These amazingly talented male and female entrepreneurs share their most valuable advice for achieving success. There seems to be a pattern of looking past your failures and pursuing your goals with relentless persistence to reach success.
Read on for some invaluable advice on how you can be successful in your business and in life.
Sara Blakely (Founder Of Spanx)
“When I was growing up, my dad would encourage my brother and I to fail. We would be sitting at the dinner table and he would ask, ‘So what did you guys fail at this week?’ If we didn’t have something to contribute, he would be disappointed. When I did fail at something, he’d high-five me. What I didn’t realize at the time was that he was completely reframing my definition of failure at a young age. To me, failure means not trying; failure isn’t the outcome. If I have to look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘I didn’t try that because I was scared,’ that is failure.” – Sara Blakely – Founder of Spanx
Gurbaksh Chahal (Author & Serial Entrepreneur)
“People tend to think that in order to start a new business they have to come up with something new and dazzling, but that’s a myth – and it’s often propagated by venture capitalists. Find something you love and do it better than everyone else.” – Gurbaksh Chahal – Serial Entrepreneur, Net Worth $200 Million
Jeff Weiner (CEO of LinkedIn)
“As a child, I can’t recall a day that went by without my dad telling me I could do anything I set my mind to. He said it so often, I stopped hearing it. Along with lines like “eat your vegetables, I just assumed it was one of those bromides that parents repeated endlessly to their kids.
It wasn’t until decades later that I fully appreciated the importance of those words and the impact they had on me.” – Jeff Weiner – CEO of LinkedIn
Kevin Rose (Founder of Digg, Pownce & Milk)
“Go build it. If you really believe in something, you should just build it. If you love it, it won’t feel like work. It’s okay to drop out of college if you have an awesome idea.” – Kevin Rose – Founder of Digg, Pownce & Milk
Caterina Fake (Founder of Flickr & Hunch)
“Entrepreneurs need to start building today. The Internet has amazing powers of distribution. You can test your ideas. You can see if it works, if it doesn’t work, whether it’s fun, and whether you’re sufficiently motivated. People who go into entrepreneurship to get rich aren’t going to be happy. It’s the building of things that makes you happy. You have to enjoy the process whether you succeed or fail.” – Caterina Fake – Founder of Flickr & Hunch
Evan Williams (Founder of Blogger & Twitter)
“Surround yourself with great people, try hard things, say no to distractions and remember to care for yourself. Failure of your company is not failure in life. Failure in your relationships is.” – Evan Williams – Founder of Blogger & Twitter
Richard Branson (CEO of Virgin)
“My mother always taught me never to look back in regret but to move on to the next thing. The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me. I have fun running ALL the Virgin businesses — so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve.” – Richard Branson – CEO of Virgin
Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman Of Google)
“Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids.” – Eric Schmidt – Executive Chairman Of Google
Elon Musk (Founder Of PayPal, Tesla Motors & SpaceX)
“I always knew that there was a chance of failure in all my endeavors. But I felt that they were important enough that I had to try, even if I thought the probability of success was less than 50%. Try to get together a group of people to do something useful. This may seem like an obvious thing, but often people will organize into a company that doesn’t produce anything useful.” – Elon Musk – Founder Of PayPal, Tesla Motors & SpaceX
Guy Kawasaki (Venture Capitalist & Best Selling Author)
“There is only hard work and luck, which are really two sides of the same coin. The search for a secret sauce is a futile waste of time. Create something, sell it, make it better, sell it some more and then create something that obsoletes what you used to make.” – Guy Kawasaki – Venture Capitalist & Best Selling Author
Mark Cuban (Shark Tank Investor & Owner of the Dallas Mavericks)
“One thing we can all control is effort. Put in the time to become an expert in whatever you’re doing. It will give you an advantage because most people don’t do this. The beauty of success, whether it’s finding the girl of your dreams, the right job or financial success, is that it doesn’t matter how many times you have failed, you only have to be right once.” And, “then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.” – Mark Cuban – Billionaire Investor & Owner of the Dallas Mavericks
Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook)
“I don’t believe we have a professional self from Mondays through Fridays and a real self for the rest of the time. That kind of division probably never worked, but in today’s world … it makes even less sense. I’ve cried at work … I talk about my hopes and fears and ask people about theirs. I try to be myself–honest about my strengths and weaknesses.” – Sheryl Sandberg – COO of Facebook
Chad Hurley (Co-Founder Of YouTube)
“As you start building the product, don’t assume that you know all the answers. Surround yourself with great people. You need people you can trust to do their job and sometimes the product or idea can die if someone is too controlling. Be prepared to adapt. Also, being lean and mean helps you build something more efficient. You may have initial thoughts or ideas on how something will work but you need to observe how you and the community are using it. Don’t be afraid to change direction mid course.” – Chad Hurley – Co-Founder Of YouTube
J.K. Rowling (Author of the Harry Potter Series)
“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” – J.K. Rowling – Author of the Harry Potter series
Matt Barrie (CEO of Freelancer.com)
“Too many capable people limit their options because they think they don’t have enough experience or feel that they need to work their way up the corporate ladder by visiting every single rung on the way up. Too many people tell me that their dream is to leave their boring cog in the machine day job and start their own business, but they couldn’t possibly think of doing that because they’ve never had experience running one – well that’s a bit chicken and egg! Carpe diem! The time is now! Time and tide waits for no man. No one is going to hand you your future on a plate.” – Matt Barrie – CEO of Freelancer.com
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Jordan Belfort (Best Selling Author & Motivational Speaker)
“In business you should always offer value first and then get the money afterwards. The mistake I made was that I focused so much on the creation of money without going out there and giving value first. Monetizing value is easy; it’s a matter of building that value first.” – Jordan Belfort – Best Selling Author & Motivational Speaker
Daymond John (Founder of FUBU Clothing and Shark Tank Investor)
“Try to make all the mistakes with your own money and on a small level so that when you are responsible for a partner’s money or assets you’ve learned and you don’t make bigger mistakes. Try to go as far as you can without anybody else’s help first.” – Daymond John – Founder of FUBU Clothing and Shark Tank Investor
Arianna Huffington (Founder Of The Huffington Post)
“My mother told me failure is not the opposite of success; it’s a stepping stone to success. You’re going to fail, probably many times. But that’s okay — in fact, it’s essential. Very often, the difference between success and failure is simply perseverance. If we become so dependent on things always being a success, then we’re in a very vulnerable position — because we’re not in control of how the world is going to receive something.” – Arianna Huffington – Founder Of The Huffington Post
Ben Huh (CEO & Founder of Cheezburger)
“You need to put the fear of risk aside. Startups need leaders who are willing to persevere through the hard times. Failure is an option, and a real risk. Failure and risk are something entrepreneurs should understand well, and learn to manage. Don’t have a fear of talking about your failures. Don’t hide your mistakes.” – Ben Huh – CEO & Founder of Cheezburger
James Caan (BBC’s “Dragons Den” Investor)
“Never stop asking yourself whether you can do things better. Keep testing every aspect of your business to the nth degree, and challenge every one of your assumptions. The tougher you are on yourself now, the tougher your business will be out there in the real world.” – James Caan – BBC’s “Dragons Den” Investor
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