Economic Compendium: 10.000 Quotes On Business and Economics

QUOTES ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

BY VLADAN L. KUZMANOVIĆ

10000 THOUGHTS OF FAMOUS ECONOMISTS,  BUSINESS THEORISTS AND GREAT BUSINESS PEOPLE

Copyright © 2018 by Vladan L. Kuzmanović

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

ISBN 978-0-359-00223-8

Table of Content:

Quotes on business and economics

GREAT QUOTES ON BUSINESS

Nobody ever lost money taking a profit.

-Baruch, Bernard M.

Don't try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can't be done, except by liars.

-Baruch, Bernard M.

Forty for you, sixty for me And equal partners we will be

-Barzan, Gerald

I work in a strange business, and trust is a word that's not even in the vocabulary.

-Basinger, Kim

Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners.

-Allen, Fred A.

Anybody can cut prices, but it takes brains to produce a better article.

-Armour, P. D

For now, if the Hong Kong environment doesn’t change, then in the long term, investing in Hong Kong is best.

-Lee Shau Kee

Executives are like joggers. If you stop a jogger, he goes on running on the spot. If you

drag an executive away from his business, he goes on running on the spot, pawing the

ground, talking business. He never stops hurtling onwards, making decisions and

executing them.

-Baudrillard, Jean

No sale is really complete until the product is worn out, and the customer is satisfied.

-Bean, L.L.

Business is more exciting than any game.

-Beaverbrook, Lord

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful

things make money.

-Beene, Geoffrey

If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic!

-Bernbach, William

The happiest time in a man's life is when he is in the red hot pursuit of a dollar with a

reasonable prospect of overtaking it.

-Billings, Josh

Commerce is so far from being beneficial to arts, or to empire, that it is destructive of

both, as all their history shows, for the above reason of individual merit being its great

hatred. Empires flourish till they become commercial, and then they are scattered

abroad to the four winds.

-Blake, William

Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

-Blanchard, Ken

Get me inside any boardroom and I'll get any decision I want.

-Bond, Alan

Formerly when great fortunes were only made in war, war was business; but now when

great fortunes are only made by business: Business is war!

-Bovee, Christian Nevell

If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.

-Branson, Richard

I don't want to do business with those who don't make a profit, because they can't give

the best service.

-Bristol, Lee

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or

later finds itself immune to business.

-Brown, Derby

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

-Buffett, Warren

It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a

wonderful price.

-Buffett, Warren

It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

-Burke, Edmund

What helps people, helps business.

-Burnett, Leo

Conducting your business in a socially responsible way is good business. It means that

you can attract better employees and that customers will know what you stand for and

like you for it.

-Burns, M. Anthony

Hong Kong has remained a strong financial centre. It has a solid business environment and geographically, it is well located, being next to China. During this time, there is no city that can match it.

- Lee Shau Kee

Find a job that you will be happy with and work hard at.

-Lee Shau Kee

Giving away money to the right cause, with a leveraged effect and your own involvement in how it is spent, will ‘give you peace of mind.’

- Lee Shau Kee

Only as long as a company can produce a desired, worthwhile, and needed product or

service, and can command the public, will it receive the public dollar and succeed

-Carlson, Curtis

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people

than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.

-Carnegie, Dale

More business is lost every year through neglect than through any other cause.

-Cathcart, Jim

You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start

with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it.

-Ceo, Harold Geneen

Such is the brutalization of commercial ethics in this country that no one can feel

anything more delicate than the velvet touch of a soft buck.

-Chandler, Raymond

No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few

people do business well, who do nothing else.

-Chesterfield, Lord

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it

as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy

wagon.

-Churchill, Winston

A consumer is a shopper who is sore about something.

-Coffin, Harold

Corporations cannot commit treason, or be outlawed or excommunicated, for they have

no souls.

-Coke, Sir Edward

The very best financial presentation is one that's well thought out and anticipates any

questions... answering them in advance.

-Collins, Nathan

Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual.

-Cooley, Mason

The business of the country is business.

-Coolidge, Calvin

Utility is our national shibboleth: the savior of the American businessman is fact and his

uterine half-brother, statistics.

-Dahlberg, Edward

Blessed is he who talks in circles, for he shall become a big wheel.

-Dane, Frank

What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find out what the

customer needs you have to understand what the customer is doing as well as he

understands it. Then you build what he needs and you educate him to the fact that he

needs it.

-Dewolf, Nicholas

Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity.

-Dickens, Charles

Location, location, location.

-Dillard, William

The City's reluctance to take a stand on an issue like the British Gas pay row makes a

mockery of corporate governance and shareholders' ability to influence annual general

meetings. Institutions should be obliged to make public how they vote at such events.

They should be obliged to provide customers with a record of how they vote on every

kind of issue.

-Donovan, Patrick

A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.

-Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

You can't run a business without taking risks.

-Drexler, Millard

Business has only two functions -- marketing and innovation.

-Drucker, Peter F.

The purpose of a business is to create a customer.

-Drucker, Peter F.

Business, that's easily defined; it's other people's money.

-Dumas, Alexandre

It is almost as difficult to keep a first class person in a fourth class job, as it is to keep a

fourth class person in a first class job.

-Dunn, Paul H.

Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer.

-Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense;

a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He

is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the

man, for his good or bad fortune in making money. Men talk as if there were some

magic about this. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent

for every effect a perfect cause -- and that good luck is another name for tenacity of

purpose.

-Emerson, Ralph Waldo

A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he

has got the biggest piece.

-Erhard, Ludwig

Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.

-Field, Marshall

Investing in Chicago property is just Wanda's first move into the U.S. real estate market.

Wang Jianlin

In setting goals and executing a strategy, Wanda is sophisticated. We have good systems and departments. If targets are not reached, a yellow light goes off.

Wang Jianlin

A man with a surplus can control circumstances, but a man without a surplus is

controlled by them, and often has no opportunity to exercise judgment.

-Firestone, Harvey S.

If you don't drive your business you will be driven out of business.

-Forbes, B. C.

Don't forget until too late that the business of life is not business, but living.

-Forbes, B. C.

Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he's hired to do.

-Forbes, Malcolm S.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of

scratching around for what it gets.

-Ford, Henry

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.

-Ford, Henry

It is not the employer who pays wages -- he only handles the money. It is the product

who pays the wages.

-Ford, Henry

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and

dream of it by night.

-Ford, Henry

It doesn't matter to me if a man is from Harvard or Sing Sing. We hire the man, not his

history.

-Ford, Henry

Women do not win formula one races, because they simply are not strong enough to

resist the G-forces. In the boardroom, it is different. I believe women are better able to

marshal their thoughts than men and because they are less egotistical they make fewer

assumptions.

-Foulston, Nicola

The question is, then, do we try to make things easy on ourselves or do we try to make

things easy on our customers, whoever they may be?

-Frand, Erwin

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we

must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may,

if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and

die not worth a grout at last.

-Franklin, Benjamin

If you can't pay for a thing, don't buy it. If you can't get paid for it, don't sell it. Do this,

and you will have calm and drowsy nights, with all of the good business you have now

and none of the bad. If you have time, don't wait for time.

-Franklin, Benjamin

Drive your business, let not your business drive you.

-Franklin, Benjamin

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

-Galvin, Robert

The worst disease which can afflict executives in their work is not, as popularly

supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism.

-Geneen, Harold S.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

-Geneen, Harold S.

Everything we get, outside of the free gifts of nature, must in some way be paid for. The world is full of so- called economists who in turn are full of schemes for getting something for nothing. They tell us that the government can spend and spend without taxing at all; that it can continue to pile up debt without ever paying it off, because we owe it to ourselves.

~ Henry Hazlitt 

It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.

-Geneen, Harold S.

It is much more difficult to measure non-performance than performance. Performance

stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained

away.

-Geneen, Harold S.

In business, words are words; explanations are explanations, promises are promises,

but only performance is reality.

-Geneen, Harold S.

I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are

explanations, promises are promises -- but only performance is reality.

-Geneen, Harold S.

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination,

Organization, Innovation and Communication

-Gerber, Michael E.

I buy when other people are selling.

-Getty, J. Paul

The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.

-Gilbey, Walter

Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.

-Goldsmith, Oliver

Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.

-Goldsmith, Oliver

Few great men could pass personal.

-Goodman, Paul

Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity

can result in just the opposite.

-Grove, Andrew

The more business one has, the more you are able to accomplish, for you learn to

economize your time.

-Hale, Sir Matthew

The basic idea was that if a country would put its economy as an integrated piece of the world system, that it would benefit from that with economic growth. I concur with that basic view.

Jeffrey Sachs

The morality of compromise' sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of

weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and

principles should never be compromised. I shall argue that strong men, conversely,

know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a

greater principle.

-Handy, Charles

Show me the business man or institution not guided by sentiment and service; by the

idea that he profits most who serves best and I will show you a man or an outfit that is

dead or dying.

-Harris, B. F.

It is surprising, in the welter of questions that one gets at (AGMs), how few actually

relate to the performance of the company, or the decisions taken by the board in

particular areas.

-Harvey-Jones, John

As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.

-Hawken, Paul

The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the

world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions

of what things ought to be.

-Hazlitt, William

Concentrate your strengths against your competitor's relative weaknesses.

-Henderson, Bruce

A generation which has passed through the shop has absorbed standards and ambitions

which are not of those of spaciousness, and cannot get away from them. Everything

with them is done as though for sale, and they naturally have in view the greatest

possible benefit, profit and that end of the stuff that will make the best show.

-Herzen, Alexander

The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing,

observation and supervision.

-Hook, Harold

People want economy and they'll pay almost any price to get it.

-Iacocca, Lee

When the product is right, you don't have to be a great marketer.

-Iacocca, Lee

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business,

know your men.

-Jacobs, Randall

The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or

principle but that of gain.

-Jefferson, Thomas

Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.

-Kashoggi, Adnan

If a fellow wants to be a nobody in the business world, let him neglect sending the mail

man to somebody on his behalf.

-Kettering, Charles F.

When you are skinning your customers you should leave some skin on to grow again so

that you can skin them again.

-Khrushchev, Nikita

Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between

obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

-Kiam, Victor

You can hype a questionable product for a little while, but you'll never build an enduring

business.

-Kiam, Victor

In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running, if you stand still, they will

swallow you.

-Knudsen, William

In business for yourself, not by yourself.

-Kroc, Ray

The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.

-Leavitt, Theodore

A man's success in business today turns upon his power of getting people to believe he

has something that they want.

-Lee, Gerald Stanley

Business today consists in persuading crowds.

-Lee, Gerald Stanley

You generally hear that what a man doesn't know doesn't hurt him, but in business

what a man doesn't know does hurt.

-Lewis, E. St. Elmo

The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because

the people themselves have become so deeply involved in big business.

-Lippmann, Walter

Never let an inventor run a company. You can never get him to stop tinkering and bring

something to market.

-Little, Royal

Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a

continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.

-Luce, Henry

If when a businessman speaks of minority employment, or air pollution, or poverty, he

speaks in the language of a certified public accountant analyzing a corporate balance

sheet, who is to know that he understands the human problems behind the statistical

ones? If the businessman would stop talking like a computer printout or a page from the

corporate annual report, other people would stop thinking he had a cash register for a

heart. It is as simple as that -- but that isn't simple.

-Lundborg, Louis B.

We're going to see a lot more young people entering entrepreneurial ventures.

-Malek, Fred

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

-Manzi, Jim

If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If

anything, the real thing will be easier.

-Marcinko, Richard

Business is a combination of war and sport.

-Maurois, Andre

If you have lower than a ten percent turnover, there is a problem. And if you have

higher than, say 20%, there is a problem.

-Mcgovern, William

In a start-up company, you basically throw out all assumptions every three weeks.

-Mcnealy, Scott

Get the best people and train them well.

-Merrill, Charles

If you did not look after today's business then you might as well forget about tomorrow.

-Mophatlane, Isaac

Well, I don't know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to

do what I want to do.

-Morgan, John Pierpont

The great business of life is to be, to do, to do without and to depart.

-Morley, John

It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to

get by -- Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.

-Mulford Jr., Ren

The commercial class has always mistrusted verbal brilliancy and wit, deeming such

qualities, perhaps with some justice, frivolous and unprofitable.

-Nevill, Dorothy

The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.

-Ogilvy, David

The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. If you pretest your

product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the

marketplace.

-Ogilvy, David

If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.

-Ogilvy, David

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your own family to read. You

wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by.

If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out -- either by the Government, which

will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product

a second time. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the

product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.

-Ogilvy, David

You make the best products you can, and you grow as fast as you deserve to.

-Olsen, Kenneth

Don't worry about your physical shortcomings. I am no Greek god. Don't get too much

sleep and don 't tell anybody your troubles. Appearances count: Get a sun lamp to keep

you looking as though you have just come back from somewhere expensive: maintain

an elegant address even if you have to live in the attic. Never nickel when short of cash.

Borrow big, but always repay promptly.

-Onassis, Aristotle

The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.

-Onassis, Aristotle

One of the vices of the virtue of decentralization is that people don't share ideas.

-O'Reilly, Anthony J. F.

Let love give way to business; give attention to business and you will be safe.

-Ovid

To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.

-Patterson, John H.

Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders

confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending,

both what to do and what to hope.

-Penn, William

Every business is built on friendship.

-Penney, J. C. (James Cash)

If we decide to take this level of business creating ability nationwide, we'll all be

plucking chickens for a living.

-Perot, H. Ross

Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great

engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a

cobweb of human relationships.

-Perot, H. Ross

The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like

guests and employees like people.

-Peters, Thomas J.

Far too many executives have become more concerned with the four P's -- pay, perks,

power and prestige -- rather than making profits for shareholders.

-Pickens, T. Boone

The poor man who enters into a partnership with one who is rich makes a risky venture.

-Plautus, Titus Maccius

We have yet to see the full impact of the open, global marketplace. By 1997 all raw

materials and technology will be available everywhere in the world. The only differences

between countries and markets will be skill levels, education, and the level of

empowerment of the workplace.

-Pritchett, Lew

Don't open a shop unless you like to smile.

-Proverb, Chinese

Work is our business; it's success is God s.

-Proverb, German

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

-Reagan, Ronald

Corporations are social organizations, the theater in which men and women realize or

fail to realize purposeful and productive lives.

-Rena, Peter

In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope.

-Revson, Charles

The big will get bigger; the small will get wiped out.

-Riklis, Meshulam

You can employ men and hire hands to work for you, but you must win their hearts to

have them work with you.

-Riorio

Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always

try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.

-Ritz, Cesar

Quality, service, cleanliness, and value.

-Ross, Steven J.

I've got to keep breathing. It'll be my worst business mistake if I don't.

-Rothschild, Sir Nathan

In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, there is success.

-Scrutton, T. L.

To business that we love we rise betime, and go to't with delight.

-Shakespeare, William

The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all

men, and to be found in no other race of animals.

-Smith, Adam

Anything that you do to increase job security automatically does work for you. It makes

your employees a closer part of the unit.

-Smith, Roger

Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by

perpetual neglect of many other things.

-Stevenson, Robert Louis

Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.

-Stuart, Edwin H.

Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.

-Thomas, Dylan

Make every decision as if you owned the whole company.

-Townsend, Robert

If you don't do it with excellence, don't do it at all! Because if it's not excellent, it won't

be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you

doing there?

-Townsend, Robert

Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions

have a problem they can't solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then

pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work.

Condition your people to avoid compromise.

-Townsend, Robert

Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful

poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks.

-Trump, Donald

We let folks know we're interested in them and that they're vital to us. cause they are.

-Walton, Sam

There's a lot more business out there in small town America than I ever dreamed of.

-Walton, Sam

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.

-Walton, Sam

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.

-Wanamaker, John

Markets change, tastes change, so the companies and the individuals who choose to

compete in those markets must change.

-Wang, An

Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and

working is art and good business is the best art.

-Warhol, Andy

You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart.

-Watson, Thomas J.

You don't hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to

hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news.

-Watson, Thomas J.

Our planning system was dynamite when we first put it in. The thinking was fresh; the

form mattered little. It was idea oriented. We then hired a head of planning, and he

hired two vice presidents, and then he hired a planner; and the books got thicker, and

the printing more sophisticated, and the covers got harder, and the drawings got better.

-Welch, John

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision,

and relentlessly drive it to completion.

-Welch, John

It is very vulgar to talk about one's business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and

then merely at dinner parties.

-Wilde, Oscar

What's good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa.

-Wilson, Charles E.

Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its

moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.

-Wilson, Woodrow T.

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.

-Woods, General Robert E.

I am the world's worst salesman, therefore, I must make it easy for people to buy.

-Woolworth, F. W.

When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.

-Wrigley Jr., William

In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man

who doesn't know what he is doing.

-Young, Owen D.

The first rule of luck in business is that you should persevere in doing the right thing.

Opportunities will come your way if you do.

-Cohen, Ronald

There is no such thing as weak competition, it grows all the time. - Nabil N. Jamal

-Jamal, Nabil N.

We are trying to teach what an experience is like to technolgy. We would like to use

technology in a way that it allows us to actually experience something. We place more

value on experience.

-Wong, Debbie

We are trying to teach what an experience is like to technology. We would like to use

technology in a way that it allows us to actually experience something. We place more

value on experience.

-Wong, Debbie

The picture you paint of me depends on the color of lens you are looking through.

-Ahmed M Ibrahim

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – Norman Schwarzkopf

A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost. – Unknown

You are not your resume, you are your work. – Seth Godin

Beware of any enterprise requiring new clothes. – Henry Thoreau

One finds limits by pushing them. – Herbert Simon

If you see a bandwagon, it’s too late. – James Goldsmith

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

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi

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

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. – Carlos Castaneda

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

The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm. – Thomas J. Watson

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. – Albert Einstein

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

Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is. – Seth Godin

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

You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills. – Jim Rohn

Look well to this day. Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day. – Francis Gray

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

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. – Dwight Eisenhower

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. – Napoleon Bonaparte

To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart. – Sr. Thomas Watson

The first one gets the oyster the second gets the shell. – Andrew Carnegie

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right! – Henry Ford

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

When the government makes loans or subsidies to business, what it does is to tax successful private business in order to support unsuccessful private business.

~ Henry Hazlitt

People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want. – Seth Godin

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you. – Henry J. Kaiser

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

A man should never neglect his family for business. – Walt Disney

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations. – Steve Jobs

The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do. – Roy L. Smith

Business is more exciting than any game. – Lord Beaverbrook

The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do. – Dennis Waitley

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. – Cyril Northcote Parkinson

Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death. – Seth Godin

My son is now an ‘entrepreneur’. That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job. – Ted Turner

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed. – Henry Ford

For all of its faults, it gives most hardworking people a chance to improve themselves economically, even as the deck is stacked in favor of the privileged few. Here are the choices most of us face in such a system: Get bitter or get busy. – Bill O’ Reilly

Please think about your legacy, because you’re writing it every day. – Gary Vaynerchuck

Victory goes to the player who makes the next–to–last mistake. – Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower

I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. – Donald Trump

Surviving a failure gives you more self–confidence. Failures are great learning tools… but they must be kept to a minimum. – Jeffrey Immelt

To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth

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

The only way around is through. – Robert Frost

The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few, but information in the hands of many. – John Naisbitt

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 miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take – Wayne Gretzky

Successful people are the ones who are breaking the rules. – Seth Godin

To the degree we’re not living our dreams; our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves. – Peter McWilliams

Saying no to loud people gives you the resources to say yes to important opportunities. – Seth Godin

To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted. – George Kneller

Business in a combination of War and sport.  – Andre Maurois

To succeed… You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. – Tony Dorsett

Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more. – Oscar Wilde

There is no security on the earth, there is only opportunity. – General Douglas MacArthur

Hire character. Train skill. – Peter Schutz

Early to bed and early to rise probably indicates unskilled labor. – John Ciardi

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats. – Howard Aiken

It takes more than capital to swing business. You’ve got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by — Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics. – Ren Mulford Jr.

A calm sea does not make a skilled sailor. – Unknown

The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you. – Bette Midler

Your time is precious, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. – Steve Jobs

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. – Warren Buffett

Your income is directly related to your philosophy, NOT the economy. – Jim Rohn

The NBA is never just a business. It’s always business. It’s always personal. All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal. – Mark Cuban

Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker. – Seth Godin

Once you free yourself from the need for perfect acceptance, it’s a lot easier to launch work that matters. – Seth Godin

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose. – Dr. Seuss

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

The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place. – Orison Swett Marden

To win without risk is to triumph without glory. – Pierre Corneille

People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. – Seth Godin

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. – David Brinkley

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from. – Seth Godin

I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them! – C.J. Walker

People are best convinced by things they themselves discover. – Ben Franklin

I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages. – Robert Bosch

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas Edison

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

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching. – George Van Valkenburg

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. – Harold Geneen

Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it. – Chinese Proverb

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches. – Napoleon Hill

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

A consultant is someone who takes the watch off your wrist and tells you the time. – Unknown

The absolute fundamental aim is to make money out of satisfying customers. – John Egan

If you would like to know the value of money, try to borrow some. – Benjamin Franklin

Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating. – Denis Waitley

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business. – Zig Ziglar

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. – Vidal Sassoon

Speak the truth, but leave immediately after. – Unknown

The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. – Debbi Fields

Are you a serial idea–starting person? The goal is to be an idea–shipping person. – Seth Godin

The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. – Lilly Tomlin

Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. – David Rockefeller

If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours. – Ray Kroc

Long–range planning works best in the short term. – Doug Evelyn

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

My son is now an ‘entrepreneur’. That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job. – Ted Turner

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – Norman Schwarzkopf

The golden rule for every business man is this: "Put yourself in your customer’s place. – Orison Swett Marden

I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them! – C.J. Walker

The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. – Debbi Fields

Life is too complicated not to be orderly. – Martha Stewart

The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do. – Dennis Waitley

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

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching. – George Van Valkenburg

There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it. For if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard. – C.J. Walker

Business is more exciting than any game. – Lord Beaverbrook

Nowhere are the benefits of closer economic ties more pronounced than in Mainland China and Hong Kong. The two places have their own advantages. One has the manpower, natural resources and manufacturing might, while the other has the management skills and marketing know-how. — Cheng Yu Tung

It takes more than capital to swing business. You’ve got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by. – Ren Mulford Jr.

For all of its faults, it gives most hardworking people a chance to improve themselves economically, even as the deck is stacked in favor of the privileged few. Here are the choices most of us face in such a system: Get bitter or get busy. – Bill O’ Reilly

A man should never neglect his family for business. – Walt Disney

The only limits are, as always, those of vision. – James Broughton

I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. – Donald Trump

Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading: buying and selling. – Anita Roddick

To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully. – Tryon Edwards

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

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

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. – Henry Ford

The good or ill of a man lies within his own will. – Epictetus

I have known not a few men who, after reaching the summits of business success, found themselves miserable on attaining retirement age. They were so exclusively engrossed in their day to day affairs that they had no time for friend making. – B.C. Forbes

The cynic says, One man can’t do anything. I say, Only one man can do anything. - John W. Gardner

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

If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. – Ingvar Kamprad

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations. – Steve Jobs

You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It’s called perseverance. – Lee Iacocca

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst for riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. – Laurence Sterne

Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. – David Rockefeller

Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman. – George Soros

I am convinced that if it [the market system] were the result of deliberate human design, and if the people guided by the price changes understood that their decisions have significance far beyond their immediate aim, this mechanism would have been acclaimed as one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind. - Friedrich Hayek

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. – Dwight Eisenhower

If you did not look after today’s business then you might as well forget about tomorrow. – Isaac Mophatlane

The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm. – Thomas J. Watson

Being able to touch so many people through my businesses and make money while doing it, is a huge blessing. – Magic Johnson

Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. – James Thurber

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. – Carlos Castaneda

The great leaders are like the best conductors – they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players. – Blaine Lee

To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted. – George Kneller

To the degree we’re not living our dreams; our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves. – Peter McWilliams

The enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth-persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. – John F. Kennedy

Long-range planning works best in the short term. – Doug Evelyn

The NBA is never just a business. It’s always business. It’s always personal. All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal. – Mark Cuban

You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough. – Joseph E. Levine

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

The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. – Peter F. Drucker

No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others.. or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist. – Calvin Coolidge

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you. – Henry J. Kaiser

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. – Vince Lombardi

In all realms of life it takes courage to stretch your limits, express your power, and fulfill your potential. It’s no different in the financial realm. – Suze Orman

The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools. – Confucius

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

Look well to this day. Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day. – Francis Gray

Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools.. but they must be kept to a minimum. – Jeffrey Immelt

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches. – Napoleon Hill

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

Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity. – Charles Dickens

I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages. – Robert Bosch

People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps. – Mary Kay Ash

In business, I’ve discovered that my purpose is to do my best to my utmost ability every day. That’s my standard. I learned early in my life that I had high standards. – Donald Trump

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. – Harold Geneen

To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart. – Thomas Watson, Sr.

The absolute fundamental aim is to make money out of satisfying customers. – John Egan

There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities. – Michael Dell

I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well. – Alan Greenspan

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi

Let’s be honest. There’s not a business anywhere that is without problems. Business is complicated and imperfect. Every business everywhere is staffed with imperfect human beings and exists by providing a product or service to other imperfect human beings. – Bob Parsons

You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins. – Jim Stovall

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

The noblest search is the search for excellence – Lyndon B. Johnson

The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to neither make money nor find much fun in life. – Charles M. Schwab

You must remain focused on your journey to greatness. – Les Brown

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

Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier. – Charles F. Kettering

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right! – Henry Ford

You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills. – Jim Rohn

Who likes not his business, his business likes not him. – William Hazlitt

The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few, but information in the hands of many. – John Naisbitt

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed. – Henry Ford

It’s through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we’ve always mapped our path at Dell. There’s always an opportunity to make a difference. – Michael Dell

If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours. – Ray Kroc

Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating. – Denis Waitley

Management is nothing more than motivating other people. – Le Iacocca

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question. – Peter Drucker

Why did I want to win? Because I didn’t want to lose! – Max Schmelling

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

To win without risk is to triumph without glory. – Pierre Corneille

To succeed… You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. – Tony Dorsett

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business. – Zig Ziglar

I wasn’t satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make a statement. – Donald Trump

Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competitors and it

Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect. —Jack Dorsey

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

It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. —Scott Belsky

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

Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once. —Drew Houston

Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea. —Mark Pincus

If there’s something you want to build, but the tech isn’t there yet, just find the closest possible way to make it happen. —Dennis Crowley

Fail often so you can succeed sooner. —Tom Kelley

It’s not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas." —Edwin Land

Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.—Paul Rand

It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower. —Paul Graham

Entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create. —David Karp

Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch. —Michael Arrington,

I don’t think an economic slump will hurt good ideas. —Rob Kalin

The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%. —Rob Kalin

Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them. —Tony Hsieh

Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard. —Guy Kawasaki

Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day. —Joel Spolsky

I doubt I’ll ever go back to corporate work. Once you see the light, there is no turning back. —Magnus Jepson

Stay self-funded as long as possible. —Garrett Camp

The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something. —Seth Godin

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

Turn a perceived risk into an asset. —Aaron Patzer

Anything that is measured and watched, improves. —Bob Parsons

Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the up market. —Jason Calacanis

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

The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.—Marc Benioff

I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about. —Jake Nickell

See things in the present, even if they are in the future. —Larry Ellison

You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good. —Peter Shankman

It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.—Jason Cohen

Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today it’s cheaper to start a business than ever. —Noah Everett

Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not. —Michael Dell

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

A ‘startup’ is a company that is confused about – 1. What its product is. 2. Who its customers are. 3. How to make money.—Dave McClure

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

Before dreaming about the future or marking plans, you need to articulate what you already have going for you – as entrepreneurs do. —Reid Hoffman

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

The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be." —Reid Hoffman

I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars — I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over.—Warren Buffett

In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination. —Steve Case

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

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

As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big. —Donald Trump

Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right. —Henry Ford

Behold the turtle, he makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. —Bruce Levin

Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical. —Howard Schultz

You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions. —Steve Case

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

A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader. —Fred Wilson

We are really competing against ourselves, we have no control over how other people perform. —Pete Cashmore

I like to pride myself on thinking pretty long term, but not that long term. —Mark Zuckerberg

Always deliver more than expected. —Larry Page

Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do.