There are so many quotes from famous people throughout history that entrepreneurs can benefit from if they actually apply the advice given.
Here are 5 worth writing down in your organizer or on the office whiteboard:
1. Ignoring Al Einstein’s Awesome Advice
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
This is a grievous error that the majority, yes the majority, of all people in the world make over and over. Much of it comes down, I believe to an extreme aversion to change, but alas: Entrepreneurs know you have to switch up that which isn’t working or they’d be just as productive driving their Prius through a 4-mile long mud bog.This
2. Ignoring Ben Franklin’s Epic Advice
If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.
That one’s almost a tongue twister isn’t it? But it’s so true. If you want to join a bike gang, failing to heed this hundreds year-old advice might not hurt your future too much. If you want to succeed in business and life in general, you need to have a solid game plan — in fact, you need to come up with several solid game plans throughout your life in order to keep moving in the direction you want to go.
There is so many “planned” factors necessary to launch and execute the perfect business plan. While several non-planners out there have eventually found their way, many have learned the hard way first:
- Failure to plan for a rainy day with a solid budget.
- Failure to recognize that they can’t put all their eggs in a single basket.
- Failure to do their homework before settling into an industry or agreeing to work with a new partner.
- Failure to see someone was screwing them over before it’s too late.
- Failure to see how their manic lifestyle was destroying their personal lives.
- Failure to take care of themselves in general.
3. Ignoring Richard Carlson’s Fantabulous Advice
“The old adage, ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’ isn’t always correct. In fact, the suspicion, cynicism, and doubt that are inherent in this belief can and does keep people from taking advantage of excellent opportunities.”
So funny how this great quote knocks the socks out of the even more well-known quote from the last century. Carlson is famous for his book Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff… and it’s all Small Stuff, which is a really excellent read by the way. Entrepreneurs can’t be a bunch of paranoid pessimists always looking for the non-silver lining in every opportunity that comes their way. Sometimes, when your gut tells you to giver, you gotta giver or miss out on an opportunity.
And seriously, how many rags-to-riches stories have you heard that also include funny jabs at the goofball-types who didn’t get in on a great idea because it just seemed a little “too promising” to ever actually make a buck?
4. Ignoring Will Shakespeare’s Quote-Worthy Advice
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
I know, this one is slightly ambiguous, but it all comes down to how ridiculous and against nature it is to be a phony bologna. You have to be who you are and be consistent with that image in all your meetings. If you don’t have a great personality, you need to find someone to become the face of your company. Your true self will eventually come out at some point and it can be like a knife to the heart of your business when you’re caught. Especially with social media these days. Liars, cheaters, *$$holes and all the undesirable traits in-between usually get what’s coming to them.
5. Ignoring John F. Kennedy’s Eternal Advice
Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
Successful entrepreneurs rarely waste their time playing the victim or searching for others to place blame on for failures of any sort. Kennedy is so revered over the short time he was in the public eye for encouraging the American public to take responsibility for their own future and not waste time dwelling on the country’s past failures. There are a lot of interpretations an up-and-coming entrepreneur could make of this eternal quote, but my takeaway is to cut the bull and always be forward-thinking rather than playing the whiny historian.
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Main Image Credit: Dennis/Flickr
