9 Inspirational Quotes for Startups and Small Business Owners from George Lois

People like to call him the original Mad Man. George Lois worked for Doyle Cane Bernbach for a year before founding his own agency, Papert Koenig Lois. PKL was not only known as one of the first creative advertising agencies, but it was the first advertising agency to go public.

Seven years later, he left PKL to form Lois, Holland, Callaway, which made its mark working for Braniff Airways and Esquire magazine (he was involved in several of the magazine’s most iconic covers), among others.

Mr. Lois is also the author or co-author of several books including, What’s the Big Idea? and Damn Good Advice (for People with Talent). He’s also spoken hundreds of time to conferences and creative gatherings and has never shied away from giving advice. Here are nine things he has written and said that owners of startups and other small businesses might be inspired by:

“If a man does not work passionately – even furiously – at being the best in the world at what he does, he fails his talent, his destiny, and his God.”

“Remember: It’s not how short you make it; it’s how you make it short. Think long. Write short.”

“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.”

“In any creative industry, the fact that others are moving in a certain direction is always proof positive, at least to me, that a new direction is the only direction.”

“Teamwork might work in building an Amish barn, but it can’t create a big idea… Everybody believes in co-creativity–not me. Be confident of your own, edgy, solo talent.”

“Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens.”

“If you don’t burn out at the end of each day, you’re a bum.”

“Follow your bliss. That which you love you must spend your life doing, as passionately and as perfectly as your heart, mind and instincts allow. The sooner you identify that bliss, which surely resides in the soul of most human beings, the greater your chance of a truly successful life.”

“Working hard and doing doing great work is as imperative as breathing.”

—George Lois, Founder of Papert Koenig Lois