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Entrepreneurs

1. Dear, never forget one little point. It’s my business. You just work here.

Elizabeth Arden (1884-1966) U.S. entrepreneur and cosmetics manufacturer. Said to her husband. Quoted in Miss Elizabeth Arden (Alfred A. Lewis and Constance Woodworth; 1972)

 

2. The real challenge is creating an entrepreneurial atmosphere in what can easily amount to a big bureaucratic company.

Percy Barnevik (b.1941) Swedish former C.E.O. of Abb. Quoted in In Search of European Excellence (Robert Heller; 1997)

 

3. I believe Mrs. Thatcher’s emphasis on enterprise was right.

Tony Blair (b.1953) British prime minister. Economist (London) (1999)

 

4. I want Britain to be a nation of entrepreneurs, a nation where talent and ability flourish.

Tony Blair (b.1953) British prime minister. Said in a speech to the British Parliament on May 15, 1997. Quoted in Financial Times (London) (1997)

 

5. I found that everywhere articles, especially drugs, were being sold at ridiculously high prices…My idea was simply to buy tons where others bought hundredweights or less, thus buying more cheaply.

Jesse Boot (1850-1931) British entrepreneur and founder of Boots pharmacy chain. 1930. Reflecting on his early success in mass-marketing Epsom salts. Quoted in Enlightened Entrepreneurs (Ian Campbell Bradley; 1987), ch. 9

 

6. The truth is I started my own company because I could not fill out a job application.

Terri Bowersock (b.1956) U.S. furniture company entrepreneur. Phoenix Business Journal (1999)

 

7. I’m Richard Branson, I’m eighteen and I run a magazine that’s doing something really useful for young people.

Richard Branson (b.1950) British entrepreneur, business executive, and founder of the Virgin Group. Referring to his first business venture. Quoted in Richard Branson, The Inside Story (Mick Brown; 1988)

 

8. I understand small business growth. I was one.

George W. Bush (b.1946) U.S. president. Quoted in New York Daily Times (February 19, 2000)

 

9. Masters of entrepreneurial judo.

Richard D’Aveni (b.1950) U.S. strategist. “The Mavericks,” Fortune (June 1995)

 

10. You can never be an entrepreneur if you’re afraid to lose money. It’s like being a pilot who is afraid of bad weather.

Peter De Savary (b.1944) British entrepreneur. Quoted in The Adventure Capitalists (Jeff Grout and Lynne Curry; 1998)

 

11. Being an entrepreneur is about having the will and determination and not being frightened of getting it wrong.

Jason Drummond (b.1969) British Internet entrepreneur. Sunday Times (London) (October 2000)

 

12. I’m a dirt-under-the-nails serial entrepreneur.

Donna Dubinsky (b.1955) U.S. IT executive. “Secrets of the Fastest-rising Stars,” Fortune (Patricia Sellers; 2000)

 

13. First get in, then get rich, then get respectable.

Bernie Ecclestone (b.1930) British entrepreneur and C.E.O. of Formula 1 auto racing. Referring to his success in developing Formula 1 auto racing. Quoted in Formula 1, The Business of Winning (Russell Hotten; 1998)

 

14. Our private enterprise is more private than enterprising.

Indira Gandhi (1917-84) Indian prime minister. Speech (December 5, 1970)

 

15. No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or “get rich” in business by being a conformist.

  1. Paul Getty (1892-1976) U.S. entrepreneur, oil industry executive and financier. International Herald Tribune (January 10, 1961)

 

16. Everything is always impossible before it works. That is what entrepreneurs are all about-doing what people have told them is impossible.

  1. Hunt Greene (b.1950) U.S. venture capitalist. Fortune (May 27, 1996)

 

17. I’m not an entrepreneur. I like rules too much and entrepreneurs break rules.

Guy Hands (b.1959) Zimbabwean C.E.O. of Terra Firma Capital Partners. Management Today (October 1999)

 

18. Everything I do I love. An entrepreneur is a big artist.

Nicolas G. Hayek (b.1928) Swiss entrepreneur and founder of SWATCH. Sunday Times (London) (October 2000)

 

19. Entrepreneurs have no frontier other than their own ambition.

Robert Heller (b.1932) British management writer. Goldfinger (1998)

 

20. I think the skills involved in putting together deals are crucial to a start-up. You need wide distribution and many partners.

Rob Herson (b.1952) South African business executive. Marketing (July 2000)

 

21. Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

Victor Kiam (1926-2001) U.S. C.E.O. of Remington Corporation. 1990. Quoted in East Valley Tribune (2000)

 

22. I realized that if you built a New Age highway, you need to be vibrant and dynamic. That can only happen if you have entrepreneurs taking risks.

Woon Toon King (b.1967) Singaporean entrepreneur. Forbes (July 2000)

 

23. Around Britain, thousands of young people are working from bedrooms, workshops and run-down offices, hoping that they will come up with the next Hotmail or Netscape.

Charles Leadbetter, British government adviser, journalist, and author. Quoted in Independent (London) (1999)

 

24. It sounds boring, but anything is easy to start-starting a novel, starting a business…it’s keeping the thing going that is difficult.

Prue Leith (b.1940) British cookbook writer and business executive. Quoted in The Adventure Capitalists (Jeff Grout and Lynne Curry; 1998)

 

25. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well here but it’s harder to get funding for your new business if you come from Leicestershire than if you went to Eton and are the son of some banker.

Isabel Maxwell (b.1950) British president of CommTouch. Referring to United Kingdom. Guardian (London) (July 22, 2000)

 

26. Running a company is a constant process of breaking out of systems and challenging conditioned reflexes, of rubbing against the grain.

Mark McCormack (1930-2003) U.S. entrepreneur, founder and C.E.O. of the International Management Group. What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School (1984)

 

27. Just starting a company was a badge of courage, and the entrepreneur became an instant hero.

Regis McKenna (b.1939) U.S. marketing entrepreneur and chairman of the McKenna Group. Referring to high-technology industry entrepreneurs in 1990s. Relationship Marketing (1991)

 

28. The entrepreneur is…the most important player in the building of the global economy. So much so that big companies are decentralizing and reconstituting themselves as networks of entrepreneurs.

John Naisbitt (b.1929?) U.S. business executive and author. Global Paradox (1994)

 

29. I used to do a hell of a lot of cross selling. Before they knew it, they had spent a fortune.

Vijay Patel (b.1950) Kenyan entrepreneur. Sunday Times (London) (September 2000)

 

30. Where would the Rockefellers be today if old John D. had gone on selling short-weight kerosene…to widows and orphans instead of wisely deciding to mulct the whole country.

  1. J. Perelman (1904-79) U.S. humorist. Letter (October 25, 1976)

 

31. Risk means not knowing if, or when, you can pay yourself, or anyone else. It means working without health and pension plans, regular promotions, and paid vacations.

Heather Robertson (b.1942) Canadian author. Taking Care of Business (1907)

 

32. Success depends on having a product or a service that catches the consumer’s imagination, although at first it may be that nobody but you has ever heard of it.

Heather Robertson (b.1942) Canadian author. Taking Care of Business (1907)

 

33. Too much creative involvement can blind an entrepreneur to the hard reality of the bottom line.

Heather Robertson (b.1942) Canadian author. Taking Care of Business (1907)

 

34. Three components make an entrepreneur: the person, the idea and the resources to make it happen.

Anita Roddick (b.1942) British entrepreneur and founder of The Body Shop. Body and Soul (co-written with Russell Miller; 1991)

 

35. I wanted to set the world on fire and that would not come about through working for someone else in a nine-to-five job.

Ian Schrager (b.1948) U.S. entrepreneur. Sunday Times (London) (May 2000)

 

36. It’s better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a cow.

Stan shih (b.1945) Taiwanese C.E.O. of the Acer Group. Referring to a Taiwanese proverb and the preference of entrepreneurs for running their own small business. Quoted in Giant Killers (Geoffrey James; 1996)

 

37. As an entrepreneur, you have to go against the flow.

Reuben Singh (b.1977) British entrepreneur and author. Management Today (September 1999)

 

38. Money isn’t what motivates entrepreneurs; it is acknowledgement-a craving for your ideas to be acknowledged,

Reuben Singh (b.1977) British entrepreneur and author. Management Today (September 1999)

 

39. The younger you are, the fewer responsibilities you have, the more prone you are to take risks and the more commitment you can put into your business.

Reuben Singh (b.1977) British entrepreneur and author. Management Today (September 1999)

 

40. I am not a professional security analyst. I would rather call myself an insecurity analyst.

George Soros (b.1930) U.S. financier, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Soros on Soros (1995)

 

41. To make it in any business, it’s not enough to give 100 percent. If that’s all you have in you, go work for someone else and give THEM 100 percent. You have to give 200 percent. That’s how it happens.

Lise Watier (b.1942) Canadian proprietor of a cosmetics chain. Quoted in Looking Good (Rosa Harris-Adler; 1997)

 

42. If you want to understand entrepreneurs, you have to study the psychology of the juvenile delinquent. They don’t have the same anxiety triggers that we have.

Abraham Zaleznik (b.1924) U.S. psychologist. U.S. News & World Report (October 1992)

 

43. They have no fear of failure. It’s not part of their make-up.

Abraham Zaleznik (b.1924) U.S. psychologist. U.S. News & World Report (October 1992)