Inspirational quotes are a wonderful pick-me-up. At some point in your business and personal life, you will face challenges or downtimes. When those moments come, reading quotes will motivate you to carry on. They stimulate your mind and provide encouragement to push you towards achieving your goals. As you read you can practically hear the writer speaking directly to you.

Here are 30 quotes for you to digest and keep handy for when needed…

10 Reasons to push for success

“To any entrepreneur: if you want to do it, do it now. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it.” ~ Catherine Cook, co-founder of My Yearbook.

“Everything started as nothing.” ~ Ben Weissentein, CEO of Grand Slam Garage Sales

“As you start working on your company, you start working on yourself. Because this company is a reflection of who you are, and every single one of your insecurities are somehow going to be challenged; they are somehow going to bubble up to the surface. And you are going to have to defeat them in real time, in order to be successful at what you’re building.” ~ Adna Gansca, founder of Knotch

“Don’t let someone else’s vision of success force you to stray from the path you worked to be on. Carve your own path and you’ll always be heading in the right direction.” ~ Michelle Phan, co-founder of Ipsy

“If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going.  That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100% from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.” ~ Kevin Systrom

If you do things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.” ~ Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook.

“A hard thing is done by figuring out how to start.” ~ Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz.

“There’s no committee that says this is the type of person who can change the world, and you can’t. Realizing that anyone can do it is the first step. The next step is figuring out how you’re doing to do it.” Adora Svitak, Flying Fingers.

“People will stereotype all day long. But if you forget your own age, you’ll get so focused on the business that you become ultra-confident and people will forget to question how old you are.” ~ Gurbash. Founder of RadiumOne

“Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else.” ~ Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx

10 Ways to bounce back from failure

“The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is that you’ll fail ten times for every success. ~ Adam Horwitz, founder of Mobile Monopoly

“I’ve also learned that the biggest lessons came from my biggest mistakes.” ~ Gurbaksh Chahal, founder of RadiumOne

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.” ~ Catherine Cook, co-founder of MyYearbook.

“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.” ~ Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

“Be fearless and don’t be afraid of failure. There is no better way to learn than through trial and error.” ~ Nick D’Aloisio

“I suck at 99 percent of stuff, but I go all out on that 1 percent I’m good at.” ~ Gary Vaynerchuk

“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 Legendary Basketball MVP

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” ~ Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group

“It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because all that matters in business is that you get it right once.” ~ Mark Cuban, Chairman of AXS TV, Owner of Landmark Theaters

“If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to try and be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.” ~ Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba

10 Things to do daily for inspiration

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar

“Have the end in mind and every day make sure you’re working towards it. ~ Ryan Allis

“The path to success is to take massive, determined actions.” ~

“Remember, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided. ~ Anthony Robbins

“Do what today others won’t, so tomorrow, you can do what other’s can’t.” ~ Brian Rogers Loop

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” ~ John C. Maxwell

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” ~ Steve Job

“The day is over and I am leaving the office with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. What have I achieved?” ~ Ron Friedman, founder and author

“It is so easy to fall into daily distractions, forcing you to play catch up the next day. This cycle can go on forever. Time blocking keeps me on track. I schedule a time frame where I am responding to emails, then the next hour is blocked for meetings, etc.” ~ Jayna Cooke, CEO of EVENTup

“I keep my to-do list short. Every morning I write down the three most important things I need to do that day to move the needle forward. This helps me to make sure I’m playing more offence than defence. It’s so easy to get bogged down in email and other people’s to-do lists that when you look up at the end of the day you realize you didn’t make any progress on the things that are most important. Keeping my to-do list forces me to prioritize and do just the things that are most important.” ~ Ethan Austin, founder of Give Forward

To conclude, motivation from others who have done what you hope to do, or you are doing is encouraging. As a young entrepreneur, inspirational quotes or words of wisdom are food for your soul. Feed your mind with words of wisdom when you need to nurture your creativity. They will fire you up to become more productive.