You don’t have to buy into motivational speaking nonsense in order to start a business, and it’s reasonably safe to ignore people who give advice in that style.
So when you see Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins quotes everywhere you can move on.
The trick though is not to let your distaste for a certain kind of content-free motivational business writing prevent you from taking a rigorous and scientific approach to management, business, and sales, which does require realizing that charisma, charm, interpersonal skills, motivation, emotional stability, and so on actually do matter and you’d better have a plan for those areas as well.
One of the things I like about Zig Ziglar is that he doesn't take himself seriously. He talks about exactly that: that this stuff is nonsense and only said to make a point. The point being that you have to figure out what works for you and what motivates you. And that you can't escape understanding your motivations if you want to be successful.
So when you see Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins quotes everywhere you can move on.
The trick though is not to let your distaste for a certain kind of content-free motivational business writing prevent you from taking a rigorous and scientific approach to management, business, and sales, which does require realizing that charisma, charm, interpersonal skills, motivation, emotional stability, and so on actually do matter and you’d better have a plan for those areas as well.