Danah Go
19 Brilliant Quotes From Successful CEO’s In the past, humankind has always taken some words of advice from great scientists, philosophers, politicians, and writers. But in today’s world, some of the wisest men are actually entrepreneurs. Below is a list of valuable inspirational quotes we can all learn from:
1. Steve Jobs, Apple
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
2. Denise Morrison, Campbell Soup Co.
“The thing that I learned early on is you really need to set goals in your life, both short-term and long-term, just like you do in business. Having that long-term goal will enable you to have a plan on how to achieve it. We apply these skills in business, yet when it comes to ourselves, we rarely apply them.”
3. Donald Trump, Trump Organization
“Show me someone without an ego, and I’ll show you a loser.”
4. Bill Gates, Microsoft
“Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world…if you do so, you are insulting yourself”
5. Jake Nickell, Threadless
“I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.”
6. Indra Nooyi, Pepsi Co.
“The distance between number one and number two is always a constant. If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you. That is a big lesson. I cannot just expect the organization to improve if I don’t improve myself and lift the organization because that distance is a constant.”
7. Larry Page, Google Inc.
“Lots of companies don’t succeed over time. What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future.”
8. Reed Hastings, Netflix
“But as an entrepreneur, you have to feel like you can jump out of an airplane because you’re confident that you’ll catch a bird flying by. It’s an act of stupidity, and most entrepreneurs go splat because the bird doesn’t come by, but a few times it does.”
9. Howard Schultz, Starbucks
“In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.”
10. Brian Chesky, Airbnb
“When you start a company, it’s more an art than a science because it’s totally unknown. Instead of solving high-profile problems, try to solve something that’s deeply personal to you. Ideally, if you’re an ordinary person and you’ve just solved your problem, you might have solved the problem for millions of people.”
11. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook
“When you start a company, it’s more an art than a science because it’s totally unknown. Instead of solving high-profile problems, try to solve something that’s deeply personal to you. Ideally, if you’re an ordinary person and you’ve just solved your problem, you might have solved the problem for millions of people.”
12. Jack Ma, Alibaba
“The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you’ve got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision. Also, if you don’t give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.”
13. Carlos Ghosn, Nissan
“As the CEO, I have to take care of the short-term, mid-term, and the long-term.”
14. Jeff Bezos, Amazon
“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”
15. Jack Welch, Former CEO of General Electric
“There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow… It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.”
16. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo
“I always did something that I was a little not ready to do. I think that that is how you grow. When there’s a moment of ‘Wow, I’m not so sure that I can do this, and you push through those moments, it’s then that you have a breakthrough. Sometimes that’s a sign that something really great is about to happen. You’re about to grow and learn a lot more about yourself.”
17. Sam Walton, Wal-Mart
“High expectations are the key to absolutely everything.”
18. Kevin Plank, Under Armour
“There’s an entrepreneur right now, scared to death, making excuses, saying, ‘It’s not the right time just yet.’ There’s no such thing as a good time. I started an apparel-manufacturing business in the tech-boom years. I mean, come on. Get out of your garage and go take a chance, and start your business.”
19. Brian Halligan, Hubspot
“The way I think about culture is that modern humans have radically changed the way that they work and the way that they live. Companies need to change the way they manage and lead to match the way that modern humans actually work and live. We’re trying to re-craft culture in a way that really matches that. I think that 99% of companies are kind of stuck in the ‘90s when it comes to their culture.”
