Confucius once said that there are three ways to become wise:  the noble way to get wiser is through self-reflection; the bitter way to get wiser is through experience; and the easy way to get wiser is through imitation.

Personally, I’d rather wise up the easy way — and that’s why I’ve made the following resource.

To imitate the wisdom of the world’s most successful CEO’s and Founders, I’ve spent the last week sifting through the vastness of the Internet for the most wise thoughts on business. The wise thoughts below come people like Steve Jobs, Andrew Carnegie, Richard Branson, and PayPal founder Elon Musk (who I recently profiled for startup advice).

I’ve organized this post into six sections which you can skip to with the table of contents on the right. I’ll start off with my five favorite business proverbs, which I found here. Then I’ll share business leaders’ wisdom on what really matters, the importance of customers, metaphors for business, business tips, and conclude with my top ten most wise thoughts on business.

5 Wise Business Proverbs

#1  On Planting Trees

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

– Chinese Proverb

#2  On Focus

“He who begins many things finishes but few.”

– German Proverb

#3  On Castles

“Building a castle is difficult. Defending and maintaining it is harder still.”

– Asian Proverb

#4  On Perseverance

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

– Japanese Proverb

#5  On Your Calling

“Everyone should observe carefully which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.”

– Hasidic Proverb

Photo Courtesy of Skoeber

10 Thoughts on What Really Matters in Business

#1  Vision

“Capital isn’t scarce; vision is.”

– Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart

#2  Service

“He profits most who serves best.”

– Arthur F. Sheldon, Early Rotary Club Leader

#3  Knowledge

“To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business.”

– J. Paul Getty, Founder of the Getty Oil Company

#4  People

“Take away my people, but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory floors. Take away my factories, but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory.”

– Andrew Carnegie, Founder of the Carnegie Steel Company

As Mary Kay once said, “A company is only as good as the people it keeps.”

#5  Experience

“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins:  cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.”

– Harold Geneen, Former President of the ITT Corporation

#6  Peers

 “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

– Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

#7  Character

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” –

– Norman Schwarzkopf, US General

#8  Time

“Your greatest resource is your time.”

– Brian Tracy, Motivational Speaker and Author

#9  Your Network

“Your network is your net worth.”

– Tim Sanders (and many others), former Yahoo! Director

#10  Your Customers

“Revolve your world around your customers and more customers will revolve around you.”

– Heather Williams

10 Thoughts on The Importance of Happy Customers

I found so much wisdom on customers, I had no choice but to give customer wisdom its very own segment. Great business minds just seem to get that “the result of a business is a satisfied customer” (Peter Drucker).

#1  Think of The Customer as Your Boss

“There is only one boss:  the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

– Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart

#2  Let them Design Your Products

“Who decides what’s in Windows?  The customers who buy it.”

– Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

#3  …Or Don’t 

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

– Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple Inc.

More on Jobs:  21 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs

#4  Talk to Your Customers

“The more you engage with customers, the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.”

– John Russell, President of Harley Davidson

#5  Learn from Your Customers

“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.”

– Zig Ziglar, Founder of Zig Ziglar Corporation

More on Ziglar:  11 Life-Changing Business Lessons from Zig Ziglar

#6  Happy Customers are Your Greatest Marketing Tool

“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

– Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

There’s simply no more effective, more persuasive marketing tool than word of mouth. Bezos has talked about word of mouth is particularly important for online businesses:  “If you make your customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”  I would argue that the same is true today regardless of whether the business is online or off.

More on Bezos:  15 Business Lessons from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

#7  Good Customer Service Never Quits

“Customer service is just a day in, day out, ongoing, never-ending, unremitting, persevering, compassionate type of activity.”

–  Leon Gorman, CEO of L.L. Bean

#8  Like and Respect Your Customers  On liking:

“If you don’t genuinely like your customers, chances are they won’t buy.”

– Thomas Watson, Former CEO of IBM

And respecting:

“It all starts with respect. If you respect the customer as a human being, and truly honor their right to be treated fairly and honestly, everything else is much easier.”

– Doug Smith

#9  Focus on Maintaining Customers

“Every client you keep is one less that you need to find.”

– Nigel Sanders

 #10  The Customer is Always Right

 “Right or wrong, the customer is always right.”

– Marshall Field, Founder of Marshall Feed and Company

5 Deep Metaphors for Business

#1  Business is Art

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”

– Andy Warhol, Pop Artist

#2  Business is War + Sport

“Business is a combination of war and sport.”

– Andre Maurois, French Author

#3  Business is a Seafaring

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

– William G.T. Shedd, American Theologian

#4  Business is a Game

“Business is more exciting than any game.”

– Lord Beaverbrook, Anglo-Canadian Business Tycoon

#5  Business is a Struggle

“Business is always a struggle. There are always obstacles and competitors. There is never an open road, except the wide road that leads to failure. Every great success has always been achieved by fight. Every winner has scars.”

– Herbert N. Casson, Canadian Author

10 Wise Business Tips

  #1  Have Fun…

“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”

– Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, Ltd.

More on Branson:  15 Business Lessons from Richard Branson

#2  …But Not Too Much Fun

“I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do the things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.”

– Michael Dell

#3  Be Decisive

“The first one gets the oyster; the second gets the shell.”

– Andrew Carnegie, Founder of the Carnegie Steel Company

The first person to identify and capitalize on a new business model has a huge advantage over the competition. Act decisively and quickly to benefit. Act slowly and you end up chewing on oyster shells.

#4  Take Risks

“You cannot avoid risk, you just need to manage it.”

– Dr. Neal W. Pollock

#5  Think Positive

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

– Henry Ford, Founder of Ford

#6  Work Hard

“Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.”

–  David Rockefeller

And another:

“No legitimate business man ever got started on the road to permanent success by any other means than that of hard, intelligent work, coupled with an earned credit, plus character.”

– F.D. Van Amburgh, Author of The Mental Spark Plug

#7  Have a Heart

“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart.”

– Thomas Watson, Sr., former CEO of IBM

#8 Mess Up

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.”

– Catherine Cook, Founder of MeetMe

#9  Make it Personal

“All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal.”

– Mark Cuban

More on Cuban:  10 Winning Business Lesson from Mark Cuban

 #10  Solve Big Problems

“Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems.”

– Sergey Brin, Founder of Google

More on Brin:  Google’s 8 Simple Rules

10 Most Wise Thoughts on Business

#1  Change = Opportunity

“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”

– Peter F. Drucker, Management Consultant and Author

#2  Fast is the New Big

“The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”

– Rupert Murdoch, Founder of News Corporation

#3  Lead through Innovation

“Innovation distinguishes between being a leader and a follower.”

– Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple Inc.

#4  Automate (Carefully)

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

– Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

More on Gates:  Top 10 Business Lessons from Bill Gates

#5  Figure Out How to Provide More For Less

“The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.”

– Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

#6  Good Business Benefits All

“I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well.”

– Alan Greenspan, American Economist and Federal Reserve Chairman

#7  Elevate the Product

“I’d say stay very focused on the quality of the product.   People get really  wrapped up in all sorts of esoteric notions of how to manage etc., [but]  I think people should get much more focused on the product itself – how do you make the product incredibly compelling to a customer – just become maniacally focused on building it better.  I think people get distracted from that.”

– Elon Musk, Founder of Tesla Motors

#8  Pay Well

“I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.”

– Robert Bosch, German Industrialist

#9  Don’t Seek Perfection

“Business is complicated and imperfect. Every business everywhere is staffed with imperfect human beings and exists by providing a product or service to other imperfect human beings.”

– Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy.com

#10  There’s No Limit 

“We are currently not planning on conquering the world.”

– Sergey Brin, Founder of Google

Want More Wise Thoughts?

I hope you’re feeling more than just one day wiser after reading these 50 thoughts on business. But if you’re still hungry for more wisdom, you can check out the inspiration for this article, 50 Great Thoughts on Success. Here’s one of my favorites:

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

–  Winston Churchill

Before I go I want to leave you with one wise thought, from one of the wisest people to have ever lived, Socrates:  “The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.”

The post 50 Wise Thoughts on Business appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Keep reading and they might tell you.

We combed through the interviews, speeches, and rants of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs to find their best quotes. Some quotes will inspire you, others will inform you, and a couple might even just change the way you think about online business forever.

I’ve broken the quotes down into categories like Quotes About Risk and Practical Quotes, which you can view on the table contents to jump to whatever section of quotes you like.  The Internet’s brightest young entrepreneurial minds are talking on subjects from Simplicity to Social Media – and we would be fools not to listen.

Everybody on this list below started their company in their teens or early 20’s and they’ve all achieved wild success beyond their years. A few of the young entrepreneurs on the list’s age has crept into the early 30’s, but that’s still pretty young to be a CEO.

The 50 top quotes from the top young entrepreneurs is below. If you’re interested in this post you may like our 50 Great Thoughts on Success and our Top 30 Quotes To Inspire Entrepreneurs.

Getting Started

“I find it best to dive right in and learn the hard way.”

– Pete Cashmore, Mashable

“If you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.”

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

“A hard thing is done by figuring out how to start.”

– Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz

“To any entrepreneur: if you want to do it, do it now. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it.”

– Catherine Cook, MyYearbook

“If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100% from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

– Ben Weissenstein, Grand Slam Garage Sales

The “Big” Idea

“I don’t have big ideas. I sometimes have small ideas, which seem to work out.”

– Matt Mullenweg, WordPress

“I suffer from the delusion that every product of my imagination is not only possible, but always on the cusp of becoming real.”

– Sean Parker, Napster

“Choose something unique.”

– Angelo Sotiro, DeviantART

“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.”

– Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne

“If Google teaches you anything, it’s that small ideas can be big.”

– Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

Being a Young Entrepreneur

“I think I was very naïve early on, but that also meant I didn’t know what couldn’t be done.”

– Matt Mickiewicz, 99 Designs

“It’s not about how many years of experience you have. It’s about the quality of your years of experience.”

– Jacob Cass, Logo of the Day

“The earlier you start, the more time you have to mess up.”

– Emil Motycka, Motycka Enterprises

“There’s no committee that says, ‘This is the type of person who can change the world – and you can’t.’ Realizing that anyone can do it is the first step. The next step is figuring out how you’re going to do it.”

– Adora Svitak, Flying Fingers

Quotes About Risk

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.”

– Catherine Cook, MyYearbook

“If you start with nothing and end up with nothing, there’s nothing lost.”

– Michael Dunlop, Income Diary

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

“Don’t make decisions based on fear.”

– Jake Nickell, Threadless

Quotes About Failure

“I’ve also learned that the biggest lessons came from my biggest mistakes.”

– Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne

“The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is that you’ll fail ten times for every success.”

– Adam Horwitz, Mobile Monopoly

“Running a start-up is like eating glass. You just start to like the taste of your own blood.”

– Sean Parker, Napster

Quotes About Making Money

“I think not focusing on money makes you sane because in the long run it can probably drive you crazy.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

“The companies that I really admire the most are the ones that have a deep visceral understanding of why people use their service, and they figure out ways of making money that are completely consistent with how people are feeling and what they are doing at the time.”

– Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

“Great products sell themselves.”

Kevin Systrom, Instagram

“To be successful online, you have to be nimble and evolve where the opportunities are. You have to layer revenue streams.”

– Angelo Sotiro, DeviantART

“There are a lot of rich people in the world. There are very few people who have the privilege of getting to invent things that billions of people use.”

– David Karp, Tumblr

 Following Your Passion

“Every single person I know who is successful at what they do is successful because they love doing it.”

– Joe Penna, Mystery Guitar Man

“Anything can be done, as long as you truly believe it.”

– Ashley Qualls, WhateverLife

“We led with our conviction rather than rational, because rational said it was impossible.”

– Daniel Ek, Spotify

“Find something you love and do it better than everyone else.”

– Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne

Practical Advice

“My number one piece of advice is: you should learn how to program.”

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

“If you make the Internet, live on the internet.”

– Matthew Mullenweg, WordPress

“A poor logo doesn’t mean a business will fail, and a good logo doesn’t mean it will succeed – it just helps. Ultimately a good logo is something that people recognize instantly and relate to.”

– Matt Mickiewicz, 99 Designs

“SEO is a race, not a sprint.”

– Neil Patel, Quick Sprout

“Don’t take too much advice. It’s just that most people who have a lot of advice to give—there are a few people who are exceptions, and they have a lot of data in front of them—most people generalize whatever they did and say that’s the strategy that made it work.”

– Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

“Over-deliver every time.”

– Alex Maroko, Game Speed Insider

Quotes on Social Media

“Building and hanging on to an audience is the biggest role of social media.”

– Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal

“I believe photos is one of the underlying things in every social network that becomes successful.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

“Social media really grew up.”

– Kevin Rose, Digg

Quotes on Startups

– Blake Ross, Mozilla

“There’s a lot of pressure to look like the last company that was successful.”

– Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

“The pace of change for entrepreneurs is rapidly accelerating, and the cost and risk of launching a new business and getting off the ground is just amazing. The ability to gain user feedback really quickly and adapt to what your consumers want is totally different with the web as it is now. But finding a new market, helping people and taking that original idea and turning it into a business is really exciting right now.”

– Matt Mickiewicz, 99 Designs

“Every startup should address a real and demonstrated need in the world. If you build a solution to a problem lots of people have, it’s so easy to sell your product to the world.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

“The transition strategies are more important than understanding what the outcome state will be.”

– Sean Parker, Napster

“We are really competing against ourselves, we have no control over how other people perform.”

– Pete Cashmore, Mashable

Quotes on Simplicity

“Every feature has some maintenance cost, and having fewer features lets us focus on the ones we care about and make sure they work very well.”

– David Karp, Tumblr

“Focusing on one thing and doing it really, really well can get you very far.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

“The trend of design toward simplicity and accessibility in software happened for a reason—simple sells, simple’s usable and simple scales.”

– Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz

“I’m a firm believer in shades of gray.”

– Blake Ross, Mozilla

“A poorly implemented feature hurts more than not having it at all.”

– Noah Everett, Twitpic

Quotes on Success:

“Success is defined in units of fun. It’s all about being happy.”

– Jake Nickell, Threadless

“Success comes down to hard work plus passion, over time. If you work really, really hard over a long period of time, it will pay off.”

– Stanley Tang, eMillions

“Solving specific problems is what drives me. I am not interested in having a career. I never have been.”

Sean Parker, Napster

“I’m here to build something for the long-term. Anything else is a distraction.”

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Inside the Mind of a Young Entrepreneur

I love quotes because they’re a window into a person’s mind while they’re thinking their most clearly. And obviously it’s best when the people you’re quoting are as innovative and intelligent as these young entrepreneurs. After compiling a post like this, I feel like I’m swimming in wisdom and insight from the best and brightest.

I would be interested in hearing from you below. Are there were any quotes above that struck you in particular or ones that you disagree with? Are there any young entrepreneur quotes that I didn’t include above that I should have?

If you read this article because you’re starting out on the path to online entrepreneurship, we offer a road map to making money online that links to guides and resources every step of the way. If you’re just looking for more inspiration, I recommend you check out 21 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs.

The post Top 50 Young Entrepreneur Quotes appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Are you completely successful?

By the time you get to the bottom of this page, you may be.

Success is all about having the right mindset. That’s why I’ve compiled 50 of the most powerful perspectives on success from some of history’s most successful people. Their definitions, quotations, formulas, misconceptions, and principles paint a clear picture of the mindset of a success.

We have two more awesome posts on quotes, 15 Best Quotes From 15 Of The Great Entrepreneurs and Top 30 Quotes To Inspire Entrepreneurs.

Top 10 Definitions of Success

#1 Winston Churchill:

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

#2 Deepak Chopra:

“Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals.”

#3 Jim Rohn:

“Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

#4 Anita Roddick:

“I want to define success by redefining it. For me it isn’t that solely mythical definition – glamour, allure, power of wealth, and the privilege from care. Any definition of success should be personal because it’s so transitory. It’s about shaping my own destiny.”

#5 Richard Branson:

“It is the satisfaction of doing it for yourself and motivating others to work with you in bringing it about. It is about the fun, innovation, creativity with the rewards being far greater than purely financial.”

15 Lessons from Richard Branson

#6 Orison Swett Marden:

“When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, this is happiness, this is success.”

#7 Zig Ziglar:

“Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”

Here are 11 Life-Changing Business Lessons from Zig Ziglar.

#8 George Sheehan:

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.”

#9 Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Success:  To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded!”

#10 Wilfred Peterson:

“Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve.”

++++++++++++++++++

Top 10 Quotes on Success

#1 Thomas Edison:

“Success is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

#2 Dorothea Brande:

“Act as though it is impossible to fail.”

#3 Woody Allen:

“Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.”

#4 Mark Victor Hansen:

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

#5 Yoda:

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

#6 Taryn Rose:

“Fear regret more than failure.”

#7 Edward Simmons:

“The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right.”

#8 Abraham Lincoln:

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.”

#9 George Bernard Shaw:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

#10 Anonymous:

“God gave us two ends: one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use. Heads you win; tails, you lose.”

Top 10 Formulas for Success

#1 Albert Einstein:

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.”

#2 Thomas J. Watson:

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”

#3 Stanley Tang:

“Success comes down to hard work plus passion, over time.”

#4 Swami Vivekananda:

“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.”

#5 Mark Twain:

“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”

#6 Napoleon Hill

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.”

#7 James Allen:

“For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?”

#8 Unknown:

“Success = an optimist in thought + a pessimist in action.”

#9 Anonymous:

“An Unfailing Success Plan: At each day’s end write down the six most important things to do tomorrow; number them in order of importance, and then do them.”

#10 Arnold H. Glasgow:

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”

Top 10 Misconceptions about Success

#1 Success is Complicated

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Steve Jobs

You can make success as complicated as you want, but it doesn’t have to be that way. As Jobs says, making success simple isn’t necessarily easy, but it is very powerful.

Take Google for example: their home page is one of the simplest on the web and that simplicity has allowed it to become the most popular site in the world.

#2 Success is a Destination

It’s tempting to think about success as some far-off point where you’ve accomplished everything we’ve ever wanted: “I’ll be successful when I have my dream job, make a million dollars a year, and spend all my time traveling the world with my soul mate.”

This type of thinking is flawed because the accomplishment of worthy goals only leads to the possibility of accomplishing more worthy goals. A successful person doesn’t stop once they achieve something; they’re inspired to achieve something even greater. Success is an ongoing path. As Ben Sweetland said, “Success is a journey, not a destination.”

#3 Success is the Key to Happiness

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”

Herman Cain

If you’re unhappy, don’t blame it on a lack of success. Happiness is all about perspective. If you’ve got a cheerful outlook, it doesn’t matter if you’re a success or failure.

#4 Failure is an Indicator that You Won’t Succeed

“The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is that you’ll fail ten times for every success.”

Adam Horwitz

Everybody fails. In fact, successful people fail more than failures because they take bigger chances. If you want proof, then check out the four biggest mistakes from the world’s four biggest entrepreneurs.

Failures are necessary on the path of success. Just learn from them and move on.

#5 Success Comes at the Expense of Others

Some people think that the only way you can move up in business is by stepping on people to get there.

The truth is actually the opposite: a business is successful because it provides value for people. As I’ve written about before, the more you give, the more you get.

#6 Moderate Success is Easier to Get than “Only in Your Wildest Dreams” Success

“Ninety-nine percent of people believe they can’t do great things, so they aim for mediocrity.”

Tim Ferriss

Many of us are taught from an early age to have practical goals. We shouldn’t try to be a rock star, supermodel, or astronaut because the chances of success are so slim.

But it’s time to challenge those self-imposed restraints. As Ben Nemtin, from “The Buried Life”, pointed out: “The level of competition is highest for realistic goals because most people don’t set high enough goals for themselves.”

Don’t be afraid to go for your wildest dream. It may take more effort, but you’ll also be more energized.

#7 You Need to Wait Until the Time is Right

“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”

Samuel Johnson

There’s no such thing as the “perfect time” to act. There will always be a problem. But successful people don’t let that deter them.

#8 Success has to be Traditional

“The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you’re playing by somebody else’s rules, while quietly playing by your own.”

Michael Konda

Don’t get caught up with how other people define success. Traditional success includes a six-figure income, a happy family, and a house with a white picket fence. But your success doesn’t have to include any of these things.

#9 Success is Easy

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”

David Bly

When people become very successful very quickly it almost looks like it just fell into their lap. But it only looks easy to us because we can’t see the whole picture. Success is earned. As the old saying goes, “The only place you’ll find success before work is in the dictionary.”

#10 Success = Money

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.”

Henry Ford

This is a tired point, but it’s true: money is not that important. Personally, I would rather make a modest living doing something that matters than get rich trading stocks on Wall Street.

Steve Jobs was one of the richest people in the world, but he once said “being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

Top 10 Principles of Success

#1 Success Starts Within

Success comes from the way you act. The way you act comes from the way you think and feel. Therefore, to become more successful, you must first change something within yourself.

#2 Success is a Habit

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”

Aristotle

The little things that you do every day build on top of one another. Make a little progress towards your goals every day.

#3 Success is Only Obtainable in the Now

“The present moment is the only moment available to us and it is the door to all moments.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

We can’t experience the past or the future. So the only time a person is truly able to experience success is when they’re appreciating success in the present moment. Take time to enjoy the success of the present or you’ll never know the true meaning of the word.

There’s another reason why the present is so important, as Mahatma Gandhi points out: “The future depends on what we do in the present.”

#4 Success is in Motion

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

Steve Jobs

Have a sip of success and it’s easy to get intoxicated. When you get so pleased with your success that all you want to do is reflect on it fondly, you’re guaranteeing that your success will be short-lived.

The only way to have permanent success is to always be moving forward. This anonymous quotation says it better than I can: “A successful man continues to look for work after he has found a job.”

#5 Success Requires Faith

“Leap and the net will appear.”

Zen saying

Pursuing success is challenging and risky, but your chances increase greatly when you simply believe you will succeed.

#6 Success Means Helping Others

“It’s not that successful people are givers; it is that givers are successful people.”

Patti Thor

While it’s enjoyable to help yourself, there’s nothing more satisfying than helping others. Any true definition of success involves giving back as much as you get.

#7 Success is a Choice

Your life is in your hands. So if you don’t like your situation, change it.

Each of us has the resources and the opportunity to create a better life. But we each must make the decision to do this. As an old Swedish proverb says, “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.”

#8 Perseverance is Required

Colonel Harlan Sanders made 1008 sales call before a restaurant agreed to buy his recipe for fried chicken. If Sanders hadn’t persisted through over 1000 rejections, then KFC (a restaurant franchise with that earns about a half-billion dollars in revenue per year) wouldn’t exist.

Success is a long-term game. Be ready for the long haul.

#9 Visualization is Key

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.”

Yogi Berra

When teaching my class to shoot basketball, our gym teacher told us to imagine the basketball going through the hoop. Surprisingly, the trick worked: visualizing a successful shot actually helped us achieve it.

It’s not magic. Visualization makes our goals more real and reminds us of the beauty of our dreams.

#10 Success Starts Today

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

No matter what your situation is, you can become a successful person today. You may not be able to reap the rewards yet, but you can start planting the seeds.

Read more: ‘21 Life Lessons From Steve Jobs’

The post 50 Great Thoughts on Success appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Richard Branson

“My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.”

There’s no doubt that Richard Branson has led a very interesting life, it’s a life that has had many success and failures (mostly the former), and earned him not millions, but billions of dollars. Richard started his company as a mail order record store, before expanding into the well known company we know it as today, which when you consider it, was quite a feat. Considering all the ways that people can make money online these days, and the fact that Mark Zuckerberg is substantially richer, yet owns what could easily be considered virtual property, it makes it even more impressive when someone makes big money in real business. When you look at a list of Richard Branson’s business ventures, the list is huge, and it makes you wonder how one man can achieve so much, but then you look at his quote above, and you start to understand why. Sir Richard Branson doesn’t set himself small goals, he goes for the big ones, and then he follows through – which is the most important part to reaching success.

Steve Jobs

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

Steve sums up my feelings about blogging, in just a couple of sentences. I got into blogging for two reasons, firstly to draw attention towards my photography, and secondly because I saw a gap in the market for good quality content. So many people want to start making money online with a website, but they don’t know how to write good content, or they simply don’t put in the necessary effort. When you become a yardstick of quality, and expect excellence from yourself, then you start to become noticed for all your hard work. I’ve recently started receiving a lot more comments from people, taking their time to tell me what a good job I’ve done, and thanked me for my help. When I started blogging, I decided to become a yardstick of quality, where only the best is good enough. In a competitive market, gimmicks and cliche posts will only get you so far – you have to be the best to become successful.

Bill Gates

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

This is a great quote from one of the richest, and most successful people in the world; Bill Gates. We learn a lot less from our successes, than we do from our mistakes, because we’re easily tricked into thinking we’ve done everything right. Just because something hasn’t failed the first time round, it doesn’t mean it won’t fail the second time. Success also gives you the feeling that there’s not much you can do differently to improve your results, which is far from true, because all success is relative. When I started my website, I was thrilled to get 100 views in a day, but now that would be considered a massive failure. When I started receiving a steady 1000, I considered that to be a success and I didn’t think much of it, but I actually learned a lot more about how my website works when that started to dip to around 500 on a regular basis. It was this perceived failure that made me question my tactics, and work on different techniques to improve my website.

John D. Rockefeller

“A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.”

As a Brit, John D. Rockefeller isn’t a massively famous name for most, but he’s still someone that I find to be completely fascinating. He was the world’s first billionaire, and when you consider that he reached this princely sum back in 1916, it makes it much more amazing. He made the majority of his money from Oil, which he invested in very early on, and if he had made his fortune today, he would be worth around $200 billion, which is far more than anyone else. He was clearly a man who knew business, and I think we can all agree that he raises a valid point here. Businesses founded on friendship can work, but there’s always the possibility that personal feelings can interfere with results. You can’t choose family, but you can choose your friends and business partners, so choose them wisely.

Thomas Edison

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

Thomas Edison was an amazing man, he was a man who held over 1000 different patents, and invented some incredible technology throughout his lifetime, from the light bulb to the film projector. For every success, there were many more failures, or so it may have seemed. You see, Thomas Edison didn’t see these as failures, he saw them as learning curves, which provided him with information on how to improve. The important message here is that so long as you learn from your mistakes, then they’re not failures at all. If you don’t consider giving up to be an option, no matter how hard something is, then it’s only a matter of time before you’re successful. This is similar to what Bill Gates said about success being a lousy teacher, because it doesn’t push you to make improvements where some may be needed. I think we would all be better off if we thought a little bit more like Thomas Edison.

Ray Kroc

“Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”

Ray is famous all over the world, for one particular brand; McDonald’s. There’s not much more American than a hamburger and fries, and McDonalds is the king of all fast food restaurants. He bought McDonald’s from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million, because he had grown frustrated that they had only opened a handful of stores. He then spread out the company across the whole of America, and implemented systems that ensured that a Big Mac would taste the same in California, as it would in New York. When he took on the company from the brothers, there were lots of roadblocks that were uncovered, largely due to the nature of their handshake contract, but that simply meant that Ray worked even harder to get to where he is today. That leads us to his quote, stated above. He’s simply saying that it’s not luck that makes the difference, it’s the hard work and sweat. The more you sweat, the more ‘luck’ you’re going to have in business.

Henry Ford

“Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.”

Henry Ford’s name is synonymous with the motor car, and as the father of the production line, and the Ford Model T, it’s well deserved. Henry Ford is no doubt one of the most successful business men in the world, as it takes a lot more to start producing physical, original products, than it does to create a website. His quote is all about mindset, and how you think about different tasks and life in general. Without wanting to sound too Disney, he’s saying that if you think that you can, then you can, but if you think that you can’t, then you can’t. So long as you believe in yourself and what you’re doing, then all you have to do is follow through. If you don’t believe that you can complete what you set out to do, then it’s no wonder when you can’t.

Sam Walton

“High expectations are the key to everything.”

Sam Walton is the founder of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, and a true American businessman. He created a Wal-Mart, which by the time he died, had 1,960 stores, and such wealth, that it’s been passed on through the generations – the Walton family even held five spots in the top ten richest people in the United States until 2005. Walton clearly knew what he was talking about when it came to business, and he makes a very interesting point about expectations. Whether it’s expectations you set yourself, or what you expect of others, it helps to provide better results as higher targets must be reached. If someone knows that you expect a lot out of them, then the worry that they will disappoint you, will yield better results and work ethic. When it comes to expecting higher results from yourself, you’re setting yourself a standard that you have to live up to, if you want to be successful. This brushes upon Steve Jobs’ quote from above, only Sam’s saying that if you want to be the best, you have set yourself the highest expectations.

Jeff Bezos

“Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.”

If there’s one person who knows what they’re talking about when it comes to branding, it’s Jeff Bezos, as his company Amazon.com was named the most trusted brand in America in 2010. People buy from his website time and time again, because they know that Amazon is a safe place to shop, with reliable results. His understanding of brands, as quoted above, have lead him to create one of the best websites in the world, and made him one of the richest internet entrepreneurs. Keeping a strong brand identity is all about having a good reputation, and as Jeff says, that’s all to do with what people say about you when you’re not there. If you work on your website well enough, and produce a lot of good quality content, then the brand will speak for itself over time. Sometimes I browse commenters websites and can see all too easily where they’re going wrong, and what I’m thinking is effectively what people are saying when they’re not in the room.

Larry Ellison

“When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.”

It’s always been hard to be the person who comes up with new ideas, because when someone doesn’t understand something, then it’s hard to get them on board, but so long as you’re sure that you’re right about something, then you can do no wrong. Some ideas we have, whether it’s about photography, making money online, or even cooking dinner, every time we have a new idea, there will always be someone there to tell you it can’t be done. I’m not saying that everyone innovates to the same extent that Larry Ellison, the 5th richest person in the world does, but we all do things in our own way. Self belief is an important factor to your own success, and relating back to what Henny Ford said, if you think you can, then you can.

Carlos Slim Helu

“When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.”

Carlos is currently the richest man in the world, and is believed to be worth a cool $63.3 billion. As well as owning a telecoms company, he also owns a stake in over 200 different companies, from Saks retail to The New York Times. I personally can’t say what it takes to become the richest man in the world, but Carlos has his own views, and when someone’s worth that much money, it’s usually a good idea to pay attention to what they’re saying. The point he’s making is a very valid point, particularly in this day of age, where people can anonymously put someone down over the internet. How many of you have submitted something to a website like Reddit, or commented on a website and received a negative response from someone you don’t even know? This can put you off promoting your own content, when you shouldn’t let it. So long as you believe in what you’re doing, then carry on doing it. You’ll never be able to please everyone, and if you live to satisfy what other people think about you, then you’ll never become a success. People are always going to be jealous of other people’s success.

Donald Trump

“Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”

Donald Trump has gone through his fair share of ups and downs in business, and I’m sure that for him, he’s leaned a lot from his mistakes. In a way, his quote is similar to Thomas Edison’s, in that every failure has taught him a new way to succeed, or spawned a new idea, which ends up being worth a lot more. Entrepreneurship breeds ideas, and I don’t know about you, but I for one can say that I’ve come up with a lot more ideas for websites and businesses since I started my first website. When you fail at something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not going to succeed, it may just mean that you’re going to take a different route to get there.

Mary Kay Ash

“Those who are blessed with the most talent don’t necessarily outperform everyone else. It’s the people with follow-through who excel.”

If you’re from America, then you’ll likely be familiar with the name Mary Kay Ash, who’s an American businesswoman who started her own cosmetics firm. It started out as a book, which became a business plan, before becoming a way to help women to make their own way in business in a male orientated world. Mary outlines in her quote, that to be the best in business, it’s not enough to simply have an idea, you have to actually follow it through. The greatest idea in the world is worth nothing if you don’t do something with it. You hear about people complaining all the time that someone else has stolen their idea, and while I’m not in a position to say whether a particular person did or not, it’s worth noting that on the majority of occasions, it wouldn’t have happened if that particular person had followed through with the idea themselves. If you take your own idea and follow through, you have a business, and that can’t be stolen, only duplicated.

Walt Disney

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

Walt Disney was a pioneer of entertainment and cartoons, and headed new technologies which were used to create animations. If you met a man on the street, who said he was going to take some doodles of cartoon characters and use them to make one of the most successful entertainment businesses, which was going to be popular for decades to come, you would have laughed and walked away. A lot of the technology, and business ideas that Walt used, had never been tried before, so in a way, he was doing the impossible. Sure it was a challenge, but it was a fun challenge, and one that he knew he could take on. Taking on the impossible has obviously paid off for him too, because his name is now synonymous with cartoons and animations, as well as toys, shops, theme parks and more.

Warren Buffett

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked”

This is one of my favourite quotes on the list, because it sums up the making money online industry really well. There’s plenty of imitators, people who have learned from sites like this, who then want to go and create their own. There’s nothing wrong with being an imitator if there’s something new that you can bring to the table, but if you’re just regurgitating the same old content, then there’s no need for that blog to exist. There are websites that rip off the content that’s written on this site all the time, in fact, I could find one now if I cared to Google, and they know who they are, and they’ll never be as successful. There are even blatant copies of the PopUp Domination software, but we can rest assured that the tide will go out for these people. As soon as someone finds both sets of content, the quality will become clear, and the tide will go out for your competitor. It’s only a matter of time.

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Also, don’t forget to check out my FREE eCourse to making money blogging once you are inspired!

30 Quotes To Motivate The Entrepreneur

The longer you’re not taking action the more money you’re losing – Carrie Wilkerson

If you live for weekends or vacations, your shit is broken – Gary Vaynerchuk

Go Big, or Go Home – Eliza Dushku

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure –Napoleon Hill

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work – Thomas Edison

Have the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it – Ryan Allis

He who begins many things finishes but few – German Proverb

The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it – William James

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance – Derek Bok

Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people wont so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t – A student in Warren G. Tracy’s class

Lend your friend $20, if he doesn’t pay you back then he’s not your friend. Money well spent – Ted Nicolas

Be nice to geek’s, you’ll probably end up working for one – Bill Gates

To never forget that the most important thing in life is the quality of life we lead – Quoted by Tony Hsieh on Retireat21

Its better to own the racecourse then the race horse – Unknown

When you go to buy, don’t show your silver – Chinese Proverb

It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission – Grace Hopper

To win without risk is to triumph without glory – Corneille

Example is not the main thing in influencing other people; it’s the only thing – Abraham Lincoln

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company – Booker T. Washington

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great – Mark Twain

There is only one success–to be able to spend your life in your own way – Christopher Morley

You don’t buy a nice car and get rich you get rich and buy a nice car – Unknown

Fall seven times, stand up eight – Japanese Proverb

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching – Mooie

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve – Dr. Napoleon Hill

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work – Thomas Alva Edison

If you ain’t making waves, you ain’t kickin’ hard enough – Unknown

What is not started will never get finished – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Do not wait to strike until the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking – William B. Sprague

When you cease to dream you cease to live – Malcolm Forbes

My 5 Favourite Quotes From Films

Shawshank Redemption

Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying.

Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies

Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

American Gangster

The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room

When Huey Lucas flaunted his Nicky Barnes-like superfly outfit at a nightclub, Frank stepped in and dressed down his dressed-out brother. Frank told his brother he was “making too much noise” by wearing a “clown suit” that acted as a billboard to the police advertising, “Arrest me.”

Catch Me If You Can

Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Life’s simple. You make choices and you don’t look back.

Forrest Gump

My Mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.

To our success,

Michael Dunlop

PS. Whats your favourite quote or advice?

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