Teachers' Day 2023: Learn From These 20 Quotes To Become Better Leaders And Entrepreneurs Here are quotes that can help in forging the leadership qualities of entrepreneurs and act as a guide on how to manage people, various situations, work and life in general.

By Kabir Singh Bhandari

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Teachers' Day is celebrated every year in India on September 5. It is a tribute to teachers for the role they play in the lives of their students and was in honour of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India's first vice president and second president and one of the most renowned scholars known to us.

In the world of business too, there are teachers who we have learnt from, and continue to learn from. Great individuals have left their wisdom in the form of books, speeches and talks, which can be used by entrepreneurs to become better leaders.

Here are quotes that can help in forging the leadership qualities of entrepreneurs and act as a guide on how to manage people, various situations, work and life in general.

1. "The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests."– Gail Sheehy

2. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams

3. "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."– John F. Kennedy

4. "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."– Winston Churchill

5. "Opportunities don't happen. You create them." – Chris Grosser

6. "If you're not stubborn, you'll give up on experiments too soon. And if you're not flexible, you'll pound your head against the wall and you won't see a different solution to a problem you're trying to solve." – Jeff Bezos

7. "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." – Henry Ford

8. "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work." – Colin Powell

9. "It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong." – Abraham Lincoln

10. "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do." – Steve Jobs

11. "The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." – Mark Zuckerberg

12. "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out." – Robert Collier

13. "Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or problem becomes very different." – Indra Nooyi

14. "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed." – Ray Goforth

15. "Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve." – Mary Kay Ash

16. The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." – Kenneth Blanchard

17. "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." – Steve Jobs

18. "Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time." – George Bernard Shaw

19. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."– Ralph Waldo Emerson

20. "Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing."– Tom Peters

Kabir Singh Bhandari

Former Senior Assistant Editor

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Branding

Creating a Brand: How To Build a Brand From Scratch

Every business needs good branding to succeed. Discover the basics and key tips to building a successful brand in this detailed guide.

Innovation

It's Time to Rethink Research and Development. Here's What Must Change.

R&D can't live in a lab anymore. Today's leaders fuse science, strategy, sustainability and people to turn discovery into real-world value.

Marketing

How to Better Manage Your Sales Process

Get your priorities in order, and watch sales roll in.

Business News

AI Agents Can Help Businesses Be '10 Times More Productive,' According to a Nvidia VP. Here's What They Are and How Much They Cost.

In a new interview with Entrepreneur, Nvidia's Vice President of AI Software, Kari Briski, explains how AI agents will "transform" the way we work — and sooner than you think.

Starting a Business

Passion-Driven vs. Purpose-Driven Businesses — What's the Difference, and Why Does It Matter?

Passion and purpose are both powerful forces in entrepreneurship, but they are not the same.