Driven To Success
75 Quotes on Perseverance and Leadership for
Small Business Owners
1."No person was ever honored
for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave."
— Calvin Coolidge
2. "You have not lived today until you have done
something for someone who can never repay you."
— John Bunyon
3. "If you stand up and be
counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember
this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by
conformity stays down for good."
— Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
4. "You've got to get up every
morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with
satisfaction."
— George Horace Lorime
5. "The characteristic of a
genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and
starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by
yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The
heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
6. "Develop success from
failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to
success."
— Dale Carnegie
7. "Persistence and
determinationalone are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human
race."
— Calvin Coolidge
30th president of the United States
8. "Keep away from people who
belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make
you feel that you, too, can become great."
— Mark Twain
9. "Failure is often that early
morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of
success."
— Leigh Mitchell Hodges
10. "The secret of success is
constancy to purpose."
— Benjamin Disraeli
11. "Genius is divine
perseverance. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance
all can have."
— Woodrow Wilson
12. "History has demonstrated
that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles
before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their
defeats."
— B.C. Forbes
13. "Well begun is half
done."
— Aristotle
14. "No is a word on your path to Yes.
Don't give up too soon. Not even if well-meaning parents, relatives, friends,
and colleagues tell you to get a real job.
Your dreams are your real job"
— Joyce Spizer
Author
15. "Nobody's a natural. You
work hard to get good and then work to get better. It's hard to stay on
top."
— Paul Coffey
NHL star
16. "The price of success is
hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we
win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."
— Vince Lombardi
16. "Desire is the key to
motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of
your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the
success you seek."
— Mario Andretti
18. "The difference between the
impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination."
— Tommy Lasorda
19. "Even the woodpecker owes
his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he
finishes the job he starts."
— Coleman Cox
20. "Most people give up just
when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They
give up a the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown."???"Adhere
to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the
contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any
resolution, and will regret it all your life."
— Abraham Lincoln
June 28, 1862 in letter to Quintin Campbell
— H. Ross Perot
21. "It's always too soon to
quit!"
— Norman Vincent Peale
"All the adversity I've had in
my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not
realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in
the world for you."
— Walt Disney
22. "We will either find a way
or make one."
— Hannibal, Carthaginian General
23. "The difference between a
successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of
knowledge, but rather a lack of determination."
— Vince Lombardi
24. "It's a little like
wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the
gorilla is tired."
— Robert Strauss
25. " Always bear in mind that
your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one
thing."
November 5, 1855 in letter to Isham Reavis
26. “You can only take out of a barrel what you put into it.”
Janice Montgomery Albokai
27. “Sometime you must continue to move forward, going back
is not an option. For only in
moving forward can you right the wrongs of the past”.
Janice Montgomery Albokai
28. But if we
hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”
Romans: 8:25
27. "To lead people, walk beside them
... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next
best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the
people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it
ourselves!'"
— Lao-tsu
28. "If the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall in the ditch."
— Jesus Christ
29. "Dictators ride to and fro upon
tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."
— Winston Churchill
30. "Control is not leadership; management
is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at
least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics,
principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with
authority over you and 15% leading your peers."
— Dee Hock
Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa
31. confront unequivocally the major anxiety
of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of
leadership."
— John Kenneth
Galbraith
32. "If a rhinoceros were to enter this
restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I
should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority
whatever."
— G.K. Chesterton to
Alexander Woollcott
33. "The task of the leader is to get his
people from where they are to where they have not been."
— Henry Kissinger
34. "No institution can possibly survive
if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a
way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human
beings."
— Peter Drucker
35. "The task of leadership is not to put
greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already
there."
— John Buchan
36. "You do not lead by hitting people
over the head — that's assault, not leadership."
— Dwight D.
Eisenhower
37. "The best is he who calls men to the
best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not,
heed not, but rest."
— Hesiod
8th Century BC Greek
poet
38. "Never give an order that can't be
obeyed."
— General Douglas
MacArthur
39. "Leadership must be based on
goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the
mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are
tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who
let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart
who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs.
But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange
as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away."
— Admiral James B.
Stockdale
40. "Great leaders are almost always
great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a
solution everybody can understand."
— General Colin
Powell
41. "I am reminded how hollow the label
of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be."
— Warren Bennis
42. "Men make history and not the other
way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still.
Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to
change things for the better."
— Harry Truman
43. "The leader is one who mobilizes
others toward a goal shared by leaders and followers. ... Leaders, followers
and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership."
— Gary Wills
Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders
44. "A leader is one who influences a
specific group of people to move in a God-given direction."
— J. Robert Clinton
45. "All Leadership is influence."
— John C. Maxwell
Injoy, Inc.
46. "Now there are five matters to which
a general must pay strict heed. The first of these is administration; the
second, preparedness; the third, determination; the fourth, prudence; and the
fifth, economy."
— Wu Ch'i (430-381
BC)
47. "You cannot be a leader, and ask
other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too."
— Sam Rayburn
48. "Your position never gives you the
right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that
others may receive your orders without being humiliated."
— Dag Hammarskjöld
49. "The final test of a leader is that
he leaves behind him in other men, the conviction and the will to carry
on."
— Walter Lippmann
50. "A leader is best when people barely
know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they
despise him. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his
aim fulfilled, they will say, 'We did this ourselves.'"
— Lao-Tse
51. "People ask the difference between a
leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives."
— Theodore Roosevelt
52. "Leadership cannot really be taught.
It can only be learned."
— Harold Geneen
53. "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
54. "Four rules of leadership in a free
legislative body:
First, no matter how hard-fought the issue,
never get personal. Don't say or do anything that may come back to haunt you on
another issue, another day....
Second, do your homework. You can't lead
without knowing what you're talking about....
Third, the American legislative process is one
of give and take. Use your power as a leader to persuade, not intimidate....
Fourth, be considerate of the needs of your
colleagues, even if they're at the bottom of the totem pole...."
— George Bush
Former President of
the United States
55. "Speak Softly and carry a big stick;
you will go far."
— Theodore Roosevelt
56. "Management is efficiency in climbing
the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning
against the right wall."
— Stephen R. Covey
57. "He who has great power should use it
lightly."
— Seneca
58. "How do you know you have won? When
the energy is coming the other way and when your people are visibly growing
individually and as a group."
— Sir John
Harvey-Jones
59. "He makes a great mistake ... who
supposes that authority is firmer or better established when it is founded by
force than that which is welded by affection."
— Terence
60. "The leader must know, must know that
he knows, and must be able to make it abundantly clear to those around him that
he knows."
— Clarence Randall
61. "You don't lead by pointing and
telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a
case."
— Ken Kesey
62. "As a leader, you're probably not
doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when
you're not around."
— Patrick Lencioni
63. "Look over your shoulder now and then
to be sure someone's following you."
— Henry Gilmer
64. "Leadership is not magnetic
personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making
friends and influencing people", that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a
person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a
higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal
limitations."
— Peter F. Drucker
65. "Leadership is the ability to
establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are
self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a
participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal
values."
— Mike Vance
66. "The older I get the less I listen to
what people say and the more I look at what they do."
— Andrew Carnegie
67. "My own definition of leadership is
this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and
the character which inspires confidence."
— General Montgomery
68. "High sentiments always win in the end,
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
69. "Our chief want is someone who will
inspire us to be what we know we could be."
— Ralph Waldo
Emerson
70. "In the course of history, there
comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness,
to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give
hope to each other. That time is now."
— Wangari Maathai
71. "I think leadership comes from
integrity - that you do whatever you ask others to do. I think there are
non-obvious ways to lead. Just by providing a good example as a parent, a
friend, a neighbor makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do
things. Leadership does not need to be a dramatic, fist in the air and trumpets
blaring, activity."
— Scott Berkun
72. "Before you are a leader, success is
all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about
growing others."
— Jack Welch
73. "I think that the best training a top
manager can be engaged in is management by example. I want to make sure there
is no discrepancy between what we say and what we do. If you preach
accountability and then promote somebody with bad results, it doesn't work. I
personally believe the best training is management by example. Don't believe
what I say. Believe what I do."
— Carlos Ghosn, CEO
of Renault-Nissan
74. “People only follow great leaders who set
the pace”
Janice Montgomery Albokai
75. "When the conduct of men is designed
to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be
adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a "drop of honey catches more
flies than a gallon of gall."
— Abraham Lincoln
February 22, 1842 in Temperance Address