Quotes
75 Inspiring Marcus Lemonis Quotes
Marcus Lemonis is a serial entrepreneur and star of CNBC’s reality show The Profit.
In my opinion what makes Marcus stand out is his transparency and authenticity. If you watch The Profit you’ll also see that he has an uncanny ability to empathise and relate to people.
But that aside Marcus Lemonis has business expertise in abundance. Starting from very humble beginnings Marcus became the chairman and CEO of the multibillion-dollar corporation Camping World, and amongst various other businesses his reported net worth is anywhere from $150M all the way up to $2 Billion.
I’ve put together 75 of the best Marcus Lemonis Quotes that will not only inspire you to success but also provide wise business advice for any entrepreneur.
Read them daily, share them friends and increase your business success.
75 Marcus Lemonis Quotes
1. “If you don’t love what you do, then you shouldn’t do it.” – Marcus Lemonis
2. “The definition of an entrepreneur to me is the willingness to fail, and it takes a lot of guts and a lot of heart to take that chance.” – Marcus Lemonis
3. “It is OK in business, no matter what anybody tells you, to be yourself.” – Marcus Lemonis
4. “You don’t get anything. You have to earn it.” – Marcus Lemonis
5. “People are the core of every business. Businesses are based on relationships, and relationships are based on people. I would go to an average restaurant run by amazing people over an outstanding restaurant run by awful people.” – Marcus Lemonis
6. “Your job as the CEO of the business is to be the coach. Rather than running people under the bus, you’ve got to get them on the bus with you.” – Marcus Lemonis
7. “If you don’t evolve, you will die.” – Marcus Lemonis
8. “In any business, you can’t be complacent. If you do, you’re going to go backwards.” – Marcus Lemonis
9. “If you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know your business.” – Marcus Lemonis
10. “I’m not a big fan of prenups in relationships, but I am a big fan of prenups in partnerships.” – Marcus Lemonis
11. “Don’t compromise who you are.” – Marcus Lemonis
12. “People respect you more if they get the truth as opposed to a bunch of fluff.” – Marcus Lemonis
13. “If you have trust with somebody, it can survive any downturn, any mistake, any problem. And if you don’t have trust, it won’t matter how good the business is. It will fall apart eventually.” – Marcus Lemonis
14. “The customer is not No. 1 to me. They’re No. 2, right behind the employee.” – Marcus Lemonis
15. “Businesses are based on relationships and relationships are based on people.” – Marcus Lemonis
16. “People respect you more if they get the truth as opposed to a bunch of fluff.” – Marcus Lemonis
17. “Surround yourself with good people.” – Marcus Lemonis
18. “People will work for recognition and opportunity more than they’ll work for anything else.” – Marcus Lemonis
19. “The best deals are when both parties that come to an agreement feel just a little uncomfortable.” – Marcus Lemonis
20. “If you don’t have emotion and you don’t have passion, then you shouldn’t be in business, because money is a byproduct, not the purpose.” – Marcus Lemonis
21. “At the end of the day, the numbers don’t lie.” – Marcus Lemonis
22. “Control your cash, stick to your core business, and know your numbers.” – Marcus Lemonis
23. “When you shake somebody’s hand, it’s got to mean something.” – Marcus Lemonis
24. “Performance is the best way to shut people up.” – Marcus Lemonis
25. “Things are always going to go wrong. People make mistakes. I know I do. It’s how you resolve it that matters most. Listen, be open to criticism, resolve it with speed and empathy, and take responsibility.” – Marcus Lemonis
26. “If you don’t work for it, why do you think you deserve it?” – Marcus Lemonis
27. “The customer is not number one, they’re number two, right behind the employee.” – Marcus Lemonis
28. “If the employee is happy, then the chances of the customer being happy are exponentially better.” – Marcus Lemonis
29. “Have no fear and be willing to fail.” – Marcus Lemonis
30. “Stay focused, work hard, know your numbers, and be disciplined. If you do those things and take care of your people, the likelihood of being successful is very, very high.” – Marcus Lemonis
31. “The key to business isn’t being smarter or wealthier, it’s being able to connect to people and relate to them.” – Marcus Lemonis
32. “My number one asset is vulnerability. If you can be more vulnerable and more human, I’m telling you that you will do more business.” – Marcus Lemonis
33. “It’s OK if people know the truth about you. Employees will work harder for you and customers will understand you.” – Marcus Lemonis
34. “Get comfortable being your true self. Do it at the risk of being criticized.” – Marcus Lemonis
35. “If you have a good relationship with clients, people for the most part will stop shopping on pennies.” – Marcus Lemonis
36. I’m not a seller. I’m a holder. – Marcus Lemonis
37. Put no more than three messages on a lemonade stand. You have to describe what your product is, why it’s the best, and how much it is. Don’t be drawing turtles and flowers and footballs all over it, distracting people. Keep it clean. – Marcus Lemonis
38. “The most disappointing businesses, for me, are the ones where the people flat-out lie.” – Marcus Lemonis
39. “I’m really not a great businessperson. I understand business, and I understand numbers, but I think what I understand more than that is people… Ultimately, I think businesses fail and people fail because they don’t have their act together.” – Marcus Lemonis
40. “The character of a businessman isn’t defined by his bank account, it’s defined by what he’s willing to do for his people.” – Marcus Lemonis
41. “When selecting businesses, I first have to be enticed by the product or the industry they are in. Then I look for passion. If a company has these two qualifiers, I go for it.” – Marcus Lemonis
42. “You can’t run a business just by selling one thing.”- – Marcus Lemonis
43. “It’s okay to work for someone else; not everyone is cut out to own a business, and even so, working for someone else is a chance to learn how to both be an employee and an employer.” – Marcus Lemonis
44. “I became an entrepreneur as a child. I liked the art of the deal whether I was mowing lawns or selling candy or promoting clubs at the age of 16. I understood early on the importance of knowing my numbers and surrounding myself with the best people.” – Marcus Lemonis
45. “I don’t know if people consciously get in the way of their own success. In fairness, people have a lot of pride, and they fall back on what they know to be safe and correct. Anybody, including me, struggles with change.” – Marcus Lemonis
46. “Usually, you can figure out where a person’s mistakes came from if you ask them the genesis of their thought process: ‘Why did you do it this way?’ As opposed to telling them they did it the wrong way. Understanding their thought process will ultimately help you be able to communicate with them and navigate around them.” – Marcus Lemonis
47. “I’m a big believer that if you’re happy and your employees are happy, your customers are going to be happy. If you’re unhappy and your employees are unhappy, there’s no way your customers are going to be happy.” – Marcus Lemonis
48. “You have to assign specific tasks to everybody so you don’t bump into each other and start arguing about silliness.” – Marcus Lemonis
49. “It’s the responsibility of every person, of every business owner, to help people find their way even if it doesn’t benefit you.” – Marcus Lemonis
50. “High performance, high reward. Low performance, there’s the door.” – Marcus Lemonis
51. “I like trends and fads as a consumer, but not as an investor.” – Marcus Lemonis
52. “Confusing your customers is an absolute guarantee that you will lose money.” – Marcus Lemonis
53. “I always say that your first loss is your best loss. Sometimes your pride of ownership (mine included) gets in the way of the right decision.” – Marcus Lemonis
54. “People are the most important thing.” – Marcus Lemonis
55. “Anytime you have employees saying they don’t know who’s in charge, that’s a problem. Typically, people want to be led. And the fact that the employees don’t know who to listen to or who’s in charge leaves them like a rudderless ship.” – Marcus Lemonis
56. “Life in business isn’t always about calculators and dollars. If the business is healthy and the people are good and the process is right and you have a good product, you’ll make money. But the relationships have to be solid.” – Marcus Lemonis
57. “When you have a situation where there’s 50-50 partners, you also have 50-50 leaders, with no one clearly in charge.” – Marcus Lemonis
58. “Not having a clear leader is a big problem in any business. A lack of leadership provides a lack of clarity. A lack of clarity provides a lack of efficiency. And as efficiency drops, so do the margins – and so does the morale of the workplace. All of that equals less margins and less business.” – Marcus Lemonis
59. “Building a brand in any business is the key to success, and building that brand around the owner is not a bad idea as long as that owner is likeable and relatable.” – Marcus Lemonis
60. “We have to know how much money we have, what we’re spending in on, and keep track of our expenses at all times.” – Marcus Lemonis
61. “I hate putting my name on things that people aren’t proud of.” – Marcus Lemonis
62. “I believe in people, process and product. I can improve the product, we can work on the process. But sometimes you just can’t change the people.” – Marcus Lemonis
63. “In any successful business, somebody has to be the leader.” – Marcus Lemonis
64. “You gotta pick a path and you gotta go.” – Marcus Lemonis
65. “I love to buy businesses. I love to invest in them. But when they don’t work, I’m the first to admit it, and I’m the first to shut it down.” – Marcus Lemonis
66. “I believe in people, process and product. But people are the most important thing.” – Marcus Lemonis
67. “People for me is the only reason that businesses fail or they survive.” – Marcus Lemonis
68. “The best advice I ever got was from Lee Iacocca … It was get into a business where you can be a big fish, not the little fish. Get into a business where you can be a change agent, where you can make a difference.” – Marcus Lemonis
69. “It’s a privilege and not a right to own a business.” – Marcus Lemonis
70. “If you respect people, and you pay them well, they will do anything for you.” – Marcus Lemonis
71. “A successful business owner subscribes to one theory: They show up first, and they leave last.” – Marcus Lemonis
72. “There is no being generous to a fault. Because there is no fault in being generous.” – Marcus Lemonis
73. “I respect money and I think that a lot of people don’t.” – Marcus Lemonis
74. “Good idea people are good, but good idea people who don’t know how to executive can be lethal to a business.” – Marcus Lemonis
75. “Respect your mom, respect your money, respect your business. Each of them will slap you if you don’t.” – Marcus Lemonis
