Author: Felis Catus
17 February 2016 13:14
Tags: stories motivation success
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When you try to search for motivational stories online, most often you come across stories of famous people about their success. Yes, such stories are very inspiring, but there are others - these are the stories of ordinary people that you may have never heard, but which are no less impressive for that. 16 people from this list are absolutely ordinary people like you!
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“This idea took off and spread like wildfire.”
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Some of your childhood's best summer memories likely involve trampolines, a great activity for kids. However, Rick Platt saw even greater potential in this entertainment: in 2004, he patented “a sports court of trampolines surrounded by walls and the sports played on this court.” Rick called his invention “Sky Zone” - he presented it to the public as a platform on which a person could fly. The playground became so popular that its use went beyond sports purposes: it was accidentally discovered that activities on the playground have a positive effect on autistic children.
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TOP 10 most famous people in the world who achieved success from scratch: list
In this article we will tell you about people whose names are well known. Many admire the creativity, inventions, and talents of these people, but few have thought about how they achieved success.
It has long been known that achieving a certain goal in life is much easier when you have a material base under your feet. The people we will talk about today started their activities from scratch, without the support of influential parents and money.
The TOP 10 most famous people in the world who have achieved incredible success include:
- Steve Jobs is the founder of Apple, a revolutionary in the field of IT technologies.
- Thomas Edison is a famous self-taught inventor who has patented more than 1,000 inventions.
- JK Rowling is a writer, author of the Harry Potter series of books.
- Henry Ford - inventor, automobile designer, founder.
- Walt Disney - animator, actor, screenwriter, founder.
- Amancio Ortega is an entrepreneur, founder of the fashion brand Zara, and the richest person in the world according to Forbes.
- Croc Ray is an entrepreneur, restaurateur, and founder of the fast food corporation McDonald's.
- Soichiro Honda is the founder of the world famous automobile company Honda.
- Elvis Presley is an American singer and actor, nicknamed the “King of Rock and Roll.”
- Sylvester Stallone - film director, screenwriter, actor.
All these people found themselves at the pinnacle of fame, but it is difficult to imagine what hardships they went through to achieve success. Their life stories are a clear example that the impossible is possible. You just have to believe in your dream and do everything to make it come true.
TOP 10 people who have achieved success in life
“Age is just a number that gives most people the opportunity to be lazy and do nothing.”
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Meet Sam Bryant Jr. Sam is a bodybuilder and is 70 years old. Yes, you read that right, and your eyes are not deceiving you! What's even more amazing is that he started training at age 44. Then Bryant was getting divorced, and he needed a break from the harsh reality - this is what brought him to the gym. 26 years later he looks younger than the year he started!
Steve Jobs
The path to success of Steve Jobs was thorny and very difficult. Soon after his birth, his parents abandoned him, and the Jobs couple became his adoptive parents, who, in fact, gave him his name. At the age of 12, Jobs plucked up the impudence and called the president of Hewlett-Packard himself to ask him for spare parts to assemble a frequency indicator for school.
As a result of this call, the boy not only received everything he needed, but also an offer to work for the company during the holidays. It was there that Jobs met Stephen Wozniak, with whom he later began the work of his life.
The success stories of Apple Corporation begin with a garage and a wooden machine, which were given to Jobs for full use by his adoptive father. Soon, Stephen and his company received an order for 50 computers, but they did not have the funds to purchase parts to assemble that many machines. Jobs found a way out of the situation and took out a loan for a month. The order was completed within 10 days. The guys worked day and night.
They soon had those who believed in the ideas and outside investments, which allowed them to expand beyond the garage and expand production. The number of orders grew every day and reached thousands. Hard work, determination and faith in success helped Steve Jobs become a great inventor and successful businessman.
Statements by Steve Jobs, full of wisdom and wit, are an indispensable attribute of the speeches of many modern lecturers. They fill the book “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, which is based on conversations with Steve himself.
“Go to a therapist or get a dog”
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Carol Gardner was 52; She had neither a job nor an income, but she still had a lot of debts from her previous marriage. She also suffered from depression, and her friend advised her: “Go to a therapist or get a dog.” Gardner chose the latter and named the dog Zelda. Feeding a 4-month-old English bulldog wasn't cheap, so when Gardner discovered a photo contest with dog food as a prize, she was quick to enter. The photo won the competition, Gardner sent it to a postcard printing company, they accepted it and asked for new photos. Now Gardner (and Zelda, of course!) has her own business selling photo postcards.
Evgeniy Demin, SPLAT
Don't change your ideals if you believe that you are doing everything right.
belretail.by
The entrepreneur started a business by distributing dietary supplements and teas. But he soon decided to switch to creating his own product, and the team began developing a toothpaste formula. The dizzying take-off did not happen due to the crisis. All the money went to the project, and Demin admitted that his wallet was empty at that time, and even the phone was turned off for non-payment. Even when a unique product appeared, buyers did not line up for it: the market was crowded with cheap, advertised goods.
The problem could have been solved by making the paste cheaper by changing the recipe, but Demin preferred another option - to explain to potential buyers why they need to choose this product.
This is how inserts with letters from the entrepreneur appeared in SPLAT boxes, thanks to which word of mouth started.
As a result, demand gave rise to supply: pharmacies and retail chains placed the pastes on their shelves. Now SPLAT toothpaste is sold in more than 40 countries around the world.
"You can't be too old"
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Betty Kalman is 87 years old and teaches yoga. She gives 11 lessons a week, and at her age this seems incredible. Since the age of 15, Betty wanted to do yoga, but she constantly did not have time due to study and work. When she got married and she and her husband opened their own hotel, she started doing yoga. “The body is an amazing instrument. It can stretch and stretch and get better over the years. Forget about age."
Anna Tsfasman, Doubleby
Fight stereotypes if you are confident in your product.
medium.com
Tsfasman, according to her admissions, did not intend to open her own business. She was the general director of the Caffeine chain and worked for the company for more than five years. But in 2012 she left, disagreeing with the desire of investors to reduce the quality of coffee beans. The entrepreneur returned to the market with her project. Together with chef barista Olga Melik-Karakozova, they opened their own coffee shop.
Initially, the former managers of Kofein were going to open a chain of stores selling tea and coffee, and the plans were ambitious - 300 outlets in six months. But it turned out to be easier to persuade the owners of rented premises to buy coffee shops, and in the end it was decided to settle on them. Investors were found quite quickly; they invested $1 million in the business.
The Doubleby project has a “modest” goal: to offer customers some of the best coffee in the world.
Now there are more than 85 coffee shops in the network, including in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia, Dubai, Barcelona, Prague, Tbilisi. Most of them are open as franchises.
One of the difficulties of the coffee business for Tsfasman was the fight against stereotypes: people are wary of additives like sugar, milk and syrup, and the lack of food in a coffee shop. However, the chosen format works for now. The company plans to open budget DoubleB White coffee shops and DoubleB Black coffee and alcohol bars.
“One thing I wanted to do was feel a little like a child.”
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Liverpool's Alistair Humphreys has always been a bit strange. His red hair makes him stand out from the rest, but it's his wanderlust that makes him a truly unique character. He set himself the goal of visiting every country in the world - and he did it on a bicycle! It took him four years, but he definitely saw more of the world than any other person on Earth.
Walt Disney
Walt Disney's childhood was not easy. His dream of becoming a cartoonist began at the age of 12. He persistently offered his “masterpieces” to all publishing houses and magazines, but he was rejected everywhere, never seeing real talent in the young illustrator.
Only at eighteen he was lucky enough to get a job as a cartoonist, from where he was soon kicked out in disgrace, arguing that he was professionally unsuitable. This failure gave Walt the idea of starting his own business. He realized this idea together with his best friend. The business generated $135 in revenue before failing.
Disney took up his old ways again - he drew illustrations for cartoons in the garage. But his first work, Alice in Wonderland, was a failure. Shortly thereafter, Walt created a completely new character that became profitable: Oswald the Rabbit. And this idea was stolen by an insidious attacker.
Despite all the unsuccessful attempts to achieve success, Walt did not stop moving towards his goal, working persistently and persistently in this direction. As a result, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse were “born”, who conquered the whole world and became the beginning of the company’s success story. One of the fascinating books about the biography of Walt Disney is called: “It All Was Started by One Mouse.” As soon as things started to go up, competitors deprived him of his friend and companion, luring him to their side, which was a strong blow for Walt. And he broke down. He went on a drinking binge and even attempted suicide.
He was rescued and Walt began to slowly but surely climb out of this hole, struggling with depression and financial collapse. He distributed souvenirs with images of his cartoon characters, thanks to which he raised the necessary amount for “Snow White”. Overcoming obstacle after obstacle, step by step Disney moved towards his goal, and he achieved it.
“I felt that now I would find her”
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If the dictionary entry for the word "hero" were illustrated with photographs, it would definitely include a photo of Temar Boggs. When a five-year-old girl disappeared in his area, Temar and his friends volunteered to look for her in parallel with the police search. The day was approaching evening, and the team began to fear that they would not have time to find the girl before dark. Around 6:30 p.m., Temar noticed an unfamiliar car in the area and his intuition began to fly like a bird in a cage. He chased the car for 15 minutes until the car spun and the girl was thrown out of it. Temar is a hero, and his example proves that you should listen to your intuition.
Success stories of Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria (South Africa). The thirst for new knowledge was largely laid down by his father, who was a pilot and engineer. At the age of 10, his father gave Ilan a computer, and at the age of 12 the boy mastered programming. Even then, a young boy created his first game Blastar and sold it for $500. At the age of 17, he moved to Canada, where he earned his living through hard labor in agricultural work and a sawmill. At 21, Elon Musk enters Stanford University. This is where his entrepreneurial activity begins. He seriously studied physics and simultaneously attended business school. The scale of his ambitions exceeded the standard knowledge of the university. He voraciously absorbed all information about new technologies and read a lot. While studying physics, Musk said: “I want to know. how the universe works." While studying economics he added: “and I want to know how to make a lot out of it.”
Elon Musk's first serious projects
Large-scale ambitions, acquired knowledge and first entrepreneurial experience became the basis for the creation of the first large projects. At the age of 24, together with his brother Elon, he created the company ZIP 2 to develop software for online publications. Subsequently, the company was sold for $301 million. Funds, of course. were invested in the next idea.
PayPal
The next big idea was the first online bank. The company was named X.com. Now it is known as Pay Pal. But complete mutual understanding was not achieved between the co-founders. In 2002, it was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.
Elon Musk and Space X
By this time, Ilan was no longer driven by money, but by some irrepressible energy of global innovative solutions. He formulated his life goal as follows: “to take actions that will extend the life of civilization and reduce the possibility of returning to the “dark ages.” The object of his study was space. This is how the company Spase X appeared. Elon Musk invested $100 million in it. The main idea was to reduce the costs of spacecraft launches. This was achieved by developing reusable rockets. The global goal is the colonization of Mars. And it's not a joke.
Tesla is the trend of the future
Another famous project of the innovator is Tesla motors. The company could not reach its planned targets for a long time. But with the support of the US Department of Energy and investments from the sale of other assets, Elon Musk was able to develop the company and set a trend in the car manufacturer market. All leading brands. such as BMW, Mercedes, etc. were forced to start developing, if not pure electric cars, then at least hybrid cars.
New ideas of Elon Musk
But his rapid innovative activity did not stop there, continuing the success stories. Now Elon and his team are actively developing projects such as a high-speed tunnel train, reaching speeds of up to 1200 km/h. His SolarCity project involves building a plant three times the size of the largest plants in America. And another project for the benefit of humanity—a device for curing brain diseases, Neuralink.
This is certainly an inspiring story of the life of a successful man, which, by the way, he would like to end on Mars.
Journalist Ashley Vance managed to get first-hand information about the unique path of this brilliant man. His book “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Road to the Future” is a bestseller and is extremely popular.
“Finally I reached the slaughterhouse and decided to try my luck there.”
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Wang Yan was a successful Chinese businessman. When he came home, he was greeted by his faithful friend, his beloved dog. When the dog disappeared, Yan searched everything until a friend suggested that his last resort was to check the knacker. The 29-year-old businessman never found the dog, but the conditions he saw at the slaughterhouse seemed so pathetic to him that he bought it and turned it into a shelter for 2,000 dogs.
Bill Gates
Everyone associates the name of this man with the famous Microsoft brand, but Gates’ very first invention was traffic meters. For their development and production, Bill and a group of friends created a company called “Traf-0-Data”. The young entrepreneurs wanted to sell their invention to local authorities, but at the very first presentation of the product they were expected to fail, since the device did not meet the stated capabilities and did not work as expected. Despite the loud fiasco of Bill Gates, this event pushed him to invent software for computer equipment, as a result of which the world famous company Microsoft was founded. A popular audiobook about the biography and secrets of success of Bill Gates is now used as a teaching aid.
“At first the villagers laughed at me.”
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Dashrath Manjhi worked all his life to alleviate the lot of all the sick of his village, in contrast to the lot that befell his wife. Dashrath Manjha's wife died without receiving timely medical care, since the road from their village to the nearest city where this help could be provided bypassed an extensive mountain formation and was more than 70 km long. Not wanting anyone else to share his wife's fate, Dashrath single-handedly cut a 110 m long passage through the rock formation, working every day for 22 years (from 1960 to 1982), reducing the road between the areas to one kilometer.
Fedor Ovchinnikov, “Dodo Pizza”
Don't be afraid to start from scratch. Even the second time.
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Fyodor Ovchinnikov began his journey in business when he opened a bookstore by fraudulently obtaining a bank loan: he said that he needed the money to renovate his apartment. The entrepreneur described all his actions on a blog, thanks to which he quickly became popular. Success attracted influential partners, to whom Ovchinnikov was forced to sell his stake in the business during the 2008 crisis.
The entrepreneur’s new business was not related to the sale of books. Except for the fact that at the checkout at Dodo Pizza they offer a publication written by him. He himself admitted that he was dissuaded from opening a pizzeria in Syktyvkar, since it would not withstand the competition, and no one needed delivery at all. But his business model worked.
The entrepreneur is open to communication and talks in detail about his work on social networks. And there is no secret about pizza preparation: the client can watch the process via a webcam.
Later, one pizzeria in Syktyvkar turned into an international chain, but Ovchinnikov’s business is more than retail establishments. This is both our own information system, which is integrated into business processes and allows us to make them more efficient, and a franchisee product.
By the way, in January 2022, the revenue of that very first pizzeria “Dodo Pizza” in Syktyvkar amounted to 7How to increase capital millions of rubles.
“I wanted to read the Holy Scriptures myself.”
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At 84, Kenyan Kimani Maruge's main desire was to start attending school - something his family could not afford as a child. He began his studies in first grade, much to the surprise of his teachers and mentors. It took time to get used to, but over time the school got used to the idea of being the oldest primary school student. The story of Maruge was made into a film in 2011.
Richard Branson
Stories of successful people, including the story of Richard Branson, add strength and inspire. Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin brand, one of the most successful entrepreneurs, whose fortune is estimated at more than four and a half billion dollars.
In one of his new books, Sir Richard Branson talks about his principles and rules of life. It’s called “My Rules.”
All that Branson had at the beginning of his journey was his ambition, determination and desire to overcome obstacles. He did very poorly at school and never graduated. He did not like to read and was poorly versed in the exact sciences, which is, in principle, unacceptable for a successful businessman. His first attempt at becoming successful was publishing a student magazine, but an accidental carelessness almost landed him in prison. In one issue of the magazine, Branson placed an advertisement that talked about a remedy against sexually transmitted diseases.
This did not stop the young entrepreneur, and he opens a chain of Virgin stores in which he sells export records, which is why he gets arrested. To resolve this problem, Richard settles all issues with English customs and pays duties and fines from the money received from the sale of the family home. Richard is an extreme sportsman and adventurer by nature. He managed to overcome all the obstacles in his path and found the huge Virgin empire, which brought him success and wealth.
“Work hard, believe in yourself, never give up, and even at 70 you can achieve your goal.”
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Sometimes life does not go exactly as usual, but in a somewhat chaotic order. Usually people finish school first, then get married, build a family and a career. For this man named Thap Van Kieu, things happened differently: at the age of 70, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in the company of people old enough to be his grandchildren. It's never too late!
Mikey Jagtiani, Landmark Group
Find what people need and give it to them.
menaherald.com
The Indian Jagtiani family moved to Kuwait and then sent their son to college in London. He did not live up to expectations: he failed his exams, abused alcohol, dropped out of school and worked part-time as a taxi driver. Jagtiani returned to his homeland and very soon was left alone: all members of his family died.
The entrepreneur was left with an inheritance of $6,000 and a place in Bahrain that his brother rented for trading before he became ill.
Jagtiani spent all the money on buying children's clothing, which he planned to sell to his compatriots who came to Kuwait to earn money.
At first he had to work without assistants, but this helped him generate ideas that attracted customers. For example, he installed a bench for men to wait for their wives. Although a store with a full range of children's goods was already a novelty.
Currently, Jagtiani's Landmark Group, headquartered in Dubai, has a presence in ten countries. At the same time, the businessman still tries to focus on the middle class and immigrants from India in his pricing policy.
Michael Jordan
Cliff / Flickr
Many basketball fans consider Michael Jordan the best player on the planet. What’s more, his name is well-known even among those who don’t follow sports at all. And this despite the fact that in his youth, Jordan was expelled from the school team, and then in college they refused to accept him into the basketball team. However, the athlete did not give up and continued to train until he finally achieved what he wanted.
As he himself later stated23 Michael Jordan Quotes That Will Immediately Boost Your Confidence: “I missed over nine thousand shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I was trusted to make the winning shot and missed. I have suffered failure after failure in my life. And that’s why I was successful.”
Stephen King
Stephanie Lawton / Flickr
King's first novel was rejected 30 times by editors, and Stephen threw it in the trash, disillusioned with his abilities. Later, his wife Tabitha found the manuscript and persuaded the author to finish it and send it to the publisher.
This work was the novel “Carrie,” which subsequently brought How Carrie Happened by Bev Vincent the writer 200 thousand dollars (2 million at the current exchange rate). To date, Stephen King has sold more than 350 million copies of Stephen King's books worldwide. And he is called the real “king of horror.”
Thomas Edison and his 10,000 failed attempts
Thomas Edison's success story can motivate anyone who has experienced failure. He performed more than 10,000 (!!!) unsuccessful experiments in order to improve the incandescent light bulb. He was asked the question, why did he, in his own words, not give up after his first attempts? To which Edison said that with each failure he discovered a new way of not inventing a lamp.
This story is an excellent example for any entrepreneur, firstly, of perseverance, and secondly, of the fact that you should always extract something useful from failure that can help in the future.
