Things We Can Learn from Successful Entrepreneurs
New businesses are opening everywhere, and a huge number of these businesses are able to find success.
By AJ Agrawal, CEO, Alumnify, February 2016 <Article Source>
This is good time to be an entrepreneur. New businesses are opening everywhere, and a huge number of these businesses are able to find success. A lot of the credit can go to the Internet for this relatively sudden surge, but there's more to it than a successful online marketing platform. It comes down to entrepreneurs that realize they are not merely running a business, and are willing to take risks that will grow and establish their business.
One such entrepreneur is Josh Cartu. While some may know him as an entrepreneur, most others know him as a racecar driver. He defines the Josh Cartu brand as, "I am not just an entrepreneur, I am a marketer, a racecar driver, a daredevil and much more. While you'll see me driving a luxurious car to entertain fans at events like the Gumball 3000, you'll also see me helping businesses find success."
So what makes Josh Cartu and other entrepreneurs different and successful? Each entrepreneur will tell you a different story, and you can learn something from all of them. But the common thread between each of their stories is their success started with someone dreaming big and taking chance on their dream.
Here are three lessons we can learn from three successful entrepreneurs.
Don't Make Everyone Happy: Lesson from Donald Trump
He may be one of the most controversial men in the U.S. today, yet no one can deny the fact that he is one of the most successful men as well. One very important lesson we can learn from this Republican candidate is that it's futile to try to make everyone happy.
Trump understands that his ideas will not appeal to everybody and he doesn't really care who does and who doesn't. If you're an entrepreneur you need to remember this philosophy. You will never be able to please everybody. As hard as you try, there may always be naysayers or people who just like to find fault with anything they can think of. Don't let this deter you from pursuing your dreams. You will also need to know when to listen to the advice of others and when people are just trying to bring you down.
His ideology may be criticized by many, but it hasn't stopped him from speaking his mind. And this is the same ideology he uses in business as well. He knows that the products or services he offers will not please everyone. Instead of focusing on those people, he focuses on his target audience and works on appealing to that specific group of people. And the end result is for everyone to see.
In Trump's words, " There's no such thing as an unrealistic goal-just unrealistic time frames."
Be Quick to Move: Lesson from Bill Gates
While some may argue, Microsoft is still among the market leaders today. This Bill Gate's baby is quick to move and fulfill users' demands by releasing new versions of Windows and other software packages.
Bill Gates, one of the world's richest men, is a Harvard dropout and his story is one of the most aspirational ones. He was quick to move to his dreams of starting his own software house instead of burying his face in books. You, too, can take a leaf out of this man's book and seize every opportunity you get.
In his words, "Most of our competitors were one-product wonders ... They would do their one product, but never get their engineering sorted out." He understood this and quickly grabbed the opportunity with the result that Microsoft stands as a big software giant today.
It Isn't Only About the Money - Mark Zuckerberg
Not many would have the courage to say no to a billion dollars, but Zuckerberg had the guts to decline such a proposal when Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel, offered him that amount for Facebook, which is now a billion-dollar company.
In Semel's words, "I'd never met anyone who would walk away from a billion dollars," but Zuckerberg had the audacity to make this bold decision and we know he did the right thing.
Zuck, as his friends usually call him, says that it is not always about money but about loving what you do. If you're a businessperson, you should love what you're doing and be willing to work hard. Zuck didn't achieve success overnight, he worked day in and day out on coding to give us what is known as one of the largest social networking platforms today.
His quote to remember, "The question I ask myself like almost every day is, 'Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?' ... Unless I feel like I'm working on the most important problem that I can help with, then I'm not going to feel good about how I'm spending my time."
All these entrepreneurs took risks, knew what they were doing, and stayed confident, and today they're shining stars. You too can learn from them and climb the success ladder.
