If you want to become a millionaire — or, dream big, a billionaire — start thinking like one. And what better way to get a glimpse inside successful people's heads that to study the wisdom they've already imparted?
For a dose of inspiration, CNBC Make It rounded up nine quotes from self-made billionaires that will change the way you think about money, success and innovation.
On why becoming a billionaire is overrated:
"I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars, there's a certain freedom, meaningful freedom that comes with that. But once you get much beyond that, I have to tell you, it's the same hamburger."
On competition:
"I thought back on my running career at Oregon. I'd competed with, and against, men far better, faster, more physically gifted. Many were future Olympians. And yet I'd trained myself to forget this unhappy fact. People reflexively assume that competition is always a good thing, that it always brings out the best in people, but that's only true of people who can forget the competition. The art of competing, I'd learned from track, was the art of forgetting, and I now reminded myself of that fact. You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past."
On Facebook's goals:
"We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services."
"When I look back on whatever my past has been and the successes, my greatest rewards have been the people and the relationships that I've had. The money has been an accident. I mean, it's a good accident, but I happened to be playing a game that I love."
On investing for the long-term:
"Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also will the portfolio's market value. If you aren't willing to own a stock for 10 years, don't even think about owning it for 10 minutes."
On failure:
"Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough."
On his motivation:
"What I love doing is creating things I can be proud of, and if you create things that you can be proud of, the byproduct of that can be that you become a millionaire or you become a billionaire, because people like what you've created."
On building a business with a small budget:
"I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out."
On the first step to building a successful company:
"Number one: Sales cures all. There has never been a company in the history of companies that has ever succeeded without sales. Anybody who has ever told you, 'Don't worry about sales, you can grow it and worry about sales later,' they are lying to you. They will fail, you will fail. You have to be able to sell and do you know who the biggest salesperson in your company has to be? You."
This is an updated version of a previously published article.
Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook!
