —Michael Jordan, former professional basketball player

Inspirational quotes about success

Success doesn’t happen overnight. You have to take each day as an opportunity to meet your potential and to improve. Here’s a list of our favorite inspirational quotes about success to get your day started.

  • Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” —Henry David Thoreau, essayist, poet, and philosopher
  • “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” —Tony Robbins, life and business strategist, and author
  • “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” —Colin R. Davis, conductor for the London Symphony Orchestra
  • “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember, that’s where you will find success.” —Thomas J. Watson, former president of IBM, political figure, and philanthropist
  • Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” —Winston Churchill, prime minister of Great Britain during World War II
  • “Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities.” —Robert H. Schuller, motivational speaker
  • “Success is the sum of small efforts—repeated day in and day out.” —Robert Collier, author
  • “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” —Jim Rohn, business philosopher
  • “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” —Colin Powell, US statesman and retired four-star general in the United States Army
  • “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” —David Brinkley, newscaster
  • “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” —William Feather, publisher and author
  • “Try not to become a man of success. Rather, become a man of value.” —Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
  • “Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.” —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
  • “I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.” —Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft 
  • “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” —G. K. Chesterton, writer, poet, and philosopher
  • “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.
  • “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” —Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton Hotels chain

Quotes about not giving up

Never give up. Keep chasing your dreams. Life will be hard at times, and the strength lies in not giving up. Take a look at the best inspirational quotes about not giving up.

  • “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. And, if you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” —Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the US civil rights movement
  • “I got lucky because I never gave up the search. Are you quitting too soon? Or are you willing to pursue luck with a vengeance?” —Jill Konrath, speaker, author and thought leader
  • “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” —Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
  • “The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” —Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States
  • “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” —Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and inventor
  • “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” —Winston Churchill, prime minister of Great Britain during World War II
  • “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does—that makes you a winner right there.” —Venus Williams, professional tennis player
  • “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” —Maya Angelou, poet, singer, and civil rights activist
  • “Strength shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald, fiction writer
  • “Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely on my tenacity.” —Louis Pasteur, biologist, microbiologist and chemist
  • “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” —Earl Nightingale, radio speaker and author
  • “You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don’t give up.” ―Chuck Yeager, former US Air Force officer
  • “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett, Irish avant-garde novelist and playwright
  • “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” —Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft

Quotes about working hard

Hard work helps to turn dreams into reality. These top quotes about working hard will help you get the job done.

  • “So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.” —Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr
  • “If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.” —Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of eBay
  • “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” —Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and president of the United States
  • “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” —Paulo Coelho, lyricist and novelist
  • “A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” —Colin Powell, US statesman and retired four-star general in the United States Army
  • “There is simply no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success.” —Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan
  • “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” —Pelé, professional footballer
  • “No great achiever—even those who made it seem easy—ever succeeded without hard work.” —Jonathan Sacks, author and politician
  • “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” —Harry Golden, writer
  • “There is no substitute for hard work.” —Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and inventor
  • “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” —Babe Ruth, professional baseball player

Quotes about challenges

We all face challenges in life. They can either make you or break you. We’ve compiled a list of our favorite quotes about challenges that will encourage you to keep going.

  • “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” —John D. Rockefeller,  oil industry business magnate
  • “If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” —Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker
  • “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, co-founder of The Huffington Post and founder of Thrive Global
  • “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt, known as First Lady of the World for her human rights advocacy
  • “If you can push through that feeling of being scared, that feeling of taking a risk, really amazing things can happen.” —Marissa Mayer, former president and CEO of Yahoo!
  • “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” —Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States
  • “Challenges are what make life interesting, and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” —Joshua J. Marine, author
  • “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” —Michael Jordan, former professional basketball player
  • “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” —Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, political leader, and philanthropist
  • “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” —Stephen Covey, educator, author, and businessman
  • “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” —Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the civil rights movement
  • “Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” —Roger Crawford, public speaker, author, and certified tennis professional
  • “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” —Bernice Johnson Reagon, song composer, and social activist
  • “When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened, or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back.” —Paulo Coelho, lyricist and novelist
  • “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” —Ray Goforth, director of strategy and partnerships at Spredfast

Quotes about overcoming failure

There will be days when things don’t go as planned. You may feel defeated and let down. But that’s a part of life. It’s how you deal with the failures in life that makes you who you are. Here’s a list of our favorite quotes about overcoming failure that will motivate you to forget past mistakes and take a giant stride forward.

  • “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” —Herman Melville, novelist
  • “Do not be embarrassed by your failures; learn from them and start again.” —Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group
  • “It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you, because all that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.” —Mark Cuban, entrepreneur, owner of Landmark Theaters and Chairman of AXS TV
  • “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, founder, and CEO of Amazon
  • “The only thing worse than starting something and failing … is not starting something.” —Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur, and blogger
  • “Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” —Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox
  • “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” —Og Mandino, author
  • “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” —George Addair, real-estate developer
  • “Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” —Jack Canfield, author, motivational speaker, corporate trainer, and entrepreneur
  • “Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”  —Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and inventor
  • “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” —Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
  • “Failure is success if we learn from it.” —Malcolm Forbes, entrepreneur and former publisher of Forbes magazine
  • “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” —J.K. Rowling, novelist
  • “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six 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, former professional basketball player

Funny quotes to cheer you up

Everyone has a bad day once in a while. These inspirational quotes are guaranteed to inspire you and bring a smile to your face.

  • “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.” —Zig Ziglar, author
  • “I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.”—Lily Tomlin, actress
  • “The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.” —Will Rogers, performer
  • “I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” —Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States
  • “When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’” —Sydney Harris, journalist
  • “The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs … one step at a time.” —Joe Girard, salesman
  • “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” —Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and inventor
  • “You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” —Sam Levenson, humorist
  • “Listen, smile, agree, and then do whatever you were gonna do anyway.“ —Robert Downey Jr., actor
  • “Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” —Dale Carnegie, writer
  • “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” —Will Rogers, performer

Inspirational movie quotes

Movies have a certain memorable aspect about them. They have a unique way of teaching us lessons that stay in our memory. Whether it’s by making us smile, or by moving us to tears, movies have a magic about them. Here are some of the best inspirational quotes from movies.

  • ”Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” —Rocky, Rocky Balboa
  • “Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something, not even me. All right? You dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.” —Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness
  • “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” —Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of the Wall Street
  • “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” —Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • “Great men are not born great, they grow great.” —Vito Corleone, The Godfather
  • “Some people can’t believe in themselves until someone else believes in them first.” —Sean Maguire, Good Will Hunting
  • “Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.” —Alfred Pennyworth, Batman Begins
  • “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” —Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
  • “After a while, you learn to ignore the names people call you and just trust who you are.” —Shrek, Shrek the Third
  • “Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.” —Benjamin Button, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” —Maximus, Gladiator
  • “Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” —Alan Turing, The Imitation Game
  • “Every man dies, but not every man really lives.” —William Wallace, Braveheart
  • “Someone I once knew wrote that we walk away from our dreams afraid that we may fail, or worse yet, afraid we may succeed.” —Forrester, Finding Forrester
  • “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” —Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • “There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” —Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything
  • “The accident is your training. Life is a choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you’d like to be.” —Socrates, Peaceful Warrior
  • “In this lifetime, you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody, except yourself. And after what you’ve gone through, if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen.” —Fortune, Rudy
  • It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” —Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own
  • “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it.” —Rafiki, The Lion King
  • “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” —John Keating, Dead Poets Society
  • “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.” —Eames, Inception
  • “Find a truly original idea. It is the only way I will ever distinguish myself. It is the only way I will ever matter.” —John Nash, A Beautiful Mind

Quotes about work

No matter what day of the week it is, this list of inspirational quotes about work will help you get through the day.

  • If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.
  • “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” —H. Jackson Brown Jr., US author
  • “The more I want to get something done ,the less I call it work.” —Richard Bach, writer
  • “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” —Muhammad Ali, professional boxer
  • “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” —Karen Lamb, author
  • “Someday is not a day of the week.” —Janet Dailey, author
  • “What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher, and poet
  • “Make each day your masterpiece.” —John Wooden, basketball player
  • “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” —Aristotle, father of Western philosophy

Ready to ignite your entrepreneurial spirit?

If you haven’t already, make sure to bookmark this page of business quotes now and return to it to create better habits and to help escape the rat race every time you need a hit of inspiration or motivation.

One other thing:

Did you notice some of the recurring themes throughout these business quotes?

You’ll see things like:

  • Believe in yourself
  • Focus on quality

So, which of these quotes stood out most to you? Comment below!

business quotes

70 Amazing Business Quotes to Inspire the Entrepreneur in You

Running a business can be full of all sorts of highs and lows. The challenges can drive you to be better but also crush you with their severity. When you’re feeling down, you can always turn to sources of inspiration to buoy your spirits and remind you why you started the company in the first place. 

Inspirational Business Quotes to Reinvigorate Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

“Employees want to feel inspired by their leaders…hire individuals who will lead by example.” —Jody Kohner

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” —Reid Hoffman

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” —Napoleon Hill

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.” —Albert Einstein

“I failed my way to success.” —Thomas Edison

Time to Get to Work

If there’s one thing to learn from the above business quotes, it’s that to earn success you have to get to work. No amount of time spent thinking and dreaming will do much good if it’s not accompanied by hard work. Now that you feel inspired, you can start putting in the work to see your company become more successful.

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150 of the Best, Most Inspiring, and Motivating Business Quotes

Influencer Marketing Hub

Starting a business can be draining and, well, all around quite difficult. Not just financially - but also emotionally. That’s why inspirational business quotes can be such a powerful tool. 

Our list of the 150 best inspiring and motivating business quotes offers nuggets of wisdom and much-needed motivation, inspiration and encouragement. When you feel overwhelmed, or simply exhausted, take a look at this list for a refreshing moment to reconnect with your inspiration and find motivation to move forward. 

Don’t just scroll through the list, though. You’d be doing your business a disservice by just browsing each quote. Instead, really read the quotes and think about how they apply to your business and your industry. And who knows - reflecting on these quotes might bring out some new ideas! 

Without further ado, here are our best inspiring and motivating business quotes. 

150 of the Best, Most Inspiring, and Motivating Business Quotes:

quote about business planning

1. “Always deliver more than expected.” - Larry Page, co-founder of Google. 

2. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States

3. 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, Amazon founder

4. “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

5. “If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.” - Pierre Omidyar, founder of Ebay

6.  “The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.” - Seth Godin, author

7. “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” - Richard Branson, business owner and entrepreneur 

8. “You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” - Warren Buffett

9. “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” - Anaïs Nin, author

10. “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” - G.K. Chesterton

11. “Often, the more money you make the more money you spend; that’s why more money doesn’t make you rich – assets make you rich.” – Robert Kiyosaki

12. “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” - Theodore Roosevelt

13. “Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, whether it’s leaving home, whether it’s getting married, or whether it’s flying into space.” - Chris Hadfield

14. “If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.” – Steve Jobs

15. “The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” - Barack Obama

16. “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved.” - Helen Keller

17. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” - Stephen Covey

18. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” - Pele, a Brazilian football player

quote about business planning

19. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” - Walt Disney

20. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” - Colin Powell

21. “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” - Coco Chanel

22. “I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.” - Oprah Winfrey

23. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” - Nelson Mandela

24. “If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.” – Jeff Bezos

25. “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” - Paulo Coelho

26. “If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” - Jim Rohn

27. “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” - Babe Ruth

28. “The only way around is through.” - Robert Frost

29. “Most of our competitors were one-product wonders … They would do their one product, but never get their engineering sorted out.” – Bill Gates

30. “There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.” – Henry Ford

31. “Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Jack Canfield, author

32. “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” - Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook 

33. “Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” - Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO of BlogHer

34. “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” - Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance

35. “Failure is success if we learn from it.” - Malcolm Forbes

36. “Brands mature over time, like a marriage. The bond you feel with your spouse is different than when you first met each other. Excitement and discovery are replaced by comfort and depth.” - Gary Vaynerchuck

37. “If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.” - Omar Hamoui, co-founder of AdMob

38. “There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” - Jason Fried, 37signals founder and co-author of Rework

quote about business planning

39. “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.” - Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

40. “Nothing works better than just improving your product.” - Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow 

41. “The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.” - Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA

42. “The more I want to get something done the less I call it work.” - Richard Bach, author

43. “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” - Steve Jobs, co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.

44. “Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”  - Thomas Edison

45. "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” - Ray Goforth

46. “Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea.” - Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga

47. “If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” - Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

48. "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau

49. “When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” - Josh James, CEO of Omniture

50. "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." -John D. Rockefeller

51. “Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.” - Chris Dixon, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz

52. "Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value." - Albert Einstein

53. “Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.” - Tim O’Reilly, founder, and CEO of O’Reilly Media

54. “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” - J.K. Rowling, author

55. “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

56. "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed." - Ray Goforth

57. "Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that's where you will find success." - Thomas J. Watson

58. “You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” - Larry Page, co-founder of Google

59. “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” - Helen Keller, American author, political activist and lecturer

60. "Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion." - Tony Hsieh 

61. "If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." - Jim Rohn

62. “Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.” - Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman & CEO of ArcelorMittal

63. “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” – Richard Branson, entrepreneur 

64. “The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm.” - Thomas Watson

65. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” - Japanese Proverb

66. "People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy." - Tony Robbins

67. “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does — that makes you a winner right there.” - Venus Williams, athlete

68. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” - Zig Ziglar, author

69. “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” - Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

quote about business planning

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70. "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." - Colin Powell

71. “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” - Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur and co-founder of Alltop

72. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” - Earl Nightingale

73. “Anything that is measured and watched, improves.” - Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy

74. “Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” — Wayne Huizenga, prolific American business person, owner of Blockbuster Video and the sports team the Miami Dolphins

75. “When I hear somebody sigh, Life is hard, I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’” - Sydney Harris, journalist

76. “Please think about your legacy, because you’re writing it every day.” - Gary Vaynerchuck

77. “If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.” — Ryan Freitas, co-founder of About.me

78. "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." - Albert Schweitzer

79. "A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that other throw at him." - David Brinkley

80. “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. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.” - Tim Ferriss, author 

81. “I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.” - Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder

82. “It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.” - Jason Cohen, founder of Smartbear Software

83. “You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” - Sam Levenson, humorist

84. “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” - Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple

85. "Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.” - Noah Everett, founder of Twitpic

86. “Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” - Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter

87. “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” - Estee Lauder, founder of Estee Lauder Cosmetics

88. “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

89. "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

90. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” - Herman Melville, author

91. “Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” – Alan Turing, inventor

92. “If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run, then walk. And, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

93. "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison

94. “Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to one another. And, when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” - Daniel Pink, author

95. "I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure--It is: Try to please everybody." - Herbert Bayard Swope

96. “Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” - Mark Cuban, entrepreneur

97. “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

98. “No more romanticizing about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a struggle to save your company’s life – and your own skin – every day of the week.” — Spencer Fry, co-founder of CarbonMade

99. “I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” - Jake Nickell, founder and CEO of Threadless

100. “Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.” - Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

101. “It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because all that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.” — Mark Cuban, entrepreneur

102. “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.” — Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

103. “Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.” - Jeffrey Zeldman, entrepreneur and web designer

104. “There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” - Stephen Hawking

105. "Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember--the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you." - Zig Ziglar

106. “In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.” - Steve Case, co-founder of AOL

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107. “Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” - Oprah Winfrey

108. “Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” - Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter

109. "You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it." - Oprah Winfrey

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40 Best Business Quotes to Inspire Entrepreneurs & Go-Getters

ProjectManager

Daily affirmations have long been used to boost self-esteem. They compel people to start their days on the right foot. But while letting a smile be your umbrella might fortify your positive attitude, it’s not going to inspire your business ventures.

Everyone must work, but for many of us that job isn’t just a paycheck, it’s an opportunity to express ourselves and make something better. Entrepreneurs and go-getters often feel as if they carry the weight of an entire organization on their backs, and therefore could always use a little extra motivation.

To all the entrepreneurs and go-getters out there, these 40 inspiring business quotes are for you. Now, get out there and change the world—one project at a time!

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And now, without further ado, the best business quotes to motivate you to greater success!

1. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

Arthur Ashe understands a challenge. The tennis champ is the only black man to win the singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. He was ranked number one in the world, but that didn’t come easy. On top of the mastery of the sport and all the physical and mental work required to get there, he had to deal with prejudice, which makes his quote all the more powerful and humble.

Arthur Ashe business quote

2. “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Churchill led Britain through one of its darkest periods. With enemies threatening to advance across the English Channel, bombing London daily, the pressure to survive was paramount. But Churchill, like any entrepreneur worth their salt, understood that failure was part of the process. One learned from their mistakes, and the greatest lesson was that there was always another day to fight on.

winston churchill business quote

3. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new” – Socrates

The great Greek philosopher was known for questioning the status quo and getting killed for it. But Plato wrote Scorates’ dialogues shortly after his death and his Influence lives on in Western society to this day. Even as pragmatic a discipline as a business can learn from him. Forge forward, don’t look back.

Socrates business quote

4. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton

When one’s last name is a globally recognized brand, it’s good to listen to what they have to say. This hospitality king and hotel owner knows a thing or two about surviving in a competitive business environment. Action does speak louder than words, though, and mistakes are always part of the equation. But it’ll never be solved if you quit.

Conrad Hilton business quote

5. “Play by the rules, but be ferocious.” – Phil Knight

The brand that gave us “Just do it!” qualifies that tagline, which always felt a bit broad, to include boundaries. You can’t “just do it” without regard to the rules, as Knight clearly states. Those rules are what level the playing field and protect fair competition. But rules have nothing to do with the passion in which you play within them.

Phil Knight business quote

6. “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson

Branson’s Virgin has proven that from record labels to airlines, where there is a will there is a way. The door isn’t always open, but sometimes it’s ajar or the key is on the floor. All you must do is pick it up and turn the lock. Basically, the right environment for success ebbs and flows, but a keen businessperson is never passive.

Related: Free Small Business Plan Template

Richard branson business quote

7. “Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow.” – Anthony Robbins

The idea that one can go through life without conflict or issues arising is unrealistic. Some might dream of a frictionless ride through the world as the ideal journey, but without some form of pushback, growth is impossible. It is these problems that we face that build our character, engage our creativity and build humility.

Related: 10 Conflict Resolution Strategies That Actually Work

Anthony Robbins business quote

8. “You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” – Warren Buffett

The idea of right and wrong is a construct, of course, and it might feel overly simplistic to suggest that making the right choices will smooth the path forward. But the famous investor is merely noting with this business quote that avoiding a wrong decision is as important as making the right one. Avoiding bad decisions is aided, of course, with careful planning.

Warren Buffett business quote

9. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau

Philosopher, naturalist, essayist, etc.—Thoreau knew a thing or two about productivity. He wisely saw that those who are seeking success are more likely romanticizing the idea and not doing the hard, practical work necessary to achieve it.

Henry David Thoreau business quote

10. “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin

Nin was no stranger to the creative act. As a writer, she had to take pen to paper or her stories would remain phantoms in her mind. It is safer to keep these ideas to oneself. There’s no rejection or criticism that way, but there’s also no way to hone one’s skills and produce something of value.

Anais Nin business quote

11. “There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.” – Seth Godin

Writer and former dotcom businessman, Godin is saying that talk is cheap, but in a nicer way. Yes, ideas are a dime a dozen, but the real meat on those bones comes from trying to realize them. It is only then that the problems show up and the real work of resolving them starts.

Related: 10 Strategies for Successful Project Execution

Seth Godin business quote

12. “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” – G.K. Chesterton

Chesterton, a writer of paradoxical stories, is the contrarian on our list. He speaks for the pig-headed and visionary alike. Sometimes one must buck the conventional wisdom. The hard part is knowing whether you’re acting out of conviction for your ideals or if you’re just being deluded by ego.

GK Chersterton business quote

13. “I don’t know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it.” – Susan Butcher

She’s not being literal, but rather exaggerating to make a point. There comes a time in everyone’s life when the idea of just throwing in the towel is attractive. You’re exhausted. The obstacles feel insurmountable. But those who can reject the idea of quitting and tap an unforeseen reservoir are usually those who cross the finish line.

Susan Butcher business quote

14. “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

People get caught up in the product and forget the worth of anything that lies in the process. Win or lose, it’s the fact that you tried, with all you could offer, to do the best at something you feel is of value. That alone is rewarding.

Theodore Roosevelt business quote

15. “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs

We only see the success after it’s been reached. Like a tree that reaches the clouds, the roots that hold it up are invisible. They’re beneath the ground, having spent years digging through the hard ground to stabilize and feed the tree’s growth. It is also so with business.

Steve Jobs business quote

16. “Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, whether it’s leaving home, whether it’s getting married, or whether it’s flying into space.” – Chris Hadfield

True, but not all risks are created equally. Going into space feels like a bigger risk than starting a company. That puts things in perspective, though, and acknowledges the fact that nothing is without risk , therefore, don’t try to completely bubble-wrap your enterprise. Play it safe, of course, but not to the point of inertia.

Chris Hadfield business quote

17. “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rodgers

America’s ambassador of good cheer did more than pass out smiles in his life. He offered practical business advice: complacency is death. Even if you’re doing the right thing, if you’re not moving forward, constantly pushing yourself to reach beyond your comfort zone, then you’re in trouble. The competition will overtake you.

Will Rodgers business quote

18. “The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” – Barack Obama

The president knows a lot about failure and success. The Affordable Healthcare Act was more than once dead in the water, but the president didn’t give up. He compromised, he convinced and he labored, but not once did he allow himself to become embittered.

Related: The 25 Most Inspiring Leadership Quotes

Barack Obama business quote

19. “Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.” – William Durant

There is only the present, so the enlightened ones tell us, and we cannot allow ourselves to become tied to the past or enchanted by the future. There is only the here and now. We must concentrate on that and act. This quote doesn’t reject the lessons of the past or the plans for the future, but we only have this moment, so do your best in it.

William Durant business quote

20. “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein

You’ll have noticed that often one inspirational quote contradicts the next. That’s because it is in these paradoxes that real wisdom is born. There is never just one way to look at something and with perspective comes opportunity. Ideas might be nothing without execution, but without those ideas the execution is empty.

Albert Einstein business quote

21. “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved.” – Helen Keller

People should take failure as a badge of honor . It’s a crucible that burns things down to their essence and shows us what we’re really made from. If the path to success was clear, then everyone would be one it and success would lose all meaning.

Helen Keller business quote

22. “The first one gets the oyster, the second gets the shell.” – Andrew Carnegie

It sounds brutal, and one doesn’t become a steel baron without nerves of steel, but there is a harsh truth in this statement. Resources are exploited by businesses to achieve their goals. They’re not a collective, sharing the wealth, so like the early bird, if you want the worm, then get up early.

Andrew Carnegie business quote

23. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

The more business quotes from these masters of industry and history, the more you notice a common thread knitting them together. They tend to same things only in different ways. That alone should make it clear that actions speak louder than words, to use another old axiom.

Walt Disney business quote

24. “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!” – Henry Ford

This statement might confuse you at first, but once you get it, like a Zen koan, it makes perfect sense. What the father of automotive automation is imparting with this quote is that success is as much a mind game as it is determined by fate. With the right attitude, you can do almost anything.

Henry Ford business quote

25. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

Inspiration is great, but there’s no point in reinventing the wheel. The general is right. Success is being prepared, working hard and learning from mistakes, as many others have also stated. If we can edit the quote a wee bit, we’d add luck to fill out the recipe for success. There’s always an unknown element in the mix.

Related: 9 Ways to Be a Lucky Project Manager

Colin Powell business quote

26. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

Many people have it backward, struggling to achieve success to feel good about themselves. But the irony is that it’s in the doing, not the goal, where the happiness resides. Even if you fail at your enterprise, if you enjoy the process, then you’ll be happy.

Albert Schweitzer business quote

27. “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel

If you’re keeping your eyes on what can go wrong, it will go wrong. Successful people strive to move on. They aren’t ignorant of failure, but they’re also not stymied by it. They don’t know what failure is, because to them it’s merely a bump in the road, not its terminus.

Coco Chanel business quote

28. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

The famous story about Edison and the incandescent lightbulb, which took thousands of tries to find a filament that would burn but not extinguish, is proof of the pudding of his statement. You just never know what’s around the corner until you get there.

Thomas Edison business quote

29. “I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.” – Oprah Winfrey

We spoke of luck as a crucial element to any success. There are always those forces beyond our control, but there are also those forces that are within our ability to regulate. If opportunities are rare, then one must be ready for them when they come to take advantage. That might not be the definition of luck, but it does feel like good fortune.

Oprah Winfrey business quote

30. “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estée Lauder

People can get lost in thought. In their mind’s eye success is laid out. It’s as if they’re already there. Daydreaming might be creative, but creativity takes work. You’re not going to get anywhere standing in place.

Estee Lauder business quote

31. “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” – Babe Ruth

This has been said in many ways, but sometimes it takes the sports analogy to get it to sink through. Of course, for Ruth, this wasn’t a metaphor but a fact. However, it also applies to business. We can’t rest on past glory.

Babe Ruth business quote

32. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon

It’s a funny way to look at things, but there’s truth in the fact that success is not something we are handed. It is something we must work on. Success isn’t inheritance. While we might get handed great wealth, power and prestige, it’s what we do with it that counts.

Visal Sassoon business quote

33. “The only way around is through.” – Robert Frost

What the great American poet is saying is that there is no way to avoid what must be done. We cannot go around the difficulties in our lives or business but face them head-on and work through them. Just having the courage to do that is the hallmark of success.

Robert Frost business quote

34. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

The wife of a United States president is called a first lady, but they’re often last in terms of influence. Not Eleanor Roosevelt, whose husband, FDR, saw the country through the Great Depression and WWII. She was no slouch herself. She advocated for women in the workforce and civil rights and remained active in politics after her husband died in 1945. She believed in the beauty of her dreams, many of which came true.

Eleanor Roosevelt business quote

35. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou

It’s easy to define success by what others think. The world seems to only appreciate money, status and power. But when measured against those unreachable expectations, no matter what success one has it quickly turns to failure. Maya Angelou certainly gained literary success but understood the real story.

Maya Angelou business quote

36. “The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.” – Aristotle Onassis

He might be more famous for marrying Jackie Kennedy than for his entrepreneurial expertise, but don’t let the glitz blind you. Aristotle Onassis was a business magnate who amassed the world’s largest privately owned shipping fleet. He probably did that by knowing something his competitors didn’t. It’d be wise to take his advice.

Aristotle business quote

37. “To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about the business.” – J. Paul Getty

The man behind Getty Oil Company knows a thing or two about succeeding in business. He made it to the top and those who want to follow him to the pinnacle of success would do well to take his advice seriously. Whatever the field, knowledge is king and learning is never done.

J Paul Getty business quote

38. “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking” – William Butler Yeats

The poet might not be the first person a businessman seeks to learn about their trade. But one would be foolish to ignore poets, who are not only masters of language but use words to offer valuable insights. Yeats knew that it’s universally true that procrastination is an excuse that prevents one from acting when it’s the action that reeks the rewards.

William Butler Years business quote

39. “The best way to do it, is to do it.” – Amelia Earhart

Though best known today for her tragic flight that ended with her and her plane disappearing in the Pacific Ocean, she was an aviation pioneer and early advocate of women’s rights. She led the way for female pilots and has become a cultural icon. Her advice is sound, even if it didn’t end the way she wanted. But the point is in the trying.

Amelia Earhard business quote

40. “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” – Scott Belsky

Scott Belsky is an American entrepreneur, author and investor. He’s the chief product officer for Adobe Creative Cloud. In other words, he walks the talk of turning ideas into reality. Think of it, everyone has a bright idea. They’re a dime a dozen. But it’s those people who do the work to make it happen who are remembered.

Scott Belsky business quote

Bonus Quote: “The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.” – Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was one of the founders of the United States of America, but even beyond that revolutionary achievement, he was an inventor and businessman who knew the importance of having the right tools for the job.

If our bespectacled founding father were alive today, he’d certainly have ProjectManager . No online project management software has its breadth of features to control every aspect of a project.

Turn Motivational Business Quotes Into Actionable Plans With ProjectManager

While it’s motivating to see so many business quotes in one roundup, now it’s time to take action with best-in-class software. ProjectManager has the tools you need to plan and track projects at every stage. It provides a single source of business truth, offers advanced resource management and proves a platform for secure collaboration.

Dashboards for Tracking

High-level project views from the real-time dashboard automatically track progress across six metrics. For a deeper dive into that data, easy reporting features get glandular. Reports on tasks, variance and more can be filtered to show just the data you want.

ProjectManager’s dashboard view, which shows six key metrics on a project

Always Know What Your Team Is Up To

If you’re concerned about your team’s workload and if everyone has enough work to stay busy, ProjectManager has a color-coded team page that makes it easy to balance workload right from that page. Managing your team has never been easier.

Manage Your Team's Tasks with ProjectManager

Kanban Boards for Visual Workflows

Further transparency into the process is given by the kanban board view , which keeps teams working on only those high-priority tasks and allows managers to see what everyone is working on and where they are in that process.

Kanban board for visual workflows

Schedule Work & Make Long Term Projects

ProjectManager is award-winning software that keeps teams organized and gives managers online Gantt charts to schedule project plans. Those plans can then be archived and mined later as historical data for future projects because we offer unlimited file storage.

ProjectManager.com Gantt chart for Scheduling Projects

To paraphrase Franklin: early to ProjectManager makes a project healthy, wealthy and wise.

Related Business Management Content

We have created dozens of blogs, templates and guides to help businesses plan their operations, manage their projects and make strategic plans for the future. Here are some of them.

  • 8 Budget Templates for Business & Project Budgeting
  • How to Write a Business Requirements Document (BRD)
  • How to Write a Business Plan: Business Planning Best Practices
  • Strategic Planning in Business
  • Project Alignment: Aligning Your Project to Business Strategy
  • An Introduction to Business Process Management (BPM)

Are you feeling inspired? Ready to start the day with gusto? Before you go, don’t forget to equip yourself with the tools that will take that ambition and give it the means to achieve your lofty goals. ProjectManager is online project management software that has the features that your work needs to succeed. Try it today with this free 30-day trial.

Click here to browse ProjectManager's free templates

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quote about business planning

46 Project Planning Quotes To Help You Reach Your Goals

Project planning can be tough.

There’s risks to mitigate, stakeholders to include, and other ups and downs to contend with.

So we put together a list of famous project planning quotes for your inspiration!

These quotes on project planning will hopefully help focus your team and jolt you into finishing your plans. The end goal depends on you making a solid plan to chart your destination.

In this post, you’ll find powerful quotes on planning from business leaders, entrepreneurs, and powerful leaders that will show you the value of moving your projects forward.

If you’re looking for project management software to help manage these projects, check out Workzone ; software that’s powerful but still easy to use for all users.

46 Project Planning Quotes

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, writer and pioneering aviator

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” ― Yogi Berra, former New York Yankees catcher “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” ― Peter F. Drucker, author and educator

“I am a person who continually destroys the possibilities of a future because of the numbers of alternative viewpoints I can focus on the present.” ― Doris Lessing, author of The Golden Notebook “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.” ― Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” ― Alan Lakein, author

project planning quotes from dwight eisenhower

“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower, former U.S. President

“The more time you spend contemplating what you should have done… you lose valuable time planning what you can and will do.” ― Lil Wayne, rapper

“Don’t worry about planning every step of your life.” ― Rick Wagoner, former chairman and CEO of General Motors

“A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” ― Confucius, Chinese philosopher

“Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” ― Richard Cushing, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church

“Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and essayist

“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy!” ― Brian Tracy, author and motivational speaker

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the United States

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” ― John F. Kennedy, former U.S. President

quote about business planning

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” — Warren Buffett, investor

“I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best.” ― Benjamin Disraeli, British politician and author

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” ― Pablo Picasso, painter

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” ― Tom Landry, Hall of Fame football coach

“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” ― Thomas Edison, inventor

“You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.” ― Harry S. Truman, former U.S. President

“Just because you make a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.” ― Taylor Swift, singer and songwriter

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” ― George S. Patton, former Officer in the U.S. Army

“Unless you have a definite, precise, clearly set goals, you are not going to realize the maximum potential that lies within you.” ― Zig Ziglar, author and motivational speaker

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” ― Alexander Graham Bell, inventor

“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” ― Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ― Abraham Lincoln, former U.S. President

project planning quotes margaret thatcher

“Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.” ― Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.” ― Napoleon Hill, author

“The reason that everybody likes planning is that nobody has to do anything.” ― Jerry Brown, Governor of California

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” ― Henry David Thoreau, essayist and poet

“…everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future.” ― Chaim Potok, author

“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.” ― Brian Tracy, author and motivational speaker

“Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance.” ― Stephen Keague, author

“Plan your next move because every step contributes towards your goal.” ― Sukant Ratnakar, author and motivational speaker

“Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident.” ― Chuck Knox, former NFL head coach

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” ― Denis Waitley, writer and motivational speaker

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” ― Fitzhugh Dodson, author

“I ain’t Martin Luther King. I don’t need a dream. I have a plan.” ― Spike Lee, actor and director

project planning jim rohn

“Never begin the day until it is finished on paper.” ― Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker

“Speaking from my personal experiences, setting goals, along with a detailed action plan, has actually changed my life from one cast in frustration to one of purpose.” ― Catherine Pulsifer, author

“Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” ― Robert H. Schuller, author and televangelist

“The trouble with many plans is that they are based on the way things are now. To be successful, your personal plan must focus on what you want, not what you have.” ― Nido Qubein, president of High Point University

“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” ― Claire Cook, writer and motivational speaker

“We cannot drive people; we must direct their development” – Henry Gantt , creator of the Gantt Chart

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wisdom quotes trending all quotes

100 Business Quotes To Inspire Success In Your Workplace

By Maxime Lagacé

Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page .

Here are 100 of the best business quotes. Hope you’ll find the inspiration and motivation you need to take your workplace to the next level. Enjoy!

business quotes quality the best plan john lasseter wisdom

Quality is the best business plan. John Lasseter (Disney/Pixar)

business quotes dont try beat competitors their own game you have invest new master reid hoffman wisdom

Don’t try to beat the competitors at their own game. You have to invent a new game — and master it. Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn)

business quotes rules build shit people want never give up avoid assholes questiona assumptions learn new ideas always reward ambition anthony pompliano wisdom

My rules of business: Build shit people want, never give up , avoid assholes, question assumptions, learn new ideas and always reward ambition. Anthony Pompliano

business quotes surprise delight your customers there nothing like that you long way home warren buffett wisdom

Surprise and delight your customers. There is nothing like that in business. If you delight your customers, you’re a long way home. Warren Buffett

business quotes build something people love not something million kinf like brian chesky wisdom

Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like. Brian Chesky (AirBnb)

business quotes didnt set out build product solve problem naval ravikant wisdom

We didn’t set out to build a product. We set out to solve a problem. Naval Ravikant

business quotes if you create for yourself its art others its naval ravikant wisdom

If you create it for yourself, it’s art. If you create it for others, it’s business. Naval Ravikant

business quotes company becomes people hires not plan makes sam altman wisdom

A company becomes the people it hires, not the plan it makes. Sam Altman

business quotes almost everyone underestimates value fast movers almost every context work with them one yourself sam altman wisdom

Almost everyone underestimates the value of fast movers, in almost every context. Work with them. Be one yourself. Sam Altman

business quotes companies that succeed are mistake fixing machines brian norgard wisdom

The companies that succeed are mistake fixing machines. Brian Norgard

business quotes when you combine extreme focus and great teams magic happens sam altman wisdom

When you combine extreme focus and great teams, magic happens. Sam Altman

business quotes there no skill called avoid magazines classes naval ravikant wisdom

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. Naval Ravikant

business quotes succeed you must learn art saying barbara corcoran wisdom

To succeed in business you must learn the art of saying no. Barbara Corcoran

business quotes if you are here for rewards fame and money will fail love meaning people win maxime lagace wisdom

If you are here for rewards, fame and money, you will ultimately fail. If you are for love, meaning and people, you will ultimately win. Maxime Lagacé

business quotes could either watch it happen or part elon musk wisdom

I could either watch it happen or be a part of it. Elon Musk
  • 82 Innovation Quotes To Make You More Creative
  • 100 Entrepreneur Quotes To Help You Achieve More
  • 100 Surprising Money Quotes (Get Inspired Fast!)

The Best Business Quotes

business quotes escape competition through authenticity naval ravikant wisdom nature camp lake mountains

Escape competition through authenticity. Naval Ravikant
If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day. Naval Ravikant
It is much more important to work on the right thing than it is to work many hours. Most people waste most of their time on stuff that doesn’t matter. Sam Altman
Once you have figured out what to do, be unstoppable about getting your small handful of priorities accomplished quickly. I have yet to meet a slow-moving person who is very successful. Sam Altman
When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws. Derek Sivers
Reasons your product will fail: Too complex. Can’t easily be described. Didn’t iterate fast enough. Bland. Failed to launch into a community. Doesn’t save time/money. Poor design. Does too much. Didn’t take a feature risk. Listened to wrong the customers. Brian Norgard
In your actions, don’t procrastinate . In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business. Marcus Aurelius

business quotes companies people simon sinek wisdom group

We don’t do business with companies. We do business with people. Simon Sinek
We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want. Eric Ries
On the formula to build a billion-dollar Internet company: Take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time… identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps. Ev Williams (Twitter, Blogger, Medium)
Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust. Zig Ziglar
Today’s “best practices” lead to dead ends; the best paths are new and untried. Peter Thiel ( Zero to One , Amazon book)
The person in the meeting that challenges the status quo is often the most valuable person in the room. Shane Parrish
To the extent possible, ruthlessly shave away the unnecessary tasks, priorities, meetings, and BS. Put all your effort into the projects that really matter. Shane Parrish
The more honest and unique a person is, the more that person attracts people. It’s the same for businesses. Maxime Lagacé

business quotes world almost takes truly long term view market richly rewards sam altman wisdom new york city water

In a world where almost no one takes a truly long-term view, the market richly rewards those who do. Sam Altman
Choose your colleagues carefully; you will end up caring what they care about. Sam Altman
You want to be world class at some narrow and important intersection, not decently good at a lot of things. Sam Altman
The essential principle of business – of occupation in the world – is this: figure out some way in which you get paid for playing. Alan Watts
You can worry about the competition…or you can focus on what’s ahead of you and drive fast. Jack Dorsey

business quotes think expensive hire talented employee wait hire untalented shane parrish wisdom people

If you think it’s expensive to hire a talented employee, wait till you hire an untalented one. Shane Parrish
There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow. Jack Welch
The quickest way to ruin the productivity of a small company is to have it adopt the practices of a large company. David Heinemeir Hansson (DHH, Ruby on Rails, Basecamp)
What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook)
Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers. Seth Godin
There is no sport as competitive as business. It’s 24 by 7 by 365 by forever. Mark Cuban
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Part 2. Business Quotes That Are…

The most famous business quotes (bill gates, warren buffett, jeff bezos, etc.).

business quotes makes nothing money poor henry ford wisdom man speaking phone

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. Henry Ford
I learned to go into business only with people whom I like, trust, and admire. Warren Buffett
We don’t do unnecessary things at Berkshire. And there are many things at big companies that are unnecessary. Warren Buffett
I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. Warren Buffett
When you work on something, if you fall in love with it, that’s a good sign. If you do, others will. Elon Musk
You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out. Steve Jobs
If you are willing to work hard and ask lots of questions, you can learn business pretty fast. Steve Jobs
My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people. Steve Jobs
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates (Microsoft)

business quotes talent wins games teamwork intelligence championships michael jordan wisdom people

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships. Michael Jordan
All business depends upon men fulfilling their responsibilities. Mahatma Gandhi
Please think about your legacy, because you’re writing it every day. Gary Vaynerchuk
I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man. Jay Z
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 (Walmart)
Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility. Ambrose Bierce
If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. Jim Rohn
Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies. Walt Disney

Short Business Quotes

Go to table of contents

business quotes product king jack butcher wisdom smartphone

Product is king. Jack Butcher
Serve, don’t lead. Kobe Bryant
To dominate, iterate. Jack Butcher
Screw it. Let’s do it. Richard Branson (Virgin)
Think big. Start small. Seth Godin
Be honest, not flawless. Maxime Lagacé
Done is better than perfect. Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook)

business quotes creating space think competitive advantage greg mckeown wisdom man reading

Creating space to think is a competitive advantage. Greg McKeown
90% of strategy is execution. 90% of execution is people. Thibaut
Luck is not a business model. Anthony Bourdain
If you want to build a big business, start a small business. Sahil Lavingia ( Source )
Easy paths, crowded destinations. Scott Belsky
Big results require big ambitions. Heraclitus
Always deliver more than expected. Larry Page (Google)
Build for the obsessed, not the casual. Brian Norgard

business quotes focus what matters sam altman wisdom nature water sea waves

Focus on what matters. Cut all the BS. Sam Altman ( Source )
Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger. Tony Hsieh (Zappos)
If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try. Seth Godin
Prioritizing is the most important thing in business. Noah Kagan
It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. Scott Belsky
Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. Mark Twain
Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once. Drew Houston (Dropbox)

Inspirational Business Quotes

business quotes progress almost never linear ups downs bursts nassim nicholas taleb wisdom man nature

Progress is almost never linear. Ups and downs and bursts. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I’m after a legacy, not the most followers. Gary Vaynerchuk
The best way to get the attention and respect of exceptional people is to do exceptional work. James Clear
If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. Nora Roberts
Sketch. Prototype. Build. Action over theory. Brian Norgard
The faster the feedback, the faster you learn. The faster you learn, the more you can adapt and improve. Maxime Lagacé

business quotes sometimes organization doesnt solution just needs clarity ben horowitz wisdom city singapore

Sometimes an organization doesn’t need a solution; it just needs clarity. Ben Horowitz ( The Hard Thing About Hard Things , Amazon book)
Business is just an elaborate excuse to make friends with interesting people. Andrew Wilkinson
You will become impressive the day to stop trying. You will become successful the day you stop being busy. Maxime Lagacé
The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. Simon Sinek
Everyone knows that you need a great team, great execution, and a great idea. Less obvious is that you have to have great endurance. Sam Altman
It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because… All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are. Mark Cuban

business quotes will either step forward into growth back into safety abraham lincoln wisdom nature

You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety. Abraham Maslow
Only inflexibility you need and can afford to have running a business is your values. Kunal Shah
Rebelliousness is an economic tool in the same category as network effects and economies of scale. Nivi Babak
Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them. Peter Thiel (Zero to One)
The fastest way to become exceptional is to work with exceptional people. If you want to be a great engineer, work at a company with great engineers. Want to start a company? Work for an early-stage startup with extraordinary founders. Watch them work, and learn by osmosis. Sahil Lavingia
Chase the vision, not the money. The money will end up following you. Tony Hsieh (Zappos)
You just have to keep driving down the road. It’s going to bend and curve and you’ll speed up and slow down, but the road keeps going. Ellen DeGeneres
There is a formula for success in business, and it goes like this: You set out to find the very best talent in the marketplace, and then give them a compelling and inspirational vision of what you want them to achieve for you and the company. Then you empower them to achieve those goals using their own skills and talents in any way they choose. If, at the same time, you demonstrate how enormously you value them, not just through compensation, but also verbally, every single day, and if you enable that talent to share in the profit that they help create for you, you’ll be successful. It’s so simple, and virtually nobody does it, because it requires a high-trust working environment, and most business environments are low-trust. In order to own the future of your business, you have to design it around trust . Cindy Gallop

Further Readings

  • Topic: Motivation
  • 100+ Powerful Motivational Quotes For Success
  • 100 Risk Quotes To Reassure (and Empower You)
  • 100 Creativity Quotes To Spark Your Best Ideas
  • 67 Imagination Quotes To Bring Out The Best In You
  • 121 Marketing Quotes That Will Empower You
  • 100 Responsibility Quotes To Take Back Your Power
  • 100 Leadership Quotes To Inspire You (And Your Team)
  • 7 Steps to Starting a Small Business Online (entrepreneur.com)
  • 50 Small Business Ideas for Anyone Who Wants to Run Their Own Business (blog.hubspot.com)
  • 100 Tim Ferriss Quotes On Fear, Business, Money
  • How To Be Successful In Life – 7 Simple Tips

Table Of Contents

Part 1 Top 15 Images Best Quotes

Part 2 Business Quotes That ARE Famous Short Inspirational

Part 3 Conclusion

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199+ Best Planning Quotes

Planning is an essential part of achieving any goal. It helps us map out the steps we need to take to succeed, anticipate challenges, and allocate resources effectively. In this article, we've gathered a variety of quotes about planning.

These insights come from business leaders, philosophers, and comedians, offering both serious and lighthearted perspectives on why planning is crucial in different aspects of life and work.

50 Best Planning Quotes

1. "A goal without a plan is just a wish." – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

2. "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." – Benjamin Franklin

3. "Plans are nothing; planning is everything." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

4. "Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now." – Alan Lakein

5. "He who fails to plan is planning to fail." – Winston Churchill

6. "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." – Abraham Lincoln

7. "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." – Proverb

8. "Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark." – Richard Cushing

9. "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." – John F. Kennedy

10. "Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning." – Thomas Edison

11. "Planning is a process of choosing among those many options. If we do not choose to plan, then we choose to have others plan for us." – Richard I. Winwood

12. "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." – Chinese Proverb

13. "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

14. "Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small." – Sun Tzu

15. "You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal." – Zig Ziglar

16. "Planning ahead is a measure of class. The rich and even the middle class plan for future generations, but the poor can plan ahead only a few weeks or days." – Gloria Steinem

17. "Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." – Gloria Steinem

18. "To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time." – Leonard Bernstein

19. "Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan." – Margaret Thatcher

20. "An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing." – Dale Carnegie

21. "Planning is everything. the plan is nothing." – Field Marshal Helmuth Graf von Moltke

22. "The man who is prepared has his battle half fought." – Miguel de Cervantes

23. "Make time for planning: Wars are won in the general’s tent." – Stephen R. Covey

24. "Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential." – Winston Churchill

25. "Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous." – Mark Caine

26. "A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power." – Brian Tracy

27. "Never begin the day until it is finished on paper." – Jim Rohn

28. "Success doesn’t just happen. It’s planned for." – Anonymous

29. "I always say, don’t make plans, make options." – Jennifer Aniston

30. "It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." – Eleanor Roosevelt

31. "Plan your life like you will live forever, and live your life like you will die the next day." – Unknown

32. "Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." – Proverb

33. "Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up." – A. A. Milne

34. "A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door." – Confucius

35. "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." – Allen Saunders

36. "If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." – Jim Rohn

37. "You cannot predict the future, but you can create it." – Peter Drucker

38. "Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans." – Peter F. Drucker

39. "The more time you spend contemplating what you should have done...

you lose valuable time planning what you can and will do." – Lil Wayne

40. "Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work." – Peter Drucker

41. "I like planning, and I like a structured life. It allows me the

freedom to focus on the important things." – Mark Zuckerberg

42. "The first step in business planning is to determine that you will make a profit." – Robert Kiyosaki

43. "You can't have a million dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic." – Stephen C. Hogan

44. "Effective planning is about maximizing impact, not maximizing order." – Tim Ferriss

45. "If you don't have a plan, you become part of somebody else's plan." – Terence McKenna

46. "Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art." – Peter Drucker

47. "There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." – John F. Kennedy

48. "When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt." – Henry J. Kaiser

49. "Measure twice, cut once." – Proverb

50. "Planning is deciding in advance what to do and how to do it. It is one of the basic management functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling." – Charles T. Horngren

50 Inspirational Planning Quotes

4. "He who fails to plan is planning to fail." – Winston Churchill

5. "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." – Abraham Lincoln

6. "Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark." – Richard Cushing

7. "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." – John F. Kennedy

8. "Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning." – Thomas Edison

9. "Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small." – Sun Tzu

10. "You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal." – Zig Ziglar

12. "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

13. "An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing." – Dale Carnegie

14. "Make time for planning: Wars are won in the general’s tent." – Stephen R. Covey

15. "Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential." – Winston Churchill

16. "Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous." – Mark Caine

17. "A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power." – Brian Tracy

18. "Success doesn’t just happen. It’s planned for." – Anonymous

19. "It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." – Eleanor Roosevelt

20. "Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up." – A. A. Milne

21. "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." – Allen Saunders

22. "You cannot predict the future, but you can create it." – Peter Drucker

23. "Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work." – Peter Drucker

24. "Planning is deciding in advance what to do and how to do it. It is one of the basic management functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling." – Charles T. Horngren

25. "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." – Anatole France

26. "Planning is everything. The plan is nothing." – Field Marshal Helmuth Graf von Moltke

27. "Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now." – Alan Lakein

28. "Never begin the day until it is finished on paper." – Jim Rohn

30. "Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan." – Margaret Thatcher

31. "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." – Chinese Proverb

33. "The man who is prepared has his battle half fought." – Miguel de Cervantes

34. "Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans." – Peter F. Drucker

35. "The more time you spend contemplating what you should have done... you lose valuable time planning what you can and will do." – Lil Wayne

36. "A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door." – Confucius

37. "If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." – Jim Rohn

38. "Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." – Gloria Steinem

"Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning." – Thomas Edison

40. "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans." – Woody Allen

41. "Measure twice, cut once." – Proverb

42. "Plan your life like you will live forever, and live your life like you will die the next day." – Unknown

43. "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." – Proverb

44. "Planning ahead is a measure of class. The rich and even the middle class plan for future generations, but the poor can plan ahead only a few weeks or days." – Gloria Steinem

45. "Effective planning is about maximizing impact, not maximizing order." – Tim Ferriss

46. "The first step in business planning is to determine that you will make a profit." – Robert Kiyosaki

47. "You can't have a million dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic." – Stephen C. Hogan

49. "The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

50. "You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there." – Yogi Berra

These quotes highlight the significance of planning in achieving goals and realizing dreams.

50 Best Planning Quotes For Business

2. "In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield." – Warren Buffett

3. "Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work." – Peter Drucker

5. "Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans." – Peter F. Drucker

6. "Good business planning is 9 parts execution for every 1 part strategy." – Tim Berry

7. "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." – Benjamin Franklin

8. "You need a plan to build a house. To build a business, it is even more important to have a plan or goal." – Zig Ziglar

9. "Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy!" – Brian Tracy

10. "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized." – Daniel Burnham

11. "Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming." – Richard Branson

12. "Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan." – Margaret Thatcher

13. "The first step in business planning is to determine that you will make a profit." – Robert Kiyosaki

14. "Strategy is not a lengthy action plan. It is the evolution of a central idea through continually changing circumstances." – Jack Welch

15. "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

16. "A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power." – Brian Tracy

17. "It's not the plan that's important, it's the planning." – Dr. Gramme Edwards

18. "If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else." – Yogi Berra

19. "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." – Mike Tyson

20. "Planning is everything. The plan is nothing." – Field Marshal Helmuth Graf von Moltke

21. "Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning." – Thomas Edison

22. "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing." – Warren Buffett

23. "The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Peter Drucker

24. "Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small." – Sun Tzu

25. "He who fails to plan is planning to fail." – Winston Churchill

26. "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." – Anatole France

27. "An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing." – Dale Carnegie

28. "I always say, don’t make plans, make options." – Jennifer Aniston

29. "Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal." – Cornelius Fitchner

30. "Measure twice, cut once." – Proverb

31. "Your strategy is your promise to deliver value; your business plan is the roadmap to deliver on that promise." – Steve Blank

32. "The man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door." – Confucius

33. "Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous." – Mark Caine

34. "All human plans are subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe." – Arthur C. Clarke

35. "Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential." – Winston Churchill

36. "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!" – Benjamin Franklin

37. "You can't have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic." – Stephen C. Hogan

38. "The more time you spend contemplating what you should have done... you lose valuable time planning what you can and will do." – Lil Wayne

39. "Business is like war in one respect. If its grand strategy is correct, any number of tactical errors can be made and yet the enterprise proves successful." – **Robert

40. "Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation." – Max Euwe

41. "In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love." – Warren Buffett

42. "Always deliver more than expected." – Larry Page

43. "Effective execution is what counts and what delivers results." – Peter Drucker

44. "Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple." – Steve Jobs

45. "Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." – Sun Tzu

46. "The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today." – Elbert Hubbard

47. "You don’t need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment." – Seth Godin

48. "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." – Lewis Carroll

49. "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." – Charles Darwin

50. "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." – Michael Porter

50 Planning Quotes Funny

1. "I am very organized these days, and I keep my life in my handbag, like most women." – Anna Friel

2. "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." – Douglas Adams

3. "If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters." – Unknown

4. "Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back." – Oscar Wilde

5. "I plan on living forever. So far, so good." – Steven Wright

6. "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." – John Lennon

7. "You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?" – Steven Wright

8. "Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes." – Jim Carrey

9. "I’m an excellent housekeeper. Every time I get a divorce, I keep the house." – Zsa Zsa Gabor

10. "If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?" – George Carlin

11. "I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early." – Charles Lamb

12. "My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far I’ve finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already." – Dave Barry

13. "A clean house is a sign of a wasted life." – Unknown

14. "If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." – Woody Allen

15. "The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does." – Anonymous

16. "The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron." – Phyllis Diller

17. "A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it." – Bob Hope

18. "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." – Mike Tyson

19. "Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow." – Steven Wright

20. "I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitious." – Michael Scott (The Office)

21. "My biggest regret in life is that I didn’t hit John Denver in the mouth while I has the chance." – Denis Leary

22. "I'm on a seafood diet. I see food and I eat it." – Anonymous

23. "I am on a 20-day diet, so far I've lost 10 days." – Unknown

24. "My favorite machine at the gym is the vending machine." – Caroline Rhea

25. "If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan but never the goal." – Unknown

26. "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat." – Will Rogers

27. "I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time." – Charles Schulz

28. "If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you." – Steven Wright

29. "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." – Steven Wright

30. "Trying is the first step toward failure." – Homer Simpson

31. "I’m not procrastinating. I’m doing side quests." – Unknown

32. "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito." – Dalai Lama

33. "I used to sell furniture for a living. The trouble was, it was my own." – Les Dawson

34. "A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." – Steve Martin

35. "For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned." – Anonymous, likely never cleaned a garage

36. "Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive." – Elbert Hubbard

37. "Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?" – Robin Williams

38. "The road to success is always under construction." – Lily Tomlin

39. "I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact." – Elon Musk

40. "The only thing that ever sat its way to success was a hen." – Sarah Brown

41. "I’m reading a book on anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down." – Unknown

42. "If you don’t know where you are going, you might

wind up someplace else." – Yogi Berra

43. "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." – Mark Twain

44. "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." – Lewis Carroll

45. "My plan is to wing it, but with absolute confidence." – Unknown

46. "If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it." – Olin Miller

47. "People who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of a field in hope that the cow will back up to them." – Elbert Hubbard

48. "Not all who wander are lost, but I sure am." – Unknown

49. "I don’t have a bucket list but my bucket does have a list of things it needs to catch." – Unknown

50. "Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use." – Charles M. Schulz

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69 Powerful Strategy Quotes For Planning Success (2024)

Mastering the art of strategy is a challenging feat. It requires a sharp mind and a strong will. But strategy is not limited to boardrooms or military operations; it influences many facets of our lives. Our collection of strategy quotes explores its importance and offers advice and tips to help you up your strategic game.

Strategizing transforms abstract goals into concrete realities, making it an indispensable skill across all spheres of life. This article explores key steps to craft a sound plan and outlines its relevance beyond the business realm.

So, kickstart a strategy by learning from the brains of industry leaders, authors, and many more.

Table of contents:

Best Quotes Defining A Sound Strategy

Notable strategy quotes about planning, making a clear strategy, quotes about careful strategy execution, quotes on why strategies fail, moving forward by restrategizing.

  • Strategy Vs Tactics Quotes

Quotes About The Long-Term Benefits Of Strategizing Life

Strategy quotes from business leaders, eye-opening strategy quotes about giving value to customers, other strategizing quotes from various fields.

Understanding and building a sound strategy is similar to connecting puzzle pieces. It involves planning with our goals in mind. Additionally, instead of being sidetracked by what we lack, it focuses on what's readily available or what we can control. 

Subsequent sections discuss various aspects of a solid, workable strategy. But first, here are some of our favorite quotes about strategy.

"Strategy is style of thinking, a conscious and deliberate process, an intensive implementation system, the science of insuring future success." - Pete Johnson
"To be strategic is to concentrate on what is important, on those few objectives that can give us a comparative advantage, on what is important to us rather than others, and to plan and execute the resulting plan with determination and steadfastness." - Richard Koch
"Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the later than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"Strategy is simply resource allocation. When you strip away all the noise, that's what it comes down to. Strategy means making clear cut choices about how to compete. You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets." - Jack Welch

Though both contribute to our success, strategy and planning operate differently. Essentially, a strategy forms our game plan. It is about making crucial decisions to position ourselves or our organization for success. 

Conversely, planning is a blueprint. It creates a path complete with timelines, deliverables, budget, and other factors. In short, strategy forms the bigger picture while a plan materializes it.

Whether you want business success or to graduate with flying colors, the following strategy quotes remind us of the purpose of strategic planning.

"Always start at the end before you begin." - Robert Kiyosaki
"Sound strategy starts with having the right goal." - Michael Porter (Harvard Business School Professor)
"Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point." - Henry Mintzberg
"The entrance strategy is more important than the exit strategy." - Edward Lampert
"I believe that people make their own luck by great preparation and good strategy." - Jack Canfield
"A goal without a plan is just a wish." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." - Sun Tzu

After emphasizing the importance of planning, the next crucial factor of solid strategies is clarity of vision . Both guide us throughout while keeping us focused and avoiding unnecessary distractions . 

Whatever our blueprint is, it should be aligned with our vision. The quotes below emphasize this message.

"A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more." - Rosabeth Moss Kanter
"You build your own strategy. You don’t define it by what another competitor is doing." - Ginni Rometty
"A vision without a strategy remains an illusion." - Lee Bolman
"The only sustainable competitive advantage is your innovation culture." - Soren Kaplan
"The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." - Michael Porter
"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." - Peter Drucker

Strategizing is only the starting point; action is the real game-changer. Yes, taking the first step is often the hardest part. Sometimes, we also get trapped in the planning stage. Success depends on more than just a smart strategy; it also depends on the courage and discipline to execute it. 

Here, we share insightful quotes to inspire action in the face of fear. These quotes remind us that a strategy, no matter how good, is only as effective as its execution.

"There's only one growth strategy: work hard." - William Hague
"In reality, strategy is very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement it like hell." - Jack Welch
"Without a strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, strategy is useless." - Morris Chang
"Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art." - Peter Drucker
"Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different." - Michael Porter
"Strategy without process is little more than a wish list." - Robert Filek
"Execution is the ability to mesh strategy with reality, align people with goals, and achieve the promised results." - Larry Bossidy
"Designing a winning strategy is the art of asking questions, experimenting and then constantly renewing the thinking process by questioning the answers. No matter how good today's strategy is, you must always keep reinventing it." - Constantinos Markides
Strategy execution isn't something other people should worry about while you are doing something far more important. ~ Jeroen de Flander
Focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness. ~ Jim Collins

Even when we're brave enough to take action, failure can still be possible - fear, procrastination, poor execution, and overwhelming emotions can sometimes steer us off course. 

However, we must remember that failure is not a setback but a stepping stone. Each stumble offers valuable lessons that we can use to fine-tune our course of action. This selection talks about the missteps along the road of strategy development and execution as important lessons.

"The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." - Mark Zuckerberg
"A bad strategy will fail no matter how good your information is. And lame execution will stymie a good strategy. If you do enough things poorly, you'll go out of business." - Bill Gates
"When a plan or strategy fails, people are tempted to assume it was the wrong vision. Plans and strategies can always be changed and improved. But vision doesn't change. Visions are simply refined with time." - Andy Stanley
"Don’t give up. Obstacles can be overcome through strategy and learning." - Hidetaka Miyazaki
"Sticking with a plan when you are winning sounds simple, but it's easy to become overconfident and get caught up in events. Long-term success is impossible if you let your heat-of-the-moment reactions trump careful planning." - Garri Kimowitsch Kasparow
Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a ‘nervous system', to coordinate its actions ~ Bill Gates
The most important thing about strategy is execution. If you have a great strategy, but you can't execute it, you're nothing. ~ Hamdi Ulukaya
Strategy execution is the responsibility that makes or breaks executives. ~ Alan Branche

As they say, “Change is the only constant.” In the following strategy quotes, we'll further realize the importance of adaptation.

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." - Sir Winston Churchill
"The process of developing superior strategies is part planning, part trail and error, until you hit upon something that works." - Constantinos Markides
"Let’s execute along this strategy, but know that we’ll probably get some of this wrong, so be open to changing it." - A.G. Lafley
"What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you - what used to be a tail wind is now a head wind - you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn't a strategy." - Jeff Bezos

Strategy Vs. Tactics Quotes

Understanding the relationship between strategy and tactics is essential to effective execution. Strategy is the broad roadmap, giving us the big picture of our objectives. Conversely, tactics are the daily practical actions and decisions that help us maneuver in varying circumstances. 

Together, they provide a framework for responding flexibly to any situation. In the subsequent section, we'll explore quotes that discuss the difference and relationship between strategies and tactics.

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." - Sun Tzu
"Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation." - Max Euwe
"Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy." - General George S. Patton Jr.
Success doesn't necessarily come from breakthrough innovation, but from flawless execution. ~ Naveen Jain
We have a strategic plan. It's called doing things. ~ Herb Kelleher

Balancing the present with the future can be tricky. Life has a mix of planned events and delightful surprises, with a fair share of unexpected challenges. While unpredictability adds spice to life, strategizing is essential in managing it.

Whether you schedule meet-ups with friends or invest money for retirement, planning life does not make it rigid. Instead, it helps us navigate it better. So, let the following strategy quotes remind you of this thought.

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." - Warren Buffett
"Minimizing exposure to miserable people is nothing short of a life strategy." - Carolyn Hax
"A strategy is necessary because the future is unpredictable." - Robert Waterman
"Manage the top line: your strategy, your people, and your products, and the bottom line will follow." - Steve Jobs
"The basic strategy is to stick to my core business and my area of expertise." - Henry Sy
"Every new change forces all the companies in an industry to adapt their strategies to that change." - Bill Gates
"Globalization means that business strategy and business ethics cannot be separated from each other." - Ofra Strauss
"A strategy is something like, an innovative new product; globalization, taking your products around the world; be the low-cost producer. A strategy is something you can touch; you can motivate people with; be number one and number two in every business. You can energize people around the message." - Jack Welch
"There's a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness." - Michael Porter
"With the level of uncertainty we see today, more people are asking, how can you develop a strategy in a world that keeps changing so fast? They are afraid that a set of rigid principles will hinder their ability to react quickly. I argue that it is precisely at such times that you need a strategy." - Orit Gadiesh
An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage. ~ Jack Welch
Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment. ~ Jim Collins

Bringing the focus onto customers, business strategies should always keep them at the center. This goes beyond simply understanding their wants; it's about providing value and exhibiting care. Customer satisfaction isn't just a metric. It fosters loyalty and drives business growth. 

You will surely relate to the quotes below if you have a start-up business. Afterward, check out this Ted Talk by Bill Gross on how time is a major factor in your success.

"The best marketing strategy ever: Care." - Gary Vaynerchuck
"A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all." - Michael LeBoeuf
"There is only one winning strategy. It is to carefully define the target market and direct a superior offering to that target market." - Philip Kotler
"Creating value for humanity should not be an afterthought but a core business strategy." - Unknown
"Only a few businesses will succeed by having the lowest price, so most will need a strategy that includes customer services." - Bill Gates
"In marketing I've seen only one strategy that can't miss – and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last." - John Romero
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Bill Gates

Indeed, strategy extends beyond the confines of the boardroom. For example, leaders across various fields strategize a path while leading a team to navigate it effectively. Synonymously, the worlds of sports and warfare acknowledge the value of strategizing.

Incorporating lessons from these powerful quotes can offer valuable insights not just professionally but personally, too. 

"Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy." - Norman Schwarzkopf
"Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there." - John P. Kotter
"Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy." - Sun Tzu
"Look at a football field. It looks like a big movie screen. This is theatre. Football combines the strategy of chess. It’s part ballet. It’s part battleground, part playground." - Steve Sabol
"Fighting is about a strategy. MMA is not all about brutality." - Royce Gracie

Isabela is a determined millennial passionate about continuously seeking out ways to make an impact. With a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering with honors, Isabela’s research expertise and interest in artistic works, coupled with a creative mindset, offers readers a fresh take on different environmental, social, and personal development topics.

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Business Planning Quotes

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quote about business planning

Plan ahead: It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

quote about business planning

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

If you can dream it, you can make it so.

John Ruskin quote: Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

Man begins by loving love and ends by loving a woman. Woman begins by loving a man and ends by loving love.

If men knew all that women think, they would be twenty times more audacious.

Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

Some read to think, these are rare; some to write, these are common; and some read to talk, and these form the great majority.

Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Money cannot buy happiness; it can, however, rent it.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.

If it really was a no-brainer to make it on your own in business there'd be millions of no-brained, harebrained, and otherwise dubiously brained individuals quitting their day jobs and hanging out their own shingles. Nobody would be left to round out the workforce and execute the business plan.

Few great men would have got past personnel.

If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

The harder I work the more I live.

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

If you don't know where you're going any road will do

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50 Best Business Quotes to Inspire Entrepreneurs

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Successful entrepreneurs understand that staying in business means more than just having a great product or service . It also means having the passion, drive, and determination to continue growing your company – even in the face of adversity.

As a new entrepreneur, you'll face various hurdles. A successful business demands effort and perseverance. But with these great business quotes from some of the world’s best entrepreneurs, you’ll have everything you need to succeed in your new venture.

You must be prepared to work if you ever want to grow and expand your business. The primary reason for starting a business is to make a profit — not necessarily a monetary profit.

However, you cannot make a profit if you don't put in the necessary work and attention. The quality of work you put in determines the quality of work you will get.

Success comes through continuous effort, not just one-time actions. It requires you to have the right attitude, focus on your goals, and take steps towards achieving them. What you achieve in life is directly proportional to your effort.

It is a common misconception that creativity and business don’t go hand in hand. Thinking outside the box is valuable, but it's even more crucial to back that up with a well-thought-out plan. Lacking a coherent plan, creativity is nothing more than a form of expression.

Your inventiveness ought to be in step with your company's objectives. To be effective, it must also resonate with the people you intend to reach . Effective advertising strategies employ creative approaches to address corporate challenges.

You can't be a successful entrepreneur and not be willing to step outside your comfort zone. Staying too long in your comfort zone hinders you from searching for new challenges and chances. You will never succeed if you stick to doing things the same way over and over again.

Entrepreneurship is an adventure. You need to step out and explore new ideas in your industry. I have never seen a successful entrepreneur who stayed in the same spot for over five years. They are always evolving because the market is evolving too.

You need to move out of that zone to challenge yourself to greatness.

Comfort Zone - Fear zone - Learning Zone - Growth Zone

Another comfort zone problem is that it becomes boring and monotonous over time. You find yourself doing the same thing repeatedly with only mediocre results. There is no fun in that. You must be confident to leave your comfort zone when the time is right.

One big mistake young entrepreneurs make is that they give up too soon. Some may try to work their way through but only to a limit.

Entrepreneurship is not a walk in the park. It tests your will and desire to succeed. Therefore, you don't quit when you don't see immediate results.

I was talking to a young aspiring entrepreneur once, and the young man had such a crazy idea. However, he was expecting that as soon as he launched his idea, he would start making quick money immediately. I was surprised.

He is not the only one with such thoughts.

Many aspiring entrepreneurs like him believe you can become an instant millionaire in less than six months. I mean, without the hard and intense work.

There are no roses in the entrepreneurship garden. Even if there are, you must bypass some thorns before getting to them.

Successful people are willing to work hard and persevere through difficulties. To be successful, be persistent, dedicated, and hard-working.

In business, the goal for any entrepreneur is to be successful. But you can't achieve this goal by doing nothing. People tend to wait for things to happen rather than actively seeking them out. Unfortunately, you can never stumble upon success .

No one ever has and never will. Success is not obtained by accident. Maybe fame and money can, but they will fade off if you don't work intentionally to keep them. Even the top business tycoons in the world put in more work to get to where they are.

Achieving success as an entrepreneur requires a strong will, intense concentration, and commitment. You must be willing to work for your ideas to become a reality.

In business, you will make mistakes along the way. That's inevitable. But as long as you don't make too many mistakes and as long as you learn from your mistakes, you'll be just fine. You don't have to be perfect, and you don't have to do everything perfectly. Just focus on doing the most important things to you and do them well.

One of these things is to set smart goals and focus on them.

What are your goals? What do you want to achieve? Focus on those things, and don't let anything get in your way.

SMART - by Hydrate Marketing

This is a wonderful mantra to keep in the forefront of your mind when working on your business plan or goals. You should always deliver more than expected with your product or service.

To impress your clients, you should always exceed their expectations. You don't need to claim all that you are not. It may be tempting to do so, especially because you want to show clients that you are the right choice.

However, you can make the mistake of placing the expectations too high. Then when you are unable to deliver on your promises, your clients will feel disappointed and give your business a bad reputation.

Also, you should consistently exceed your own expectations for your firm. Similar to how “content” will always triumph over “ads,” making an effort will always be more rewarding than taking the easy route.

Always make an effort to go above and beyond , deliver more than what is expected of you, and to surpass expectations. This is what makes you stand out from the others.

Past success does not guarantee future success. If you're in the business world and you're not continuously trying to get better and coming up with new ideas, you will get left behind.

The business world is always evolving, and trends are always changing. You are responsible for always staying up to date about market trends, running a business, networking, and so on.

One of the best ways to sharpen your entrepreneurial mindset is to keep reading the best books about business . Reading these books will enlighten you on what it takes to grow a successful business and stay at the top of your game.

The best thing you can do is to set new goals for yourself after you have achieved the previous ones. You should never stop putting in hard work and making an effort to accomplish even more.

It is important to understand that running a business is a form of art. It is about creativity, innovation, and imagination .

As an entrepreneur, you are the founder of your own company. You are responsible for its growth, profits, and success. Like a gardener who cultivates a beautiful garden, you are responsible for growing your business into a success.

Let's use the illustrations of gardening. Gardening is a skillful art, and one of the most important rules of successful gardening is to enrich the soil. Soil enrichment can give plants the nutrients they need to grow strong and healthy.

Similarly, enriching the soil is important in business, and you do this by working hard, being dedicated, and setting smart goals.

Okay, you have an idea and want to launch it into a business. You have discussed your idea with some friends and family, and everyone is in support.

You go ahead to find sources to finance your business . However, you have not started yet.

It's because you don't have a large team to start your company with.

You DON'T NEED a large team to start your business. You can do great things with a small team — a small team of goal-oriented and success-driven people.

What matters most is that you have a great business idea and a willingness to take a risk, learn from your mistakes, and grow from each experience.

There is no such thing as an overnight success. Most overnight successes are years of hard work, perseverance, and diligence. But we only see the success, not the story behind it. Many of these successful business people had a very low return on investment (ROI) in the first few years of starting their business. It looked like they were going nowhere but they eventually hit it big.

A crucial aspect of success in the business world is perseverance. It is the ability to keep going even when things look grim. Perseverance is essential in many aspects of life but is especially important for entrepreneurs.

It can be hard to keep pushing forward when you feel like you have hit a dead end. But the key to success is to keep trying new things and pushing forward even when things don’t work out. If you keep trying and pushing forward, you will find a way to succeed sooner or later.

We learn best from challenges. Yes, you cannot become better if there are no challenges.

It could be a wonderful thing sometimes, but it could also be terrible if all of your clients are always satisfied and never find anything to complain about. Many times, the people who are most likely to complain are actually helping you in a way.

This is because their complaints will tell you when and where you are missing it, encouraging you to look into your shortcomings and strengthen them.

Always accept customer feedback as a lesson to improve.

There will always be new and amazing business opportunities , so if you don't like the first one that comes your way, you can pick the next one. However, it also means that you can never really rest on your laurels. You must constantly look for new opportunities, and when you find one, you must be prepared to seize them.

Advertising and public relations are two of the most important aspects of running a successful business. You can meet potential and current buyers through them while promoting your goods. It's a public forum for discussing your company, which can have positive or negative effects depending on the circumstances.

Carelessness on social media can have serious consequences for your company's reputation. Remember that you should come across as authentic and honest rather than spammy. Be so good at what you do.

Inspirational Quotes For Business Leaders About Growing A Business

Growing your business can be challenging, especially when doing it independently. You have to ensure everything is in place and that you are ticking all the right boxes. You need to take care of many things simultaneously if you want to grow your business.

If you feel things are getting a little out of control at work, these business quotes for leaders will help you get back on track and rediscover your drive as an entrepreneur. Read on to find some useful advice that will help get your business back in gear.

Creating an excellent and clear vision is one of the top leadership qualities every leader/entrepreneur must have.

Having a vision helps you plan the right strategies and tactics. It ensures that everyone in your organization is working towards the same goal and that your actions are aligned with your desired future state.

Creating vision

A good vision should be inspirational but also achievable. It should get you excited to come to work every day and drive you to continue pushing forward even when things are tough.

Failure is a certainty for entrepreneurs. In fact, most successful entrepreneurs have failed many times before they finally hit it big.

Mistakes are not failures; they are valuable learning experiences. We can all learn from our mistakes.

Therefore, instead of letting them hold you back, use them as a catalyst to propel you forward. Mistakes are a part of life, but shame and guilt have no place in the journey to success. Remember, it is not the mistake that matters, but what you do with it.

So what do you do then?

Exactly what the quote says, “Forget past mistakes. Forget failures”.

Every entrepreneur will face setbacks and failures, but it's what they do next that counts. Do you let the experience harden you, or do you give up? Do you use it as a learning opportunity to help grow your business?

The answer to this question can be the difference between success and failure as an entrepreneur. If you want to be successful, don't be afraid of failure. Embrace it, learn from it and use it to make your business stronger.

The idea that you need a big group to accomplish anything is widely held. However, this is not always the situation. As the saying goes, “no task is too big” for even a modest crew. As a matter of fact, many companies are founded and operated by a small group of people.

What makes the team strong is not in their number but their focus and willingness to achieve set goals. For such a team, all things are possible. You can use a business management software to manage your business and its operations effectively.

Small business ownership has benefits and challenges. Suppose you have less money and fewer workers, for example. You can overcome these barriers if you're well-prepared and have a clear company aim.

Many qualities make a good leader, but confidence is often overlooked. What exactly is quiet confidence? It’s the ability to lead without needing to constantly be in the spotlight or needing to be the center of attention.

As an entrepreneur, you will be called upon to make decisions impacting your business and those who work for you. You must project confidence in your ability to make the right decision, even if unsure of the outcome.

Confident leaders gain the trust and respect of those they work with. This is because people can see that they believe in what they are doing and are not afraid to take risks.

Optimism is one of the key characteristics every entrepreneur must have. As an entrepreneur, you need to be able to see the opportunity in every difficulty. You'll face many hurdles and hardships, but it's up to you to seize each opportunity.

Focusing on the negative and perceiving only the obstacles is tempting, but every difficulty gives a learning opportunity. You will be better equipped to overcome challenges and grow your business when you see the opportunity in every difficulty. Have a positive outlook, be resilient, be adaptable, and be persistent.

Above the Line vs Below the Line Thinking

Optimism is essential for success. You cannot be success-driven if you do not have a positive mindset. Try meditating on some inspiring success quotes to increase your drive for success.

Marketing is about creating demand for your product or service, while innovation creates new products or services that meet that demand. Both functions are essential for businesses to succeed.

However, many businesses focus too much on marketing and not enough on innovation. As a result, they eventually run out of new ideas and fail to grow.

To avoid this, as an entrepreneur, you must allocate enough resources to marketing and innovation. Create a creative, risk-taking business environment . Only then will you be able to keep coming up with new ideas to drive growth.

While owning your business may seem like a dream come true, it's crucial to be prepared for the reality of the industry before taking the plunge. Entrepreneurship is sometimes misunderstood as “having your own business and being your own boss.”

In actuality, a lot of it is just plain old hard work and making some tough choices. Getting into business with your eyes wide open is crucial because it can be a fight to maintain your firm's viability and yourself.

Entrepreneurship is not all fun and games. In fact, you are most likely to take a business loan . However, you need to ensure you are eligible for the loan . Entrepreneurship requires a lot of sacrifices and effort. It's great to be your own boss, but it does come with a price. However, you must be willing to pay that price if you want to be successful.

The entrepreneur's journey is not easy. You will always have to innovate to grow your business. If you don't grow after a long period, you risk adapting to the changing market and losing your position in the industry.

The Entrepreneur's Lifecycle - The 4 phases of the entrepreneur's journey

In business, you have to think and analyze carefully before making rash decisions. That's why I always say that the game of business is not for the faint-hearted. Be prepared to make some wins and losses simultaneously.

This quote simply means that we shouldn't confine ourselves to only one side of the box. Entrepreneurship is all about exploring. This also includes going out of the box to create your path — a path that others haven't thought about before.

You innovate and create new ideas. The best way to do this is to be attending. For example, while conducting market research , you will be surprised how many crucial areas have been left untouched or neglected. These areas are very under-served. When you keep digging, you will notice that you can create a business for them.

As an entrepreneur, you will face many challenges and obstacles. How you face these challenges and obstacles will determine your success or failure. Some people see problems as a negative thing, something to be avoided at all costs.

However, if you look at problems as an opportunity to learn and grow, you will be in a much better position to overcome them. Problems can teach us about our strengths and weaknesses, the strengths and weaknesses of our businesses, and how to solve problems better in the future.

The finest advice is often not what you want to hear. Entrepreneurs get good and bad counsel. This doesn't mean that you should blindly follow every piece of advice you receive, but it does mean that you should consider it thoughtfully before making a decision.

You are the one who knows your business best and who will ultimately be responsible for its success or failure. So trust your gut and make the decisions.

Don’t just dream about success; work for it. This is one of the most valuable lessons that entrepreneurs can learn. Success doesn’t come easy. Achieving business success takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and determination.

Estee Lauder is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history. She didn’t just dream about success; she worked hard for it. Lauder built a global cosmetics empire that is still going strong today.

Hard work doesn't just happen. You have to plan your steps and remain consistent in your efforts. You can meditate on motivating hard work quotes to encourage yourself and your team to work hard.

Time is the greatest and most valuable currency of every business professional. As business owners, you have to be very careful with how you spend your time. You can't afford to waste even a single day.

Each day you need to focus on activities that will help you move your business forward. You need to be productive and efficient with your time to achieve your goals and grow your company or business.

One way to become more productive and efficient is to manage your tasks , including delegating tasks effectively to your team members. If you try to do everything independently, you risk breaking down and reducing your efficiency for many days.

10 effective tips to delegate work and responsibilities

You cannot build a business from scratch as a one-person team. It would be best if you had a whole team of goal-oriented people (whether small or big) to buy into your vision and run with you. It doesn't matter what type of entrepreneur you are; you need a team.

Each member should be responsible for handling a task or position when you have a team. Effective delegation makes it easy to achieve much within a period. Through suitable task management software , you will be able to monitor and track the progress of each task you delegate.

Inspirational Business Quotes To Inspire You To Reach Your Business Goals

It is a challenge to stay motivated at work every day. Whether you are an entrepreneur or business owner or work for someone else, it’s easy to lose sight of your goals when you become overwhelmed.

However, with the right inspiration, we can all stay on track and achieve our business goals.

You might find it challenging to find the motivation necessary to keep pursuing your company’s goals. Inspirational business quotes can be just what you need to get back on track and push yourself towards success.

Not everyone will support you in your goal, and that is fine. You must understand that you don't need everyone's approval to succeed. All you need is your determination and will to succeed. At the end of the day, your results will speak for you.

Never Quit your goals just because people didn't believe in you. They will turn around when they start seeing results. So stick with your goals and never lose sight of them.

Coming up with an idea is the easy part. The hard part is taking that idea and putting it to work. Ideas are like the ingredients in a recipe. You need to put them together correctly to create something valuable . In other words, you need to execute your ideas to make them work.

After planning, the next stage is the execution phase. This is where you put your plan into action.

In any field, the first step to success is to do something. You need to take action to achieve your goal and desires. As an entrepreneur, you have to take action if you want to reach that business goal.

If you continue to do nothing but wait for good fortune and the right circumstances, you will never be able to accomplish anything worthwhile. You are the one who is responsible for your aspirations and objectives. You are the only one who can make things work.

If you are trying to build something from the ground up, you will have to spend a lot of time working on it. This is called hustling. You can’t just wish for success or go to sleep expecting it to happen out of nowhere. Success comes through hard work; you must stay awake and keep working on your goals.

Every morning, after meditating on some hustle quotes to be inspired, you go out there to hustle. Stay focused on your goals, and don’t let up. Keep pushing yourself and working towards success.

We all know that entrepreneurship is not easy and comes with a lot of hard work. Passion is the fuel that will keep you going through tough times . When things aren’t going as you thought they would, staying motivated and focused on your end goal is important. You are more likely to succeed in any business venture if you are passionate about your work.

Entrepreneurship is not all sunshine and roses. No matter how well you plan, there will always be surprises along the way. The key is to expect the best but prepare for the worst. That way, you can capitalize on what comes your way and keep your business moving forward.

Have a plan B and be Flexible. Have contingency plans in place and be prepared to pivot

Every entrepreneur must be flexible. You can't keep doing the same thing and think you'll get a different outcome; that's not fair. Whether you manage the firm or employ work methods, you must make room for adjustments before getting the desired results.

Innovation is the lifeblood of successful entrepreneurs. Try new things, and don't be afraid to fail . Without doing this, you can't expand your company or make any headway toward success.

There are two kinds of people in the world when it comes to reacting to failure: The winners and the losers. The winners are those who take inspiration from their failures and keep moving.

The losers? They do the exact opposite.

Learning from your mistakes is one of the most critical things you can do to build a successful business, even though there are many different routes. How you handle failure matters a lot.

Learning from your mistakes

Some of the most successful businesspeople have experienced the greatest number of failures . They know that setbacks are a natural part of the learning process and may be leveraged to get them closer to their objectives.

Too often, we see people who want to start their businesses but are unwilling to put in the hard work required to succeed. They think being an entrepreneur is all about making money and having a flexible lifestyle.

While those things certainly benefit entrepreneurship, they're not the only things that matter. This misconception is why many (90%) start-up businesses fail .

Business success requires doing things most people won't. Work hard even when it's hard. You must sacrifice time and comfort for your business. You must take risks even when success is uncertain. In short, you have to be better than the average person.

Just because you have a great idea doesn’t mean it will succeed without the hustle and hard work. You need to be constantly moving and evolving to reach your goals. This is why it’s so important to have a growth mindset.

With a growth mindset, you see every challenge as an opportunity to learn and grow. You’re not afraid of failure because you know it’s all part of the journey. Be open to trying new things, even if they seem crazy at first. You never know what might work out in the end.

If you feel your mindset is fixed and you need to develop a positive and learning mindset, you need to focus on growth mindset quotes every morning before work.

There comes a point in everyone's life when they have to decide: stay safe and comfortable in their comfort zone or take a risk and venture out into the unknown.

It's not necessarily about taking risks for the sake of taking risks. It's about recognizing when the pain of staying where you are becomes greater than taking a leap of faith.

In other words, sometimes, the only way to grow and achieve your goals is to take risks. And while there is always a chance of failure when you do so, the rewards can be great if you succeed.

Many entrepreneurs find that their biggest successes come after their biggest failures. That’s because they learn valuable lessons from their mistakes that they can apply to future endeavors.

To be successful in business, entrepreneurs need to be risk-takers. They also need to be resilient and have the ability to pick themselves up after a setback. It’s okay to make mistakes; failure is a part of the process. Learn from your mistakes, be resilient, and don’t give up.

Optimism makes you more powerful and invincible. You turn your weaknesses into your strengths and focus on what truly matters. Nothing can break an optimistic spirit.

People will always be critical of your ideas or try to undermine your efforts. These people can be customers, employees, partners, suppliers, or even family members or friends. It doesn’t matter who they are or what their motives are. You can't let their words bring you down; instead, you need to use them as motivation to push yourself even harder.

Don't give up on your dreams just because things get tough; remember, success is attainable as long as you have the tenacity and dedication to see it through.

Often, the most successful businesses are those started by someone willing to take a risk. If you want to be successful, you must be willing to do the same.

It's normal to face setbacks and obstacles along the way. The key is never to give up and keep moving toward your goals. You need to be able to make decisions quickly and without fear.

To build a successful business, it is important to have a clear and attainable goal. It is also essential to be passionate about your business and have the tenacity to see it through.

These are valuable lessons that any entrepreneur can learn from. The entrepreneurship journey is full of challenges, and you must be prepared for them. Entrepreneurship requires hard work and dedication to achieve success.

After setting your business goals, the next thing is to create an action plan . You can begin execution when you have created your plan and made it known to your team.

Profit is the essence of a successful business. It is a simple principle, but it is not easy to implement. You must have the right product or service, price, and marketing plan to succeed. This may seem like common sense, but it is surprising how many businesses ignore one or more of these critical elements.

It is not enough to have a great idea; it is also important to have the determination to put in the hard work to make that idea happen. After planning, what next?

Execution!!!

The more you “over-plan,” the more you procrastinate. Eventually, you begin to overthink and worry about problems you haven't confirmed yet.

From the moment you come up with an idea, start working towards its execution. Keep track of all the progress and improve your approach as you go along. You can have the best product in the world, but if you don’t have the drive to get it out there and promote it, it will not go anywhere.

Sure, you can make a lot of money by simply selling products or services people want or need. But what’s the point of making all that money if you’re not doing anything good with it?

Many entrepreneurs get so wrapped up in making money that they forget to focus on anything else, like adding value to society. This can be a recipe for disaster, leading to defective products, unhappy customers, and, ultimately, a failed business.

If you want your business to be successful in the long run, you need to create a product or service that people actually want or need, and you need to treat your employees and customers well. Only then will you be able to reach your business goals.

Too often, people think that the hardest part of starting a business is coming up with a great idea. But the truth is, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. If you have a great idea for a business, the first step is to put a plan together and start taking action.

Your goals will only remain a dream unless you start implementing your action plan. The sooner you get started, the better. The longer you wait, the more likely someone else will beat you to it.

The difference between success and failure is simply persistence. If you give up too soon, you may never know how close you were to achieving your goal . Handling a business is not easy. You will face many challenges, and there will be times when you feel like giving up. Understand that failure is a part of the process, don’t take it personally, don’t give up, learn from your mistakes and use your failures as motivation to succeed.

When you’re an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details and forget to take action. Instead of sitting around and waiting for things to happen, go out and make them happen! Making mistakes is part of the process, but you can’t let them stop you from moving forward. You will make mistakes, but don't quit.

No matter how many setbacks you face, what matters most is that you keep moving forward. Whenever you feel like quitting or like you are in a place where you can't keep moving, take some time to focus on some inspiring determination quotes . You will see every reason to remain persistent, keep moving, and develop the inner strength to carry on.

When starting a business, many things need to be done to get the business off the ground. Getting caught up in what other people are doing can be easy, but it's important to remember that everyone is on their own journey.

Focusing on your own goals will help you stay motivated and keep your eye on the prize. It's also important to remember that no one knows everything, so don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it.

In today's business world, entrepreneurs must take the time to learn from their good and bad experiences. Experience will help you learn and grow as an entrepreneur , eventually leading to more success and money.

So don't be afraid to invest in yourself and your business by taking on new challenges and learning from your mistakes. The rewards will come eventually!

Be Empowered With These Inspiring Business Quotes

Although you may have a great idea that you think will be a big hit with the public, you can't rely on luck to get you there. You need to take calculated risks and ensure your business has a solid plan for success. If you're willing to go all in and bet on yourself, you can make it. If you think you might struggle with business ventures, start by taking small steps towards your goals. You can always make adjustments as you go along.

What's important is that you don't give up. Use these business quotes as a daily reminder that you can be the best business professional you set out to be only if you put your mind to it. The only way to get better is to keep trying and making some effort.

More Quotes

  • Inspirational Small Business Quotes (With Practical Lessons)
  • 38 Quotes About Business Growth
  • 40 Powerful Entrepreneurial Adversity Quotes To Help You Overcome Challenges

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Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.

Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.

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  • Leadership |

39 empowering business quotes

Business quotes are a great way to empower your team to be their very best. We’ve gathered 39 inspiring quotes from successful entrepreneurs.

Everyone needs a little inspiration now and then, especially in a professional setting. Your job as a leader is to motivate your team members through empowering actions and statements. 

From Steve Jobs to Arianna Huffington, take a look at these 39 inspirational quotes to share with your teammates. 

Quotes to help you start a business

Starting a business is a difficult endeavor—and one that doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and devotion to turn your business into what you've always dreamed it would be. These quotes will give you the drive to build something that you’ll be proud of.

1. “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”

— Peter Drucker, Management consultant and educator

Peter Drucker quote

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Learn how enterprises can improve processes and productivity, no matter how complex your organization is. With fewer redundancies, leaders and their teams can hit goals faster.

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2. “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”

— Jeff Bezos, Founder and executive chairman of Amazon

3. “Risk-taking is the cornerstone of empires.”

— Estée Lauder, Businesswoman and co-founder of Estée Lauder 

4. “In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”

— Seth Godin, Author and former business executive

5. “Effectively, change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation and consensus.”

— Simon Mainwaring, Global keynote speaker, CEO of We First, and best-selling author

6. “I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.”

— Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook

7. “In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.”

— Ken Blanchard, Author and motivational speaker

8. “Feeling confident—or pretending that you feel confident—is necessary to reach for opportunities. It's a cliché, but opportunities are rarely offered; they're seized.”

— Sheryl Sandberg, Business executive and COO of Facebook

Quotes to improve self development

Part of growing your skills is about developing your emotional intelligence in order to be the best leader you can be. The quotes below will keep you mindful of your habits and help you become the ideal version of yourself.

9. “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, Businesswoman and founder of Spanx

10. “The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

— Stephen Covey, Educator and author

11. “Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”

— Oprah Winfrey, Talk show host and media magnate

12. “I have a theory and I really believe it. I think your worst weakness can become your greatest single strength.”

— Barbara Corcoran, Businesswoman and Shark on ABC’s reality series

13. “Patience is the art of concealing your impatience.”

— Guy Kawasaki, Marketing leader and Silicon Valley venture capitalist

14. “If you start thinking that only your biggest and shiniest moments count, you're setting yourself up to feel like a failure most of the time.”

— Chris Hadfield, Former Canadian Space Agency astronaut

Chris Hadfield quote

15. “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” 

— Steve Jobs, Business magnate and co-founder of Apple

16. “Your willingness to look at your darkness is what empowers you to change.”

— Iyanla Vanzant, Inspirational speaker and lawyer 

17. “Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.”

— Phil Jackson, Former professional basketball player and coach

18. “Learning from each mistake requires self-awareness and humility, but it can be one of the biggest keys to reaching your full potential.”

— Amy Morin, Psychotherapist and mental strength trainer

19. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

— Bill Gates, Business magnate and co-founder of Microsoft

20. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

— Henry Ford, Industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company

21. “You renew yourself every day. Sometimes you’re successful, sometimes you’re not, but it’s the average that counts.”

— Satya Nadella, Business executive and CEO of Microsoft

22. “People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt, Political figure and former First Lady

Quotes to help you achieve success

Success isn’t obtained overnight. It takes hard work and dedication to achieve your dreams. However, success comes in many forms. Whether it be your business, your work, your family, or something completely different, these quotes will guide you through finding success.

23. “Success is very much the intersection of luck and hard work.”

— Dustin Moskovitz, Co-founder and CEO of Asana

24. “Don't worry about failure; you only have to be right once.”

— Drew Houston, Entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox

25. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

— Helen Keller, Author and disability rights advocate

26. “We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.”

— Arianna Huffington, Businesswoman and CEO of Thrive Global

Arianna Huffington quote

27. “You don’t achieve success, you attract success.”

— Farshad Asl, Entrepreneur and CEO of Top Leaders

28. “Be brutally honest about the short term, and optimistic and confident about the long term.”

— Reed Hastings, Businessman and co-CEO of Netflix

29. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

— Maya Angelou, Poet and civil rights activist

30. “I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.”

— Madeleine Albright, Politician and former Secretary of State of the United States 

31. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

— Abraham Lincoln, Politician and 16th president of the United States

32. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”

— Albert Einstein, Physicist known for developing the theory of relativity

33. “Success is a decision. Dare to choose it.”

— Jill Konrath, Sales strategist and author of the book Selling to Big Companies

Jill Konrath quote

Quotes about building—and achieving—dreams

Everyone has a dream that they’ve always wanted to achieve. For some, those dreams may be harder to accomplish. With a little bit of courage, dedication, and inspirational quotes, you can ensure those dreams are within reach.

34. “First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare.”

— Walt Disney, Entrepreneur and co-founder of The Walt Disney Company

35. “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”

— Thomas Edison, Inventor and businessman

Thomas Edison quote

36. “You never lose a dream. It just incubates as a hobby.”

— Larry Page, Entrepreneur and co-founder of Google

37. “A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.”

— Mary Kay Ash, Businesswoman and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

38. “They tell you: Follow your dreams... Dream and dream big. I think that's crap. I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, powerful, engaged people? Are busy doing.”

— Shonda Rhimes, Television producer and screenwriter

39. “Most ideas are born and lost in isolation.”

— Scott Belsky, Entrepreneur and co-creator of Behance

Tips to empower your team

Along with sharing inspiring business quotes to motivate your teammates, there are a few other ways you can take it to the next level. From encouraging intrinsic motivation using team bonding activities to leading by example, you have the capability to empower your team to do great work.

Here are three ways to get started:

Encourage intrinsic motivation : Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior driven by internal rewards. Examples of this include participating in a team building game because you want to, not because you have to, and learning new skills because you like to be challenged. By encouraging intrinsic motivation in the workplace, you can empower your team to be their very best.

Lead by serving your team: Servant leadership is an approach that focuses on serving others rather than managing for results. This helps create an environment where team members can thrive. Characteristics that you can embody include strong listening skills, empathy, self-awareness, and the desire to create a healthy work environment—all of which will help your team feel heard and empowered.

Establish group norms: Group norms are the spoken or unspoken rules that guide how team members interact, collaborate, and work. By identifying group norms, you can build and empower your team in order to take them to the next level. Some examples include creating meeting agendas, tracking to-dos, and communicating in shared tools—all of which can help build clarity and successful group norms.

These three ways to empower your team can have a lasting impact on the success and overall happiness of each of your team members. Plus, they can help foster a collaborative, productive, and efficient workplace.

Inspire your team with these business quotes

These inspirational business quotes can be the motivating factor to push your team members out of their comfort zones and explore new possibilities within your organization. While they may not be the only way to foster team empowerment, sharing motivational quotes can positively impact your teammates. 

Not only that, but the right business quotes can shape your own work ethic and leadership style . From offering business insight to sharing helpful resources, quotes from successful entrepreneurs could just be the push you need. 

If you’re looking for additional ways to support your team through collaboration, check out 45 team building games to improve communication. Or, try collaboration software to manage your work more productively. 

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39 Inspiring Quotes About Business Growth — and Tips for Success

45 Inspiring Quotes About Business Growth — and Tips for Success

Here are some favorite quotes about business growth to inspire you — plus expert advice to spark new ideas.

quote about business planning

Nick Johnson

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Businesses face pressure to grow and evolve rapidly to stay competitive. But growth can be difficult, and even the most intrepid among us sometimes need an extra dose of inspiration .

We’ve rounded up 39 quotes about business growth — and advice for success — to inspire you and spark new ideas. Have a favorite quote that we missed? Click to tweet and add yours.

Quotes about business growth and change

“Becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.” – Michelle Obama, from Becoming

“Play by the rules, but be ferocious.” – Phil Knight, founder, Nike

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.” – Sigmund Freud, neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis

“Motivation is the catalyzing ingredient for every successful innovation.” – Clayton Christensen, economist and Harvard professor

“Every problem is a gift — without problems we would not grow.” – Tony Robbins, motivational speaker and writer

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” – John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. president

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. John F. Kennedy

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill, author

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.” – Andy Rooney, broadcast journalist

“Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom.” – William George Jordan, writer/editor

“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer/statesman

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin, writer

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot, author

“The only way you are going to have success is to have lots of failures first.” – Sergey Brin, co-founder, Google

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” – Dhirubhai Ambani, founder, Reliance Industries

“I do not know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it.” – Susan Butcher, sled dog racer

I do not know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it. Susan Butcher

“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.” – Thomas Watson, Sr., former chairman and CEO, IBM

“It’s very easy to be different but very difficult to be better.” – Jonathan Ive, former chief design officer, Apple

“Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, whether it’s leaving home, whether it’s getting married, or whether it’s flying in space.” – Chris Hadfield, astronaut

“Happy employees lead to happy customers, which leads to more profits.” – Vaughn Aust, COO, Gemini

Happy employees lead to happy customers, which leads to more profits. Vaughn Aust

“Employees want to feel inspired by their leaders…hire individuals who will lead by example.” – Jody Kohner, EVP global enablement, Salesforce

“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.” – William Durant, co-founder, General Motors

“Many companies get trapped by the paradox of hitting numbers ‘now’ versus improving sales for future quarters or years ahead.” – Tiffani Bova , growth and innovation evangelist, Salesforce

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu, Chinese Taoist philosopher

Quotes about business transformation

“[Businesses] rarely come up for air to re-evaluate how they are selling. This means that current sales practices, process, and organizational structure may in fact be hindering their growth more than any external factor they believe they are facing.” – Tiffani Bova, growth and innovation evangelist, Salesforce

“Consumers now expect to be able to get things, talk to someone, and do what they want at any time. That’s led to a divide. Some companies and products provide such a perfect, seamless experience that it has raised the bar. In fact, it’s so easy and seamless that we kind of forget to be impressed. But what they’re doing is making the ones that don’t deliver that kind of great experience all the more obvious.” — Susan Weinschenk, chief behavioral scientist and CEO, The Team W

“Customer experience professionals love to think about their customer journey maps, but these can be very rigid. How many consumers follow the same exact path to get to their outcome? Very few. I believe consumer experiences need to be far more dynamic than they are today — not just personalized, which we’ve been talking about for a few years. After all, companies can leverage data about customers in the moment — what they did in the last 24 minutes or hours, not in the last 24 days.” — Tom Puthiyamadam, transformation consulting leader, PwC [ read the full interview ]

“We’ve been talking about the importance of ‘ customer-centricity ’ for some time. But until now retailers have lacked both the technology and the mandate to connect marketing, sales, service, and commerce systems to enable a 360-degree view of the customer. Now that relevant and personalized engagement has emerged as a key differentiator, retailers will finally make the investments to deliver on the promise of putting the customer at the center of everything they do.” — Rob Garf, vice president and general manager, retail, Salesforce

“Companies that invest more in digital transformation actually outperform their peers over time. These companies are more prepared for disruption, better able to monetize new digital channels, and better able to build a bigger user base. What’s more, this phenomenon exists regardless of industry.” — Geoff Cubitt, CEO and founder, Cardinal Griffin, LLC

Companies that invest more in digital transformation actually outperform their peers over time. Geoff Cubitt

“Data itself is not enough to create personalized experiences. Artificial intelligence is required to turn a comprehensive data trove into insights that can anticipate customers’ needs and act as their digital assistant. Much like his or her pre-industrial counterpart, a B2I (business-to-individual) virtual tailor, for example, would know each individual’s measurements and tastes in fabrics, styles, and other variables, and could thus make highly personalized recommendations.” — Peter Schwartz, senior vice president, strategic planning, Salesforce [ read the full article ]

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Quotes about the artificial intelligence impact on business growth.

“Accenture forecasts that AI could double the economic growth rates of 12 major countries by 2035. These gains will come from computers doing what they have always been good at — freeing us to make better use of our time. For instance, AI makes it possible to automate routine tasks such as responding to simple customer questions. It can also be used to spot changes in customer preferences, identify visual problems in manufacturing, further automate agriculture, identify fraud, and better inform business decision-making.” — Richard Socher, CEO, You.com [ read the full article ]

“AI is about more than replacing each worker with a robot. It will involve the disruption and reshaping of whole industries. Business models will evolve to be quite transparent. In a world of AI, consumers will have high access to information, perhaps using their digital assistant to find the best price or analyze which product has received the best reviews. It will no longer be possible to use information asymmetry to charge people a disproportionate amount.” — Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, chairman and CEO, Sinovation Ventures 

“Imagine a customer walking up to a supermarket shelf and holding his or her smartphone up against different bags of potato chips. Using image processing, language processing, and analytics, AI-enabled systems can help that customer check which brand is best for their low-sodium diet, or whatever their taste profile might be.” — Glen Hartman, president and co-founder, Accenture Interactive [ read the full interview ]

“You don’t need to know how the technology of a microwave works to use it — it is simply a tool. We’re now entering the same phase with AI, thanks to the influx of no-code, point-and-click tools. AI will become a widely used utility by everyone, regardless of technical background. As a result, most of the AI applications in the coming years will be built by people with little or no AI training.” — Vitaly Gordon, co-founder and CEO, Faros AI 

AI will become a widely used utility by everyone, regardless of technical background. Vitaly Gordon 

“Companies use technologies such as deep learning to help them feed their computer networks vast quantities of information so they recognize patterns more quickly. But for all their enormous potential, current success is based on fitting to patterns of historical training data. There’s still much work to do to train models how to reason. They can only be trained to find patterns in historical data. The problem is this training data isn’t neutral — it can easily reflect the biases of the people who put it together. It can encode trends and patterns that reflect and perpetuate prejudice and harmful stereotypes.” — Timnit Gebru, founder and executive director, The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), [ read the full interview ]

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Quotes about growing workplace trends.

“Workers will need different skills to thrive in the workplace of the future. We’ll see a growing demand for advanced technological skills such as programming. Social, emotional, and higher cognitive skills — such as creativity, critical thinking, and complex information processing — will also be in demand. Growing occupations, meanwhile, will include those with difficult-to-automate activities, such as managers and doctors, as well as care workers and teachers. Training and retraining mid-career workers and new generations for the coming challenges will be another imperative.” — James Manyika, senior vice president, Google-Alphabet [ read the full interview ]

“In 1950, only 55% of the working-age population in the U.S. was employed. By 2015, that percentage had risen to 60% — representing a net increase of about 100 million jobs — after many potentially job-killing technologies had been introduced. These included shipping cranes, ATMs, and personal computer spreadsheets. The same could well be true of [AI], especially if we put into place the innovations in education that could help people adapt.” — Peter Schwartz, senior vice president, strategic planning, Salesforce [ read the full article ]

“AI is about enabling machines to augment humans — in other words, to complement human skills — rather than merely replace them. In most cases, AI’s skills are different to a human’s, so we are moving towards a symbiosis of the two.” — Robin Bordoli, partner, Authentic Ventures

“Beyond doing the right thing for their workers, companies have another reason to lean into workforce development initiatives: their own competitiveness. As demand for skills for the intelligent era heat up, so too will a war for talent.” — Sarah Franklin, CMO, Salesforce

“The shift to lifelong learning is absolutely essential. As the pace of technological change quickens, we need to be sure that employees are keeping up with the right skills to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution . That applies to both technical and soft skills. There will be changes in both areas.” — Zvika Krieger, technology advisor and former director of responsible innovation at Facebook 

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Nick Johnson works in partnership with subject matter experts within and beyond Salesforce to create original, insightful content for C-suite executives on the future of business. A published author (The Future of Marketing, Pearson), Johnson previously ran The Incite Group, and has his MBA from the ... Read More University of California, Berkeley.

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planning quotes

Inspiring Planning Quotes | Plan Your Project’s Success

I’ve always believed that a well-planned journey leads to a memorable destination. Whether it’s a road trip with friends or a strategic business decision, planning is the key to success. This belief isn’t just mine, though. Throughout history, countless thinkers, leaders, and innovators have highlighted the importance of planning through their insightful quotes.

In this article, I’ll share some of my favorite Planning quotes that have not only inspired me but have also guided many on their path to success. These powerful words encapsulate the essence of planning, its significance, and how it can make a difference in our lives. So, if you’re looking for a dose of motivation or a fresh perspective on planning, you’re in the right place. Let’s embark on this journey together, exploring the wisdom encapsulated in these quotes.

Table of Contents

The Power of Planning Quotes

The Power of Planning Quotes

Planning quotes possess potent influence and guide countless people towards success. Their power lies not only in the inspiring thoughts they encapsulate but also in the motivating force they exert on our actions. Here, I’ll delve into the transformative impact of planning quotes on action and their relevance in daily life.

Inspiring Action Through Words

  • Motivating Purpose : Planning quotes can spark action, such as Thomas Edison’s, “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” This quotation counsels the value of preparation and strategic thinking, rousing us to take control of our prospects.
  • Focus on Goals : They can also drive us to focus on our goals. For instance, Benjamin Franklin’s “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” emphasizes the crucial role planning plays in achieving success.
  • Facilitating Change : Quotes about planning also equip us with the impetus for change. An example is, “Make a work plan for today and every day, then work your plan,” by Margaret Thatcher. This quote encourages us to constantly shape and follow our plans for continuous progress.
  • Organization : Planning quotes have pragmatic benefits in our daily life. Quotes such as, “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort,” by Paul J. Meyer, helps us understand the importance of planning in organizing our tasks.
  • Personal Development : They also help to foster personal growth. Alan Lakein’s “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now,” encourages us to think ahead and take proactive measures for our development.
  • Navigating Challenges : Quotes can provide guiding lean principles for facing life’s challenges. As Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable,” underlining the constant need for flexibility and planning, regardless of the accuracy of original plans.

How Planning Quotes Can Shape Mindsets

How Planning Quotes Can Shape Mindsets

To comprehend the power of words, consider planning quotes. These nuggets of wisdom shift perceptions and guide one’s mental framework to align with future targets, potentially paving the way for long-term growth and prosperity. As the previously discussed points hint, planning quotes contribute to personal development and can greatly affect business strategies.

The Role in Personal Development

Delving into the realm of personal development, planning quotes play an instrumental role. Comprehending and applying the powerful messages they carry shapes one’s mindset, fostering growth and resilience. Let’s take Anthony Robbins’ quote for instance. He once said, “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action.”

This simple sentence acts as a catalyst, propelling the reader towards taking initiative rather than remaining in indecisiveness. It emphasizes the importance of moving into action, thereby nurturing the spirit of decisiveness—a critical characteristic for personal growth and development. Such compelling quotes, when reflected upon, ignite the spark of self-improvement, help overcome procrastination, and encourage a growth-oriented mindset.

Influencing Business Strategies

Planning quotes can also hold considerable sway over business strategies. They provide brief yet thought-provoking insights that serve as guiding principles for corporate decision making. A well-timed quote can inspire innovative ideas, advocate risk-taking, and enhance problem-solving skills. For instance, consider the wise words of Alan Lakein, “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”

This quote illuminates the importance of forward-thinking and proactive behavior in business contexts. It conveys that good planning enables one to anticipate future challenges and act preemptively. Businesses that internalize this message cultivate success by creating robust strategies, powered by the potential of well-informed foresight. Hence, planning quotes, in essence, shape strategic thought processes, driving business success.

Notable Figures and Their Thoughts on Planning

Notable Figures and Their Thoughts on Planning

As we delve further into the power of planning quotes, let’s explore how notable figures – ranging from historical leaders to modern thought leaders and entrepreneurs – have encapsulated their ideas on planning. These adept leaders, with a variety of backgrounds, have provided profound insights into the significance of planning.

Historical Leaders on Planning

Historical leaders – from military strategists such as Sun Tzu, to political figures as diverse as Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill – have emphasized the power of planning in their quotes.

Sun Tzu, in his seminal work “The Art of War”, expressed that, “Every battle is won before it’s even fought.” Emphasizing planning’s role in winning battles, the quote reveals that strategizing ensures victories are secured long before the actual fight.

Likewise, President Abraham Lincoln held planning in high regard, and famously said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” The essence of his quote articulates the role effective preparation and planning play in achieving efficient results.

Modern Thought Leaders and Entrepreneurs

Venturing into the realm of modern thought leaders and entrepreneurs, planning continues to hold substantial sway. Elon Musk, the visionary behind Tesla and SpaceX, asserted, “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.” Here, Musk emphasizes the role of strategic planning and continuous improvement in achieving greatness.

Equally impactful is Stephen Covey’s input, a self-help guru, who stressed, “Begin with the end in mind.” This quote accentuates the necessity to envisage a clear end goal as a part of your planning process.

These compelling quotes provide a glimpse into how the concept of planning has shaped and continues to shape successful individuals in diverse fields.

Planning Quotes in Literature and Pop Culture

Planning Quotes in Literature and Pop Culture

The gravitational force of planning quotes permeates not only the business world but also literature and our favorite moments in pop culture. Let’s examine how.

Literary References

In the realm of literature, renowned authors employed the wisdom of planning in their works. Consider F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, “The Great Gatsby,” where he asserted, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This quote underlines the necessity of planning for the future while acknowledging past mistakes.

Jane Austen, in “Pride and Prejudice,” stated, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” This project management example highlights Austen’s view of strategic planning as a crucial element of social dynamics.

Another noteworthy quote comes from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”, allowing us insights into the folly of aimless actions: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” It emphasizes the importance of goal mapping and thorough planning.

Quotes in Movies and TV Shows

Moving to the vibrant sphere of pop culture, several iconic movies and TV shows serve timely reminders of the power of planning through memorable quotes.

In the movie “The Dark Knight,” the character Joker quips, “Do I really look like a guy with a plan?” This rhetorical question emphasizes the chaotic outcomes of the lack of a well-defined plan, holding a mirror to the destructive potential of randomness.

On the small screen, the classic sit-com “Friends” gave us Ross’s unforgettable planning motto during the iconic “pivot” scene: “I’ve got a plan. And I’m not gonna let us screw it up. I don’t care how much crying or begging or pleading there is”. Ross’s fervor underlines the role of meticulous planning in achieving success, even in the most prosaic tasks.

In sum, from printed pages to moving pictures, the universality of planning quotes resonates deeply. Such quotes, with their innate wisdom, continue to motivate and inspire, echoing across various platforms and generations. They commodify the abstract concept of planning into digestible wisdom, fostering a deeper appreciation of prudent foresight in our personal and professional lives.

The Impact of Sharing Planning Quotes

The Impact of Sharing Planning Quotes

As we’ve navigated through the significance of planning quotes, their historical context, and their presence in literature and pop culture, we now move forward to explore their impact when shared, especially in social media platforms and educational environments.

Social Media and Quote Sharing

In the immersive world of social media, sharing quotes, particularly planning quotes, contributes to a culture of motivation and inspiration. Users often share planning quotes to express their thoughts, their intents, and, at times, even their life ethos. For instance, Elon Musk’s quote “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you (you can) still do it,” serves as a rallying cry for those facing challenging tasks.

Planning quotes pique the interest of many due to their universality and applicability. They resonate with diverse audiences, traversing boundaries of age, profession, and personal beliefs. I’ve frequently seen a quote from military tactician Sun Tzu adorning professional profiles: “The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought.” Consequently, social media’s viral nature empowers these quotes, amplifying their reach and impact.

Educational Environments

Educational environments form another sphere influenced profoundly by planning quotes. They foster an enriching environment for learning and growth. For example, Abraham Lincoln’s well-known quote, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe,” serves as a potent reminder of the value of preparation and planning in these settings.

In classrooms, from academia to professional training courses, educators often incorporate planning quotes into lessons and presentations. They articulate critical messages, shape mindsets, and can even catalyze paradigm shifts. A popular quote by Benjamin Franklin often used in project management phases lectures is “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,” emphasizing the paramount importance of planning in achieving objectives.

Both these examples prove that the sharing of planning quotes, whether through social media or in educational settings, indeed has notable effects, stimulating thought processes, instilling motivation, and fostering a mindful approach to personal and professional pursuits.

I’ve walked you through the dynamic impact of planning quotes, their role in shaping success, and their influence on personal growth and business strategies. We’ve seen the profound insights of leaders past and present, and how their wisdom resonates with us today. We’ve also explored how these quotes permeate various aspects of our culture, from literature and pop culture to social media and education. It’s clear that planning quotes aren’t just words; they’re powerful tools that inspire, motivate, and guide us in our personal and professional journeys. So, whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a lifelong learner, or someone seeking personal growth, remember: planning quotes can be a beacon of inspiration in your journey. Let them guide you towards your goals, fuel your ambition, and help you plan for success.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. what role do planning quotes play.

Planning quotes inspire success, motivate intent, and aid in personal development. They shape mindsets, influence personal growth, and impact business strategies. They resonate across mediums and offer timeless wisdom, inspiring individuals in various personal and professional pursuits.

Q2. Who are some leaders referenced in planning quotes?

Historical leaders such as Sun Tzu and Abraham Lincoln, along with modern thought leaders like Elon Musk and Stephen Covey, are often used as sources for planning quotes that inspire and motivate.

Q3. What is the relevance of planning quotes in pop culture and social media?

Sharing planning quotes in pop culture and on social media platforms contributes to creating a culture of inspiration and motivation. For example, a quote from Elon Musk could spur innovation and ambition.

Q4. How are planning quotes used in educational settings?

In educational settings, planning quotes foster learning and growth. They serve as concise, thoughtful nuggets of wisdom. Quotes from Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, for instance, are often used to drive this home.

Q5. Why are planning quotes prevalent in literature?

Planning quotes are prevalent in literature as they encapsulate transformative life lessons and offer diverse perspectives on strategic thinking, making them a popular tool for conveying profound insights.

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277 Powerful Business Quotes (to Motivate & Inspire You)

quote about business planning

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure.” – Former IBM President Thomas J. Watson

One common trait of successful business owners is their love for learning. While some of us like learning the hard way, there are other options. One of those options is listening to the advice of those who came before us. That’s why we’ve gathered as many motivational business quotes to inspire you to keep moving forward.

If you’re looking for business quotes to inspire, look through our list and find one that resonates with you.

Small business quotes

“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.” – Steve Jobs

“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” – Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Meta

“The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.” – Benjamin Franklin

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity” ― Sun-Tzu, A Arte da Guerra

“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” – B. C. Forbes, Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Forbes magazine until his death in 1954.

“Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.” ― Bernard Branson

Maxwell Mooney, owner of Narrative Coffee cart told us:

“I view myself as here to support my staff.”

Watch our interview below to hear more input from him.

“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

 “You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” – Google cofounder Larry Page

“If you’re going to run a small business, you need to know what everyone is doing, be the first one in and the last one out, and work weekends.” – Glen Mazzara

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” – Peter F. Drucker, business writer and consultant

“For maximum attention, nothing beats a good mistake.” – Unknown

“There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” – Jason Fried, cofounder of 37signals , which created Ruby on Rails software language (used in every Shopify store).

“Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.” – Michael Arrington, TechCrunch founder and crypto VC

Inspirational business quotes

Walt Disney quote

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein

 “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does—that makes you a winner right there.” – Venus Williams

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller

“It always seems impossible, until it is done.” – Nelson Mandela

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney

“Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising.” – Jeff I. Richards, Associated Press Photographer and Professor of Advertising at Michigan State University. 

 “Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” – Jack Dorsey

“Always deliver more than expected.” – Google cofounder Larry Page

Support small business quotes

Melinda Lemay quote

While we always try to please our customers, most unhappy customers will often want something for free. Here are some positive business quotes you could use on signs to explain that refunds are not available in most solutions.

“Good things come to those who shop local.” – Melinda Lemay.

“There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness.” – Mahatma Gandhi.

“As consumers, we have so much power to change the world by just being careful in what we buy.” – Emma Watson, actress

“Behind every small business, there’s a story worth knowing.” – Paul Ryan, politician

“A big business starts small.” – Richard Branson

“When you support an independent business, you’re supporting a true reflection of the person or people behind it.” – Stella Ishii.

“Supporting another person’s success won’t ever dampen yours.” – Attributed to several great thinkers, including C.S. Lewis and Layla Fidel

“Most independent businesses are run by people—not by boards, not by stockholders, not by algorithms.” – Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur

“Independent business bring originality and variety in a world that’s becoming increasingly homogenized.” – Craig Costello

“Support each other. Why do you need a reason to do that besides the fact that it’s the right thing to do?” – Scarr and Los Franco.

Of course, you should give a refund if there’s a legitimate reason to provide a refund. Let’s look at some motivational quotes next.

Motivational business quotes

Robert Frost quote

No matter how well you run a business, we all have a bad day now and then. So we’ve provided some motivational business quotes to help inspire you when you struggle to get through your day.

“The only way around is through.” – Robert Frost

“Remain a lifelong student. Don’t lose that curiosity.” – Former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi

“Don’t complicate things, look for problems, and solve those problems with elegance and if you do that, pretty amazing things can happen in an individual’s life.” – Paul Akers, FastCap Founder and CEO. 

Check out our interview with him on how to start a successful business:

“It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” – Michael Dell, Founder of Dell computers

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” – Jack Welch

“Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them.” – Seth Godin, Former President of Direct marketing at Yahoo, tech entrepreneur, and author about marketing

“Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.” – Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos, Venture Capitalist, and the brain behind Downtown Project in Las Vegas. The changes he initiated in my hometown have been amazing! May he rest in peace.

Fergusons Downtown Big Rig Jig

“Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” – Golda Meir, Israel’s first and only woman to become Prime Minister

Did you find business motivational quotes to inspire you? If not, don’t worry. We have more motivational quotes from successful business owners.

More business motivational quotes

That right we’ve got more motivational quotes to help you become a prolific American business person. Keep reading to find one that inspires you.

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” – Motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison

“See things in the present, even if they are in the future.” – Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison

“For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.” – Zig Ziglar

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

“Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.” – Hype Machine founder Anthony Volodkin

 “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” – Robert Kiyosaki

“If you believe in yourself, you can do just about anything.” – Keith McCall, Founder and CEO of Pollen Systems

Check out our interview with him below:

“If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

“Where we fall are the stepping-stones for our journey.” – Lolly Daskal, founder of Lead From Within, and executive coach and leadership training firm

Want more business motivation quotes? We’re not done yet.

Other business quotes motivation

Albert Einstein quote

Every good business looks up to someone. These business motivational quotes come from authors, scientists, the co-founder of Apple, journalists, and venture capitalists. One of these business quotes is sure to inspire you.

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize Winner for his work on the Reverence for Life and contribution to ethics

“Days are expensive. When you spend a day you have one less day to spend. So make sure you spend each one wisely.” – Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins Mentor

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein

“A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader.” – Fred Wilson, Venture Capitalist

Learn about how to get venture capitalist funding below:

“Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.” – Zig Ziglar

“You become what you think about.” – Napoleon Hill, Author of Think and Grow Rich . Get his books on Amazon.

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“If everything is a priority, nothing is.” – Yuri van der Sluis, Sales Improvement Consultant

“It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” – Tom Brokaw, Journalist

“Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” – Lisa Stone, BrainTrust Founders Studio founder

I’m done with business motivational quotes for a minute, but I found these to be some of the most powerful business quotes while I searched for words of wisdom to inspire you.

Powerful business quotes

Elon Musk quote

These business quotes are short—but sweet. They are powerful and I might even say they are…

The Very Best Advice

“Play by the rules, but be ferocious.” – Phil Knight

“The first one gets the oyster, the second gets the shell.” – Andrew Carnegie

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Civil rights activist Maya Angelou

“Tenacity of purpose is supreme.” – Aliko Dangote, Richest Person in Africa, owns a conglomerate called Dangote Group

“Details create the big picture.” – Sanford I. Weill, former CEO of Citigroup

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” – Thomas Edison

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” – Henry Ford

“Great companies are built on great products.” – Elon Musk

“Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.” – Tony Hsieh

“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” – Peter Drucker

Did one of those inspire you to quit talking and begin again?

If not, keep reading because we have plenty more to come.

Hustle small business quotes

Oprah Winfrey quote

The business world requires hustle.

You can rock anything you decide to conquer, but sometimes there are so many opportunities that you can’t keep up. That’s why you have to know how to hustle and when to fold. All of these discuss ways to get your hustle on.

“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson

“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” – Babe Ruth

“Take risks. Failure is a stepping stone to success.” – Arianna Huffington, co-founder of Huffington Post

“When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are.” – Oprah Winfrey

“If you want to start your own business without money, the easiest way is to sell your time.” – Mike Andes, Owner of Augusta Lawn. 

“Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.” – Henry Ford

“Talent can be hired, money has to be earned. ” – Vishnu, Hindu God of Preservation

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” – LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” – Scott Belsky, Cofounder of Behance, Inc

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” – Jeff Bezos

I hope this doesn’t create the most unhappy customers…

We’ve got more business motivation quotes for you. Keep reading these could be inspirational business quotes, too.

Business motivation quotes

Robert Schuller quote

“There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.” – Seth Godin

 “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn, philosopher

“Make it about profit and lose. The real benefits an organization will see when they eliminate waste are happier customers and employees. You’ll also be putting out fewer fires because your organization runs more smoothly.” – Paul Akers

“Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure, it just means you haven’t succeeded yet. ” – Robert H. Schuller, motivational speaker

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie, wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People

 “Today’s Accomplishments Were Yesterday’s Impossibilities.” – Robert H. Schuller, motivational speaker

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” – Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Success is the sum of small efforts—repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier, author

If the business motivational quotes didn’t inspire you, maybe some funny quotes for business will do the trick.

Funny quotes for business

Lily Tomlin quote

Laughter is the best medicine. Of course business quotes aren’t normally funny, but these are some humorous takes on running a good business.

“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” – G.K. Chesterton, writer of contrarian stories

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon

“The road to success is always under construction.” – Comedian Lily Tomlin

“Longevity is a fleeting moment that lasts forever.” – Vidal Sassoon

“Carpe per diem—seize the check.” – Robin Williams

“A vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.” – AOL cofounder Steve Case

“My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people’s.” – Oscar Wilde

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” – Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. Army General during the Gulf War

“Illegitimi non carborundum” – Believed to have originated from the British military in WWII with some Latin concepts, this loosely translates to, “Don’t let people grind you down.”

 “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley

Next, we’ll provide some of the best business quotes about success.

Success quotes for business

Zig Ziglar quote

Quotes for business owners are all about success, so we’ve provided some success quotes.

“You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” – Warren Buffett

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

“Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.” – Warren Bennis, University of Southern California Leadership Institute Founding Chairman

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six 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.” – Six-Time NBA Champion Michael Jordan

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.” – Zig Ziglar

“To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.” – John H. Patterson, who bought the patents and business National Cash Register in 1884 and turned it into a market leader through sales scripts and other processes. It is still the world’s largest POS provider .

“Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad author and brand creator

“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” – Sir Colin R. Davis, former conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

“Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton Hotels.

So many success quotes for business owners are from men, but we’ve made it a point to separate some of the best business quotes from women, too.

Business woman quotes

Sheryl Sandberg quote

We’ve gathered some of the most inspirational business quotes from successful business women and other female professionals. We hope you find these as inspirational as we do.

The first millionaire businesswoman, Madam C.J. Walker once said:

“Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.”

“I don’t know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it.” – Susan Butcher, second woman to win the Iditarod (a snow dog race across Alaska)

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller

“Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel

“Dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change.” – Shonda Rhimes, executive producer and writer of Grey’s Anatomy

Sales strategist Jill Konrath said:

“I got lucky because I never gave up the search. Are you quitting too soon? Or are you willing to pursue luck with a vengeance too?”

“If you push through that feeling of being scared, that feeling of taking risk, really amazing things can happen.” – Marissa Mayer, Sunshine Contacts cofounder and former Yahoo CEO

“Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.” – Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women

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Business insurance quotes

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Keep reading for more motivational quotes.

Business inspirational quotes

Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe quote

Get motivated with more inspirational quotes today.

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair, Founder of The Omega Vector .

“All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.” – Reid Hoffman

“Do what you love and success will follow. Passion is the fuel behind a successful career.” – Meg Whitman, Former CEO of HP and Quibi

“Live each day as if your life had just begun.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – Attributed to several influential people, including C.S. Lewis

“If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run, then walk. And, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Strength shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Positive business quotes

Babe Ruth quote

“The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” – Barack Obama

“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” – Tony Robbins

“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” – Stephen Hawking

 “Lean forward into your life. Begin each day as if it were on purpose.” – Mary Anne Radmacher, author

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Michael Jordan, former professional basketball player

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

Quotes about business

“Happy employees are productive employees. The whole point of kaizen is to get rid of the things that bug you. If you get rid of them, you make all our lives easier, and we can work better as a team.” – Paul Akers Owner of Fast Cap. 

Watch our interview with him below:

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” – Biz Stone, Twitter cofounder and tech investor

 “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” – Paul Rand, Designer of IBM and UPS logo .

“In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” – Warren Buffett

“When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say, ‘Wow, that was an adventure.’” – Github cofounder Tom Preston-Werner

“While the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.” – Andrew Carnegie

“Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll, author

 “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson

“It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.” – Jason Cohen, producer and director

“If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.” – Elon Musk

Funny cleaning quotes for business

Margaret Culkin Banning quote

“We are used to cleaning the outside house, but the most important house to clean is yourself—your own house—which we never do.” – Marina Abramovic

“Housekeeping is like being caught in a revolving door.” – Marcelene Cox

“We dream of having a clean house—but who dreams of actually doing the cleaning?” – Marcus Buckingham

“Nothing inspires cleanliness more than an unexpected guest.” – Radhika Mundra

“I make no secret of the fact that I would rather lie on a sofa than sweep beneath it.” – Shirley Conran

“Cleaning up with children around is like shoveling during a blizzard.” – Margaret Culkin Banning

“You have got to clean your own house first before you tell other people that they aren’t doing it right.” – Dan Webster

“Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.” – Mario Buatta

“Housework is what a woman does that nobody notices unless she hasn’t done it.” – Evan Esar

“Everybody wants to save the earth; no one wants to help mom do the dishes.” – P.J. O’Rourke

“Housework is like cleaning fish. No matter how often you do it, it still stinks.” – Thelma Harper

“You don’t get anything clean without getting something else dirty.” – Cecil Baxter

Business quotes about growth

Chris Dixon quote

“Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow.” – Anthony Robbins

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers, Famous Actor

 “Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.” – Chris Dixon, Angel Investor

“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.” – SPANX founder Sara Blakely

“If you want to grow you have to do something different from the majority of people.” – multinational steel company ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal

“Find local brands and partner with them to grow your network. By partnering with them, you’ll be able to expand your network. You’ll promote them, they’ll promote you, everyone grows. Then you can reach out to bigger partners once you’ve grown. This strategy got me to where Jay Z wore one of my shirts at a Nets game. That was huge for me!” – Lee Smith, Urbanity 

Check out our interview with him:

“The continuation of success depends on greediness, patience, and dissatisfaction.” – Dhirendra Pandey

 “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch

“Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.” – Tim O’Reilly

 “Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” – Oprah Winfrey

Communication quotes in business

Peter Drucker quote

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

“I have lots of things going on in my head, but I’m not always good about sharing it, so I am working on that. ” – Maxwell Mooney

 “Every time we launch a feature, people yell at us.” – deviantART cofounder Angelo Sotira

“Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.” – Tony Hsieh

“Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.” – Orson Scott Card

“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.” – Jim Rohn

“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” – Elon Musk

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time—a tremendous whack.” – WInston Churchill

“Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.” – Lao Tzu

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” – Peter Drucker

Quotes for business

Ben Silbermann quote

Former Pepsi CEO Indray Nooyi once said:

 “It’s important that leaders are consistent. You can change your mind, but change your mind against a consistent framework.”

“Dedicate yourself to a core set of values. Without them, you will never be able to find personal fulfillment, and you will never be able to lead effectively.” – Former AmEx Ceo Kenneth Chenault

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

“A business becomes successful when it becomes mutually beneficial for you and your customers.” – Pooja Agnihotri, 17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail author

“Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.” – Noah Everett, creator of TwitPic (software used to post pictures to Twitter before they were incorporated in Twitter.)

 “Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the upmarket.” – Jason Calacanis, Tech VC

“Anything that is measured and watched, improves.” – Bob Parsons

“Don’t over-analyze everything.” – Pinterest Founder Ben Silbermann

“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.” – Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas

“Nothing works better than just improving your product.” – Stack Overflow cofounder Joel Spolsky

Best business quotes

Steve Jobs quote

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!” – Henry Ford

“Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.” – Joel Spolsky, Trello CEO

“Education costs money. But then so does ignorance.” – Sir Claus Moser, British statistician

Business owner quotes

Rob Kalin quote

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” – Henry Ford

“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

“Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea.” – Zynga CEO Mark Pincus

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” – Steve Jobs

“The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.” – Etsy founder Rob Kalin

“I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” – Threadless CEO Jake Nickell

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. ” – Bill Gates

Women in business quotes

Maya Angelou quote

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin talking about growth

“I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.” – Oprah Winfrey

 “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb, Author

“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estée Lauder

“Someday is not a day of the week.” – Janet Dailey, novelist

“There is simply no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success.” – Mylan CEO Heather Bresch

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou

“I got lucky because I never gave up the search. Are you quitting too soon? Or, are you willing to pursue luck with a vengeance?” – Jill Konrath

“So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.” – Flickr cofounder Caterina Fake

Mindset business quotes

Benjamin Franklin quote

“Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, whether it’s leaving home, whether it’s getting married, or whether it’s flying into space.” – Chris Hadfield, Former Commander of the International Space Station

“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.” – William Durant

“Don’t worry about failure. You only have to be right once.” – CEO and cofounder of Dropbox, Drew Houston

“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.” – Thomas A. Edison

“Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.” – Designer Jeffrey Zeldman

 “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” – Arnold H. Glasow, comic author

“The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.” – IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad

“Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.” – Lakshmi Mittal

“If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.” – About.me cofounder Ryan Freitas

 “Diligence is the mother of good luck.” – Benjamin Franklin

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” – Playwright and lyricist Paulo Coelho

Business relationships quotes

 “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

 “Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can’t miss.” – Lee Iacocca, former Ford and Chrysler CEO best known for development of the Ford Mustang

“Word of mouth is the best medium of all.” – William Bernbach, cofounder of international marketing firm Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). The firm is best known for the Mikey Life Commercials.

 “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” – Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn

“An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it.” – Dee Hock, bank owner who through a series of fortunate events accidentally created Visa credit systems

“The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” – Reid Hoffman

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

“Individually we are one drop, but together we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” – Booker T. Washington

More quotes about business relationships

Bill gates quote

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates

“All lasting business is built on friendship.” – Alfred A. Montapert, Author

“A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” – Mary Kay Ash, Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

“Get a mentor in the applicable field if you’re at all unsure of what you’re looking for.” – Kyle Bragger , software engineer and entrepreneur

“If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” – Jeff Bezos

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” – Sir Isaac Newton

“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” – Mother Teresa

“One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” – Indira Gandhi

Additional quotes on business relationships

Ruth Bader Ginsburg quote

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.” – W. Edwards Deming, Project Management expert best known for Plan-Do-Check-Act or PDCA

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” – Bill Gates

We’re all water from different rivers, that’s why it’s so easy to meet; we’re all water in this vast, vast ocean, someday we’ll evaporate together.” – Yoko Ono

“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Good quotes about business

Sean Rad quote

“Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” – Wayne Huizenga, Founder of Waste Management Inc. and AutoNation, plus owner of multiple sports teams

“Stay self-funded as long as possible.” – Garrett Camp, cofounder of Uber

“You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up, but you don’t give up.” – Chuck Yeager, test pilot

“If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” – Mark Zuckerberg

“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” – Daniel Pink, author

“Data beats emotions.” – Tinder Founder Sean Rad

“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” – Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

“I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.” – Bill Gates

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb

Relationship business quotes

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to.” – Sir Richard Branson, Virgin 

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” – Peter Drucker

 “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar

“If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.” – AdMob cofounder Omar Hamoui

Friends who don’t support your business quotes

Misty Copeland quote

Small business owners sometimes want quotes about supporting a friend’s business. Here are some of the best ones.

“No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.” – P.T. Barnum

“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” – Oprah 

“Support your friend’s businesses and progressions in the same way you support celebrities you don’t know.” – Sandip Kumar

“You want to know who your real friends are? Start your own business and ask for their support.” – Steve Jobs

“You can’t be your own cheerleader all of the time. Be there to support your friends and let them support you.” – Rachel Sklar

“Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.” – Misty Copeland

“People who plead with you for favours may eventually prove to be great flatterers. Your friends are only those who all the time cheerfully support your heart’s aspiration-flames.” – Sri Chinmoy

“I just want to thank everyone for their support. Sometimes friends need the help of their friends to get by.” – Richie Sambora

When you support a small business quotes

“When you buy something made by a person, there is something special there, and you feel it. The consciousness with which a thing is made is often more important than the thing itself.” – J. Donald Walters

“Every time you spend money you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.” – Anna Lappé

“Small businesses provide the feeling that a real person is behind it all, someone who cares more about giving us a quality product or service, over just taking our hard-earned dollars.” – Annia Bukhman

“The ultimate goal of business is not to make a profit. Profit is just the means. The goal is general welfare.” – Adam Smith, economist

“We need to keep our small businesses healthy in order to keep our economy strong.” – Keith Haynes

Inspirational quotes for work

George Bernard Shaw quote

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” – Charles Darwin

“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.” – Harold S. Geneen, Former CEO of ITT Inc .

“The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either.” – Tim Ferriss

 “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw, playwright

“We may encounter many defeats but We must not be defeated.” – Maya Angelou

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale

Entrepreneur quotes

Mark Cuban quote

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” – Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance Industries , which is an Indian conglomerate similar to Berkshire Hathaway.

“An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create.” – David Karp, Founder of Tumblr.

“No more romanticizing about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a struggle to save your company’s—and your own skin—every day of the week.” – Spencer Fry, Founder of Podia

“Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” – Mark Cuban

When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” – Omniture CEO Josh James

You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.” – HARO founder Peter Shankman

“Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.” – Roy T. Bennett

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison

“Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely on my tenacity.” – Louis Pasteur

Business cards with Quotes

Quotes can be a great way to get attention. Consider putting motivational quotes on two-sided business cards to make them standout. Both Moo and VistaPrint make it easy to design a business card with two sides. VistaPrint is more affordable, while Moo is more focused on creative and artistic designs. 

Personally, I’d use Moo if you are putting business inspirational quotes on them.

Business quotes of the day

We hope you found some inspirational quotes that helped you. Would you like us to start sharing business motivational quotes each day? How will you share them? Let us know below in the comments.

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Motivational And Inspirational Quotes

90 Planning Quotes To Give Direction To Your Plans!

Ananya Bhatt

  • June 8, 2024
  • Inspirational Quotes

Need some motivation to plan your life and way to success? I have rounded up the best collection of planning quotes, sayings, and captions to inspire you to make your road map on your way to a successful career.

Planning provides direction for action. By stating in advance the plan of action and how work is to be done, proper planning ensures that goals and objectives are clearly defined and achieved in time.

Importance of Planning?

Planning is ascertaining prior to what to do and how to do it.

Planning gives direction to your ideas and actions. Preparation of a plan and making a strategy beforehand help you increase efficiency and assess the risks.

Ascertaining your goals, managing time, developing strategies, and outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish the goals will help you be on track toward your goals.

Also See: Goal Setting Quotes

Planning is very significant in work, career, organization management, and every aspect of life. It holds great importance in the life of students, entrepreneurs, and businesses.

An insightful quote by Benjamin Franklin, states “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

These inspirational quotes about planning will encourage you to take charge of your life and be focussed, determined and consistent in your actions.

Also, check our posts on  action quotes  and  ideas quotes  to inspire you to put these business challenges into perspective.

Top 10 Quotes About Planning

  • “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
  • “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  • “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.” – Winston Churchill
  • “A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” – Confucius
  • “Make time for planning: Wars are won in the general’s tent.” – Stephen R. Covey
  • “Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident.” – Chuck Knox
  • “Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.” – Sun Tzu
  • “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” – Thomas Edison
  • “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
  • “Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even should they rarely stick to their plan.” – Winston Churchill

Best Planning Quotes To Take Control of Life

Planning your day, month, and year will always give you a clear picture of what you want in your life. It helps you with time management and lays out a clear blueprint of your ideas and actions that needs to be taken.

You will find yourself focusing better on your goals and optimizing the results by following the precise direction toward success .

  • “Keep calm and plan on.” – Unknown
  • “Plans are things that change.” – Fujio Cho

quotes on planning

  • “The intelligent have plans; the wise have principles.” – Raheel Farooq

quotes about plans

  • “Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.” – Donald Rumsfeld
  • “Don’t wait until you’re in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan.” – Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil)
  • “As in all successful ventures, the foundation of a good retirement is planning.” – Earl Nightingale
  • “The sooner you start planning your life, the sooner you will live the life you dream of.” – Hans Glint
  • “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” – Peter Drucker
  • “Plans are the essential means by which we chart a course for our collective future.” – Elizabeth Warren
  • “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” – Alan Lakein
  • “There is a time to plan, a time to act, and a time to rest; it is wise to know which is which.” – Emily Rodda
  • “There is no substitute for work. Worthwhile results come from hard work and careful planning.” – John Wooden
  • “If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.” – Edward Everett Hale
  • “Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy!” – Brian Tracy
  • “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.” – Abraham Maslow
  • “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem
  • “Once you’re more aware of people’s needs, you can create action plans for others to follow. That way, you’re responsible for your own well-being, too.” – Deepak Chopra

Famous Quotes About Plans To Reach Your Goals

With proper planning, mental alertness, and preparation you can save time, and money and put your efforts into the right channels. Being ready for any situation and a testing time is what will separate you from failing.

Be inspired by these preparation quotes which emphasize the importance of planning and being prepared as you journey towards a successful life.

quotes about planning

  • “A goal without an action plan is a daydream.” – Nathaniel Branden

planning quotes

  • “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

quote about the best laid plans

  • “Goals without planning are like praying without believing.” – Michael Corthell
  • “Planning is a skill and an art which takes a lifetime to master.” – Paddick Van Zyl

plan future quotes

  • “If I can create the minimum of my plans and desires, there shall be no regrets.” – Bessie Coleman
  • “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett
  • “Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” – Fitzhugh Dodson
  • “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” – Tom Landry
  • “Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.” – Napoleon Hill
  • “Goal setting is the most important aspect of all improvement and personal development plans. It is the key to all fulfillment and achievement.” – Paul J. Meyer
  • “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” – Pablo Picasso
  • “Speaking from my personal experiences, setting goals, along with a detailed action plan, has actually changed my life from one cast in frustration to one of purpose.” – Catherine Pulsifer

Inspirational Quotes On Planning For Success

There are many planning tools and Apps available that help you to organize and plan your day and schedule. Journaling your goals and checklist always help to complete your tasks on time.

These meaningful quotes about future planning will encourage you to stick to your plans and complete them on schedule.

quotation about future plans

  • “Success is the residue of planning.” – Benjamin Franklin
  • “Success doesn’t just happen. It’s planned for.” – Unknown
  • “Rushing never saved the time that planning did.” – Ben Parris

best planning quotes

  • “Failing to plan is planning to fail. Hope is not a plan.” – Harrison Jones
  • “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John F. Kennedy
  • “The man who is prepared has his battle half fought.” – Miguel De Cervantes

planning quotes for business

  • “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” – Benjamin Franklin
  • “If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” – Claire Cook
  • “The backbone of success is hard work, determination, good planning, and perseverance.” – Mia Hamm
  • “A good plan implemented today is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow.” – George Patton
  • “To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” – Leonard Bernstein
  • “There are dreamers and there are planners; the planners make their dreams come true.” – Edwin Louis Cole
  • “With adequate planning, passion and perseverance, you can achieve the God-given goals.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
  • “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” – Jack Welch
  • “Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer

Lack Of Planning Quotes For Preparation

Lack of planning and preparation means a lack of direction. Be it a war strategy, business, career or life without a proper plan one is lost. Even the best of ideas needs plans to put things into action.

Thinking ahead is what will always give you edge over others and help you reach your goals.

  • “Chance favors the prepared mind.” – Louis Pasteur
  • “It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.” – Publilius Syrus
  • “The end we aim at must be known, before the way can be made.” – Jean Paul
  • “Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance.” – Stephen Keague
  • “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” – Henry David Thoreau
  • “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell
  • “Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine.” – Bob Carter
  • “Just because you make a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.” – Taylor Swift
  • “Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” – Robert H. Schuller
  • “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” – Peter F. Drucker
  • “Having a sense of purpose is having a sense of self. A course to plot is a destination to hope for.” – Bryant McGill
  • “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • “A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.” – Brian Tracy
  • “A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.” – H. Stanely Judd
  • “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized.” – Daniel Burnham
  • “The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.” – J.P. Morgan
  • “The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.” – Napoleon Hill
  • “The finest plans have always been spoiled by the littleness of them that should carry them out. Even emperors can’t do it all by themselves.” – Beretolt Brecht
  • “He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.” – Victor Hugo

Some of the most famous planning quotations by great leaders, philosophers, teachers, and strategists like Zig Ziglar, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and more give deep insight into the importance of strategic planning, implementation, and execution of ideas.

If you are inspired by these quotes, also check our article on  vision quotes  and  visualization quotes  to be open to new and fresh  ideas  and turn your dreams into reality.

Successful people focus all their energy on their goals irrespective of what’s happening around them. Be motivated by these effective  strategic planning tips  and get into Action now!

If you think you can relate to uplifting quotes feel free to spread your feelings and share them with friends and family on Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, and more.

If we have missed some quotes, share them with us in the comment section below and we shall be happy to add them to the list.

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Enterprise League

Business Insights

24 teamwork business quotes to brighten your day, august 27, 2024.

Teamwork business ideas that will boost your leadership to the next level

The foundation of every successful business is teamwork. Without it, even the most brilliant ideas and strategies can break. We can all agree that the lack of teamwork can profoundly lead to poor communication among the team members,  missed opportunities, and employee dissatisfaction.

On the other hand, as often emphasized in many teamwork business quotes, effective teamwork will maximize productivity in the workplace , and create a healthy work environment where employees enjoy, feel valued, and motivated.

24 powerful teamwork business quotes 

Here are some of the most popular teamwork business quotes:

  •  “Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.” – Virginia Burden
  • “There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.” – George Shinn
  • “The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.” – Iyanla Vanzant
  • “It’s better to be alone than in bad company.” – George Washington
  • “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson
  • “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life forever.” – Amy Poehler
  • “If you take out the team in teamwork, it’s just work. Now who wants that?” – Matthew Woodring Stover
  • “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry S Truman
  • “None of us is as smart as all of us.” – Ken Blanchard
  • “Every once in a while you hear an expert that says team chemistry is overrated. You just write that person off.” – Tony La Russa
  • “Create an environment where people can take risks. If everything has to be brilliant from the word go, you’re never gonna get off the ground.” – Paul Hewson
  • “If we were all determined to play the first violin, we should never have an ensemble. Therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.” – Robert Schumann
  • “People with different tribe, race, religion, and nationality can come together and accomplish something extraordinary. The key is the culture of unity and teamwork.” – Farshad Asl
  • “A successful team is a group of many hands but of one mind.” – Bill Bethel
  • “To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.” – Mike Krzyzewski
  • “Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” – Patrick Lencioni
  • “Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” – Mattie Stepanek
  • “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • “Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results.” – Ifeanyi Onuoha
  • “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie
  • “I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition.” – Jean-Francois Cope
  • “Good teams incorporate teamwork into their culture, creating the building blocks for success.” – Ted Sundquist
  • “It takes two flints to make a fire.” – Louisa May Alcott
  • “Teamwork is the quintessential contradiction of a society grounded in individual achievement.” – Marvin Weisbord

Remember, when individuals work together effectively, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Problems get solved faster, creative ideas surface and the business can respond cleverly to challenges and opportunities.

More must-read stories from Enterprise League:

  • Motivating business role models to inspire your entrepreneurial spirit.
  • The only list of novels for entrepreneurs that you will ever need.
  • Find out how practising gratitude can help your business grow .
  • Engaging online networking events that you should not miss.
  • Unique and profitable drone business ideas you should be aware of.

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quote about business planning

JD Vance's plan to lower childcare costs: have grandma and grandpa 'help a little bit more'

  • JD Vance said in recent remarks that older family members could step in to help with childcare.
  • It was part of his solution to address high childcare costs in the US.
  • Many older Americans are facing financial stress as they enter retirement.

Insider Today

JD Vance's plan to tackle high childcare costs may not take into account the looming retirement crisis facing millions of older Americans.

Vance, former President Donald Trump's running mate, addressed the issue of  high childcare costs in the US during a discussion with Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative organization Turning Point Action.

It's an issue many parents and families are contending with — a report from Bank of America earlier this year found that the average US couple with two children spent more than 30% of their combined wages on childcare costs.

When Kirk asked how Vance planned to address the issue, Vance suggested extended family members step in to relieve the financial burden on parents.

"One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for daycare is, maybe grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more, or maybe there's an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more," Vance told Kirk. "If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all the resources that we're spending on daycare."

Vance clarified his remarks in a post on X on Thursday following criticism of his original comments. He said in the post that "parents or grandparents might not be able to help, but they might want to, and for those families, federal policy should not be forcing one particular family model." He also emphasized that there should be more accessible educational routes for people to get into the childcare field.

Related stories

A Vance spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vance has previously spoken about how his mother-in-law took a yearlong sabbatical from her job as a biology professor in California to live with Vance and his wife to take care of their newborn son. Vance said their child was born just seven weeks before his wife, who's an attorney, began a judicial clerkship. In that conversation, Vance agreed with his interviewer that taking care of grandchildren is "the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female."

But for many, helping raise grandchildren or a niece or nephew just isn't feasible. For one thing, many older Americans are struggling with economic headwinds as they approach retirement, leaving many of them without the time and financial resources to help with childcare needs. The Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found that more than half of respondents over 65 had incomes of under $30,000 in 2022, leaving them to rely primarily on Social Security. For many Americans that Business Insider has spoken to , that's not enough — leading some to return to work.

At the same time, some millennial and Gen Z parents have left family "villages" behind for cheaper housing. The changing demographics of the labor market may also mean those family members are already booked. Linda, a 64-year-old retiree whose last name is known to Business Insider but is being withheld over privacy and professional concerns , is moving closer to one of her children — but not so she can help take care of anyone. Rather, her kids are part of her safety net; she knows that they'll look out for her.

"I fully see myself working for the next 20-some years — if I have that many left. Whatever years I have left, I will not be enjoying the retirement life in Florida," Linda said.

Lowering the cost of childcare

In his response to Kirk's question, Vance also argued that daycare would be more affordable if states didn't require that childcare workers get a "ridiculous certification that has nothing to do with taking care of kids." He added, "What we need to do is actually empower people to get trained in the skills that they need for the 21st century."

Not many states require childcare workers to have college degrees or certifications. But he may have been referring to a new law in the nation's capital that requires many childcare workers to have a two-year associate degree, among other training. Republicans in Congress have taken issue with DC's law and Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Mike Lee of Utah introduced a bill this summer that would repeal portions of it.

Costs aren't just prohibitive for parents; they're also sky-high for childcare providers, who operate on tiny margins and struggle to pay their workers a living wage. Burdensome government regulations, including land-use laws, are part of why childcare services are so costly to operate. But aside from stripping away some of these rules, childcare providers say they need the government to cut the cost of starting and operating a business.

"In our ideal world, it would cost nothing for providers to go into business — the background checks, the trainings, the licensing would all be cost-free," Laurie Furstenfeld, an attorney at the Child Care Law Center in Berkeley, California, told BI last year . "The cost of parents would be heavily subsidized or publicly funded."

Childcare centers already faced their own funding cliff when pandemic funds ran out, with several telling BI they couldn't hike tuitions even more but still needed to try to pay their teachers a living wage with fewer resources.

While Vance has expressed support for an expanded child tax credit , which would help parents pay for growing costs, he skipped a recent vote on a Senate bill to extend the credit. The bill failed after Republicans voted against it. Vance has condemned universal childcare, calling it a subsidy for the affluent and a "class war against normal people."

"We try to force or at least subsidize one model on every family in this country," Vance wrote in his clarification on X. "And if you open up kinship and other options for families, you will relieve some pressure on the daycare system in this country."

Are you dealing with tough decisions on childcare, eldercare, or retirement? Share your story with these reporters at [email protected] , [email protected] , and [email protected] .

Watch: Why childcare has become so unaffordable

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Trump suggests tariffs can help solve rising child care costs in a major economic speech

Former President Donald Trump Former tells business leaders he’ll lead a “national economic renaissance” by slashing regulations to boost energy production, drastically cutting government spending and reducing taxes for companies that produce in the US.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump answers questions during a campaign event at the Economic Club of New York, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump responds to questions during a campaign event at the Economic Club of New York, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign stop at the Throwback Brewery, in North Hampton, N.H., Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Economic Club of New York, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump suggested to business leaders Thursday that his plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports would solve seemingly unrelated challenges such as the rising cost of child care in the U.S.

The GOP presidential nominee promised to lead what he called a “national economic renaissance” by increasing tariffs, slashing regulations to boost energy production and drastically cutting government spending as well as corporate taxes for companies that produce in the U.S.

Trump was asked at his appearance before the Economic Club of New York about his plans to drive down child care costs to help more women join the workforce.

“Child care is child care, it’s something you have to have in this country. You have to have it,” he said. Then, he said his plans to tax imports from foreign nations at higher levels would “take care” of such problems.

Image

“We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s — relatively speaking — not very expensive, compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in,” he said.

Trump has embraced tariffs as he appeals to working-class voters who oppose free-trade deals and the outsourcing of factories and jobs. But in his speech Thursday and his economic plans as a whole, Trump has made a broader — to some, implausible — promise on tariffs: that they can raise trillions of dollars to fund his agenda without those costs being passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices.

His campaign attacks Democratic nominee Kamala Harris ’ proposals to increase corporate tax rates by saying they would ultimately be borne by workers in the form of fewer jobs and lower incomes. Yet taxes on foreign imports would have a similar effect with businesses and consumers having to absorb those costs in the form of higher prices.

The United States had $3.8 trillion worth of imports last year, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Trump in the past has talked about universal tariffs of at least 10%, if not higher, though he has not spelled out details about how these taxes would be implemented.

Kimberly Clausing, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has repeatedly warned in economic analyses about the likely damage to people’s finances from Trump’s tariffs. She noted that Trump wants tariffs to pay for everything, even though they can’t.

“I believe Trump has already spent this revenue, to pay for his tax cuts (which it doesn’t), or to perhaps end the income tax (which it cannot),” she said in an email. “It is unclear how there would be any revenues left over to fund child care.”

Trump was asked to talk about child care

Child care is unaffordable for many Americans and financially precarious for many day care operators and their employees. Democrats in Congress have long argued the child care industry is in crisis and requires a drastic increase in federal aid — and some Republicans have joined them. Trump pointed to his tariff ideas as well as efforts he announced to reduce what he described as “waste and fraud.”

“I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about,” he said.

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Trump’s running mate JD Vance was also asked about proposals to lower day care costs earlier this week, and he suggested making it easier for families to keep the kids at home with a grandparent or another relative.

“Make it so that, maybe like grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more,” he said. “If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all the resources that we are spending on day care.”

Vance also suggested training more people to work in day cares, and said some states required what he called “ridiculous certification that has nothing to do with taking care of kids.”

Trump laid out a series of economic proposals

In his speech, Trump said he would immediately issue “a national emergency declaration” to achieve a massive increase in the domestic energy supply and eliminate 10 current regulations for every new regulation the government adopts. He said Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has agreed to head a commission to perform a financial audit of the federal government that would save trillions of dollars.

“My plan will rapidly defeat inflation, quickly bring down prices and reignite explosive economic growth,” Trump claimed.

Trump has previously floated the idea of chopping the corporate tax rate to 15%, but on Thursday clarified that would be solely for companies that produce in the U.S. The corporate rate had been 35% when he became president in 2017, and he later signed a bill lowering it.

Harris calls for raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. Her policy proposals this week have been geared toward promoting more entrepreneurship, a bet that making it easier to start new companies will increase middle-class prosperity.

On Thursday, Trump attacked Harris’ proposals on banning price gouging and accused her of embracing Marxism and communism.

“She wants four more years to enforce the radical left agenda that poses a fundamental threat to the prosperity of every American family and America itself,” he said.

He also vowed to end what he called Harris’ “anti-energy crusade,” promising that energy prices would be cut in half, although energy prices are often driven by international fluctuations. He said an emergency declaration would help with rapid approvals for new drilling projects, pipelines, refineries, power plants and reactors, where local opposition is generally fierce.

And he also said he would ask Congress to pass legislation to ban the spending of taxpayer money on people who have entered the country illegally. He specifically said he would bar them from obtaining mortgages in California, targeting a bill passed in that state last week. Throughout his campaign, Trump has railed against the economic impact of the influx of migrants that have entered the country in recent years and their strain on some government services.

The Harris campaign issued a memo accusing Trump of wanting to hurt the middle class, arguing his ideas would expand the national debt and shrink economic growth and job creation.

“He wants our economy to serve billionaires and big corporations,” the campaign said in a statement.

Their dueling economic proposals are likely to be central to the upcoming presidential debate on Tuesday. Harris arrived Thursday in downtown Pittsburgh to devote the next several days to preparing for the debate. She intentionally picked a key part of the battleground state of Pennsylvania to hone her ideas ahead of their showdown.

Trump plans to rely heavily on tariffs

In June, the right-leaning Tax Foundation estimated that Trump’s proposed tariffs would amount to a $524 billion yearly tax hike that would shrink the economy and cost the equivalent of 684,000 jobs. After Trump floated tariffs as high as 20% in August, the Harris campaign seized on an analysis suggesting that figure would raise a typical family’s expenses by almost $4,000 annually.

The money raised by tariffs would not be enough to offset the cost of his various income tax cuts, including a plan to whittle the corporate rate to 15% from 21%. The Penn Wharton Budget Model put the price tag on that at $5.8 trillion over 10 years.

Economists have warned about Trump’s plans to impose tariffs that he says would return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Some have said such taxes on imports could worsen inflation, though he is vowing to cut down costs. Inflation peaked in 2022 at 9.1% but has since eased to 2.9% as of last month.

“Some might say it’s economic nationalism. I call it common sense. I call it America First,” he said on Thursday.

Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Boak reported from Pittsburgh. Associated Press writers Moriah Balingit and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

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Premier of South Australia

  • Message from the Premier

Draft master plan released for Penneshaw Harbour Precinct Kangaroo Island

A draft master plan to inform future infrastructure priorities and support growth for the penneshaw harbour precinct has now been released for consultation..

The harbour precinct serves as a hub of commercial, cultural and tourism activity. The draft Penneshaw Harbour Precinct Master Plan has been created to support economic growth in the Fleurieu Peninsula and on Kangaroo Island, and deliver improved essential transport services.

The objectives of the proposed master plan are to create an integrated harbour precinct, which facilitates safe movement between the town centre and the ferry terminal. It aims to reduce conflicts between cars, trucks and pedestrians and to better define parking and waiting zones for ferry traffic.

Place-making, safety, efficiency and accessibility are all embedded into the design to improve the experience for locals and visitors.

This work aligns with the Kangaroo Island Ports Upgrade project and Sealink ferry upgrade works.

Key elements and features of the draft master plan include:

  • Harbour access and amenity upgrades, with improved safety and amenity for all users
  • Reconfigured car park and drop off areas
  • Reconfigured heavy vehicle marshalling area to add more freight waiting capacity
  • Wayfinding and signage, encouraging visitors to explore Penneshaw
  • Open space upgrades to encourage increased use
  • An infinity walking loop concept to encourage walking by enhancing existing facilities and providing safer intersections and crossing points
  • Traffic calming with kerb build-outs and coloured surface treatments to highlight the potential vehicle and pedestrian conflict points
  • Potential tourism development opportunities.

The development of this draft plan aligns with the draft Cape Jervis Harbour Precinct Master Plan released in March 2024.

Feedback is now being sought on the draft Penneshaw Harbour Precinct Master Plan prior to it being finalised. To provide feedback and register for updates, please visit www.dit.sa.gov.au/r/harbourmasterplans2.

Feedback is open until Sunday, 6 October 2024. Members of the community are also invited to drop in to one of the community information sessions at the Penneshaw Town Hall to meet the project team, learn more about the Master Plan, ask questions and provide feedback. The sessions will be held on Friday 20 September 2024 between 4pm and 6pm and Saturday 21 September 2024 between 10am and 12pm.

Attributable to Tom Koutsantonis

The Penneshaw harbour precinct is an important gateway to one of South Australia’s most loved tourism destinations, Kangaroo Island. It also provides primary access from the island to the rest of South Australia for people, vehicles, and freight.

With up to 50,000 passengers and 10,000 vehicles using the harbour every month, it’s vital that the precinct is efficient, accessible and welcoming, while also accommodating the diverse range of people who use the area.

We value community and stakeholder feedback as part of our master plan development process, and I encourage the community to look at the plan and provide feedback to ensure that it reflects what is most important to them.

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