Inspiring stories of entrepreneurship and innovation
Successful entrepreneurs and inventors have a lot of advice to share with anyone who is looking for success. Some are more well-known than others, but all of them are worth listening to.
This article is a compilation of not only the best advice for entrepreneurs but also some of the most inspiring stories that show that anything can be accomplished through hard work and creativity. Here are just a few of the great entrepreneurs and innovators who have paid it forward by sharing their experiences.
Richard Branson is one of the most famous entrepreneurs out there. He started his first business in 1970 when he was just eighteen, so he has a lot of important lessons to share from his decades in the industry. Here are three lessons that still hold true today and that most people can take to heart:
1. Always Be Willing To Take Risks
2. Look For Opportunities And Listen To Your Intuition
3. Be Prepared To Fail
The last lesson may seem obvious, but it is one that many people forget to follow. If you can't accept a failure then you will never fully succeed. The amount of money and fame that Richard Branson has earned could have changed him into a complacent businessman, but he kept his mind open to all the good ideas that he came across and made sure they became realities. His risk-taking attitude caused him to have many successes throughout his career, but also left him with more than one failure as well. It is often said that the only thing rarer than a man who has failed is a man who has the courage to keep trying.
Mark Cuban may seem to contradict two of Richard Branson's lessons, as he started his career as a professional investor before he switched over to entrepreneurship. But that is only because Mark Cuban's original business was not the kind of business you find all over the world. Instead, it was basically just an online "vending machine" that would allow you to buy things from around the world and then ship them straight to your door in whichever way you chose. This was quite revolutionary at one point but now resembles so many different companies today that it almost doesn't matter any more. After all, look at the rise of companies like Amazon and eBay! Mark Cuban's original business was virtually a monopoly because it was the only place to buy imported electronics products. After all, nothing really compares to buying an iPhone from an actual store for you to play with before you buy it. Nowadays, however, there are so many competitors that Cuban's company has actually been renamed as "eBay" and is no longer dominating the market. That is just one example of how a business can adapt and grow even from its lowest point.
Marc Benioff started his career in sales when he was only fifteen years old, driving for Oracle Sales Organization (OSO). Working for Oracle was quite a lucrative job because Benioff learned everything he needed to know about sales and human behaviour. This experience helped him run the Salesforce.com company, which is now one of the fastest-growing companies in history.
One lesson that Benioff learned during his sales career was that every customer wants a different thing out of his or her experience with a company. Some want the best price, others want to have it delivered on time, while still others are interested in reliability and service. If you are looking for success as an entrepreneur, then you should know what your customers want so you can give them what they will pay for. This is true whether you are in business for yourself or work for someone else.
Taking good care of your customers is important, but it should only be done in a way that makes sense for your business. For example, many people are attracted to the idea of overnight shipping for products, or even same-day delivery. But if you have to charge more money because of this expedited service and the product isn't really that high-priced, then your customers will probably get turned off rather than buy more. Make sure you know what you're doing before you start offering ridiculous services that people wouldn't pay for anyway.
Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors in history and has also shown himself to be an excellent entrepreneur as well. He launched Buffett Partnership in 1963 and actually started investing money for himself. He opened a second investment company in 1967 that Rick Guerin invested money in, so by the time he was thirty-five years old, he had made more than $10 million (which is equivalent to over $100 million today). That is quite a lot of money for someone who doesn't even have an undergraduate degree!
Buffett's next big venture was the purchase of American Express. When he first bought shares of the company, they were trading at less than $4 dollars each. By 1969, they had risen to over $175 apiece. This was an incredible rate of growth for such a small investment, and by the time Buffett sold his shares in 1979, the company had achieved a valuation of almost $1 billion dollars. It is also important to note that he did not invest in this stock just because he thought it would be worth something someday. He purchased it because he saw how things could move up.
When he was forty-one years old, Warren Buffett became one of the youngest people ever to rise to the position of CEO when he took over Berkshire Hathaway from Charlie Munger in 1965.
Munger told shareholders that there were two main principles that guided their investments: maximize cash flow and avoid liabilities wherever possible. These principles are very similar to the lessons being taught by the investment guru Warren Buffett.
One of the main reasons that Warren Buffett has been as successful as he has is his drive to cut out unnecessary expenses, streamline his business, and avoid debts. He always wants a company to have enough money on hand to pay its bills and keep things below board in general. When you have shareholders who rely on you to be wise with their money, then it is essential that you make sure your company makes decisions that will benefit everyone involved in it.
From his earliest career experiences as an investor and entrepreneur, Mark Zuckerberg showed that he was a natural at recognizing what people were looking for online and working with them to provide it. He launched Facebook in 2004, which was not as popular at the time as it is today. He was too busy working on other projects at this point to think about building an operating business; it didn't even cross his mind until much later. However, when he did start thinking about expanding the social network into other areas, it was too late. If he had started thinking about building a business earlier, then he would have known better what people needed then and how to serve them better than the competition did.
By just taking the time to get to know what his customers wanted, Mark Zuckerberg could have created a dominant online presence before anyone else had done so.
Conclusion
These entrepreneurs have achieved great things in their lifetimes and have made millions of dollars, but that does not mean they were always so sure about where they were going. It is important to learn from the examples of success that they have provided for you and keep your goals in mind at all times. You might not believe it now, but you can achieve more than you ever could imagine with enough hard work and dedication. And if you do take the time to learn from the mistakes of these iconoclasts, then you will surely be able to stand out in a crowd of competitors.
Lisa is an avid writer who specializes in business-related topics like entrepreneurship, online marketing, and SEO.