100 motivational and inspiratinal quotes about life and success to help you conquer life’s challenges.

Every member of the human race knows that life can present difficult challenges, often taking all the fun out of our day to day lives. To overcome these obstacles there are a lot of good strategies you can employ, and very often the answer lies within. 

One great way to dig deep and overcome your difficulties is to get motivated! You may need motivation for work, home life, or simply to gain the extra positive energy necessary to develop success and get through the week. 

Enjoy the inspirational quotes below, and remember that the only limit to achieving our desires is one of imagination! Create your own happy life by filling it with purpose, and you can achieve excellence and fulfill your own dreams and your own life plan on your terms.

Motivational Quotes: Information to Inspire Your Life

There Is No Greater Thing You Can Do With Your Life And Your Work Than Follow Your Passions – In A Way That Serves The World And You.

RICHARD BRANSON (more Richard Branson quotes)

Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

ROALD DAHL

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

DOLLY PARTON

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

HELEN KELLER

Life is a series of baby steps along the way and if you add up these tiny little steps you take toward your goal, whatever it is, whether it’s giving up something, a terrible addiction or trying to work your way through an illness.

HODA KOTB

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.

OPRAH WINFREY (more Oprah Winfrey quotes)

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.

REBA MCENTIRE

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking: “What’s in it for me?”

BRIAN TRACY

The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.

OPRAH WINFREY

As soon as something stops being fun, I think it’s time to move on. Life is too short to be unhappy. Waking up stressed and miserable is not a good way to live.

RICHARD BRANSON

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘”What are you doing for others?””

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (more Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes)

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”

MICHAEL JORDAN

“Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.”

MAYA ANGELOU

“It’s not what we have in life but who we have in our life that matters.”

MARGARET LAURENCE

“Embrace the glorious mess that you are.”

ELIZABETH GILBERT

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

DR. SEUSS

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”

HELEN KELLER

“Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.”

CHARLES SWINDOLL

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

“Without passion, you don’t have energy. Without energy, you have nothing.”

WARREN BUFFETT (more Warren Buffett quotes)

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

WARREN BUFFETT

“Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.”

DALE CARNEGIE

Work for that feeling that you have accomplished something…Don’t waste your time on this earth without making a mark.

JOE ROGAN

“Life is not fair, get used to it!”

BILL GATES

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

“Live for each second without hesitation.”

ELTON JOHN

We define ourselves far too often by our past failures. That’s not you. You are this person right now. You’re the person who has learned from those failures.

JOE ROGAN

“You don’t need to be better than anyone else, you just need to be better than you used to be.”

WAYNE DYER

Success Quotes To Inspire and Help You Overcome Roadblocks

For some, there is only one motivation that they need, and that’s providing for their family. For others (like Elon Musk, for example) motivation can be harder to come by – especially if your goal is to move the human race forward and onto Mars!. 

Everyone feels like quitting at some point, and no one has all the answers. And even though it can be tempting to get under the blanket and shut out the world sometimes, quitting won’t make the challenges go away. If you give zero effort, you’ll have exactly the same number of chances at getting what you want.

Use these motivational quotes for work, for your personal life, and for anything that requires that extra boost of motivation.

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour.

ELON MUSK (more Elon Musk quotes)

Talent is god-given. Be humble. Fame is Man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

JOHN WOODEN

Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.

WAYNE DYER

The Pessimist Sees Difficulty In Every Opportunity. The Optimist Sees Opportunity In Every Difficulty.

WINSTON CHURCHILL (more Winston Churchill quotes)

If you can tune into your purpose and really align with it, setting goals so that your vision is an expression of that purpose, then life flows much more easily.

JACK CANFIELD

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

NAPOLEON HILL (more Napoleon Hill quotes)

A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.

TONY ROBBINS (more Tony Robbins quotes)

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands – your own.

MARK VICTOR HANSEN

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

JOHN LENNON

You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.

CHARLES BUXTON

You cannot afford to live in potential for the rest of your life; at some point, you have to unleash the potential and make your move.

ERIC THOMAS

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.

PAULO COELHO

Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.

ROY T. BENNETT

The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do.

SWATI SHARMA

You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.

DALE CARNEGIE

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

JIMMY DEAN

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!

AUDREY HEPBURN
(Derek Hudson / Contributor / Getty)

Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.

HENRY FORD

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.

GEORGE ADDAIR

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

NORMAN VINCENT PEALE

If you set goals and go after them with all the determination you can muster, your gifts will take you places that will amaze you.

LES BROWN

Someone else’s success does not equal a failure for you.

JOE ROGAN

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL

Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

STEVE JOBS

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

ALICE WALKER

You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end.

JESSICA HERRIN, FOUNDER AND CEO OF STELLA & DOT

Inspirational Quotes About Persevering Through Difficulty: From Albert Einstein to Babe Ruth

It may be just an opinion, but a so-called “minimum wage work ethic” will not get you want you want (or deserve!). Use the following handpicked motivational quotes to inspire you to not give up, but rather, to come through the other side and emerge as a winner!

I like criticism. It makes you strong.

LEBRON JAMES

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

THOMAS EDISON

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

ARISTOTLE ONASSIS

It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.

VINCE LOMBARDI

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

HENRY FORD

If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.

VINCENT VAN GOGH

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

CONFUCIUS

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.

C.S. LEWIS

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

NELSON MANDELA

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

NELSON MANDELA

Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed.

BOB RILEY

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

MAHATMA GANDHI

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‘Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.’ See the positive in negative events.

JOEL OSTEEN

Every problem is a gift –- without problems we would not grow.

TONY ROBBINS

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did.

MARK TWAIN (more Mark Twain quotes)

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s how change occurs.

JILLIAN MICHAELS

The man who says he can, and the man who says he can’t are both correct.

CONFUCIUS

Never give up. You only get one life. Go for it!

RICHARD E. GRANT

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.

BABE RUTH

If you can’t, you must. If you must, you can.

TONY ROBBINS

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

GEORGE ELIOT

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

RICHARD BRANSON

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY

Motivational Quotes for Women – From Eleanor Roosevelt to Lady Gaga

We all look forward to strong, successful and independent women. But have you ever wondered how they managed to become strong and successful? 

Here are some motivational quotes about success for you to achieve your ambitious goals from some of the most impressive women throughout history.

Motivational quotes for women

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

MAYA ANGELOU (more Maya Angelou quotes)

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

MARGARET MEAD (more Margaret Mead quotes)

Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the choice of how you’re going to live through this.

CELINE DION

Do all the good you can, for all the people you can, in all the ways you can, as long as you can.

HILLARY CLINTON

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

I’ve always been famous, it’s just no one knew it yet.

LADY GAGA (more Lady Gaga quotes)

Any actress who appears in public without being well-groomed is digging her own grave.

JOAN CRAWFORD

Fame is not the glory! Virtue is the goal, and fame only a messenger, to bring more to the fold.

VANNA BONTA

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

HELEN KELLER

My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.

RUTH BADER GINSBERG

Happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to look like and enjoying it for everything that it is.

MANDY HALE

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success.

MARTHA STEWART

If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just.

ANITA RODDICK

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.

AMELIA EARHART

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

MAYA ANGELOU

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

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain.

VIVIAN GREENE

Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going.

CHANTAL SUTHERLAND

We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

BARBARA DE ANGELIS


I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.

CATHERINE THE GREAT

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.

DIANE MARIECHILD

Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.

CHARLOTTE WHITTON

I want to do is because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.

AMELIA EARHART

Some women choose to follow men, and some choose to follow their dreams. If you’re wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn’t love you anymore.

LADY GAGA

Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.

MARGARET THATCHER (more Margaret Thatcher quotes)

Motivational Quotes for Business 

Starting a business is tough, but if you want to change the world and make money while you’re at it, you might need some inspirational quotes and motivational quotes to get you going. You can not only plan to be a success, you can plan to succeed beyond your wildest dreams! Who knows – you could be the next Steve Jobs! Let these quotes for business inspire you, remind you of why you started in the first place, and get you out of your comfort zone.

Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

GEORGE HERBERT

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

ZIG ZIGLAR

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.

HELLEN KELLER

Play by the rules, but be ferocious.

PHIL KNIGHT

Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow.

ANTHONY ROBBINS

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.

WARREN BUFFETT

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

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

You cannot afford to live in potential for the rest of your life; at some point, you have to unleash the potential and make your move.

ERIC THOMAS

Don’t settle for what life gives you; make life better and build something.

ASHTON KUTCHER

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.

MARK TWAIN

Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD

When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you’ll find a way to get it.

JIM ROHN

Fortune always favours the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.

P. T. BARNUM

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

THOMAS A. EDISON

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

When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.

ZIG ZIGLAR

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

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 not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

STEPHEN COVEY

The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.

COLIN R. DAVIS

Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.

CHRIS GROSSER

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

HERMAN MELVILLE

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

MICHAEL JORDAN

Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.

RICHARD BRANSON

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

COLIN POWELL

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

VIDAL SASSOON

There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.

SETH GODIN

Motivational Quotes for College Students – Quotes About Life in School and Beyond

Being a college student is stressful. After all, preparing for the real world is not an easy job! We can all use a little bit of help getting through, so check out these motivational quotes about life to keep you resilient.

A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.

NELSON MANDELA
motivational quotes
(Gideon Mendel / Getty)

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

OG MANDINO

It never gets easier. You just get better.

JORDAN HOECHLIN

The true success is the person who invented himself.

AL GOLDSTEIN

All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.

MICHAEL JOHN BOBAK

Make the most of yourself….for that is all there is of you.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.

W. CLEMENT STONE

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above them.

WASHINGTON IRVING

Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.

THEODORE N. VAIL

With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.

Dalai Lama

Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.

CHRISTIAN D. LARSON

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

WALT DISNEY

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

CONFUCIUS

Every problem is a gift –- without problems we would not grow.

TONY ROBBINS

Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.

JIM ROHN

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did.

MARK TWAIN

Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

JOSHUA MARINE

Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.

DENIS WAITLEY

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s how change occurs.

JILLIAN MICHAELS

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

GEORGE ELIOT

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

RICHARD BRANSON

College is the reward for surviving high school.

JUDD APATOW

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

MALCOLM X

Every year, many, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you.

JOHN GREEN

Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest when you haven’t planted.

DAVID BLY

College inspired me to think differently. It’s like no other time in your life.

LARA OLEYNIK

Motivational Quotes from Celebrities

Everyone looks for a little wisdom and inspiration now and then, even celebrities. Here are some of the top motivational quotes from celebrities to push you forward on your journey to success. Allow these inspirational quotes to fill your mind with clarity and purpose, straight from Hollywood.

You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.

GEORGE CLOONEY

Don’t settle for what life gives you; make life better and build something.

ASHTON KUTCHER

Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.

LUCILLE BALL

Don’t give it five minutes if you’re not going to give it five years.

MEGHAN MARKLE​

Every day is not a success. Every year is not a success. You have to celebrate the good.

REESE WITHERSPOON

Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.

COCO CHANEL

I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‘one size fits all’ standard for happiness.

KANYE WEST

Life is being on the wire, everything else is just waiting.

KARL WALLENDA

Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.

DENIS WAITLEY

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

J.K. ROWLING

When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.

ELLEN DEGENERES  

Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the choice of how you’re going to live through this.

CELINE DION

Stick around. Don’t lose your heart, just keep going, keep at it.

MARK RUFFALO

I’d rather be called a boy and play with paper airplanes than be called a man and play with a girl’s heart.

NIALL HORAN

I don’t like to share my personal life… it wouldn’t be personal if I shared it.

GEORGE CLOONEY

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

ELVIS PRESLEY

I’ve always been famous, it’s just no one knew it yet.

LADY GAGA

Any actress who appears in public without being well-groomed is digging her own grave.

JOAN CRAWFORD

Fame is not the glory! Virtue is the goal, and fame only a messenger, to bring more to the fold.

VANNA BONTA

Your imperfections make you beautiful, they make you who you are. So just be yourself, love yourself for who you are and just keep going.

DEMI LOVATO

No matter how talented you are, not everybody is going to like you. But that’s life, just stay strong.

JUSTIN BIEBER

Don’t feel stupid if you don’t like what everyone else pretends to love.

EMMA WATSON

If you can do what you do best and be happy, you are further along in life than most people.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO

Ignore the naysayers. Really the only option is, head down and focus on the job.

CHRIS PINE

I’ve learned it’s important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is.

RYAN GOSLING

I can’t think of any better representation of beauty than someone who is unafraid to be herself.

EMMA STONE

I’m a big believer in accepting yourself and not really worrying about it.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE

I don’t do things for the response or the controversy. I just live my life.

RIHANNA

Motivational Quotes for Entrepreneurs

Planting a sapling and starting your own business are similar in terms of growth. First, you need to invest money and time. Then, gently taking care of your new project, you must build with no expectations in return. During the entrepreneurial journey, you may require constant motivation. 

Here is a collection of motivational quotes for entrepreneurs to help you keep the fires burning bright. Hopefully, these inspirational quotes will help you so that you never lose the passion you need to succeed.

Romantic love quotes

I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.

ESTÉE LAUDER

Don’t let others convince you that the idea is good when your gut tells you it’s bad.

KEVIN ROSE, CO-FOUNDED DIGG

Think big and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Life is too short to think small.

TIM FERRISS

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

I don’t know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it.

SUSAN BUTCHER

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

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

Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

WILL RODGERS

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

Winners never quit and quitters never win.

VINCE LOMBARDI

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

ANDREW CARNEGIE

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

WALT DISNEY

Success depends on employees. For me knowing and connecting with my employees is very important.

DIVINE NDHLUKULA, FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF DDNS SECURITY OPERATIONS LTD

Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.

JAMIE PAOLINETTI

Do not focus on numbers. Focus on doing what you do best. It’s about building a community who want to visit your site every day because you create value and offer expertise.

CASSEY HO, FOUNDER OF BLOGILATES.COM

You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end.

JESSICA HERRIN, FOUNDER AND CEO OF STELLA & DOT

In the age of transparency, honesty, and generosity, even in the form of an apology, generate goodwill.

ALEXANDER ASSEILY, FOUNDER OF JAWBONE

If you know too much before the start, then you will get overwhelmed. Come up with an original idea, and don’t copy because there will be no passion. You need that otherworldly passion. Just start.

JENI BRITTON BAUER

Don’t try to do everything by yourself, but try to connect with people and resources. Having that discipline and perseverance is really important.

CHIEU CAO

It’s necessary to find a mentor who can invest time to know your personal capabilities and business model.

NIGEL DAVIES, FOUNDER OF CLAROMENTIS

Don’t get distracted. Never tell yourself that you need to be the biggest brand in the whole world. Start by working on what you need at the present moment and then what you need to do tomorrow. So, set yourself manageable targets.

JAS BAGNIEWSKI, CO-FOUNDER OF EVE SLEEP

You have to get good at ceding control and not taking things personally. Even seasoned entrepreneurs have struggled with that. I think it’s about not taking failures personally and also not taking successes personally.

LEILA JANAH, FOUNDER OF SAMASOURCE AND LXMI

Your ability to attract, evaluate, and forge strong working relationships with co-founders, early employees, and investors often mean the difference between failure and success.

CLARA SHIH, CO-FOUNDER OF HEARSAY SYSTEMS

My advice is to focus on the importance of forging a long-term relationship, whether with colleagues, partners, or customers. It is often easy to get caught up in short-term decisions.

SHEILA LIRIO MARCELO, FOUNDER OF CARE.COM

If you’re starting something on your own, you better have a passion for it, because this is hard work.

SALLIE KRAWCHECK, CO-FOUNDER OF ELLEVEST

Be nicer to your customers than your competitors.

RICHARD REED, CO-FOUNDER OF INNOCENT DRINKS