Entrepreneurs that do it for greed of money fail. Entrepreneurship isn't about greed, it has nothing to do with that; what matters is personal freedom.
— Kevin O’LearyShark Tank investor, businessman, and former Canadian political candidate
“Until James DeGale won a World Title, no-one who'd won a gold medal for Britain in the Olympic Games had ever won a professional World Title, which is quite amazing when you think about that. Think of the guys that didn't even get to the Olympic Games like Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn, Eubank, Joe Calzaghe, Tyson Fury, Ricky Hatton. Sometimes the greatest boxers get overlooked- or maybe it's because of whoever is picking the amateur team… or maybe there are politics involved…. Sometimes you may just come across guys who are hungrier!”— Frank Warren
Founder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series
The quote archive
Entrepreneurship
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
What motivates great entrepreneurs is fear of failure; and here's the thing – most entrepreneurs fail several times before they achieve success, and the more you fail, the more fear you have.
— Kevin O’LearyShark Tank investor, businessman, and former Canadian political candidate
It taught me the difference between the two types of people in the world. Those that own the store, and those that scrape shit off the floor. You have to decide which one you want to be. I didn't want to scrape shit off the floor. I wanted to own the store.
— Kevin O’LearyShark Tank investor, businessman, and former Canadian political candidate
Competition is great for consumers, but nothing destroys enterprise value faster than intense competition. To succeed in commerce, you need a great operating team focused on the nitty gritty details of the business.
— Alfred LinEither as a startup founder or a venture capital investor, you should not care about what others believe to be exciting or overhyped. Do your own primary research and make up your own mind.
— Alfred LinGreat founders such as Brian Chesky of Airbnb, Drew Houston of Dropbox, or Adi Tatarko of Houzz, are all on a mission to build a product or service that corrects something that they believe the world got wrong. They are on a mission to correct a personal problem or personal pain.
— Alfred LinI would love to say that we knew all the answers in advance, but the truth is that we discovered our product and opportunity, rather than planning for it.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
That's what entrepreneurship is all about–experimenting and finding a way of achieving some goal in the context of business. It's something I've always found fascinating.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
In business, you get incredible highs and lows… and it can take a decade of work before you start to see the story, and so having peer networks around you helps you realise other people have been through this.
— Scott FarquharCo-Founder of Atlassian & Technology Entrepreneur
I started my entrepreneurship journey straight out of college, and at the time my goal was simple. I didn't want a real job, and I didn't want to wear a suit…. Anything more than that was a bonus.
— Scott FarquharCo-Founder of Atlassian & Technology Entrepreneur
Another hugely common mistake is optimising your business for investors, and not customers and employees.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
When you're starting out, your ambition shouldn't be defined by someone else's success criteria. That's something I struggled with, and still do.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
In the same way that kids would benefit from healthy, happy parents- startups would benefit from healthy, happy founders.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
One of the biggest myths in startup-land is this idea that the pinnacle of startups is building a venture-scale company, backed by venture capital, growing exceptionally fast and being OK with high failure rates as a result; in other words, returning a significant amount of capital to an investor rather than any other outcome.
— Rand FishkinFounder of Moz, SEO software company and industry thought leader
You have to be resilient and you have to find the right investors. Surround yourself with amazing investors who are experts.
— José NevesFounder and CEO of Farfetch, luxury fashion e-commerce platform
I dreamt of Farfetch for the love of fashion. I was absolutely determined to create something in the intersection of both fashion and tech – my two passions.
— José NevesFounder and CEO of Farfetch, luxury fashion e-commerce platform