19 Inspiring Quotes for Entrepeneurs When They're Feeling [insert here]

Editors Commentary:

I’ve been putting off creating this blog post for around 16 months. I know that there are other sites raking in thousands of unique visitors onto their blogs by inferior versions of this exact topic, yet I procrastinate it’s creation. Every. Single. Day. Not today though! Pablo – you da man for motivating me with this, if I get hit by a bolt of lightning today, by golly this post shall be done!

Editors Commentary:

Time passes by so fast and you look back and you think, “ummm wtf just happened?” – that’s a shitty feeling. Put yourself in the shoes of your future self and think how glad he/she will be if you start today, and not next year. It’s what gives your future better self a fighting chance at even existing. 

Editors Commentary:

I almost didn’t start GrowthMentor because of a car. It was a 2009 gunmetal grey BMW 335i hardtop convertible with less than 40,000km. Cost was around 20,000 EUR and I had already sunk a decent deposit into it. I’m a big fan of the N54 turbocharged straight 6 engine from that model as there’s absolutely no turbo lag, can be easily modded to boost to 450hp with minimal effort, and the sound of it is out of this world. But I knew that if I spent that money on the car, I’d never be able to live with the “what if” I’d have when I was 50-60 years old. What if I put that cash towards paying my dev agency to build the MVP of GrowthMentor? Close your eyes and communicate with your future self often. Your future self loves and cares about you more than you can imagine. 

Editors Commentary:

I sat on the idea of GrowthMentor for 1.5 years before I took any action. I didn’t take any action during those first 1.5 years because I thought I wasn’t capable enough to pull it off. The grandeur of the idea scared the hell out of me. But then one evening over a couple of beers with Jessica, I realized I needed to decouple my sense of self from my idea. It was bigger than just me. I realized that I was right, I totally absolutely 100% wasn’t capable enough to pull it off by myself. But with the right team, anything was possible. All I had to do was put things into action. 2 days later I called Maciej and pitched him my idea. He said his team could build it within 3 months. It took 6. Ideas are great – but you need to make them happen, and if you can’t, surround yourself with the people that can.

Editors Commentary:

As a product person, I just love this quote. It’s all-encompassing. a.) Know your customer b.) Know your product and market and c.) Be obsessed with success.

Editors Commentary:

You’ll know you’re in growth mode because people around you will start to talk to you about it first. To many of your friends and family that weren’t with you when you were pulling those all-nighters and making the sacrifices, you’ll start to look like an overnight success. Enjoy your newfound success, but at the same time stay humble. You don’t have to talk about all the grinding that led you to this point. As long as you know, that’s all that matters. 

Editors Commentary:

There’s always another level. The skills and mindset that got you where you are today  is not good enough to take you to the next level. Obviously it’s important to appreciate how far you’ve come and to acknowledge your successes, but the most successful entrepreneurs never settle.

Editors Commentary:

If you truly believe that there’s always a way then you’ll find that way. No matter what. Even if you don’t’ know how to code, or use Photoshop, or manage a team, or whatever that “thing” is that you might be embarrassed that you don’t know. You’re not going to be an expert at everything, and that’s ok. Use your inadequacies to your advantage. 

Editors Commentary:

If life were a race, most people would quit the very first time they fall over. When things get tough it’s important to remember what you’re doing this for. You have one short life to pull this off. Dig deep and keep pushing because life isn’t a sprint, it’s not even a marathon. It’s a series of marathons. And the ones that win aren’t the ones that finish first, they’re the ones that simply choose to never quit. 

Editors Commentary:

Unrealistic expectations based on false evidence appearing real (fear) is the root of unhappiness in today’s digital society. People talk a big game about digital transformation, but what’s the social cost of this? Most of what we compare ourselves to is complete crap. I realized this firsthand after launching GrowthMentor when many self-proclaimed “gurus” would sign up as mentees to get mentored on how to grow their guru coaching services. Just do you.

Editors Commentary:

This quote comes from Lady Windermere’s Fan, a play Oscar Wilde wrote early on in his career. I felt it fitting to add to the “loneliness” section because there’s just so many of us in this situation right now, especially with the pandemic. It really comes down to what meaning you decide to place on your loneliness and aloneness.

Editors Commentary:

Working in a large team allows you to leverage collective experiences. When you’re a solopreneur working alone you’ve got just your own experiences to draw from. This, in my opinion, is the #1 drawback of not having a large team. You can mitigate this by having a mentor, or many mentors, and learning from their experiences.

Editors Commentary:

Working alone might be exactly what you need to be doing to get to the next step in your journey. The originality of your ideas will be maximized when working in solitude, away from 3rd party influences, away from social media, away from all forms of thought contaminants. Try working in complete solitude in short sprints every once in a while.

Editors Commentary:

When you’re not enjoying what you’re doing anymore and it hurts your soul to carry on just quit, or better yet pivot, it’s a bit more efficient. But if you’re truly obsessed with your idea, carry on. I love the “can’t go a day without thinking about” benchmark!

Editors Commentary:

When I launched GrowthMentor I was so scared of haters coming out of the woodworks “judging” because of a variety of made-up fantasy reasons I conjured. “We didn’t have that XYZ feature,” “We didn’t have enough mentors,” “We don’t have any social proof yet,” “What gives us the authority to vet mentors?!” amongst a plethora of other self-deprecating thoughts. That fear of being ridiculed by people I didn’t even know was always in the back of my head. But that quote by Reid Hoffman was always coming back to the forefront. You’re never going to please everyone, that’s just the name of the game. As long as your product does “thing thing” it promises to do, nobody will really give a shit about anything else, at least in the beginning. 

Editors Commentary:

Getting hate from your customers? Awesome, listen to them and fix it. I know, I know. Sometimes it’s easier said than done. Especially when the issue is product related and is tied to a lot of technical debt that can’t be repaid without a massive cash injection (been there before). But even in that situation, there are still things you can do. The blind have incredible sense of hearing because they have to overcompensate for their weaknesses in order to make do in this crazy world. If your hated on for an inferior product that doesn’t have the fancy features your competition has, and you can’t afford to build them out (yet), be the BEST at customer support. Go above and beyond with consultative services. There’s always a way to compensate. Have the right mindset to spot the opportunities and you’ll spot them 100%.

Editors Commentary:

I love this quote from Nikki because it reminds me that we’re in a constant state of flux. The mindset, the thinking, that got you here, is not good enough to take you to the next level in life. You didn’t come this far, to just come this far. What worked for you last year, won’t work for you this year if you’re goal is to grow. Be open to adjusting your habits to accommodate your growth.

Editors Commentary:

I really resonate with this quote. In fact, over analyzing problems and seeking 3rd party advice was the reason why I even built my own startup GrowthMentor. But there’s a very specific point of diminishing returns with analysis. The problem is when you’re a noob, you really can’t tell where that specific point is and you tend to overshoot it. Not sure if you’re in the “analysis by paralysis” phase? Book a call with a vetted startup mentor who’s been there / done that and get a second opinion on whether you should keep getting second opinions. 

Editors Commentary:

If you’re doing what you love and are passionate about you’ve basically already kind of won. You just have to “not stop.” Any decision you make will work as well as the next idea if you’re enjoying the ride.