101 Business Success Quotes

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The only thing certain about running a business is that you’re going to have up’s and down’s.  And as long as you push through those down’s you’ll keep getting to the high points.

So here are 101 success quotes to help keep you pushing ahead…

  1. “I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.” – George Burns
  2. “Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” – Wayne Huizenga
  3. “Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” – Napoleon Hill
  4. “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” – Bruce Lee
  5. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
  6. “The number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying.” – Tom Hopkins
  7. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby
  8. “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
  9. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
  10. “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford
  11. “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel
  12. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi
  13. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
  14.  “Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” – David Frost
  15. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley
  16. “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” – Booker T. Washington
  17. “Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.” – Abdul Kalam
  18. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie
  19. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” – Bill Gates
  20. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” – Abraham Lincoln
  21. “Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” – George Edward Woodberry
  22. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
  23. “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” – George S. Patton
  24. “Failure is success if we learn from it.” – Malcolm Forbes
  25. “Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.” – William James
  26. “Frustration, although quite painful at times, is a very positive and essential part of success.” – Bo Bennett
  27. “What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” – Bob Dylan
  28. “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” – Dale Carnegie
  29. “If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.” – Malcolm X
  30. “Belief in oneself is one of the most important bricks in building any successful venture.” – Lydia M. Child
  31. “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” – Theodore Roosevelt
  32. “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  33. “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington
  34. “Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.” – Arnold H. Glasow
  35. “Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.” – Morihei Ueshiba
  36. “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” – John Wooden
  37. “Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.” – J. Paul Getty
  38. “What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.” – Margaret Thatcher
  39. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford
  40. “In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo
  41. “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.” – Ross Perot
  42. “The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.” – Ayn Rand
  43. “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen
  44. “There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.” – Christopher Morley
  45. “Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.” – Dale Carnegie
  46. “The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.” – Dale Carnegie
  47. “If you want to achieve things in life, you’ve just got to do them, and if you’re talented and smart, you’ll succeed.” – Juliana Hatfield
  48. “Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.” – Jon Bon Jovi
  49. “I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.” – Jonathan Winters
  50. “A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.” – Mark Twain
  51. “Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders.” – Sloan Wilson
  52. “They succeed, because they think they can.” – Virgil
  53. “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.” – John Foster Dulles
  54. “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William Feather
  55. “Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles
  56. “Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy – it won’t come out while you’re watching.” – Tennessee Williams
  57. “Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it.” – Sam Ewing
  58. “Those who have succeeded at anything and don’t mention luck are kidding themselves.” – Larry King
  59. “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” – W. Clement Stone
  60. “The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.” – Irving Berlin
  61. “Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” – Helen Keller
  62. “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.” –  Zig Ziglar
  63. “The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” –  Tony Robbins
  64. “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” – John D. Rockefeller
  65. “I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” – Zig Ziglar
  66. “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
  67. “Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.” – Napoleon Hill
  68. “A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” – Elbert Hubbard
  69. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison
  70. “Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people – your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.” – Barbara Bush
  71. “Success comes from taking the initiative and following up… persisting… eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” – Tony Robbins
  72. “That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” – Abraham Lincoln
  73. “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin
  74. “Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren’t sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.” – John Carmack
  75. “Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.” – Jim Rohn
  76. “Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.” Og Mandino
  77. “You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success – or are they holding you back?” – W. Clement Stone
  78. “An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.” – Charles Horton Cooley
  79. “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” – Nikola Tesla
  80. “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” – Stephen Covey
  81. “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.” –  John Wooden
  82. “Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.” – Johnny Carson
  83. “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” – Henry Ford
  84. “We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.” – Michelle Obama
  85. “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
  86. “There is little success where there is little laughter.” – Andrew Carnegie
  87. “Honesty and integrity are absolutely essential for success in life – all areas of life. The really good news is that anyone can develop both honesty and integrity.” – Zig Ziglar
  88. “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  89. “What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people’s lives.” – Oprah Winfrey
  90. “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.” – Henry Ford
  91. “Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.” – Mike Ditka
  92. “I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.” – Florence Nightingale
  93. “Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.” – Paul J. Meyer
  94. “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” – Tony Robbins
  95. “Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.” – Audrey Hepburn
  96. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
  97. “I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings.” – Margaret Mead
  98. “The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” – James Allen
  99. “Applause waits on success.” – Benjamin Franklin
  100. “Success is achieved and maintained by those who try and keep trying.” – W. Clement Stone
  101. “Success comes when people act together; failure tends to happen alone.” – Deepak Chopra

What quotes inspire you to move toward success?

Lisa Parmley
Lisa Parmley

Lisa Parmley is the founder of coursemethod.com. After gaining a Master's degree, she worked in research for about seven years. She started a training company in 2001, offering a course helping people pass a professional exam. That course has earned multiple 7 figures. She created SEO and authority site building training around 2007 which went on to earn well into the 6-figure mark.

She has 22+ years of experience in the trenches creating and selling online courses. Get help starting and growing your online course business here.

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