entrepreneur learn

Do you want to know the best way to learn what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

Do you want to learn what it takes to start a business? Learn from an entrepreneur. Do you want to know why businesses fail? Learn from an entrepreneur.

Listen to the stories of real entrepreneurs. I love entrepreneur stories because they are real. They go way beyond headlines. When you read a headline about entrepreneurs you either read about success or failure.

If it is about success, they almost never talk about all the failures. When it’s about failure there is little talk about the accomplishments.

I am a serial entrepreneur. I also interview entrepreneurs and write about business.

I care about understanding entrepreneur stories because I want to see the full picture. I want to know how they have started, what their struggles are, how they think about problems and find solutions to them.

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There is no standard way to become an entrepreneur.

There are so many ways to succeed. I have listed a few that I know will help.

It helps to start early.

syed-balkhi-success-harbor-interviewSyed Balkhi’s entrepreneurial story started his first business at the age of 7.  By his 20s he has built several successful businesses. He is an internet marketing expert with multiple successful websites. One of his Youtube channels had over 100 million views.

Many entrepreneurs start in the teens or 20s. They do not wait to finish their education. They started because they saw an opportunity and seized it.

Bassim Hamadeh started as an entrepreneur in the 7th grade, selling candy in school. At 18, Bassim started his own publishing business. While others were only complaining about an inefficient university publishing system he sought to revolutionize it. Bassim credits his immigrant parents who came to the USA with nothing and taught him hard work reign supreme.

cody-mclain-Success-harbor-interviewCody McLain is a serial entrepreneur, but he started when he was only 15 years old. Cody started several successful service businesses.

You don’t have to be a teenager or in your 20s to start a business. It is never too late to start a business. John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola at the age of 55. Harland Sanders started KFC at 65.

Did you know that Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, sold paper cups and milkshake mixers till he was 52?

Twitter

Evan Williams co-founded Twitter at the age of 35.

Skype

Niklas Zennstromm was 37 when he created Skype.

LinkedIn

Reid Hoffman cofounded LinkedIn at age 35.

Ford

Henry Ford was about 40 years old when he started Ford Motor Company.

Hobbies can turn into million-dollar businesses.

Jim Wang’s story is very interesting because he started out a personal journal, Bargaineering, in 2005. A few years later he sold the website that started out as a hobby for $3 million.

You can make it happen twice.

nellie-akalp-success-harbor-interviewNellie Akalp managed to build two very similar businesses twice in a row. She started MyCorporation in 1997, sold it for $20 million. Then, a few years later she started CorpNet. Nellie’s entrepreneur story teaches us that you don’t have to come up with a new idea to be a serial entrepreneur.

Jason Cohen had started multiple businesses before he started WP Engine, a WordPress hosting company with $10s of millions in revenue. WP Engine is Jason’s 4th startup.

Creative marketing is a must.

Jason Sadler made over 1 million with his super creative IWearYourShirt business. Jason’s story teaches you that creative marketing is a must for business success.

Susan Baroncini-Moe, founder of Business in Blue Jeans®, got herself into the Guinness World Records® for organizing the longest uninterrupted live webcast.

Dealing with stress is putting it in perspective.

dino-dogan-success-harbor-interviewDino Dogan, the CEO of Triberr, teaches us that dealing with stress is about putting it in proper perspective.  When I asked him about stress in business he told me about being shot at as a child in war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina. All he has to do is remember those days to put stress in perspective.

You can grow your business in a recession.

Rick Day’s entrepreneur story teaches you that you can survive a recession and even grow your business. During the first year of the recession, his business went from $26 million to $20 million. By the second year of the recession, his revenue dropped to $15 million. By 2009 his business was back up to $25 million in revenues According to Rick, his business survived and thrived because he never let his ego get in the way.

You can succeed even if you fail.

Johnny Andrews, the founder of AudienceHacker, went from failed investor to bestselling author. Johnny helps authors and content marketers sell more books by growing their audience, their influence, and their leverage.

After getting fired from a software industry job, Curt Finch started Journyx. Curt has built a profitable multimillion-dollar industry-defining software company.

Digital downloads destroyed Matt Theriault’s business, he struggled. He was broke. After about a year-long soul-searching, Matt started a career in the real estate business. He was able to create his former level of success, and more.

[adrotate group=”2″] photo credit: danielfoster437 Smiling Man Texting via photopin (license)