What Inspires Successful Entrepreneurs?

[tweetmeme]What inspires successful entrepreneurs? What words of wisdom guide their actions and thinking?

Paul Thornton in his new book “Leadership-Off the Wall” looks at the quotes leaders and successful entrepreneurs post on their office walls and keep on their desks. The sayings they display around them are usually the guiding principles they have followed to achieve success.

Here are some of the office wall quotes displayed by famous leaders and most successful entrepreneurs today:

• “It can be done!”  — Sign President Ronald Reagan kept on his desk in the Oval Office
• “It’s not enough to say we are doing our best. We must succeed in doing what is necessary.”  —  Framed inscription on the desk of Winston Churchill during the Second World War
• “#1 Priority is Company Culture” —  Sign on the wall next to the desk of Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com
• “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.” Amelia Earhart, aviator —  Sign on the office wall of Marsha Friedman, Chief Executive Office, EMSI
• “Business as Un-usual.” —  Sign in the office of Cordia Harrington, President and CEO, Tennessee Bun Company

For more inspiring sayings, get a copy of Thornton’s book Leadership-Off the Wall and check out the slideshow prepared by the author: