101 motivational quotes for startups

Being in a startup is tough, especially if you're the founders and you are struggling to keep the startup alive. But rest assured that you're not alone. Here are some quotes from people who have been there and know what it feels like. Be it words of advice, or just knowing that you're not alone, I hope some of these help you get through whatever down times! :)

1. “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.” Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos
2. “I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” Jake Nickell, Co-founder, Threadless
3. “Innovation is not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple
4. “The value of an idea lies in the using of it” Thomas Edison, General Electric Co-founder
5. “Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder
6. Always choose your investors based on who you want to work with, be friends with, and get advice from. Never, ever, choose your investors based on valuation.” Jason Goldberg, American film and television producer
7. “Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations” Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media founder and CEO
8. “Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that” Anthony Volodkin, Hype Machine founder
9. “Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors” Chris Dixon, Andreesen Horowitz investor
10. “If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father, Entrepreneur
11. “It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower” Paul Graham, YCombinator co-founder
12. “Entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create” David Karp, Tumblr founder and CEO
13. “Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop” Jeffrey Zeldman, A List Apart Publisher
14. “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late” Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder
15. “When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue” Josh James, Omniture CEO and co-founder
16. “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars — I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over” Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO
17. “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, SPANX founder
18. “The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow” Ingvar Kamprad, Founder of IKEA
19. “I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one” Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder
20. “Being too early is worse than being too late for a new product” Don Norman, Author, Design of Everyday Things
21. “Diligence is the mother of good luck” Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States
22. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over” Richard Branson, Virgin Group founder
23. “Sustaining a successful business is a hell of a lot of work, and staying hungry is half the battle” Wendy Tan White, MoonFruit co-founder and CEO
24. “The day you start your company you are over your budget and behind schedule – Normans Law” Don Norman, Author, Design of Everyday Things
25. “Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.” Thomas A. Edison, American inventor and businessman
26. “Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” Mark Cuban, AXS TV chairman and entrepreneur
27. “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen” Scott Belsky, Behance co-founder
28. “Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once” Drew Houston, American internet entrepreneur who is best known for being the founder and CEO of Dropbox
29. “Fail often so you can succeed sooner” Tom Kelley, Ideo partner
30. “Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch” Michael Arrington, TechCrunch founder and co-editor
31. “The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something” Seth Godin, Squidoo founder, author and blogger
32. “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, Github co-founder
33. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door” Milton Berle,  comedian and actor
34. “I doubt I’ll ever go back to corporate work. Once you see the light, there is no turning back” Magnus Jepson, WooThemes co-founder
35. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently” Henry Ford, American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company
36. “If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble” Omar Hamoui, AdMob co-founder
37. “A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader” Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures co-founder
38. “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, American engineer and entrepreneur who founded both Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza-Time Theaters chain
39. “I don’t believe that old cliche that good things come to those who wait. I think good things come to those who want something so bad they can’t sit still” Ashton Kutcher, Actor and investor
40. “The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world” Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO
41. “Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” Michael Dell, Dell chairman and CEO
42. “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.”  Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder
43. “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, 500Startups co-founder
44. “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father, Entrepreneur
45. “In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination” Steve Case, AOL co-founder
46. “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.”  George Lorimer, journalist and author
47. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder
48. “Well done is better than well said.” Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father, Entrepreneur
49. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance” Steve Jobs, American entrepreneur, marketer, and inventor, who was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc
50. “Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell” Lisa Stone, BlogHer co-founder and CEO
51. “Behold the turtle, he makes progress only when he sticks his neck out” Bruce Levin
52. “Your reputation is more important than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career.” Ryan Freitas, About.me co-founder
53. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Peter Drucker, Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author
54. “There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.” Henry Ford, American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company
55. “Its better to be late than to be early to Market. Late you can catchup.” Don Norman, Author, Design of Everyday Things
56. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere” Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist
57. “You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down” Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder
58. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody” Bill Cosby, American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist
59. “The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake- you can’t learn anything from being perfect.” Adam Osborne,  Thailand-born British-American author, book and software publisher, computer designer and entrepreneur
60. “To win without risk is to triumph without glory” Corneille
61. “To succeed… You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” Tony Dorsett, Former NFL player
62. “We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” Arianna Huffington, Co-founder, The Huffington Post
63. “Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.” Tony Hsieh, American internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the CEO of the online shoe and clothing shop Zappos.com
64. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple
65. “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” Henry Ford, American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company
66. “To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.” Thomas Watson, Sr., Former chairman and CEO of International Business Machines
67. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin, English naturalist and geologist
68. “There’s a way to do it better – find it.” Thomas A. Edison, American inventor and businessman
69. “Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works” Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple
70. “Honesty is the best policy.” Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father, Entrepreneur
71. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Henry Ford, American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company
72. “User experience is the whole experience, the closest i can think of is a trip to disneyland” Don Norman, Author, Design of Everyday Things
73. “The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place.” Orison Swett Marden, Successful hotel owner and spiritual author in the New Thought Movement
74. “Always deliver more than expected.” Larry Page, Google co-founder
75. “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, Businessman, 18th-greatest American CEO of all time
76. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill Gates, American business magnate, investor, programmer, inventor and philanthropist, co-founder Microsoft
77. “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, The Huffington Post Media Group president and EIC
78. “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple
79. “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” Peter F. Drucker, Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author
80. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison, American inventor and businessman
81. “Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless.”  James Cash Penney, J.C. Penney founder
82. “You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” Larry Page, Google co-founder
83. “Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.” Thomas A. Edison, American inventor and businessman
84. “One today is worth two tomorrows.” Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father, Entrepreneur
85. “The one thing Startups need is Focus” Don Norman, Author, Design of Everyday Things
86. “It’s better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy.” Paul Graham, YCombinator co-founder
87. “Turn a perceived risk into an asset.” Aaron Patzer, Founder, Mint
88. “Don’t find fault, find a remedy. Anybody can complain.” Henry Ford, American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company
89. “If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.” Donald Trump, American business magnate, investor, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts
90. “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,  founder and current spokesperson of Mrs. Fields Bakeries
91. “The second most important thing for entrepreneurs is to build what people need” Don Norman, Author, Design of Everyday Things
92. “An invention that is quickly accepted will turn out to be a rather trivial alteration of something that has already existed.”  Edwin Land, Polaroid co-founder
93. “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, American Internet entrepreneur and investor. He is a technology entrepreneur who has played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and CEO of Amazon.com
94. “There is no substitute for hard work.” Thomas A. Edison, American inventor and businessman
95. “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” Henry Ford, American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company
96. “Make your team feel respected, empowered, and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.” Tim Westergren, Founder, Pandora
97. “We try to solve very complicated problems without letting people know how complicated the problem was.” Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President, Apple
98. “Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.”  Jack Dorsey, American web developer and businessman widely known as a co-founder and co-creator of Twitter, and as the founder and CEO of Square
99. “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple
100. “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.” Henry Ford, American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company
101. “Make the world a better place one green dot at a time” Don Norman, Author, Design of Everyday Things