Adaptation and change are not just trendy words in the business world; they are essential to staying in business and being successful. Quotes from visionary leaders, entrepreneurs, and business experts can help organisations find their way through the challenges and chances that are always changing. We’ve put together a list of famous business transformation quotes that really show what it means to adapt, keep going, and always strive for greatness.
To transform a business, you need more than just strategic planning and new technologies. You need to change your attitude, be willing to make changes, and have the courage to face the unknown. For those who are in charge of a new business, an existing company, or who want to grow personally in their career, the power of words can be a powerful source of inspiration and motivation.
Please let these wise words from some of the most important people in the business world guide you as you start your own life-changing journey.
Top Business Transformation Quotes
Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.
Richard Branson
Strong customer relationships drive sales, sustainability, and growth.
Tom Cates, chairman and founder of The Brookeside Group
Always deliver more than expected.
Larry Page, co-founder of Google
I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.
Jeff Bezos
Play by the rules, but be ferocious.
Phil Knight, founder, Nike
Advertising brings in customers, but word-of-mouth brings in the best customers.
Jonah Berger, author & marketing professor
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 over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.
Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest
Click here to Get Famous Business Transformation Book:
Gerald C. Kane
The Transformation Myth: Leading Your Organization through Uncertain Times
In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.
Mark Zuckerberg
If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.
Dhirubhai Ambani, founder, Reliance Industries
We need to realize that our path to transformation is through our mistakes. We’re meant to make mistakes, recognize them, and move on to become unlimited.
Yehuda Berg
Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.
Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine
Conversation with customers will increase sales, even if the product or service is never mentioned.
George Farris, founder of Farris Marketing
Give them quality. That is the best kind of advertising.
Milton Hershey, entrepreneur
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thorea
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States
I do not know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it.
Susan Butcher, sled dog racer
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
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
Bill Gates
The only way you are going to have success is to have lots of failures first.
Sergey Brin, co-founder, Google
If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
People shop and learn in a whole new way compared to just a few years ago, so marketers need to adapt or risk extinction.
Brian Halligan, founder & CEO of HubSpot
Your brand is your culture.
Tony Hsieh
Happy employees lead to happy customers, which leads to more profits.
Vaughn Aust, EVP of Integrated Solutions, MarketStar
People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours.
Ken Hakuta
Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.
Elon Musk
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anaïs Nin
The best marketing strategy ever: CARE.
Gary Vaynerchuk, entrepreneur, speaker & marketing expert
The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
Thomas Edison, co-founder of General Electric
If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.
Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, and motivational speaker
Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
Lou Holtz
Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.
William Durant, co-founder, General Motors
There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.
Seth Godin
Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.
Brian Chesky, cofounder of Airbnb
If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.
Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.
Bill Gates
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu
Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom.
William George Jordan
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
Elon Musk
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
G.K. Chesterton
Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter
Great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change.
Jim Collins
Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, whether it’s leaving home, whether it’s getting married, or whether it’s flying in space.
Chris Hadfield, astronaut
[Businesses] rarely come up for air to re-evaluate how they are selling. This means that current sales practices, process, and organisational structure may in fact be hindering their growth more than any external factor they believe they are facing.
Tiffani Bova
If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.
Steve Jobs
It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.
Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance
Know your business and industry better than anyone else in the world. Love what you do or don’t do it.
Mark Cuban
Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.
Elon Musk
Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.
Mark Cuban, AXS TV Chairman and entrepreneur
Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rodgers
Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.
Tim O’Reilly, founder, and CEO of O’Reilly Media
Legacy is greater than currency.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
Albert Einstein
Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you.
Michelle Obama
Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.
Chris Dixon, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz
The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
Barack Obama
Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of what you’re doing is as valuable as gold.
Elon Musk
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
John F. Kennedy
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.
Colin Powell
Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.
Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman & CEO of ArcelorMittal
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Albert Schweitzer
The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.
Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy
I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.
Elon Musk
Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.
Coco Chanel
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas JeffersonSome
People dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.
Wayne Huizenga
First, think. Second, dream. Third, believe. And finally, dare.
Walt Disney
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Edison
Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.
Estée Lauder
A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all
Michael LeBoeuf
I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.
Estée Lauder
Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
Vince Lombardi
The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.
Benjamin Franklin
Amazing things will happen when you listen to the consumer.
Jonathan Midenhall, CMO of Airbnb