My first college business professor was a fanatical Peter Drucker devotee.

He launched our course with a dissection of Drucker’s The Effective Executive and concluded with a thorough reading of The Practice of Management.

Through my professor's tireless evangelism, I developed a keen appetite for the timeless wisdom of this prescient thought leader.


Young entrepreneurs unfamiliar with Drucker would do well to study his insightful commentary on the world of "management." Millennials mired inside a traditional corporate environment and people living life inside lean startups will find his thinking particularly spot on.

Even after all these years, 10 Peter Drucker quotes still bounce around in my head constantly:


1. “Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right.”

2. “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”

3. “There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.”


4. “What gets measured gets improved.”


5. “Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.”


6. “So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.”

7. “People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”

8. “Meetings are by definition a concession to a deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.”


9. “Long-range planning does not deal with the future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.”


10. "Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things"

My cynical side (and my short attention span!) feels especially drawn to number eight on that list.

But the quotes that really excite and ignite my entrepreneurial imagination are numbers two and five.

Which quote resonates most deeply with you? Most importantly, which of Drucker's words will change your world?

This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com

It's been three years since I made the leap from successful accountant to entrepreneur. Before making the jump I read quotes from successful leaders to motivate myself. Here are some of the quotes that inspired me then and some more recent ones that have inspired me since. Whether you’ve just started a company or have been running one for awhile, there is a lot you can learn from some of the most successful CEOs.

This list compiles some of the best advice out there from CEOs on success, working with your team, becoming a CEO, being a CEO and dealing with customers as a CEO. Every quote has helped me become a much better leader myself.

On success:


1. “When you start a company, it's more an art than a science because it's totally unknown. Instead of solving high-profile problems, try to solve something that's deeply personal to you. Ideally, if you're an ordinary person and you've just solved your problem, you might have solved the problem for millions of people.”

– Brian Chesky, Airbnb.

2. “I never set out to be CEO. I always set out to be a good team member, a good colleague.”

– John Stumpf, Wells Fargo.

3. “Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly. If you are CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.”

– Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz.


4. “To build a great company, which is a CEO's job, sometimes you have to stand up against conventional wisdom.”

– Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard.

5. “My goal was never to just create a company. A lot of people misinterpret that, as if I don't care about revenue or profit or any of those things. But what not being just a company means to me is not being just that - building something that actually makes a really big change in the world.”

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

On working with your team:


6. “Talent is the No. 1 priority for a CEO. You think it's about vision and strategy, but you have to get the right people first.”

– Andrean Jung, Grameen America.

7. “Teaching your employees something new creates an instant connection, and they will respect you for it. If you can do this in a job interview, you will be sure to attract the smartest people. Money doesn’t mean much to a lot of the smartest people in the world—they want to grow their intelligence rather than their wallet. If you show employees that they will progress intellectually in their career, and economically while at your company, then they will want to work for you.”

– Taso Du Val, Toptal.


8. “The real damper on employee engagement is the soggy, cold blanket of centralized authority. In most companies, power cascades downwards from the CEO. Not only are employees disenfranchised from most policy decisions, they lack even the power to rebel against egocentric and tyrannical supervisors.”

– Gary Hamel, Gary Hamel Consulting.

9. “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person - not just an employee - are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

– Anne M. Mulcahy, Xerox.

10. “The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you've got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision. Also, if you don't give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.”

– Jack Ma, Alibaba.

On becoming a CEO:


11. “The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.”

– Elon Musk, SpaceX.

12. “If you want a CEO role, you have to prepare for it with a vengeance.”

– Denise Morrison, Campbell Soup Company.

13. “I always believe that, as you start out, while you should have a big dream - a big goal - but it's also important to move step by step. So, you know, frankly, if you ask me, when I started as a management trainee in 1984, I don't know that I really thought that I would become the CEO.”
– Chanda Kochhar, ICICI Bank.

14. “Just because you are CEO, don't think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization. I've never forgotten that.”

– Indra Nooyi, PepsiCO.

15. “As the CEO, I have to take care of the short term, mid term and the long term.”

– Carlos Ghosn, Nissan.

16. “I am who I am, and I'm focused on that, and being a great CEO of Apple.”

– Tim Cook, Apple.

17. “As a wife, daughter, friend, and the founder and CEO of LearnVest, my schedule is anything but simple. But I learned early on how to meticulously manage my time.”

– Alexa Von Tobel, LearnVest.

18. “As an entrepreneur, I try to push the limits. Pedal to the metal.”

– Travis Kalanick, Uber.

19. “A successful team beats with one heart.”

– Michael Gokturk, Payfirma.

20. "When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts."

– Larry Ellison, Oracle.

21. “Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.”

– Bill Gates, Microsoft.

22. “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.”

– Marissa Mayer, Yahoo!.

23. “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

– Jeff Bezos, Amazon.

24. “Never forget that you only have one opportunity to make a first impression - with investors, with customers, with PR, and with marketing.”

– Natalie Massenet, Net-a-Porter.

25. “It is so much easier to be nice, to be respectful, to put yourself in your customers' shoes and try to understand how you might help them before they ask for help, than it is to try to mend a broken customer relationship.”

– Mark Cuban, AXS TV.

Here's to becoming the best leaders and CEOs that we can be.

This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com

Being an entrepreneur can be an emotional ride, with ups, downs, joy and disappointment. Sometimes a little piece of advice or wisdom from a brilliant mind can help you motor through even the most difficult of times.





I recently put together a list of 25 powerful quotes that we are turning into vinyl decals for my company’s office walls, and I wanted to share them with you -- to print out or share on social media. You could also bookmark this page and come back to it when you need some inspiration and motivation. Here they are:

1. “Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” -- Confucius

2. “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” -- Donald Trump

3. “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't.” -- Student (unidentified) of Warren G. Tracy

4. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” -- John C. Maxwell






5. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” -- Napoleon Hill

6. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” -- Thomas Edison


7. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” -- Bill Gates

8. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” -- Mark Twain

9. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” -- Ralph Nader

10. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” -- Napoleon Hill

11. ”Genius is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent perspiration.” -- Thomas Edison

12. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” -- Winston Churchill


13. “What is not started will never get finished” -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

14. “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” -- Jim Rohn

15. “When you cease to dream, you cease to live.” -- Malcolm Forbes

16. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” -- Bill Gates

17. "An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down." -- Reid Hoffman





18. “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” -- Vince Lombardi

19. "Everyone has ideas. They may be too busy or lack the confidence or technical ability to carry them out. But I want to carry them out. It is a matter of getting up and doing it." -- James Dyson

20. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” -- Steve Jobs

21. “Success is not what you have, but who you are.” -- Bo Bennett


22. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” -- Vince Lombardi

23. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” -- Warren Buffett

24. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” -- Albert Einstein

25. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -- Mark Twain


This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com

I’m not sure if this will finally be Leonardo DiCaprio’s year, for The Revenant, or if newcomer Brie Larson, in Room, will trump perennial favorite Cate Blanchett for the latter's role in Carol. What I can tell you is that people are inspired by movies and jazzed by Hollywood’s award season. But what does that have to do with business?



The answer: inspiration. Where do your business ideas come from? From a variety of sources, I bet. Whether it’s a personal experience, a business experience, a billboard you saw when you were driving down the road or something your significant other said at the grocery store: Inspiration comes from a wide variety of sources.

So, whether you feel like "the king of the world," or believe that you "could’ve been a contender" or consider that you should "always be closing": Entrepreneurs can draw a lot from movies. And as we approach Hollywood’s biggest night, the Academy Awards, here are a few movie lines that have inspired me throughout my own career:

1. 'The Godfather' (Best Picture, 1972)
“Great men are not born great, they grow great.”


Isn’t that the truth! No one is born with massive amounts of knowledge. If you’re smart enough, you acquire some of that knowledge along the way. If you’re one of those people who think they know it all, I've got news for you: You don’t! That is the first obstacle you must overcome, your own arrogance.

Throughout my career, I’ve been called pig-headed, even irrational, but I haven't been bothered by it. In fact, I've welcomed it. Why? Because I’ve been smart enough to learn a few things along the way and use that knowledge to grow.

As a young entrepreneur being shown the ranks, I sat in meetings where my boss would say things like, “Because it’s always been done that way.” If you expect to be in business a long time, this is one surefire way to cut that shelf life short. And it's not a good mentality to have if you want to grow and be great. Nothing beats experience.



2. 'All the King’s Men' (Best Picture, 1949)
“To find something, anything, a great truth or a lost pair of glasses, you must first believe there will be some advantage in finding it.”




"Advantage" is the basis of any entrepreneur. The road to entrepreneurship is paved with roadblocks and potholes galore. We all know that, but one thing we entrepreneurs have in common is the belief that we will find success.

We have this dream of the company that we want to build and shape. We have a vision, and we’ll work ourselves to exhaustion trying to make our dream a success, regardless of what the naysayers say (because they will say something about why you won't succeed).

You will find that your business success will not come from any trophies or titles. It will come as a reflection of your truth. Your vision becoming a reality will be the measure of your success, and throughout this process you must stay true to who you are.

What made you become an entrepreneur in the first place? Let that serve as your true north. Being authentic is the key to success -- it has been for me. That and my belief that I can make a living doing something I love doing.



3. 'Rocky' (Best Picture, 1977)
“Nobody is going to hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”

You just read that quote in Sly Stallone’s voice, didn’t you? That’s okay. I did too. Rocky is speaking some truths here. Life is hard enough as it is, but there will come a time where life will knock you flat on your rear end. You must get back up! You must!

Life as an entrepreneur can be lonely. Not everyone will understand your drive, your vision or your passion. There will even be times where there won’t be anyone in sight to help you up after life has knocked you down. In my own life, one of my biggest business "knock-downs" involved pheasants.

Those stupid birds taste delicious but have got to be some of the stupidest birds on the planet. I love pheasant, love hunting them, so at first I thought, What could go wrong? After all, I am passionate about this venture, and I’m pretty good at business. Little did I know that a prairie storm would wipe away my newest venture.

In fact, the pheasants huddled together and drowned in the storm. And I lost everything. Needless to say, the true takeaway here is that, when life knocks you down, you should get up and hit it back harder. Just don’t expect soaring music when you run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art



4. 'Million Dollar Baby' (Best Picture, 2004)
“It’s the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you.”

Once again, the life of an entrepreneur can be lonely. You have your dream and vision, but there are people who are incapable of visualizing your dream or are so jealous of your success that they will plant seeds of doubt in your head. Don’t let them. Haters are gonna hate, so let them! People will tell you how you should do things.

Tell ’em to shut up! Write your own story. If others want to write a story, let them write their own.

Your business will need to reflect your vision, not anyone else’s. So, stop listening to other voices if you want to be the best "you" possible. It’s your dream, your vision.



5. 'Lawrence of Arabia' (Best Picture, 1962)
“Big things have small beginnings, sir.”

Don’t ever think you’re too big for your britches. When you give yourself the title of “CEO,” that doesn’t mean you’re not going to end up cleaning your own bathroom or taking out the trash. If you’re not willing to do something, how can you ask your team to do that same thing?

As CEO of a company, big or small, it can be really easy to lose perspective and let our titles define us. A CEO cleaning his/her own bathroom? Unheard of in some cases. However, I see it as a positive. Why? It keeps entrepreneurs grounded.



For me, humble work reminds me that I come from humble beginnings and that I need to be able to do everything I can for my company to succeed. It also allows me to stay connected, in some visceral way, to all aspects of my business. Disconnection can be a lonely island of entitlement, and you must find that balance between pushing forward and staying grounded. While I encourage everyone to "think big," I also warn, "Don’t become too big." That can be a major turn-off for many.

What movie inspires you to forge ahead? Which one dared you to put into motion your dream of becoming an entrepreneur? One thing is for sure: Nothing will happen if you don’t at least attempt to get things started. As Master Yoda said, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

What are your Academy Awards picks?

This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com

It's safe to say that in one way or another, everyone's lives have been affected by Mark Zuckerberg and that little social media network he created called Facebook. Through Facebook, people from all different parts of the world across every type of imaginable background are able to connect with one another. Campaigns and causes can reach millions, conversations can be had about important and relevant issues and at its base level, it's made keeping in touch with people virtually effortless.

It's safe to say then, that the man behind the website that's now become a vital part of so many people's lives, knows what it takes to create a company and a business that's both innovative, informative and revolutionary.

We rounded up some of Zuckerberg's best quotes about his business practices and entrepreneurship, and as you could've guessed, there's so much to learn from his approach. Here are his 15 best quotes about entrepreneurship and business:



1. "In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."



2. "People don't care about what you say, they care about what you build."



3. "You are better off trying something and having it not work and learning from that than not doing anything at all."




4. “In terms of doing work and in terms of learning and evolving as a person, you just grow more when you get more people’s perspectives.”





5. "People can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable, but if they don't really believe in it, then they are not going to really work hard."



6. "Building a mission and building a business go hand-in-hand."




7. "We look for people who are passionate about something. In a way, it almost doesn't matter what you're passionate about."



8. "The question I ask myself like almost every day is, 'Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?' ... Unless I feel like I'm working on the most important problem that I can help with, then I'm not going to feel good about how I'm spending my time.”



9. "Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough."



10. “People think innovation is just having a good idea but a lot of it is just moving quickly and trying a lot of things.”



11. "I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress."





12. "The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?'"



13. “So many businesses get worried about looking like they might make a mistake, they become afraid to take any risk. Companies are set up so that people judge each other on failure.”



14. “I would rather be in the cycle where people are underestimating us. It gives us latitude to go out and make big bets that excite and amaze people.”





15. "My goal was never to just create a company. A lot of people misinterpret that, as if I don't care about revenue or profit or any of those things. But what not being 'just' a company means to me is building something that actually makes a really big change in the world."



Zuckerberg knows that doing things the traditional way won't take you far. His core ideal of wanting to connect people and listen to what they have to say is crucial in creating a brand and company that people believe in and want to engage in.