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Entrepreneur Success Stories to Learn From

16 Apr 2022
- admin
- Student Life
When I think about entrepreneurs, I automatically think about those who changed our lives, our thought processes and more.

Of course, all entrepreneurs set out to solve a problem – that is their purpose. They create jobs, drive innovation, they empower their employees to develop new skills and abilities. They bring new ideas, products and employ other people to create a healthy standard of living. Given the right environment, an entrepreneur can blossom into a key member of society and improve the lives of others and possibly inspire them to create their own business.

Many brands and big companies give back to the communities in which they thrive through corporate social responsibilities such as corporate philanthropy, community volunteering or socially-responsible business practices.

Here are some entrepreneurs I admire a lot:

1. Eric Yuan – Founder of Zoom

Today we can’t imagine what quarantine would have been like, especially for businesses and schools that are highly dependent on Zoom, to carry out their day-to-day tasks and activities. Do you know how Zoom came into existence; well, it is an inspiring entrepreneurial journey.

Eric Yuan came to the US from China. Initially, he worked for a start-up, and by 2012, he launched Zoom to the world. Yuan believed that distance should not be a significant factor in communication. Instead, he aimed for virtual communication techniques so that long-distance was no longer an issue.

Today, thousands of companies use Zoom. It connects businesses via video and audio conferencing, shared workplaces, chats, and more. Face-to-face video conferencing has allowed business professionals to have meetings in real-time, making communication more realistic and humanistic. Millions of employees have been able to work from home and be connected to their workplaces, it also gave people a chance to communicate, engage with and work with people globally.

Yuan was also an immigrant, who had a hard time coming to the US to achieve his dreams. Still, that did not discourage him to keep moving ahead. In fact, being rejected by the US eight times for a visa is one of the reasons why Yuan’s entrepreneurship story is so inspiring because of his sheer determination and persistent nature of never giving up.

2. Richard Branson- Founder of Virgin Group

During Richard Branson’s career, for 40 years of his life, he tried multiple businesses, eager to try his hand at everything. This is inspiring because Branson was never a good student and often struggled at school and was diagnosed with dyslexia at a very young age.

Despite all the mocking, he finally made his name with his first enterprise in the 1960s, he started importing and re-selling music records and also managing a student magazine. With his hard work, he opened up a record store in 1971 in London. Branson was a smart entrepreneur and knew how to reinvest his money. He used it to build his very own company from scratch called Virgin Records.

From then on, Branson kick-started his career. He introduced a number of products that became extremely popular in the market. He also provided services to a number of industries, such as aviation, media, beverages, and rail transport (to name a few), and today, his net worth has been estimated to be $4.9 billion as Branson continues to invest his profits in numerous businesses and companies.

I personally admire Branson a lot as I believe he is an excellent example of an entrepreneur who struggled to decide what he want to do in life, same as me. I am someone who is trying many things before settling on a single career. What sets Branson apart from any other person is that despite many failures and humiliation from people he kept trying and finally became a successful entrepreneur.

3. John Paul DeJoria– Founder of Patron Spirits and House of Blues

Paul Mitchell’s hair products and Patron tequila, one thing that is common in these brands is John Paul DeJoria the mastermind behind both these companies, but he did not start off as a billionaire, his journey was extremely challenging.

When he was 22 years old, he lived on the streets with his 2 years old son. He has worked through multiple low-income jobs such as a newspaper courier, janitor, and tow truck driver in the early years of his life. Eventually, he started a new job at a hair care company and was introduced to Paul Mitchell.

DeJoria was a determined man with a strong vision who was not going to let the world get in his way. He partnered with Paul Mitchell, and with a loan of $700, both of them went on to build an empire that is today famously known as John Paul Mitchell Systems. DeJoria didn’t stop there. His thirst for success only became stronger. He went on to found Patron Spirits and co-founded the House of Blue chains.

DeJoria teaches us that you don’t have to be rich to be a successful entrepreneur. You can be a completely self-made man who is ready to take on the challenges thrown your way to success. The entrepreneur’s journey is about determination, clear vision, and resilience to achieve your dreams. Today, he is an inspiration for millions of aspiring business entrepreneurs across the world.

4. Pierre Omidyar- Founder of eBay

Pierre Omidyar was a software developer and in 1995, he launched an auction website and named it Auction Web. His reason behind this was to get rid of the possessions that he did not use, seemed useless, and were taking up space in his house. However, soon Omidyar realized that what was useless to him were worthy possessions to others. He shifted his focus toward his website, and soon it began to grow. In a few years, a huge number of transactions took place each and every day and Omidyar renamed the website and started marketing it as eBay.

He became a billionaire almost instantly. Even today, eBay is a dominant player in the ecommerce market. Omidyar is also a famous philanthropist and has worked as a Hollywood film producer.

Pierre Omidyar used his software developer skills, knowledge, and years of experience to sell things that were readily available in his house. But as he understood the common needs of the people, he realized he had to expand and commercialize. He found an opportunity and he knew he had to take full advantage of it. He built a platform that people needed that sold a variety of things to customers from different parts of the country which he was able to realize from his own experience. Omidyar, like any other successful entrepreneur reinvested in a side business and he used his creativity to also become a well-known producer, and kept increasing his net worth.

At SOIL, we have sessions with various entrepreneurs who comes for leadership talks, to share their stories and to give insights into what truly makes an entrepreneur. It includes all kinds of entrepreneurs from different industries, running different kinds of businesses. We have various interactive and engaging sessions, workshops and presentations with them. We have the opportunity to ask them anything related to their profile, designation, how they got started on their entrepreneurial journey. I particularly love learning from them and taking their deeply insightful their suggestion to us as future entrepreneurs and leaders.

One thing which really stuck with me is that we should not simply get fascinated by those clickbait videos like “How to become a millionaire in your 20s”. I understand from the various industry leaders who come to spend time with us, about what it really takes to be at the top.

Asif Javed
PGDM, Class of 2023

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