Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. Their needs and wants impact every aspect of your business, from product development to content marketing to sales to customer service.

As an entrepreneur, I've come across countless articles and quotes proudly telling me that I should accept failure, smile, and keep my head up. In other words, I've been told to stay positive. The thing is, when you're forced to shut down a business and let really awesome people you care about go, staying positive is the last thing on your mind.

Making great strides without a well-defined purpose will not bring positive results.

While it's important to accept failure and not let it bog you down, it's also perfectly acceptable to get upset about it as long as you remember that failure is a stepping stone in your journey that is getting you to where you need to be.

I feel rejecting rejection is one of the most crucial steps in getting past failure.

We've all experienced those days when we feel like an absolute failure. It's a normal feeling when things don't go as exactly planned. And, when we feel like that, it's challenging to think of yourself as a successful individual.

While social media is a one of the best tools to spread brand awareness, network, stay updated on the latest industry news, and catch up with friends or family, it's another huge time waster.

I've had to listen to candidates tell me they are the most wonderful thing since the invention of sliced bread, and it bores me to death. It also makes me doubt that they are actually any good at all - plus it's an attitude that would never fly in the culture I've created in my company.

Don't eat because you're angry, bored, sad, or stressed.

Make no mistake about it. Bad habits are called 'bad' for a reason. They kill our productivity and creativity. They slow us down. They hold us back from achieving our goals. And they're detrimental to our health.

Having emotional intelligence allows you to manage your emotions, show empathy, and prevent you from getting distracted. It also helps you solve problems and be a more likable person.

We're surrounded by distractions. Whether it's emails, phone calls, text messages, social media notifications, or people entering and leaving your workspace, those distractions end up eating a good portion of your time.

Empowerment isn't a buzzword among leadership gurus. It's a proven technique where leaders give their teams the appropriate training, tools, resources, and guidance to succeed.

A cardinal rule in budgeting and saving is to pay yourself first. Once your paycheck hits your account, wisdom has it that you should move some amount to savings even before you pay the bills.

Even after creating a budget and being more money conscience, it's still easy to overspend during the holidays.

Online, you're providing each other with the good aspects of being together as far as communication and support, but you don't have to deal with the realities of paying bills together, or being annoyed when they leave the toilet seat up or don't put the food away in the fridge.

Life experience is what defines our character, even if it means getting your heart broken or being lied to. You know, you need the downs to appreciate the ups. Going on the adventure or taking that risk is important.

I have very little experience with dating websites. My feeling toward dating websites is what most people's is: If it works, great. If you're serious and legitimate about it and know what you're looking for, then from what I hear, it's definitely effective.

You can't be successful in business without taking risks. It's really that simple.

If you really think about the fabric of the United States, or the finance of any economy, finance is a true underpinning of what makes the economy great - if it can be done successfully, responsibly, and with a client orientation.

The best thing we can do with rejection is to make it a learning experience - rejection is a great teacher.

Starting a new job can be nerve-racking , but it's also exciting. You're embarking on a new future, positioning yourself to write a fresh story on a clean slate.

You need to have a lot of human judgment involved in the financial industry in terms of risk management, in terms of investment decisions, and things that really allow us to blend the best of technology and the human brain.

We believe behavioral science, cognitive computing, and machine intelligence are essential to a successful, holistic surveillance offering and critical to efficient and effective organizational compliance with an increasingly intricate global regulatory environment.

Many women try to advance in their careers by having all the answers; by being the go-to person for information and advice; or by building expertise in a particular field. However, as they progress, gain broader responsibilities, and grow into leadership roles, they realize that their span of control is too vast to be able to know every answer.

One of many strengths that I often see in successful women on Wall Street is a responsible balance between risk taking and risk mitigation - the ability to assess situations smartly and make the right medium-to-long-term decisions without being lured into reckless, short-term profit-taking.

Always be listening and learning.

And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.

It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by - Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.

People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know - and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.

All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You'd be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.