If you’re in search of some good ole’ fashion tough love—then you came to the right place. Dan Pena doesn’t sugar things and he certainly doesn’t care about your feelings.
While his delivery can be a little intense for some, his advice comes from a place of caring—I think. He’s a little old school in his approach but much of his advice is sound.
If you’re not yet familiar with Dan Pena, you can find a short biography on him at the end of this list.
For now, let’s dive into the 79 Dan Pena quotes on success, life, and business.
Table of Contents
Quotes on Leadership
1. “People want to be led by strong leaders, and good leaders are constant students.”
2. “Of course I have said, till I am blue in the face – people don’t lack goals, passion, grit, or drive – they lack leadership!”
3. “Good leaders make sense of change in the world… then imparts that insight to the team.”
4. “You have to have faith in people.”
Quotes on Mental Strength
5. “We are only as emotionally strong as our deepest/biggest secret!”
6. “Don’t focus on mistakes; focus on the positive next time.”
7. “Never ever share your doubts.”
8. “By definition, to work with me, you need thicker skin and must be OK with a certain amount of verbal abuse!”
9. “We all have baggage from our upbringing! That’s life!”
10. “The difference between a failure and a high-performance individual is how each deals with fear. We are all afraid.”
11. “I have been following what is now called the ‘Spartan Way’ long before it became popular!”
12. “Hunger makes beasts of men and demons of beasts.”
Quotes on Setting Goals
13. “Never start small where goals are concerned. You’ll make better decisions – and find it much easier to work a lot harder – when your ultimate goal is ultimate success.”
14. “The more emotional distractions you have the harder it is to accomplish your goals – especially at the extreme levels!”
15. “Year-end goals are terrific! Affirmations with goals are even better! And goals, affirmations, along with visualization is even more effective!”
16. “Don’t set time limits for setting goals. They should transcend time.”
17. “Always shoot for the moon. Even if you don’t hit the bulls-eye, you’ll at least get percent.”
18. “I have said countless times high performance people are never satisfied with what they do or how they do it! Hence, I am always endeavouring to improve.”
19. “You can’t have a dream come true unless you have a dream.”
20. “The truth is, successful people are not ten times smarter than you. They don’t really work ten times harder than you. So why are they successful? Because their dreams are so much bigger than yours!”
21. “Life without dreams is like a bird with a broken wing – it can’t fly.”
22. “Ask and you shall receive.”
Quotes on Taking Action
23. “My time is much too precious to be wasted on people who merely want to talk about being a high performance person and can’t or won’t take action!”
24. “High performance people take action quickly and change their mind slowly!”
25. “People that read books don’t take action!”
26. “I’ve never seen a ‘part-time’ super successful, high-performance person.”
27. “Wishing, hoping, and dreaming without an action plan – is nothing more than a pipe dream!”
Quotes on Self-Esteem
28. “As I have said many times – no one loves me as much as I love myself! And if you can’t really love yourself, you can’t love anything you do!”
29. “Don’t under any circumstances, ever, second guess yourself.”
30. “Man’s greatest burden is unfulfilled potential.”
31. ” I coach my mentees to act as if they are invincible – to act as if they could accomplish anything!”
32. “I could not be more proud of the countless lives that I have changed since I began my coaching and mentoring career!”
33. “Dream big, Think big, Be big.”
34. “I have said many times: We have self-esteem or don’t, based on how we were raised! Self-esteem is normally produced in your first few years of life.”
35. “People with low self-esteem protect themselves by not taking risks. High self-esteem gives you the power of confidence to take chances.”
36. “When you truly believe in your idea or your company or yourself, then you don’t need to have a huge ego or a huge personality.”
37. “Fear of failure is caused by lack of self-esteem and confidence. Dealing with fear is the key to super success.”
38. “Now, admittedly, my power of concentration is and always has been extraordinary since my army training! In fact, other people say it is legendary and almost cosmic!”
39. “I may be wrong, but I am never in doubt! And anyone who has been around me for even a minute understands that my self-confidence and self-esteem is sometimes overwhelming!”
Quotes on Perseverance
40. “All my life, I was always in a hurry! I was always hustling!”
41. “The road to success is always under construction… there are lots of potholes but no traffic jams.”
42. “All you need is the desire, passion, and will to fulfil your dreams!”
43. “We cannot change the past, only recover from it. And perhaps learn its cruel lessons.”
44. “Once you learn to make money, it is not that hard… what’s hard is to stay excited about it.”
45. “Good lawyers win so-so lawsuits. Great lawyers can win lawsuits in which you have little or no chance to win.”
46. “You will definitely encounter lots of resistance on the road to super success, but don’t let others stop you from reaching your goals.”
47. “Any problem solved will be replaced immediately by a larger more complicated one!”
48. “I can work 5-10 hrs. straight with no problem, though I do take some time towards the end of a 6-8 hr. work stint out to beat myself severely in the gym with weights/aerobics, including intervals!”
49. “Tough times don’t last – tough people do!”
50. “Entrepreneurship is enduring pain for a long time without relinquishing.”
51. “I have written and said countless times it is not what happens to you in life that makes a difference! It is how we react to what happens to us in life that creates our history and – more importantly – our future!”
52. “The truth is, I almost always did accomplish what I said I would – in the face of overwhelming obstacles!”
53. “If you don’t embrace a workload others would consider crazy, then your goal doesn’t mean that much to you.”
54. I, like Don Quixote, have fought many a windmill.
Quotes on Luck
55. “As I have often said, I would rather be lucky than smart! But it is even better to be lucky and super smart!”
56. “The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!”
57. “Your most valuable natural asset is your own gut instinct. Don’t be afraid of it. your instinct has more power than all of the conventional wisdom in the world.”
Quotes on Working Smart
58. “Next time, you question what you are doing – ask yourself? What could I do more? In most cases, extra time will be the greatest leverage you can apply!”
59. “Don’t just work longer hours, ‘staying busy’ as most other people do. ‘Work smart’ — i.e. Stay productive and don’t get distracted.”
60. “When I came back from the military and completed a -year degree in years, I developed the extraordinary habits needed to get a lot done in a very short period of time!”
61. “A deal has to sound good before it is good.”
62.”We’re all self-made, but only successful people admit it.”
63. “Remarkably successful people habitually do what other people won’t do. They go where others won’t go because there’s a lot less competition and a much greater chance for success.”
64. “Don’t waste time on things you can’t change!”
65. “A deal is either hot – or it’s not.”
66. “The best form of customer service is self service. Constantly empower customers to get their own answers themselves.”
Quotes on Taking Ownership
67. “We must all remember life doesn’t have to be fair for us to succeed if we take change and become masters and creators of our own destiny!”
68. “Quantum leap success means fishing with nets, not just lines.”
69. “The only difference between a Champ and a Chump is ‘U’.”
70. “If you want things to change, first you have to change.”
71. “Just do it!”
Quotes on Comfort Zone
72. “I have always known I had talent, but to be called a ‘talent’ feels a little strange – but well within my comfort zone!”
73. “Jim Newman, the business visionary who created the term ‘comfort zone,’ showed me how to expand my horizons. Thanks to Jim, after I attended one of his PACE Seminars in ; I moved out of my comfort zone at Bear Stearns and became a super successful oilman.”
74. “High-performance people have larger, more expanded comfort zones than most.”
Quotes on Life Advice
75. “There’s no seminar in the world that will give you multi-million-dollar advice on building a business from scratch!”
76. “The Internet has allowed even more growth possible than in the bricks and mortar industries that I dealt with years ago. It is easier to get a business to a million dollars/pounds in revenue on the net! It is not easy! But it is easier when compared to construction, etc., though all businesses use the Internet to enhance marketing.”
77. “You would think that American educators would want our kids, especially our kids from poorer families, to hear what top-rated Oxford students hear. But you’d be wrong. American schools now hide their students from ideas like mine if they don’t approve of the man or the message.”
78. “If you don’t think money can buy happiness, you don’t know where to shop”
79. “Don’t be a loser.”
My Favorite Dan Pena Quote
“If you want to make more money, you’ll have to do things differently. You will have to do things you never even thought of doing in the past. You will have to do things out of your comfort zone.”
Who is Dan Pena?
Dan Pena, also known as “The Trillion Dollar Man”, is a businessman, philanthropist, and high-performance coach.
Dan Pena got his start working on Wall Street as a financial analyst at the firm Bear Stearns. After his run on wall street, he went to work for an oil tycoon in Texas and quickly rose through the ranks to CEO.
After a series of disagreements between Pena and the board, Pena decided to leave and form his own company, Great Western Oil.
Eventually, Pena grew the company through a series of acquisitions and in 1990 Great Western was valued at 450 million dollars.
Unfortunately, his rein wasn’t long lived. He was again thrown out of the company and was forced to start all over again.
He decided to shift his focus from growing companies—to growing people. He thought that he could use his knowledge and skills to teach others to achieve the same level of success that he had.
Soon after he departed from Great Western, Pena started teaching seminars on high performance. His students range from ambitious twenty somethings to seasoned professionals.
He has since mentored tens of thousands of people and he claims that collectively his students have produced a trillion dollars’ worth of value. Hence the moniker, “The Trillion Dollar Man”.
Dan Pena has an aggressive no nonsense approach to self development and as he often explains, “This is not for everybody.”
If you don’t mind his bombastic style and occasional verbal lashings, then Dan Pena can offer some sound advice that might help you take your success to the next level.
