Career development. Not the most poetic of subjects, but most definitely an inspiring one. And one that has given rise to me curating this article, built around great and thought-provoking career development quotes

Quotes condense learning and experience into memorable bite-sized sentences.

By themselves, they’re nothing. But add their context, and they’re reminders for what you can’t remember.

Mostly, they come from other people.  And while it’s important to learn from personal experience, it’s also valuable to learn from other people’s experience – especially reflective and intelligent people who have interesting and inspiring things to say.  Quotes provide an easy way for us to do that.

And in these days of social media, it’s easier than ever to share that wisdom.

Career Development and Mentoring from the Greats

When it comes to taking ownership for developing your career, learning from others is vitally important.  That’s why mentoring and career conversations have such an important role to play.

When I run workshops on having career conversations and helping employees take ownership of their career development, I use quotes to creating an inspiring environment.

Here are some of the best inspirational quotes about career development I’ve found and that I think you will enjoy.

Career Development Quotes

1) “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out.” Art Linkletter

2) “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.” Samuel Johnson 

3) “Behold the turtle: He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.”  James Bryant Conant

4) “Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.” J. Willard Marriott

5) “Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.”  William Feather 

6) “It is not what happens to you that determines how far you go in life; it is what you do with what happens to you.”  Zig Ziglar

7) “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”  Winston Churchill

8) “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”  Thomas A Edison

9) “You miss a 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”  Wayne Gretzky

10) “The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing.”  Michael E. Gerber

11) “There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.”  Napoleon Hill

12) “The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.” Anthony Robbins

13) “A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.”  Rita Mae Brown

14) “Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.” Denis Waitley

15) “You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”  Diana Ross

16) “The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.” Lee Iacocca

17)  “The last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”  Viktor Frankl

18)  “What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?” Dr. Robert Schuller

19)  “We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.” Henry Cloud

20)  “A person going nowhere can be sure of reaching his destination.  Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase – just take the first step.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

21)  “The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality.”  Robert Pirsig

22)  “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that our aim is too low and we reach it.” Michaelangelo

23)  “Where I am today is my starting point. Who I am today is my starting point. My failures and successes of the past, my fears and hopes of the future are all shadows. Today is my reality, and I’ll use it to create my world.” Taylor Stevens

24)  “It’s better to move forward at a snail’s pace, than backward at any pace.”  Rhonda Begos

25)  “Make an effort to understand who you are and then have the courage to just be yourself.”  Claudia Sesterheim

26) “We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails.” Bertha Calloway

27) “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.“ Marianne Williamson

28) “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” Franklin D. Roosevelt

29)”The greatest room for growth is in someone’s strengths” Marcus Buckingham

30)”If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them”. Henry David Thoreau

31) “Dream big. Start small. But most of all start”. Simon Sinek

32) “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” Suzy Kassem

33)”Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself, be proud every step you take forward.” Karen Salmansohn

34)”Find something you love doing and you will never work a day in your life again.” Mark Twain

35)”Careers are a jungle gym, not a ladder.” Sheryl Sandberg

36) “A mind that is stretched by new experiences can never go back to its old dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

37)”Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control, now.” Denis Waitely

38)”If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” Jim Rohn

Which one of these struck you the most? Share your favourite in the comments below.

Enjoyed this post? You may also like our free eBook It’s Good To Talk! – a practical guide to career conversations in the workplace

Find out more about empowering your employees to take ownership of their development.