Starting a business is exciting and scary at the same time. This is why so many people get psyched out and decide to not start their own business. There is no shortcuts when it comes to success and those who have succeeded have had to work hard to get there. You do not start a business today and by next week you are a success story. No, there needs to be an element of growth and dedication when you are in business. Your business also does not have to be complicated. If you are passionate about it, you can make it work.
Nothing that is worth the effort is ever going to come easy so you have to be prepared to roll up your socks and get a digging. We live in a world where everything is happening faster and that has made us impatient. Results are quick because there is a gadget for it all, but sometimes there is pleasure in a slower pace. This is a journey and there is no one running alongside you. Even if you have competition, which every person in business has, it should not distract you from your own journey.
If you are doing essay writing for mba as an example, the guy next to you might seem like he does better mba writing than you, but don’t let that get into your head. There is enough success to go around. Start believing that it is possible as it is the first step. If you don’t believe in your own dreams, then who will. Get your confidence as high up as you can because the business journey can give you some knocks. Some people need real life examples to show them that it is possible to reach a certain level of success and we are here to proof to you that it has been done and can be done again.
It is still difficult for women entrepreneurs to succeed in this day and age, but it is definitely much better than it was some decades ago. Women had to fight for the right to be successful and grow. There was no easy road to success, but women like Mary Kay Ash did not let that stop her. When Mary Kay Ash worked at Stanley Home Products, she thought she would receive a promotion soon. Instead of receiving her promotion, they promoted the man that she had initially trained. This is how things worked back then and no matter how hard you worked as a women, you could only get to a certain point and then have a man promoted over you.
Through her disappointment and realization that she would not grow in the company, she started the Mary Kay cosmetics line. She had no formal education or entrepreneurial experience, yet she managed to build one of the most successful businesses around. There is nothing that can stop you when you’ve made up your mind to succeed. The company that did not give her that promotion was all part of her journey and if they had promoted her, she might have stayed longer.
There is no stopping this mogul of a man these days and it is unbelievable that he started his business on a whim. Marc Echo was initially in pharmacy school and when he had a little break, he founded his own t-shirt company. With a love for graffiti and art, it was a natural fit and he never returned to pharmacy school because he found his passion. His art showed that it came from the heart and not from a perfectly thought through idea. This is exactly what set his work apart from those who calculate every move. Art will always be something that you are born with.
You do not have to go to one of the top art schools if you want to become a successful business man. The only thing you have to provide is the passion and determination to succeed. There is no shortcuts, but if you do what you enjoy, you won’t even realise that you are working hard. Many business people will tell you to choose something you love to wake up for in the morning. This way, going out and growing your business makes you happy and eventually you will receive some love back.
There are many wealthy people who come from money and just seems to continue in their wealthy ways. Then there are people who are born in very poor circumstances and still become wealthy. I would like to focus on the latter and Larry Ellison is a prime example of someone who had to overcome poverty to make a success of his business. If he allowed his upbringing to make him feel less than, he would not have found the confidence to do what he did. It’s hard to imagine him as a poor boy because of how he carries himself today. There is a great aura about him and I think it’s because he knows his own worth. He is not arrogant, but rather confident and it shows.
Larry Ellison is the brains and founder behind the brand, Oracle. Today he has a net worth of over $46 billion. That is absolutely incredible, seeing as his mother sent him to live with his aunty because she could no longer take care of him. He has never met his birth father and only found out later in his life that he was adopted. Instead of allowing his pain to define him, he decided to make it the driving force behind his success. This is an incredibly inspiring story and should be the motivation anyone needs to start their own business today.
Having to quit school to start working at the age of 15 must have been a challenging thing for Li Ka-shing to do, but in some way it did not define him. Instead, it made him into the man that he is today. His father died from tuberculosis after the family fled from China to Hong Kong. Today Li Ka-shing is one of the wealthiest men in Hong Kong because of his drive and determination. Hong Kong has a lot of successful people so it says a lot if he is in that elite group. In fact, at some stage he was the richest person in Hong Kong.
He worked in a plastic manufacturing company so when he started his company in the 1950s, he naturally went into plastic manufacturing. These days, he has his hand in a variety of industries and has proven that your beginning does not determine where you end up. With more than 250 000 employees according to Forbes, one can say he is one of the most inspiring people in business today. I guess those mba application essay questions doesn’t look as challenging now, hey?
There seems to be a lot of success stories from people who had a rough start. I suppose it gives you more determination to prove the world wrong and create your own reality. Richard Desmond was raised by a single mother living in an apartment above a garage. He recalls that he was fat and miserable at the time and it is incredible how he looks today. It shows that you hold your own future in your hands and you should only depend on your own abilities.
Today he owns many publications around the world and it all started with publishing that first magazine. There is no reason to give up, even when the world seems to be working against you. Look at Richard Desmond and where he had to start. Yet, that did not stop him from becoming a very successful and wealthy business man.
Conclusion
Instead of admiring all of these successful people, there needs to be a time when we create our own success. If you are afraid of starting that new business because you do not want to fail, you should stop and read up on people who have succeeded against bigger odds than you. There really is no reason to not start your business. Yes, it does take a lot of courage, but do not let fear stop you from achieving what you know you can achieve.
There is security in a regular 9-5 job, but you can also get fired in a heartbeat. When it comes to business, yes you do not know when money will come in and when not, but at least your hard work will determine what happens. You do not want to be someone who puts their future in someone else’s hands, but rather do it yourself. Nothing can stop you if you believe in your dreams and goals. Even if it seems impossible right now, it is very possible. Instead of working on someone else’s dream, go create your own legacy. Trust me, it feels better.
