Inspiration Revealed: 40 Top CEOs Share Their Secrets to Success

How to be an entrepreneur and lead a company

1. “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 and former CEO of Wendy’s
2. “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.” — Larry Ellison, co-founder and former CEO of Oracle
3. “There’s an entrepreneur right now, scared to death, making excuses, saying, ‘It’s not the right time just yet.’ There’s no such thing as a good time. I started an apparel manufacturing business in the tech-boom years. I mean, come on. Get out of your garage and go take a chance and start your business.” — Kevin Plank, founder and former CEO of Under Armour

4. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the nonsuccessful ones is pure perseverance.” — Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple

5. “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 a CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.” — Ben Horowitz, co-founder and former CEO of Opsware and co-founder and partner at Andreessen Horowitz
6. “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” — Nolan Bushnell, former CEO of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese 
7. “I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” — Jake Nickell, founder and CEO of Threadless

[For more inspiration, read these inspiring quotes from trailblazing women we admire.]

On team-building and collaboration

8. “The secret to successful hiring is this: Look for the people who want to change the world.” — Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO of Salesforce
9. “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 will 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, co-founder and CEO of Toptal

10. “Hire character. Train skill.” — Peter Schultz, founder and former director of GNF
11. “Never make an important decision while you are feeling emotional — either too happy, surprised, or angry. Similarly, never make a big decision until you have talked it over with people you trust who are knowledgeable about the matter. Then be decisive once you have heard them out.” — Andrés Gluski, president and CEO of the AES Corporation
12. “The real damper on employee engagement is the soggy, cold blanket of centralized authority. In most companies, power cascades downward from the CEO. Not only are employees disenfranchised from most policy decisions, but they lack even the power to rebel against egocentric and tyrannical supervisors.” — Gary Hamel, founder and former chairman at Strategos
13. “Businesses often forget about the culture and, ultimately, they suffer for it, because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.” — Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos
14. “Employees are a company’s greatest asset; they’re your competitive advantage. You want to attract and retain the best, provide them with encouragement and stimulus, and make them feel that they are an integral part of the company’s mission.” — Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox Corporation

The importance of reputation

15. “Never forget that you only have one opportunity to make a first impression — with investors, with customers, with PR, and with marketing.” — Natalie Massenet, founder and former CEO of Net-a-Porter

16. “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, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
17. “People remember character — how you act and behave. No one remembers what multiple you paid or how great an investment it was, but they remember if you were a good person, whether you were fair, and how compassionate you were. I tell people that they are paid to make difficult decisions, but how they communicate and execute those decisions will last a lifetime. Life is a long time and deals will come and go, but your reputation will always stay with you.” — Jim Lillie, former CEO of Jarden Corporation

How to create and ensure success

18. “Embrace tough assignments. Conventional wisdom suggests that it’s easier to take the path of least resistance by signing up for an easy job, doing it well, and moving on to something bigger. The problem with that theory is that nobody notices when you do an easy job well. It’s far better to challenge yourself by raising your hand for the toughest assignments and work to solve problems that no one else has been able to solve. That’s how you truly become a trusted leader inside an organization.” — Indra Nooyi, former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
19. “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
20. “If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.” — Pierre Omidyar, founder and former chairman of eBay 
21. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” — Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group
22. “Stay as close to the end product as possible. As a leader, the buck stops with you on every subject, and every knotty problem lands on your desk. It’s tempting to direct your full attention to the crisis of the moment, but it’s crucial to keep a substantial part of your focus on the core mission and values of the institution — in my case, to remain in perpetual close contact with the artists and artisans [who] are responsible for the product we put on our stage.” — Christopher Koelsch, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Opera

23. “Success doesn’t necessarily come from breakthrough innovation, but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won’t win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling.” — Naveen Jain, founder and former CEO of InfoSpace
24. “It’s not about how to get started; it’s about how to get noticed.” — Steve Case, co-founder and former CEO of AOL
25. “Sell. Don’t apologize for it, and don’t be afraid to beg with a positive, upbeat attitude. Tell prospects you want their business and you will kick ass once you’ve earned it. Have no shame. Pride doesn’t pay the rent.” — Tom Gimbel, founder and former CEO of LaSalle Network
26. “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, former president and CEO of Yahoo
27. “It takes humility to realize that we don’t know everything, not to rest on our laurels, and know that we must keep learning and observing. If we don’t, we can be sure some startup will be there to take our place.” — Cher Wang, co-founder and CEO of HTC 

[Discover when (and how) to quit your day job for your startup.]

Addressing the competition

28. “Never define yourself as a product. And, in fact, I would augment it: Never define yourself by your competition either. If you live and define yourself by your product or competition, you will lose sight of who your customer is.” — Ginni Rometty, former chairman, president, and CEO of IBM

29. “We are really competing against ourselves. We have no control over how other people perform.” — Pete Cashmore, founder and former CEO of Mashable
30. “If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.” — Jeff Bezos, founder and former CEO of Amazon

How to prioritize work and life

31. “Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give the required time to your family [and] friends and have proper rest. Value has a value only if its value is valued.” — Bryan Dyson, former CEO of Coca-Cola
32. “Work-life balance is a myth. All we have is our priorities. Watch where someone spends their time and sets their priorities, and you will know what is truly important to them.” — Walt Bettinger, CEO and co-chairman of Charles Schwab
33. “It’s not about having a specific set time; both personal and professional lives are 24/7. It’s simply more about making the right allocation to each one and recognizing that it’s going to be different every single day.” — Ellen Kullman, former CEO of DuPont

34. “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, founder and managing partner of Inspired Capital and founder and former CEO of LearnVest
35. “My advice is to focus on becoming a complete person. Everyone should focus on the content of his or her job, of course. But work is not the end; it’s a means to an end. You owe it to yourself to open up to broader interests. In the end, it will be better for your career because you will be more interesting and attractive to others.” — Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO and current senior chairman of Goldman Sachs

36. “Balance suggests a perfect equilibrium. There is no such thing. That is a false expectation. … There are going to be priorities and dimensions of your life, and how you integrate them is how you find true happiness.” — Denise Morrison, former president and CEO of Campbell’s

[Read related article: How Hiring a Chief Happiness Officer Can Save Your Business]

Don’t be afraid of failure

37. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates, founder and former CEO of Microsoft
38. “Surviving a failure allows you more self-confidence. Failing is a great learning tool, but it must be kept to an absolute minimum.” — Jeffrey Immelt, former CEO of General Electric

39. “Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” — Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox
40. “Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they do. Don’t overanalyze everything. I myself have been guilty of overthinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.” — Ben Silbermann, founder and CEO of Pinterest

From leading CEOs to your business

It’s a competitive world out there in business. Use these tips to keep your edge and succeed. From leading your first company to growing your team and maintaining your reputation, all the inspiration you need is right here. If you’re afraid of failing, these CEOs show that failure is okay — and if it happens, the tips here provide plenty of encouragement to try again.

Max Freedman contributed to the reporting and writing in this article.

Image via Flickr, Creative Commons: Eduardo Arcos