We’ve all heard the stories, and we’ve even profiled some of them:
“Teenager Sells App to Yahoo for $70 Million”
“Facebook CEO is youngest Self-Made Billionaire”
“True Tales of Overnight Millionaires”
The headlines are so frequent, and the stories so captivating, that it’s easy to be underwhelmed by your $100 sales week or your local paper exposé. You’ve worked hard. You’ve taken action on an idea that you think could be worth millions. You’ve done everything you’ve heard of those overnight successes doing. But here you are, selling products one by one out of your bedroom. There you are, sacrificing your weekends in exchange for just a handful of modest spending money. “What am I doing wrong,” you ask yourself.
So what are you doing wrong? Probably nothing. In fact, you’re probably doing exactly what you need to do.
There weren’t any news stories decades ago about Bill Gates’s hours spent learning to code in school (although there are plenty now.) But those hours set Gates up for his success today.
Warren Buffett got his start selling eggs to neighbors as a kid for just pennies in profit. Only when he turned those pennies into eventual billions did people take notice.
Ralph Lauren began his fashion empire by selling neckties on Wall Street, one by one.
And The Beatles allegedly spent thousands of hours practicing their craft in no-charge concerts for bar patrons before striking it big.
So what are you doing wrong? Well, if you’re okay with following in the footsteps of billionaires, culture-shapers, and tech mavens, nothing.
So stop worrying, and keep pressing on. Enjoy these days of small beginnings. Who knows: perhaps someone will write about them in thirty years.
Want to know what you can do to set yourself up for success? Check out our special episode, “Secrets to Success” to find out!
