Even if success follows you around in the last years, your partnership could not be eternal, and it may abandon you in an unexpected moment. The peaks are hard to conquer, and falling off them is quite easy. However, rolling down the slope is an exercise full of lessons. Some sights are important to see, and some of them are even more meaningful than being just your inspiration on the way up. Decreasing profits and declining earnings trends embody a potential for development. At the same time, it is important how you will interpret them because they can also be a powerful slipping force.
If you feel that you stumble into nonsense and apathy, here are some stories of people who learned to swim in a stormy sea.
- Oprah Winfrey – Oprah is much more than a talk-show host. She is a symbol of a successful business leader with extremely wide influence in cultural and social life. She was born in Mississippi, and the fact that as a child she wore clothes made of old sacks is the least misfortune that has befallen her days. She has experienced sexual abuse by relatives and friends of her mother. Despite the crest of this pressure, she managed to move forward. She was accepted to study at Tennessee State University and began working in radio and television. In 1976 she started as a talk show host in Baltimore, and the production became a hit. Eight years later, Oprah began her morning show on another, bigger TV station. Her name became famous along with her participation in a Steven Spielberg film. The Oprah Winfrey Show started in 1986 on 120 different channels. Winfrey has a television network and is the first African-American woman billionaire. Her words to move you ahead: “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.”
- Ralph Lauren – The American fashion designer was born in the Bronx, America’s poorest neighborhood, to a family of Jewish immigrants. Due to ridicule nagging at school, at the age of 16, he changed his surname from Lifshitz to Lauren. He first worked as a sales assistant in a menswear store. Around this time, he began to wonder if men were ready for something more colourful, especially when it came to ties. In 1967 he decided to try his hand at running his own business. It turns out that he had a winning and resourceful flair. Thus, the simple idea of ties becomes synonymous with quality. The designer’s company is now a global multibillion-dollar corporation. The advice of one of the wealthiest people in the world to future entrepreneurs: “You have to create something from nothing”, “The world is open to us, and each day is an occasion to reinvent ourselves.”
- Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computers in a garage in Los Altos, California. Jobs was only 21 at that time. His story has several ups and downs, but only his perseverance kept him not just up to standard, but on top of success. One of the most curious contradictions in his life is that was fired from his own company. Although highly convincing as a director, he had management problems. That is why the board of directors dismissed him. A year later, however, Jobs bought Apple. In 1997 he became a CEO and turned the “bitten apple” into an outstanding player in the market. “Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do”, Jobs said in the not unfamous advertising campaign Think Different.
- Sophia Amoruso – This young lady (only 37 years old) is an inspiration for many women entrepreneurs and fashion fans. She is the founder of Nasty Gal and began her empire by scouring the racks at second-hand stores and selling her vintage discoveries on eBay. Her shop has second-hand vintage clothing and other items. The first thing Amoruso sold was a stolen book. As a young adult, Amoruso lived nomadic, even grabbing food from trash bins to make ends meet. Some years ago, she lost half of her fortune, but her talent is still rising. She develops her brand, focusing on her memoirs and a series from Netflix about her past – “Girlboss”. Her advice: “Everyone has a different personality in the workplace. By bringing your best self and not letting the small things sway you, that will allow you to keep rolling ahead in work and life.”
These stories of business achievement are only possible due to solemn endurance. People usually see only the high profits, good sales, the number of mansions, and photos with happy smiles. Under this layer of powder, however, lie outstanding courage, strive, faith in your own abilities, luck, and some madness. Oh, and inspiration, of course! For example, from another success story.
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