150 Best Bad Business Quotes to Read and Share

Bad Business Quotes: Bad business quotes are one of the best examples of what not to do with your business, and they come in many different flavors. Whether it’s shooting yourself in the foot by overspending or messing up on details that seem small, but cost you serious money, there are plenty of bad business quotes to read and share when you need to remind yourself why you love what you do, but also why it’s important to have solid business sense as well

Here are 150 top bad business quotes that you can start reading and sharing today. If you’re reading this, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re an entrepreneur who, at one point or another, has experienced failure. We all have bad days and even bad years, but the point of this list of the top 150 bad business quotes to read and share with friends on your Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Pinterest etc.

Bad Business Quotes

“If you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Carol Bartz

“Hurried business is bad business.” – Patrick deWitt

“Data beats emotions.” — Sean Rad, founder of Tinder.

“Taxes cause the most bad business decisions.” — James Cook

“Discrimination, in all its forms, is bad for business.” – Tim Cook

“Don’t have any opinions. They’re bad for business.” – Jerome Lawrence

“I am not ever in the business of making anyone feel bad.” – Nate Berkus

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller

“Racism, because it favors color over talent, is bad for business.” – Steven Pinker

“When I first got into business, I made a lot of bad decisions.” — Daymond John

“The trouble with this business is the dearth of bad pictures.” – Samuel Goldwyn

“In and of itself, keeping the country safe for business is not a bad thing.” – Peter Schuyler

“Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business.” – Ludwig von Mises

“If the planters carry politics into the fields they will find it bad business.” – Charles E. Merrill

“Anything that is measured and watched, improves.” — Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.

Shady Business Quotes

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” — Thomas Edison, co-founder of General Electric

“Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” — Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell.

“See things in the present, even if they are in the future.” — Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle.

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” — Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance

“In the business world, bad news is usually good news – for somebody else.” – James Surowiecki

“Bad business should be done without guilt if it is a source of income.” – Michael Bassey Johnson

“This is a business, the direct selling, that bizarrely works best when times are bad.” – Jim Cramer

“If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” — Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.” — Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of the United States

“Things that are bad for business are bad for the people who work for business.” – Thomas E. Dewey

“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” — Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur and co-founder of Alltop.

“Stay self-funded as long as possible.” — Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, and StumbleUpon.

“I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” — Estee Lauder, founder of Estee Lauder Cosmetics.

“Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft

“Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” — Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO of BlogHer

“Nothing works better than just improving your product.” — Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow. Bad Business Quotes!

“There is never a bad time to start a business – unless you want to start a mediocre one.” – Gary Vaynerchuk. Bad Business Quotes!

“Vanity is not half a bad principle, if it will but stick to legitimate business.” – Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Bad Business Quotes!

“Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.” — Chris Dixon, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz. Bad Business Quotes!

“Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea.” — Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga. Bad Business Quotes!

“A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader.” — Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures. Bad Business Quotes!

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.” — Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company. Bad Business Quotes!

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas A. Edison. Bad Business Quotes!

“Today’s business model is bad for people, bad for the economy and bad for stability and democracy.” – Sharan Burrow. Bad Business Quotes!

Quotes about Bad Business

“I am not ever in the business of making anyone feel bad.” – Nate Berkus

“Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” — Paul Rand, Graphic Designer

“When I first got into business, I made a lot of bad decisions.” – Daymond John

“The business is all about gush and hype. You’ll never have a bad meeting in L.A.” – Emily Blunt

“I’m horrible with money. I make bad business decisions every hour of the day.” – Melissa Harris-Perry

“That I would rather be in another business where a bad cold wouldn’t put me out of work.” – Merv Griffin

“Good decisions can have bad short-term outcomes but can be great for the business long-term.” – Gerry Schwartz

“It is a bad business, dealing in lottery tickets … Riches got in such a hasty manner never wore well.” – Sarah Josepha Hale

“The new solo album sounds like me: I’m singing about bad business transactions, bodily fluids, and courage.” – Kevin Drew

“When public figures think they can open a business even though they’ve got no business experience, it’s a bad idea.” – Moby

“This whole business feels kind of intense, like a bad fit. Round peg, square hole. But whatever, I’ll take it.” – Paul Giamatti

“When digging ceases to be a great game and becomes, as in Egypt, merely business, it will be a bad thing.” – Leonard Woolley

“You can’t do a good business with a bad person. Find the right people to work with and you can’t go wrong.” – Richard Branson

“A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad marriage, etc.” – Charlie Munger

“In many ways, that affection is the real reward for 56 years in the business. Although the money ain’t exactly bad either.” – Perry Como

“Philanthropy without scale and sustainability is like any other bad business that will simply wither and die on the vine.” – Naveen Jain

“Your business is never really good or bad ‘out there.’ Your business is either good or bad right between your own two ears.” – Zig Ziglar

“Any time an investment company has to spend heavily on advertising, it’s probably a bad business in which to invest.” – Robert Kiyosaki. Bad Business Quotes!

“I have a bad gambling problem. You’re not in show business for 12 years and dress like this without a bad gambling problem.” – Artie Lange. Bad Business Quotes!

“Individualism is bad for business – though absolutely necessary for freedom, progressive knowledge, and any possible interface with the transcendent.” – Tom Robbins. Bad Business Quotes!

“Slavery was incredibly prosperous for some people at that time. It was not a bad business plan, but it was terrible and inhumane. But as a business it worked.” – Chuck D. Bad Business Quotes!

“Economists’ unanimity that bad business is ahead is the most reassuring news possible. It’s very unlikely that this will be the one time they’re right.” – Malcolm Forbes. Bad Business Quotes!

“I don’t want to say that most rock bands live these formulaic biography existences – but they kinda do. There’s always a divorce. There’s always an OD. There’s always a bad business manager.” – Dave Grohl. Bad Business Quotes!

“Success is not necessarily about connections, or cutting corners, or chamba – the three Cs of bad business. Call it trite, but believe me: success can be achieved through hard work, frugality, integrity, responsiveness to change, and most of all, boldness to dream.” – John. Bad Business Quotes!

“I don’t like the idea of telling private business owners. I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to ever exclude anybody from your restaurant. But at the same time I do believe in private ownership. I think there should be absolutely no discrimination in anything that gets public funding.” – Rand Paul. Bad Business Quotes!

“Buying a share of a good business is better than buying a share of a bad business. One way to do this is to purchase a business that can invest its own money at high rates of return rather than purchasing a business that can only invest at lower ones. In other words, businesses that earn a high return on capital are better than businesses that earn a low return on capital.” – Joel Osteen

Bad Business Decision Quotes

“You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.” — Peter Shankman, founder of HARO.

“You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” — Larry Page, co-founder of Google.

“I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” — Jake Nickell, founder and CEO of Threadless.

“Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” — Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter

“The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.” — Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy.

“Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.” — Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow.

“In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.” — Steve Case, co-founder of AOL

“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” — Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks

“Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” — Mark Cuban, AXS TV Chairman and entrepreneur

“An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create.” — David Karp, founder and CEO of Tumblr.

“If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.” — Omar Hamoui, co-founder of AdMob

“Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.” — Noah Everett, founder of Twitpic.

“It is bad to be poor. I shall go to the wall for bread and meat, if I neglect my business this year as well as last.” – Abraham Lincoln

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

“Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” — Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor

“Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.” — Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch.

Business Decision Quotes

“This sort of thing has got to be stopped. Bad philosophers are like slum landlords. It’s my job to put them out of business.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” — Golda Meir, fourth Prime Minister of Israel

“When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” — Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture

“I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant – but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership.” – Rand Paul. Bad Business Quotes!

“White shall not neutralize the black, nor good compensate bad in man, absolve him so: life’s business being just a terrible choice.” – Robert Browning. Bad Business Quotes!

“We, as conservative intellectuals, should not be in the business of making excuses for bad parliamentary decisions by Republican leaders in Congress.” – David Frum

“White shall not neutralize the black, nor good compensate bad in man, absolve him so; life’s business being just a terrible choice.” – Robert Browning. Bad Business Quotes!

“It was a culture where business is something bad – it was a leftist-oriented psychology. We have to break this. We are pro-business.” – Antonis Samaras. Bad Business Quotes!

“Society in itself does no great harm, but unsatisfied social aspirations are a bad and ugly business. We must certainly accept it, and we will.” – Leo Tolstoy. Bad Business Quotes!

“In the LBO field, there is a buried “covariance” with marketable equities towards disaster in generally bad business conditions, and competition is now extremely intense.” – Charlie Munger

“Slavery was incredibly prosperous for some people at that time. It was not a bad business plan, but it was terrible and inhumane. But as a business it worked.” – Chuck D

“I got screwed over in some bad business deals, but as long as I focused on those past problems, I couldn’t move forward. I had to let all of that go and forgive everyone and everything first.” – Steve Pavlina

“The boom is called good business, prosperity, and upswing. Its unavoidable aftermath, the readjustment of conditions to the real data of the market, is called crisis, slump, bad business, depression.” – Ludwig von Mises

“These occasions always took him by surprise. He was shocked anew each time the crisply surveyed, neatly kept world he so cherished rose up to confront him with all its essential sloppiness, irrationality, and bad business sense.” – T.C. Boyle

Inspirational Business Quotes

“In books there’s nothing of the fish covered in the coldness of the sea, or the feeling of a star touching space. Bad for business.” – Steve Aylett

“You know criticism when you get into this business. You accept the bad with the good, the tabloids and the positive side of it.” – Carmen Electra

“I believe that the Laws of Karma do not apply to show business, where good things happen to bad people on a fairly regular basis.” – Chuck Lorre

“This continuing spike in gas prices is bad for consumers, bad for our economy, and bad for all other businesses. It is hurting us and costing us jobs.” – Jodi Rell

“The physical business of writing is unpleasant to me, but the psychic satisfaction of discharging bad ideas in worse English makes me forget it.” – H. L. Mencken

“Advertising has always been the Peck’s Bad Boy of American business urging us to buy things we probably don’t need and often can’t afford.” – Andrew Hacker

“There’s a lot more people that enjoy me playing the enforcer, the destroyer. If the bad disappears one day, then the good will go out of business.” – Robert LaSardo

“Smartass Disciple: Master, you keep preaching the truth. They don’t listen.Master of Stupidity: Oh that’s not bad. That attitude keeps us in the business.” – Toba Beta

“No one has the right to not assume that the business cycle will turn! Every five years or so, you have got to assume that something bad will happen.” – Jamie Dimon

“We, as conservative intellectuals, should not be in the business of making excuses for bad parliamentary decisions by Republican leaders in Congress.” – David Frum

“I think the biggest single thing that causes difficulty in the business world is the short-term view. We become obsessed with it. But it forces bad decisions.” — James Sinegal

“Chinese people, young people, they don’t go shopping a lot in department stores. All the department store guys hate me. They say that business is bad because of Jack.” – Jack Ma

“Sometimes there’s not a direct transfer of skills from business to government, but sometimes what happens in business would be really bad for the government.” – Hillary Clinton

“When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.” – Warren Buffett

“Is regulation per se bad? Is better regulation bad? I think better regulation is good for the business community, and I think that’s something we should get together on.” – Ed Rendell

“Nothing really mattered that much, not the good things and not the bad ones. We were in the business of mutual amusement, and we were reasonably prosperous.” – John Green

Bad Business Owner Quotes

“Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

“Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the upmarket.” — Jason Calacanis, founder of LAUNCH Ticker.

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs, co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” — Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter.

“Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.

“It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.” — Jason Cohen, founder of Smartbear Software.

“The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” — Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder

“There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” — Jason Fried, 37signals founder and co-author of Rework

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” — Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder

“If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” — Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, and motivational speaker

“If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.” — Ryan Freitas, co-founder of About.me.

“Get a mentor in the applicable field if you’re at all unsure of what you’re looking for.” — Kyle Bragger, founder of Forrst and co-founder of Exposure.

“Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.” — Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman & CEO of ArcelorMittal

Good Business Bad Business

“There are two basic rules which should never be broken. Be subtle. And don’t, for God’s sake, try to do business with anyone who’s having a bad game.” – William Davis

“All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.” — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

“If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” — Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

“The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think about what can be done better tomorrow.” — Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA

“Big business’ was a bad phrase in India. To be accused of being big business was the worst accusation you could make. All that is gone now. The whole mindset has changed.” – P. Chidambaram

“No more romanticizing about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a struggle to save your company’s life – and your own skin – every day of the week.” — Spencer Fry, co-founder of CarbonMade.

“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 of Wendy’s

“Young people in the business have grown up and made the wrong decisions, or bad decisions, and haven’t been good role models. To be someone that people look up to is important to me.” — Justin Bieber

“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 (Click to tweet)

“Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” — Wayne Huizenga, prolific American business person, owner of Blockbuster Video and the Miami Dolphins.

“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to one another. And, when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” — Daniel Pink, author

“Use law and physics only for necessity; they that use them otherwise abuse themselves unto weak bodies, and light purses; they are good remedies, bad businesses, and worse recreations.” – Francis Quarles

“Business is all about learning to balance the short-term, medium-term and long-term. I think it’s when things are going well that it covers up a lot of mistakes and bad decisions because you’re growing so quickly …” — Tony Hsieh

“Everyone agrees that the failure of our high schools is tragic. It’s bad business, and it’s bad policy. But we act as if it can’t be helped. It can be helped. We designed these high schools; we can redesign them.” – Melinda Gates

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller, American author, political activist and lecturer

Bad Business Quotes Long

“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

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.

“The reason why it is so difficult for existing firms to capitalize on disruptive innovations is that their processes and their business model that make them good at the existing business make them bad at competing for the disruption.” – Clayton Christensen

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” — Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft

“I’m happy to report that ‘The New Press’ is still in business to this day. But no thanks to me. I was a really bad publishing intern.” – Lev Grossman“It is a truth universally acknowledged on Wall Street that original research is on life support. Serious research can be bad for business, as well as expensive.” – Alex Berenson. Bad Business Quotes!

“There is no advantage to getting older. You don’t get smarter, you don’t get wiser, you don’t get more mellow, you don’t get more kindly, nothing good happens. Your back hurts more, you get more indigestion, your eyesight isn’t as good, you need a hearing aid. It’s a bad business getting old and I would advise you not to do it if you can avoid it. It doesn’t have a romantic quality.” – Woody Allen

“The stars will never align, and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pros and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it, just do it and correct the course along the way.” — Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week

“You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, “What did that man pick up?” “He picked up a piece of the truth,” said the devil. “That is a very bad business for you, then,” said his friend. “Oh, not at all,” the devil replied, “I am going to help him organize it.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

Bad business quotes are the perfect way to give you some inspiration to start your own business and make it bigger, better, and more profitable than ever before. These quotes can help you be more successful by giving you confidence in yourself, your ideas, and what you are able to achieve with hard work and dedication.

Plus, these bad business quotes are perfect for sharing with your friends or getting them on board with your new venture so they can work together to make something amazing happen! So get inspired by reading through these top bad business quotes that are sure to inspire you!