50 Best One-Liners from the World’s Most Influential Entrepreneurs

by Matt Secrist | Apr 22, 2023 | Content Marketing | 2 comments

Everybody loves a good one-liner, right? How about clever one-liners from the people in business that you look up to (and possibly covet/loathe) the most? Rather than repetitiously dulling you with a list of purely inspirational quotes, I’ve compiled a list of some of the wittier statements from perceived business role models across the world.

Now to be completely honest, these aren’t all true one-liners… I’ve peppered in some “thought-provoking” quotes as well as some “two-liners”. That being said, I’m betting you’ll forgive me once you’ve had a few laughs, shifted your business paradigms, and realized that turning some of these statements into true “one-liners” would erase their overall punch and make them grammatically incorrect (heaven forbid). You’re welcome.

Best One-Liners From Entrepreneurs

Without further ado, here are 50 classic one-liners from some of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs.

“If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” -Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon
“Every time we launch a feature, people yell at us.” -Angelo Sotira, co-founder of deviantART
“Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” -Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and AXS TV chairman (among about a million other things)
“If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.” – Omar Hamoui, AdMob co-founder
“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” -Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter
“We are currently not planning on conquering the world.” -Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google
“Stay self-funded as long as possible.” -Garrett Camp, founder of Uber, StumbleUpon and Expa
“I like to pride myself on thinking pretty long term, but not that long term.” – Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder
“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, O’Reilly Media founder and CEO
“It’s not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas.” -Edwin Land, Polaroid co-founder
“Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” -Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox.
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” – Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn
“Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.” -Chris Dixon, Andreesen Horowitz investor
“Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.” -Michael Arrington, TechCrunch founder and co-editor
“In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.” -Steve Case, co-founder of AOL
“A ‘startup’ is a company that is confused about – 1. What its product is. 2. Who its customers are. 3. How to make money.” – Dave McClure, 500Startups co-founder
“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” – Donald Trump, president of The Trump Organization
“I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.” – Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
“You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.” – Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
“It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.” -Paul Graham, YCombinator co-founder
“When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” – Josh James, Omniture CEO and founder of DOMO
“Your reputation is more important than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career.” – Ryan Freitas, About.me co-founder
“Data beats emotions.” – Sean Rad, Adly and Tinder founder
“I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars — I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” -Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO
“Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” –Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” –Michael Jordan, NBA Legend
“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” –Wayne Gretzy, NFL Legend
“Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” –Michael Dell, Dell Chairman and CEO
“Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.” –Jack London, Author
“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t — you’re right.” –Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company Founder
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” –Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder and former CEO
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” –Tony Robbins, Motivational Speaker
“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.” -Ted Turner, Entrepreneur and Businessman
“The price of inaction is far greater than then cost of a mistake.” -Meg Whitman, CEO of HP
“If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters.” -Claire Cook, Author
“If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” -Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker
“Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou, Author and Poet
“Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” -Brian Tracy, Entrepreneur and Author
“Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night.” -Marian Wright Edelman, Activist
“In business, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” -Anonymous
“Business is like poker. You have to be able to read people. You have to understand the odds of a particular endeavor. You need to make calculated bets. And you have to get lucky.” -Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist and Co-Author of Poker for Dummies
“Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.” -Lee Iacocca, Former CEO of Chrysler
“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are asking, what’s in it for me?” -Brian Tracy, Entrepreneur and Author
“Behind every adversity is an opportunity. If you lament over the adversity, you will miss the opportunity.” -Ajaero Tony Martins, Entrepreneur and Investor
“If you see a snake, just kill it — don’t appoint a committee on snakes.” -Ross Perot, EDS
“In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed.” –Sid Caesar, Entertainer
“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” –Stephen R. Covey, Author
“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” –Mario Andretti, Legendary Race Car Driver
“If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.” -Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s

What Good One-Liners Do You Know?

So there you have it, folks. Take each of these good one-liners with a grain of salt and look for the underlying wisdom and you’ll be a self-made billionaire in no time. Feel free to post your favorite business quotes or oneliners in the comments section below! We know this isn’t yet a comprehensive list of ALL of the best one-liners, but that doesn’t mean we can’t dream.