8 Confucius Phrases That Will Teach You About Entrepreneurship

Between the 5th and 4th centuries BC there was a Chinese thinker and official known as Confucius, the creator of Confucianism, a current that had many followers on the Asian continent and later spread until it became known throughout the world where it took root with others. names like Neo-Confucianism or Modern Confucianism, which is still in force today.

Many people like to read about this type of ancient knowledge due to the wisdom it contains, while others flee to it thinking that it may be mysticism or because they believe that what worked in the past is no longer so applicable to the present times. 

Regardless of which of these two categories you belong to, there is very useful information from ancient times if you plan to start your own business or are already on that path of entrepreneurship.

Among that information are the teachings of Confucius that can be perfectly applicable and taken into account today because one of the priorities for this current is social relations, which even today remain one of the fundamental pillars to be successful in the business.

For this reason, we have made a compilation of some of the Confucius phrases that can serve as teaching and motivation for this process you are going through.

” Respect yourself and others will respect you .”

The basis to be able to be successful in any business that you propose or in the undertaking of a new project is to respect yourself mainly by leaving doubting your abilities at every moment.

When you do, you will inevitably attract the respect of the people around you, which is important because when you can positively influence others, you are putting into practice the leadership that will be essential to build solid teams that can help you reach your goal…

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, do not adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

If you manage to maintain focus, you will be more assertive than when your goals change as the situation changes. Do not let stubbornness take over if something difficult happens, to be successful in a new endeavor you will need flexibility for the path and firmness so as not to lose sight of the goal.

“The gentleman blames himself, while the ordinary man blames others.”

This phrase refers to the importance of taking responsibility for our actions. Many times people when they have difficulties bringing their projects to reality often complain that luck is not on their side, the government, the situation in general, the crisis, etc. That is, they point everywhere except themselves.

When you take responsibility for your results, you have a glimmer of hope because you depend mainly on your actions to obtain what you want. So in case you made a mistake, you can turn the wheel instead of giving up because “circumstances are not in your favor”, without there being anything you can do to remedy it.

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we fall.”

If you take responsibility for your mistakes and have also cultivated a will of steel, you have important cards in your hands to obtain victory. If you stay on the ground after falling, all the effort will have been in vain, but if you keep going that failure will become learning that you can draw on later.

“He who seeks to ensure the welfare of others, already has his own insured.”

Many people believe that to be successful you need to develop skin so thick that you are no longer affected by anything you have to do to achieve it. But this is not mandatory, you can be successful in what you set out to do and still preserve your humanity and the values ​​that you consider important.

In business you must always seek the good of others: for example, satisfy the needs of your target to guarantee good sales and your team to exercise positive leadership over them, which will affect their productivity.

“The firm, the resistant, the simple and the modest are close to virtue.”

In this case, success is the virtue you want to achieve, so if you meet the qualities named by Confucius in his previous sentence, you will be closer to achieving it.

“What you do not want to be done to you, do not do to others.”

Applying it to this context of entrepreneurship, this phrase can be used in many important aspects such as offering quality products because you would not like to pay for something that did not work well, paying a decent salary to your employees because you would not like to receive less than what is fair for your work.

“If you are persistent, you will get results.”

And to close with a flourish, persistence and perseverance are the keys to achieving results. Undertaking and being successful is not a matter of a day, so you must arm yourself with patience, but not to wait, but act based on what you aspire to.