The easiest way to replicate success is to emulate the thinking of successful people. With that in mind, I collected a set of quotes from a dozen incredibly successful people, none of whom inherited their vast wealth:


1. Jeff Bezos
I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate.
Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful.
There's no bad time to innovate.


2. Sara Blakely
It's important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.
We don't have the luxury of time. We spend more because of how we live, but it's important to be with our family and friends.
We can make the world a better place, one butt at a time.


3. Michael Bloomberg
Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil.
To a contrarian like me, constant advice not to do something almost always starts me quickly down the risky, unpopular path.
I don't know why you should be proud of something. It doesn't make you any better or worse. You are what you are.


4. Warren Buffett
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.


5. Larry Ellison
When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.
I believe people have to follow their dreams--I did.
I have had all of the disadvantages required for success.
6. Bill Gates
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.
We make the future sustainable when we invest in the poor, not when we insist on their suffering.
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.


7. Elon Musk
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
The only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.
The single best piece of advice: Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.


8. Larry Page
Especially in technology, we need revolutionary change, not incremental change.
If you're changing the world, you're working on important things. You're excited to get up in the morning.
We don't have as many managers as we should, but we would rather have too few than too many.


9. J. K. Rowling
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.


10. George Soros
The worse a situation becomes, the less it takes to turn it around, the bigger the upside.
Unrestrained competition can drive people into actions that they would otherwise regret.
An open society is a society that allows its members the greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests compatible with the interests of others.


11. Oprah Winfrey
What God intended for you goes far beyond anything you can imagine.
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.
Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.


12. Mark Zuckerberg
The biggest risk is not taking any risk ... In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.
I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.
I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that's always existed.