A story was once told about a group of merchants who, after traveling a long day through the desert, decided to rest for his night in a place covered with pebbles. Just when they where about to lie down, a bright light appeared in the sky and they heard a voice that said to them “when you shall be leaving tomorrow, take as many pebbles as you can in your sacks. Do not pick a few. After you have gone a few miles, open your sack again. What you will discover will make you happy, but afterwards, it will make you sad” the light then disappeared and the men laid down their heads, eagerly waiting to see break of dawn, wondering what those words could have meant.
When they woke up next morning, they began to gather pebbles into their sacks. However, they ignored the part of the instruction that said “do not pick a few” and they where careful not to overload their camels. They continue their journey at once and after they had walked three miles; they decided to open their sacks. To their amazement, all the pebbles had turned into gold. This really made them happy; they knew they had found great fortune for themselves. But after a moment of elation and laughter, they all kept silent and laughed no more. By this time, their countenances had become sad and they shook their head in dismay. They had begun to regret they did not pick excess of the pebbles.
An English man says “all that glitters is not gold,” but if I where to speak in the light of entrepreneurship, I would rather say, “ it is not all Gold that glitters.” The concept of entrepreneurship can be illustrated from the above story. Every day of our lives, we hear that voice that whispers certain great ideas into our inner ears. Sometime, we ignore this voice, sometime we listen to it, but in the end, just like those merchants, we either rejoice or we bow our heads in regrets. If there is therefore anything that distinguishes the smart entrepreneur from others, it is the ability to head the voice of ideas, even when they seem stupid. Secondly, an entrepreneur is always strong enough to take his ideas through adversity, no matter how difficult it may seem.
Every business idea can be likened to a pebble that can only be turned into gold through hard work and patience. It is possible to despise these ideas because they may seem irrational or too burdensome to take up at the beginning. The truth however is that, only those who do not mind going through the rigorous experience of starting and getting established are the ones who get the gold in the end.
Some of the most successful companies today started as “pebbles” but today they are monumental establishments. Fred smith was just 27 when he founded FedEx (federal Express Corporation). His ideas occurred to him when he wrote a term paper for an economic class in which he outlined and idea for a transportation company that would guarantee overnight delivery of small, time-sensitive goods, replacement parts and medical supplies for major U.S cities. Although the professor was not impressed, smith was certain he was unto something though it could be while before he could turn his idea into reality. Today FedEx is a $32 Billion global transportation and logistics company, serving over 220 countries and territories. Operations include more then 670 aircraft and 70000 vehicles. Some 260000 employees and independent contractors worldwide handle more then 6 million shipments each business day. How did Fred smith come this far?
George Eastman, founder of Kodak, was doing well at the Rochester saving bank. He was meticulous in his record keeping and never missed a day, despite staying awake at night to work on his photographic dry plate. So, when he was passed over for promotion in favour of one of the bank executive’s relatives, he was outraged. If his work was not going to be recognized, then he did not want to be doing it any longer. Eastman quit his job at the bank, vowing to his boss, “I will succeed!” his co-worker wondered why he would leave his lucrative banking job to pursue photography, asking him to return, one of the bankers even wrote Eastman a letter that read: “what a foolish thing to do, to pursue this will-of-a-wisp, when you have such a promising career as a banker.” Eastman knew that he did not need to be an insider to innovate. He did not to be a college graduate to build a successful company. And, he did not need to know how anything about cameras to first know that it was his passion. It was his attitude of going to search for his fellow inexperienced people that help taking Eastman’s Company to the top he did not want people who had been in the business for 20 years to join. He wanted the inexperienced, the hungry. He wanted people like him, who where self-taught and inspired to work because they where ambitious. From economic downturn to hostile employees, to product failures, Eastman encountered a wide gamut of obstacle on his path to success, he could have folded; he could have thrown in the towel on any one of those occasions. But, he did not. He kept going and kept working towards his goals.
John Johnson, publisher of ebony magazine was another entrepreneur who knew how to turn his sand dune into a gold mine. He had the desire, he had the energy, but what he was sorely lacking was capital to start his company. Few where eager to give their money to an unknown African American entrepreneur with little previous experience in the business world. He even tried his luck with National Bank of Chicago, which he had approached with a $500 dollar loan, but he was refused. Using his mother’s new furniture as collateral for the loan, Citizen Loan Corporation agreed to give Johnson the $500 he needed to start his own business. He created Johnson publishing co. and set out to launch his first magazine, Negro Digest. With the $500, Johnson send mailings to the 20,000 supreme life policyholders offering discount subscription to his new publication. When 3,000 people responded with their 2$ annual fee, Johnson had the $6000 he needed to get to work. After just eight months, Negro Digest had a monthly circulation of 50,000. In 1943, Johnson struck another coup when he succeeded in convincing first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to write an article for the magazine entitled, “if I were a Negro” Circulation doubled almost immediately. “After that we never looked back,” in 1945, high off the success of his first magazine, Johnson launched ebony, a picture magazine that highlighted the achievements of black Americans. For the first time ever, companies where beginning to advertise in black media as well as use black models. Ebony’s first two issues immediately sold out, making it a mainstay in the industry. These successes also encourage Johnson to launch yet another magazine, jet, in 1951. This was to be a pocket sized weekly news magazine targeted at black Americans. Again, Johnson’s business instinct proved infallible with jet issues selling out immediately. Within six weeks, jet had a weekly circulation of over 300,000. With the success of all three of his publications, Johnson began branching out. His company started publishing books, running a book club and creating a high-end cosmetics line for women with darker skin. He also became the first African American in Chicago to own a brocasting outlet after the purchase of two radio stations. Johnson rose from despair of poverty to become one of the leaders in his industry Johnson passed away on August 8, 2005, but the fruit of labour continue to leave a lasting impact. Ebony remains the largest black owned magazine in the world while the Johnson publishing Co. is one of the world’s largest minority owned business as well as the largest black owned firm. In addition to his spot-on entrepreneurial instincts, Johnson will forever for his contribution to the equal right movement and his attempt to give voice to those who do not have before.
In 1999, Michael Dell, founder and CEO of dell computers, was giving a lecture on ABCs on entrepreneurship to a business class at the University of Texas. When it came time for the question and answer period, one of the students eagerly stood up asked dell why despite being worth over $17billion, he continues going to work each day. “Why don’t you sell out, buy a boat, and sail off to the Caribbean?” Dell stared back at the student and replied, “Sailing is boring. Do you have any idea how much fun it is to run a billion dollar company?”
Dell discovered his entrepreneurial instinct at a young age, starting his first business Dell’s stamps, when he was just 12 years old, after he earned $2,000 from his stamp collection, dell was hooked. When he was 16 years old, began selling newspaper subscriptions to the Houston post by sifting through the city’s mortgage and marriage license lists. This he believed, would lead him to people who where new in the area and would not yet have a subscription. By the end of his first year, Dell had made over $18,000. although he though he was still a student of Memorial High School in Houston, Dell was earning even more than his high school teachers. By the time he graduated dell was driving his own BMW. Despite being financially successful, Dell’s little teacher saw little promise in him, with one commenting that he “would probably go anywhere in life.” Dell enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin and began studying biology with the intention becoming a physician. Although Dell’s first exposure to computer was when he was 15 years old-he took apart and reassemble the motherboard of his brand new Apple 11-it wasn’t until he was in the university that his interest in computers was again peaked. In 1984, Dell came up with a simple but radical idea; build custom computers and sell them directly to the customers. he had learned early on from his stamp experience the benefit of removing a middleman. With $1,000 loan, Dell created a computer company called pc’s limited from his dorm room at UT. He soon realized that biology was not his passion-that perhaps the stacks of computer books and magazine where trying to tell him something. As the success of pc’s limited continue to grow throughout the school year, Dell began to realize he was on to something great. He was 19years old and in his fresh man’s year, but school was the farthest thing in his mind. With an additional loan from his grandparents, Dell changed his company name to Dell Computers Corporation and dropped out of school to focus in his business full-time. “I had to give it a full go and see what happened,” recalls Dell. “I couldn’t resist the opportunity.” But, Dell’s parents where less enthusiastic. All of a sudden, their soon-to be physician had become a university dropout. to placate his parents, Dell made them a bargain: “the deal was, I would start into business full time in may, and at the end of august we will take a look and decide if it was doing well.” If it was not, Dell promises to return back to school. Dell never went back to university.
Looking at the story of these famous entrepreneurs, one will see that they have many things in common. They had the ability to dream, they where not afraid to start, they didn’t listen to the voice of criticism and they were hardworking. We will look at four basic traits in entrepreneur that enable them turn sand dunes into goldmines.
1. They are passionate about what they do
Successful entrepreneurs are always driven by passion. They do not mind the fact that they are putting in 15 or 18 hours a day to their business because the absolutely love what they do. If you are not passionate about what you do, you can’t succeed at it. It might have Michael Dell quite some time to discover his true passion, but when he found it, he was willing to give up everything in order to pursue it.
2. They are not afraid to start
Some entrepreneurs think that they need to wait until they get rich investors to come along for them to be able to start up their business. Others believe until they get an office of their own, or perhaps even some part-time assistance, they will never be able to get their business off the ground. But, if there is one important lesson to take away from colonel Harland, Sanders, founder of Kentucky fried chicken, it is to get real and get started already, regardless of what you have.
Sanders had money problem like everyone else when he was first building Kentucky fried chicken. Left almost broke after his first restaurant was sold at an auction, sanders had nothing but his cheque for $105 per month from social security. He was not born into a rich family. He spent much of his youth living and working out on his own, trying to support himself and stay off the streets, but he did not let that stand in the way of his future success. In fact, the experience as a young boy taught him how to make do what he had available to him. And, it was precisely that attitude that was able to lift KFC off the ground. His success proves that it does not take large initial investment to launch a business. By making do with what he had-a car, a garage, his wife to assist, and a meager social security cheque- he slowly began to build one of the world’s most successful companies.
3. They don’t despise what they do
Andrew Carnegie was a famous entrepreneur, who came to America as a young Scots boy to do odd jobs. Eventually, this young man became one the largest steel manufacturers in the united state and at one time he had 43 millionaires working for him. Someone asked Mr. Carnegie how he dealt with people and he replied, dealing with people is like digging gold. When you go digging for an ounce of gold, But when you go digging you don’t go looking for dirt, you go looking for gold.” It is what you want that matters. When you want to get gold ignore the dirt if you keep focusing on what is wrong with the dirt, you will not be motivated to find the gold.
Andrew Carnegie’s is a good description of his profession. He started by doing odd jobs. He did not mind looking dirty because his eyes where on the gold. Smart entrepreneur don’t look at how demeaning or odd the nature of their jobs are, they look at how profitable and successful it can become. They understand that success does not come just by putting on a “white collar;” it comes through diligence and hard work.
4. they are always persistent
It was estimated that Colonel Sanders had knocked on more than a thousand doors before he got his first order. This is another example of persistence. There are many who quit after three, ten or a hundred tries, and they say they had tried as hard as they can. But this is not the way to succeed; if you must succeed it requires that you keep trying till you get your desired result.
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