Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you’re building a business, regardless of your stage, you’ve undoubtedly encountered challenges and trials that test your mettle and make you question whether you should keep moving forward.
If that feels too close to home for you, you’re not losing your edge or failing. You’re probably right where you need to be. It’s a mental game every entrepreneur will play countless times throughout their career.
As someone who has been in this spot more times than I care to recall, I want to inspire you and provide a spark to help you remember what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. I have compiled a handful of quotes from business leaders that encapsulate the wisdom and motivation you need for each stage of the entrepreneurial journey.
Related: 50 Inspirational Quotes to Motivate You Going into 2025
A dream and a plan
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” –Rob Siltanen, advertising executive and creative director
If you’re tossing around the idea of starting your own business, you’ll get plenty of unsolicited advice, and most of it won’t be helpful. Many people will likely question your sanity and whether it’s wise to invest your time and resources in something likely to fail within a year.
If you’re serious about being a successful entrepreneur, Siltanen’s wisdom may sound strange, but it’s also extremely practical. Starting a business is a massive risk, and you’ll have people who think they know what’s best for you. But this isn’t their dream or business idea. It’s yours.
Surround yourself with brilliant, experienced and “crazy” business minds who are supportive and straightforward with you. Find people who have been where you are and seek their counsel. Chances are, they’ll understand your situation better than anyone and can help guide you down the right path.
Get moving
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” –Walt Disney, Co-founder of The Walt Disney Company
You will never feel comfortable enough to start a business. With all the potential risks and necessary resources, it never feels “just right.” So don’t wait for it. Just do it.
Seek sound advice, plan your steps and try to understand as much as you can about the process ahead, but there will come a point where you become so bogged down in the planning phase that you just need to move. If you wait too long, you lose momentum or someone else swoops in.
Failing is a terrible feeling, but it’s one of the best teachers you could ever have. So use it. Your plans will backfire. Funding will fall through. This is simply part of the process. It’s unavoidable, so don’t let it keep you from starting.
Research, plan, and treat your company like a minimum viable product. Get it going, learn from what you see and iterate.
Related: 10 Ways to Stay Motivated as an Entrepreneur
Working through the trials
“Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.” –John Wooden, Legendary Basketball Coach
If you’re in the thick of getting your business off the ground, you’ve quickly learned that it is a painful process that throws more challenges your way each day.
Yes, this is natural. No, it doesn’t get easier. If it were that easy, everyone would do it.
Yet there is so much to learn amid your trials. It might be a quick exit from a company that wants to buy you out. Or maybe while solving a problem, you stumbled upon something entirely different than your current product or service that’s even better.
Or, you might realize that you can withstand the most challenging things that life hurls at you. Regardless of your situation, you’ll experience difficulty. When you do, you have two choices: wallow in it and play the victim or accept your situation, let yourself feel the emotion, but focus on how you can come out of it for the better.
Prepare for the next phase of your journey
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” –Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple
If you’ve reached a point where your business is gaining traction and has been turning a profit for a while, the temptation to see what else is possible may be gnawing at you.
You might feel like there are innovations ahead and ideas to explore, yet you still have lingering doubts. What if we overextend ourselves? Could we ruin something we know is working to chase down something that could fail?
While these doubts are natural to every entrepreneur, don’t let them stop you from exploring what’s next or, even better — sparking innovations that move your industry forward.
By reaching this point, you know you can take significant risks, so it shouldn’t surprise that you’re itching to do so again. Yes, you have a good thing going, but innovation never happens to those who stand pat. Netflix wouldn’t be the streaming juggernaut it is today if it simply stuck to mail-order DVDs.
Yes, new frontiers are full of the unknown, but the companies that find greater success are the ones who take what has gotten them there to build something even more incredible.
Serving a greater purpose
“A business is simply an idea to make other people’s lives better.” –Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Galactic
Regardless of where your entrepreneurial journey takes you, when all is said and done, you will look at yourself in the mirror one day and ask if it was all worth it. Can you examine yourself and say — even if you failed, “I truly put everything into making this work?”
All the stress and sleepless nights. Every rejection or setback. Overcoming the most significant obstacles to building a business. Are you proud of what you accomplished?
However, the most satisfied entrepreneurs — the ones who make it through the crucible of startup life and find satisfaction on the other side — are the ones who realize that what they’re doing serves a greater purpose than what they accomplished. They have built something that helps people, making lives easier or more fulfilling. It meets a need that no one else could.
It doesn’t matter where you are in the process; if you can’t see the meaning beyond your present circumstances, you’re less likely to find true pleasure in what you do.
Related: How to Stay Motivated When Starting a Business
Fight the good fight
Building a startup is one of the most challenging things you could ever do in life. There’s rarely an easy decision, and too often, you feel like the world’s weight is on your shoulders.
Still, it can be one of the most rewarding processes you’ll ever experience. It can be one that helps build you as a person and tests your limits like nothing else could ever do. Maybe these quotes resonate deeply with you, or you need to find inspiration elsewhere.
Either way, if it’s your dream to build something of your own, don’t quit. Inspiration to persevere is all around you. You just have to stop what you’re doing and look for it.
