21 Inspiring Quotes.....

These 10 Peter Drucker Quotes May Change Your World

Jeff Shore

My first college business professor was a fanatical Peter Drucker devotee.
He launched our course with a dissection of Drucker’s The Effective Executive and concluded with a thorough reading of The Practice of Management.

Through my professor's tireless evangelism, I developed a keen appetite for the timeless wisdom of this prescient thought leader.

Young entrepreneurs unfamiliar with Drucker would do well to study his insightful commentary on the world of "management." Millennials mired inside a traditional corporate environment and people living life inside lean startups will find his thinking particularly spot on.

Even after all these years, 10 Peter Drucker quotes still bounce around in my head constantly:

1. “Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right.”
2. “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”
3. “There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.”
4. “What gets measured gets improved.”
5. “Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.”
6. “So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.”
7. “People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”
8. “Meetings are by definition a concession to a deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.”
9. “Long-range planning does not deal with the future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.”
10. "Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things"

My cynical side (and my short attention span!) feels especially drawn to number eight on that list.

But the quotes that really excite and ignite my entrepreneurial imagination are numbers two and five.

Which quote resonates most deeply with you? Most importantly, which of Drucker's words will change your world?

50 Quotes on Leadership Every Entrepreneur Should Follow

John Rampton

Contributor

Entrepreneur and Connector

 

Every entrepreneur knows that the success of their business ultimately rests on their shoulders. Yes, the product you build and the team you hire are important, but your ability to lead is what carries your company.

With that kind of pressure, it’s easy to feel stressed, lonely and overwhelmed at times. Every great leader has faced a challenge that defined their greatness, which is why we often turn to their advice when needed.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, or team leader, here are 50 inspirational quotes on leadership for when you need a little pep talk.

1. "A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be." – Rosalynn Carter
2. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” - Lao Tzu
3. "It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse." -  Adlai E. Stevenson II
4. "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." – Colin Powell
5. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” - Max DePree
6. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams
7. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” - Napoleon Bonaparte
8. "A leader...is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind." - Nelson Mandela
9. “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” - Aristotle
10. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
11. "As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." – Bill Gates
12. “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit." - John Maxwell
13. “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” - Brian Tracy
14. "The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." – George Orwell
15. “I start each day by telling myself what a positive influence I am on this world.” - Peter Daisyme
16. “Earn your leadership every day." - Michael Jordan
17. "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." – Jack Welch
18. “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” - Peter Drucker
19. "My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better." - Steve Jobs
20. "The led must not be compelled. They must be able to choose their own leader." – Albert Einstein
21. “Great leaders find ways to connect with their people and help them fulfill their potential.” - Steven J. Stowell
22. "To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way." - Pat Riley
23. "If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk." – Benjamin Hooks
24. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” - Jim Rohn
25. "A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." - Max Lucado
26. “To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
27. "It is absolutely necessary...for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders." - George Washington
28. "Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work." - Vince Lombardi
29. “A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.”  - Stephen King
30. "A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason."- J.P. Morgan
31. “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” - Chinese Proverb
32. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
33. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.”  - Andrew Carnegie
34. "Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar." - Orrin Woodward
35. "Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob." – Oscar Wilde
36. “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” - Sam Walton
37. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” -  Albert Schweitzer
38. “If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.” - Dolly Parton
39. “I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be.” - Warren Bennis
40. “In this world a man must either be an anvil or hammer.” -  Henry W. Longfellow
41. “It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself. (Absurdum est ut alios regat, qui seipsum regere nescit.)” - Latin Proverb
42. “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” -  Thomas Carlyle
43. “A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward.” - Ovid
44. “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader” - Henry Ford
45. “Rely on your own strength of body and soul. Take for your star self-reliance, faith, honesty, and industry. Don't take too much advice — keep at the helm and steer your own ship, and remember that the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of the work. Fire above the mark you intend to hit. Energy, invincible determination with the right motive, are the levers that move the world.” - Noah Porter
46. "Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter." Jaachynma N.E. Agu
47. “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.”  - Herbert Swope
48. “He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.”  - Solon
49. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” - Maya Angelou
50. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” - Theodore Roosevelt
Bonus:
“Screw it, let’s just do it.” - Richard Branson

 

Top 100 Inspirational Quotes

Kevin Kruse 

Inspirational quotes and motivational quotes have the power to get us through a bad week, and can even  give us the courage to pursue our life’s dreams. In my book, 4 Keys to Happiness and Fulfillment at Work, I share surprising research into the true triggers of workplace motivation. So in the spirit of self motivation, here are 100 inspirational quotes.

1. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
2. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
3. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.  –Robert Frost
4. I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse. –Florence Nightingale
5. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
6. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan
7. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. –Amelia Earhart
8. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. –Babe Ruth
9. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. –W. Clement Stone
10. The past is a ghost, the future a dream. All we ever have is now. –Bill Cosby
11. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon
12. We become what we think about. –Earl Nightingale
13. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain
14. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. –Charles Swindoll
15. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. –Alice Walker
16. The mind is everything. What you think you become.  –Buddha
17. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. –Chinese Proverb
18. An unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates
19. Eighty percent of success is showing up. –Woody Allen
20. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs
21. Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. –Vince Lombardi
22. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. –Stephen Covey
23. Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso
24. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. –Christopher Columbus
25. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou
26. Either you run the day, or the day runs you. –Jim Rohn
27. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. –Henry Ford
28. The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain
29. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
30. The best revenge is massive success. –Frank Sinatra
31. People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.  That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar
32. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. –Anais Nin
33. If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. –Vincent Van Gogh
34. There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. –Aristotle
35. Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. –Jesus
36. The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
37. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined. –Henry David Thoreau
38. When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me. –Erma Bombeck
39. Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.  –Booker T. Washington
40. Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. – Ancient Indian Proverb
41. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. –Theodore Roosevelt
42. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. –George Addair
43. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. –Plato
44. Teach thy tongue to say, “I do not know,” and thous shalt progress. –Maimonides
45. Start where you are. Use what you have.  Do what you can. –Arthur Ashe
46. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. –John Lennon
47. Fall seven times and stand up eight. –Japanese Proverb
48. When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. –Helen Keller
49. Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see. –Confucius
50. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. –Anne Frank
51. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. –Lao Tzu
52. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. –Maya Angelou
53. Happiness is not something readymade.  It comes from your own actions. –Dalai Lama
54. If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. –Sheryl Sandberg
55. First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. –Aristotle
56. If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. –Latin Proverb
57. You can’t fall if you don’t climb.  But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground. –Unknown
58. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. –Marie Curie
59. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. –Les Brown
60. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marine
61. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. –Booker T. Washington
62. I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. –Leonardo da Vinci
63. Limitations live only in our minds.  But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. –Jamie Paolinetti
64. You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, no one to blame. –Erica Jong
65. What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. –Bob Dylan
66. I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. –Benjamin Franklin
67. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. –Bill Cosby
68. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
69. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it. –Chinese Proverb
70. There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. –Roger Staubach
71. It is never too late to be what you might have been. –George Eliot
72. You become what you believe. –Oprah Winfrey
73. I would rather die of passion than of boredom. –Vincent van Gogh
74. A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. –Unknown
75. It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.  –Ann Landers
76. If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. –Abigail Van Buren
77. Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs. –Farrah Gray
78. The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself–the invisible battles inside all of us–that’s where it’s at. –Jesse Owens
79. Education costs money.  But then so does ignorance. –Sir Claus Moser
80. I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear. –Rosa Parks
81. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. –Confucius
82. If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough. –Oprah Winfrey
83. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. –Dalai Lama
84. You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have. –Maya Angelou
85. Dream big and dare to fail. –Norman Vaughan
86. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. –Martin Luther King Jr.
87. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. –Teddy Roosevelt
88. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. –Tony Robbins
89. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. –Gloria Steinem
90. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. –Mae Jemison
91. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. –Beverly Sills
92. Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. –Eleanor Roosevelt
93. Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. –Grandma Moses
94. The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. –Ayn Rand
95. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford
96. It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln
97. Change your thoughts and you change your world. –Norman Vincent Peale
98. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. –Benjamin Franklin
99. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, “I’m possible!” –Audrey Hepburn
100. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. –Steve Jobs
101. If you can dream it, you can achieve it. –Zig Ziglar

30 Famous Quotes That Will Inspire Success In You

By Joel

The definition of success is different for everyone, whether it’s personal or professional we are always looking at improving in some area of our life. We all need some inspiration from time to time and that is why we have compiled a list of famous inspirational quotes that will help contribute to your success.

 30 Famous Success Quotes

1. “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.”
Dhirubhai Ambani

2. “The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.”
Mark Caine

3. “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Tony Robbins

4. “When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
Audre Lorde

5. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
Mark Twain

6. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

7. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Thomas A. Edison

8. “If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know & start charging for it.”
Kim Garst

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

10. “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Steve Jobs

11. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

12. “Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.”
Roger Babson

13. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi

14. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
H Jackson Brown Jr.

15. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
Vince Lombardi

16. “Success is about creating benefit for all and enjoying the process. If you focus on this & adopt this definition, success is yours.”
Kelly Kim

17. “I used to want the words ‘She tried’ on my tombstone. Now I want ‘She did it.’”
Katherine Dunham

18. “Really it comes down to your philosophy. Do you want to play it safe and be good or do you want to take a chance and be great?”
Jimmy J

19. “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
J. K Rowling

20. “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
Albert Einstein

21. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Harriet Tubman

22. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
Bruce Lee

23. “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”
Swami Vivekananda

24. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”
Dale Carnegie

25. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
Jim Rohn

26. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
Ayn Rand

27. “If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it – teach yourself to be impatient.”
Gurbaksh Chahal

28. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.”
Robert Kiyosaki

29. “If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!”
T. Harv Eker

30. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Steve Jobs