Having series of ideas in your head is something that many people would be envious of. In fact, if you mention to others that you are running your own business, they might remark with wonder and encouragement at your actions. However, one thing that isn’t discussed as often as it should be is how business owners keep their heads screwed on. How do they cope with the ideas that are in their heads, and not become overwhelmed by the enormity of it all?
When you’re so low that you look up and see ants walking over you, you can only go up.
John Paul DeJoria is the epitome of hustle
He used to be in a street gang. He lived out of his car for a few months. He sold encyclopedias door to door and even picked up discarded bottles to cash in, because he was desperate to feed himself and his young son.
Today?
He’s a billionaire entrepreneur who founded John Paul Mitchell Systems hair products and the Patrón Spirits tequila company.
He came a long way from showering at a public pool every day and scrounging for the cheapest meals he could find at Los Angeles Mexican restaurants.
DeJoria built his empire from scratch by going door to door to beauty salons and persuading them to offer his products. He had no real connections… and only about 700 bucks. Now, Paul Mitchell Systems brings in about $900 million a year and Patrón brings in even more!
My fear of regret is stronger than my fear of anything else. It gives me courage.
Sara Blakely’s success story had a humble beginning:
The year was 1998. She was selling fax machines door to door in Florida. At work, she struggled to eliminate annoying panty lines whenever she wore light-colored slacks.
Eager to solve her problem, she decided to cut the feet off pairs of pantyhose and wear them under her pants. That’s when the idea for Spanx was born. Blakely started working nights and weekends visiting manufacturers, researching patents, and developing a prototype.
Spanx exploded in 2000, when Oprah Winfrey (more on her in just a second) said she liked them better than regular underwear. Then Blakely appeared on a reality show with Richard Branson in 2004, who became a mentor and friend.
Since then, Spanx has developed into an Atlanta-based “shapewear” company of slimming and toning garments. The product line has expanded to over 200 items, including yoga clothes, jeans, and even undershirts for men. Blakeley’s company does about $400 million in annual sales, and in 2012 she became the youngest self-made woman on Forbes’ billionaire list!
The big secret in life is that there’s no big secret. Whatever your aim, you will get there if you’re willing to work.
The deck was stacked against Oprah Winfrey from birth…
She was born into poverty in Mississippi to a teenage single mom. This began a string of tragedies when she was young. Winfrey was abused often — even raped — until she decided to run away from home.
Things got even worse from there. Winfrey got pregnant was she was 14, and her son died when he was still an infant. Nothing turned around until she got a job in the radio business. That led to an anchor gig for the local evening news when she was 19, which led to a daytime talk show. Once her talk show went national, Oprah was well on her way to building her own media empire.
Forbes went on to list her as one of the first African-American women billionaires in history.
Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you.
It all started when Mark Cuban was 12 years old.
He wanted a pair of new basketball shoes more than anything in the world. But his dad refused… with one condition: if Mark worked to earn the money, he could get whatever he wanted.
Cuban didn’t need to hear it twice. He started selling garbage bags door to door shortly after, and his path as an entrepreneur was set.
Cuban sold his first company, MicroSolutions, for $6 million in 1990. He sold his second, Broadcast.com, to Yahoo for $5.7 billion before deciding to buy the Dallas Mavericks. Now, he writes books, owns a film distribution company, and even has a gig on the reality show Shark Tank.
It wasn’t always easy. Cuban went through some very stressful times — even eating ketchup and mustard sandwiches (gross!) at one point when things were really tough. His solution? When things got tougher, he just worked harder until his effort paid off!
There are a few common traits amongst those businesses that have achieved a certain level of success.
They know they can’t do it all
Having lots of ideas is one thing — trying to do them all yourself is another. Although having others complete work for you is a real challenge — especially when you are starting out and have limited money — it is often one of the key elements why the business owner still has their sanity.
They roll with the punches
As kids when we were growing up, parents or adults might have told us to roll with the punches. This most likely made no sense to you as a child, but as we grow up, the wisdom of this saying was quickly realized. Life, in all its glory and unexpectedness, delivers curve balls to us every day. As such, we have two choices — be flexible and respond, or strike out. Successful businesses have learnt that the economy, people, and business in general, is dynamic and organic — it changes all the time. In fact, the most together business owners have developed an attitude that helps them cope with these circumstances. When things don’t go the way they planned, they quickly assess the situation, focus on doing those things they can control, and for those areas of the business that they cannot control, choose to accept the fact and move on.
They know what they want to achieve
Every successful business has made it because they knew what they wanted to achieve. They had a compelling reason to keep on going through hard times. This doesn’t mean that they had it easy, nor does it mean that they had a truly defined focus for the business. Once reality kicks in, sometimes even the best laid plans go out the window.
But it was the compelling reason that helped these successful business owners push through and find a way to achieve their dreams. This compelling reason can be anything that drives you something you are passionate about. For example, it could be providing a better life for your family. It could be the desire to build a business that you can leave as a legacy after you die, for the benefit of your family and community. Whatever the reason, it must be strong enough to help provide you with the fuel you will need when powering through the rough times that every business owner has.
Being a business owner — an entrepreneur — is a hard task. When starting off, it isn’t uncommon to see yourself doing 50–80 hours of work each week in the business, and you are still barely breaking even. Sometimes, despite the efforts you have made, you lose money. But, after a while, things will change. The sales will start to increase. Customers will start coming back to you again and again.
Others might call this Luck. It isn’t. It is the outward representation and reward for all the hard work and internal ‘fine-tuning’ that you have been going through up until that point. All the trials, tribulations, set-backs, disappointments and foiled ideas are all necessary for you to be ready for the Success when it comes.
So, if you have a clear vision and reason for your business; have a flexible plan and attitude; and an iron-will and dogged determination to achieve despite frustration and disappointments, success will be yours. After all, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. There is a very valid reason why it isn’t ‘crowded at the top’. The question is — Are you prepared to go through your trials to get there?
