50 Inspiring Quotes on How to Start a Company From Scratch

What does it really take to start a company from nothing? These experts share their insight.

One of the most exciting times in the life of any business is in the early days. You scrape together enough cash to pay a few employees, fund the operation on your own, and push hard to make it a viable entity. These entrepreneurs and experts know all about perseverance. They have lived through the financial hardships of starting a company or riding out a business challenge until they achieved success. You can do the same.

1. "Accessing capital to start a business can be a daunting process, especially for entrepreneurs who start out with a great idea but have no real familiarity with the business world." --Gavin Newsom, lieutenant governor of California

2. "I can't help thinking if she--the director of a government agency--is this ignorant about what funding is available and where the money comes from--how often lower-level bureaucrats must give wrong answers when people are looking for help to start a business." --Matthew Lesko, author of Free Government Money

3. "You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it." --Harold S. Geneen, president of ITT Corporation

4. "Timing, perseverance, and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success." --Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter

5. "I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer." --Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group

6. "No matter what your reason for wanting to start your own business, developing the foundation is the same. Laying a solid foundation for your business will provide you with a road map to follow as you build your business. As you work through the Start a Business Step-by-Step Workbook, you will define the company's mission, decide what business entity is right for your business, name your business, determine the pricing for your products or services, formulate your financial projections, define your competitors, survey consumers regarding your products or services, determine the marketing methods right for your business, and more." --Jeanne A. Estes, author of Start a Business Step-by-Step Workbook

7. "Patience, drive, and very little fear." --Jake Nickell, the owner of Threadless.com, describing what it takes to start a company

8. "The problem is that many entrepreneurs start with good intentions to create a new mindset system but then slack off. The solution is to make that system part of your daily routine." --Lisa A. Mininni, president of ExcellerateAssociates.com

9. "When the need to succeed is as bad as the need to breathe, then you'll be successful." --Eric Thomas, The Grind Coach

10. "In order to be a success in business, there is one thing you must do. You cannot be successful without it. That is work. I have not told you anything new. Everyone knows that you cannot be successful in anything without work. Why doesn't everyone work? Because some lack the one thing that makes men want to work: enthusiasm. That is something no one can give you. You must acquire it yourself, and the only way that you can become enthusiastic about anything is to have a thorough knowledge of it. You have never seen an enthusiastic man who was lazy." --Thomas J. Watson, CEO of IBM

11. "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." --Thomas Edison, inventor

12. "I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the nonsuccessful ones is pure perseverance." --Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple

13. "Openly share and talk to people about your idea. Use their lack of interest or doubt to fuel your motivation to make it happen." --Todd Garland, founder of BuySellAds.com

14. "Success and profitability are outcomes of focusing on customers and employees, not objectives." --Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba Group

15. "Grow with discipline. Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don't embrace the status quo." --Howard Schultz, CEO and chairman of Starbucks

16. "You have to have more leadership, less management. It's about getting stuff done. You can sit around and analyze things forever, but while you do that the competition has moved on." --Peter Vesterbacka, creator of Angry Birds

17. "You have to be ready for hard work and frugal spending to get the idea off the ground." --Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, and StumbleUpon

18. "I believe that this is the age of the entrepreneur, and as job security has increasingly become a thing of the past, we have no choice but to become self-reliant. Small business is the foundation of growth in America, and it starts with one person, with one vision." --Gary Bredow, host and creator of The Start Up Show

19. "For me, the most fun is change or growth. There are definitely elements of both that I like. Launching a business is kind of like a motorboat: You can go very quickly and turn fast." --Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

20. "Your reputation is more important than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career." --Angelo Sotira, co-founder of DeviantArt

21. "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 and Sam's Club

22. "Recessions are the best time to start a company. Companies fail. Others hold back capital. If you are willing to do the preparation and work, it is the best time to invest in yourself and start a business." --Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks

23. "The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer." --Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari

24. "A business model that hasn't been tried before is always interesting, even if it's likely to fail." --Michael Arrington, co-founder of TechCrunch

25. "You have chosen the wrong path if it's not fun. And you are probably not taking enough risk if it's not hard and rocky sometimes." --Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce

26. "Running a startup is like being punched in the face repeatedly, but working for a large company is like being waterboarded." --Paul Graham, co-founder of Viaweb

27. "Embrace what you don't know, especially in the beginning, because what you don't know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else." --Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx

28. "What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: Know your product better than anyone. Know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed." --Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's

29. "It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day hard work of running a business and completely forget that, while solving problems and building something you can be proud of, you also have an incredible opportunity to shape the future. Even better, you have the chance to meet amazing people and do amazing things along the way. It's important not to get lost among the trees and forget about the amazing, beautiful forest you're planting." --Colin Wright, author

30. "Starting your own business is like riding a roller coaster. There are highs and lows, and every turn you take is another twist. The lows are really low, but the highs can be really high. You have to be strong, keep your stomach tight, and ride along with the roller coaster that you started." --Lindsay Manseau, photographer

31. "You need to be surrounded by good advisers, but you also need to trust your instinct." --Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook

32. "Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve." --Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

33. "Follow the cream of the crop in your area of online expertise and learn from them. Network with them." --Mark Forrester, director and producer

34. "Don't take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give--with a few exceptions--generalize whatever they did. Don't overanalyze everything. I myself have been guilty of overthinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work." --Ben Silbermann, co-founder of Pinterest

35. "Execution really shapes whether your company takes off or not. A lot of people start out with an exciting thing and they want to take over the world, but really the people who do take over the world have a good plan of how to get there and the steps along the way." --Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable

36. "Be a user of your own product. Make it better based on your own desires. But don't trick yourself into thinking you are the user." --Evan Williams, former CEO of Twitter

37. "You just have to pay attention to what people need and what has not been done." --Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Records

38. "Whatever you do, be different. That was the advice my mother gave me, and I can't think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you're different, you will stand out." --Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop

39. "I think it's very important that whatever you're trying to make or sell or teach has to be basically good. A bad product and you know what? You won't be here in 10 years." --Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

40. "The one thing that I think is critical in the entrepreneurial spirit is that it's all attitude. If you think you can, then you're half way there. If you say, 'I can't,' then you're defeated." --Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies

41. "An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew, hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it." --Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton

42. "The very first company I started failed with a great bang. The second one failed a little bit less, but still failed. The third one, you know, proper failed, but it was kind of OK. I recovered quickly. Number four almost didn't fail. It still didn't really feel great, but it did OK. Number five was PayPal." --Max Levchin, co-founder of Affirm

43. "It's harder, but we're still finding oil in Oklahoma today. The bar has been raised on startup companies, but it can still be done. Every regulation and every rule limits you, but, yes, it can still be done. That's the beauty of living in a free country and having the freedom to have an idea and become an entrepreneur." --Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources

44. "It's hard to tell with these internet startups if they're really interested in building companies or if they're just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don't really want to build a company, they won't luck into it. That's because it's so hard that if you don't have a passion, you'll give up." --Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple

45. "I love what the Valley does. I love company building. I love startups. I love technology companies. I love new technology. I love this process of invention. Being able to participate in that as a founder and a product creator, or as an investor or a board member, I just find that hugely satisfying." --Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape

46. "Entrepreneurs always pitch their idea as 'the X of Y,' so this is going to be 'the Microsoft of food.' And yet disruptive innovations usually don't have that character. Most of the time, if something seems like a good idea, it probably isn't." --Eric Ries, Silicon Valley entrepreneur

47. "Libraries function as crucial technology hubs, not merely for free Web access, but for those who need computer training and assistance. Library business centers help support entrepreneurship and retraining." --Scott Turow, author and lawyer

48. "President Obama's view of a free economy is to send your money to his friends. My vision for a free enterprise economy is to return entrepreneurship and genius and creativity to the American people!" --Mitt Romney, politician

49. "Free enterprise empowers entrepreneurs who have ideas and imagination, investors who take risks, and workers who hone their skills and offer their labor." --Paul Ryan, politician

50. "The great fear that hung over the business community in the 1970s was death by regulation, and the great goal of the conservative movement, as it rose to triumph in the 1980s, was to remove that threat--to keep OSHA, the EPA, and the FTC from choking off entrepreneurship with their infernal meddling in the marketplace." --Thomas Frank, political analyst

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