Inspirational Business Quotes for New Beginnings

Each day brings with it the opportunity—and the excuse—to make a new start. With the right mindset, there is substantial optimism to be harvested from the ideas that starting over is possible and that new beginnings can create new and successful outcomes.

Here are poignant thoughts from giants in their industries about jump-starting a project, opening a business, or starting over. A motivational quote is sometimes all you need to begin.

Business, Political, and Entertainment Leaders

Few individuals are better suited to comment on new beginnings like community leaders. They are able to describe their trials eloquently, as they often start with nothing and build from there.

• "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently." —Henry Ford
• "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." —Theodore Roosevelt
• "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” —Steve Jobs
• "The secret to living the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams today, in every little way you possibly can.” —Mike Dooley
• "Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do." —Liz Smith
• “This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” —Taylor Swift

Religious and Spiritual Leaders

Captivating millions, religious and spiritual leaders use their pulpit to spread their message to an attentive base of listeners.

• "Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” —Saint Francis of Assisi
• "There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.” —Buddha
• "Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." —Martin Luther King Jr.

Writers

For spending so much time at their desk, writers have an incredibly astute view of the world around them. The life of a writer involves starting many projects—often simultaneously—despite the many emotional blocks a writer can experience.

• "If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.” —Rumi
• "I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.” —J.B. Priestly
• “You raze the old to raise the new.” —Justina Chen Headley
• "The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one." —Mark Twain
• "Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect." —Alan Cohen
• “And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that never were.” —Rainer Maria Rilke
• "The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” —Ben Stein
• "There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction." —Franz Kafka
• "Whatever you do or dream you can do—begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." "What is not started today is never finished tomorrow." —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “Although no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending.” —Carl Bard
• "Begin today. Declare out loud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy.” —Sarah Ban Breathnach
• "The beginning is the most important part of the work." —Plato