Quotes About Success

Sleep is for the weak! Real A players only need four to five hours! Great accomplishments require great sacrifice! Bull. Shit.

business battles serve as financial-page porn.

You can absolutely run a great business without a single goal. You don't need something fake to do something real. And if you must have a goal, how about just staying in business? Or serving your customers well? Or being a delightful place to work? Just because these goals are harder to quantify does not make them any less important.

Working more doesn't mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more.

Things get harder as you go, not easier. The easiest day is day one. That's the dirty little secret of business.

Working 40 hours a week is plenty. Plenty of time to do great work, plenty of time to be competitive, plenty of time to get the important stuff done.

Remember: Deadlines, not dreadlines.

There are two fundamental ways not to be ignored at work. One is to make noise. The other is to make progress, to do exceptional work.

You wind up building what investors want instead of what customers want.

hire slowly. It's the only way to avoid winding up at a cocktail party of strangers.

To keep your momentum and motivation up, get in the habit of accomplishing small victories along the way.

Si lo que quieres es lanzar el «nuevo iPod» o el «sustituto de Pokemon», entonces estás muerto. Estás dejando que sea tu competencia quien determine los parámetros. No serás nunca más Apple que Apple. Ellos definen las reglas del juego. No podrás nunca ganar al que pone las reglas. Tienes que redefinir el juego, y no limitarte a hacer algo un poquito mejor.

Instead of trying to outspend, outsell, or outsponsor competitors, try to out-teach them. Teaching probably isn't something your competitors are even thinking about. Most businesses focus on selling or servicing, but teaching never even occurs to them.

Contrast (failure) that with learning from your successes. Success gives you real ammunition. When something succeeds, you know what worked - and you can do it again. And the next time, you'll probably do it even better.

Grow slow and see what feels right—premature hiring is the death of many companies. And avoid huge growth spurts too—they can cause you to skip right over your appropriate size.

The menus at failing restaurants offer too many dishes. The owners think making every dish under the sun will broaden the appeal of the restaurant. Instead it makes for crappy food (and creates inventory headaches).

Don't be insecure about aiming to be a small business. Anyone who runs a business that's sustainable and profitable, whether it's big or small, should be proud.

Trade the dream of overnight success for slow, measured growth. It's hard, but you have to be patient. You have to grind it out. You have to do it for a long time before the right people notice.

The truth is most people just don't want it bad enough. Then they protect their ego with the excuse of time. Don't let yourself off the hook with excuses. It's entirely your responsibility to make your dreams come true.

In business, too many people obsess over tools, software tricks, scaling issues, fancy office space, lavish furniture, and other frivolities instead of what really matters. And what really matters is how to actually get customers and make money.

Track coach Bill Bowerman decided that his team needed better, lighter running shoes. So he went out to his workshop and poured rubber into the family waffle iron. That's how Nike's famous waffle sole was born.‡

Other people's failures are just that: other people's failures. If

A business without a path to profit isn't a business, it's a hobby.

Start a business, not a startup Ah