2021 was the year we witnessed the fall of some famous business giants. However, it was also the year for the rise of countless new and innovative startups. An evident surge was witnessed in the number of people who enrolled in business and entrepreneurship programs. While these fields help build foundational concepts, potential entrepreneurs are still looking up to other successful people for inspiration. The digital era has made it endlessly convenient to research successful businesses and follow leaders who started their journey from scratch. These personalities are known for their unique style of leadership and their adventurous journey from being nothing to becoming everything in a short period with minimal resources.
It’s high time we realize that the success of a business isn’t based on how much money or resources we invest in it. It’s determined by how innovative and sellable the business idea is. The explanation for this can be found by following the journey of the world’s best business tycoons. If you’re looking forward to beginning your entrepreneurial journey next year, follow the below-mentioned personalities in the business world. You’ve probably heard their names; let’s read their success story.
1) Kuba Jewgieniew: CEO and Founder, Realty ONE Group
CEO and founder at Realty ONE Group, Kuba Jewgieniew is one of the most rapidly progressing real estate brokers. If you’re looking for an idol who won their success within a brief period of time, Kuba is the man you’re looking for. He belongs to a Polish family who resettled in the United States, where Kuba was raised. His bringing up was done through fueling his mind with an intense work ethic. That’s where Jewgieniew picked up his drive and will to keep going and be successful. This drive evolved into a fierce passion, and he enrolled in an economics degree at the University Of California San Diego.
Surprisingly, Kuba was the first in his family to graduate from college. Afterward, he began his fruitful career in finance, and he also built software programs as a side freelance kind of job. As time went by, he discovered his true passion for real estate. His first year in this career proved to be incredibly fruitful, which is when he decided to start his own brokerage firm in 2005. Realty ONE Group made $102 million in sales by the end of the year.
2) Jeff Bezos: CEO and Founder, Amazon
Everybody loves shopping from Amazon. Really, what could one do without it? The man we should be thanking for starting this amazing e-commerce business is Jeff Bezos. As of September 2021, Jeff Bezos is officially the richest man in the world. If you have an entrepreneurial goal that aligns with this one, you have your man. It’s hard to believe, but Bezos started his entrepreneurial journey in 1994 from a garage in Seattle.
The initial idea was to start an online bookstore. The internet was only about a decade old at that time and not so conveniently available to the general public. Therefore, Jeff’s boss refused to show interest in his pitch. So, what started as an online bookstore in 1994 became the world’s biggest online one-stop shop today. Bezo’s venture Blue Origin is also working on building reusable rockets. He is also working in collaboration with NASA on a project that aims to colonize Mars by the next decade.
3) Elon Musk: Co-Founder and CEO, TESLA
2021’s second richest man in the world, Elon Musk became a multimillionaire in his twenties. That’s everyone’s biggest dream in their teenage years until reality hits, and we’re still making 10 dollars per hour. The good news is that Elon Musk’s journey will inspire you to hustle for your dreams. Musk was so occupied by his thoughts of invention and science that his parents had to get his hearing checked when he was younger.
Musk attended college at Stanford University, where he skipped classes to work on his startup Zip2 in 1995, one of the very first online navigation systems. He made his fortune by selling Zip2. He laid his empire by investing the money from Zip2 in other profitable businesses. These days, his prominent work (i.e., SpaceX) consists of making space exploration more affordable.
4) Mark Zuckerberg: Co-Founder and CEO, Facebook
By the year 2004, the internet was already two decades old. Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard at that time, along with his roommate, launched a social networking website for Harvard students. However, it was soon extended to other Ivy League colleges. Slowly and steadily, students from all over the States and Canada started using the service and found it immensely beneficial. In 2 years, everyone with an email ID was allowed to access the service resulting in subscriptions from all over the world.
However, for some years, the age requirement was to be 13 or older. Zuckerberg has also recently acquired other social media apps, namely Instagram and WhatsApp, making him richer than ever. He also claims to donate 99% of his earnings to charity. He encourages his followers to take big risks to reap bigger rewards. It’s how he landed his success.
5) Warren Buffet: CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
Known as the most successful investor in history, Warren Buffet made his fortune by starting as an investment salesperson in the 50s. His early interest in stocks became his passion and led him to become what he is today. He landed Berkshire Hathaway in the early ten years of his career, another fast-paced success story! Like Zuckerberg, Buffet also planned to donate all of his money to charity. That’s when he and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge campaign, which aimed to encourage rich people to donate their wealth. Buffet was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2012, and his cancer journey inspired him to work on a healthcare company in collaboration with Jeff Bezos.
These entrepreneurs urge everyone to take a leap of faith by investing in a risky startup. No risk, no reward. What started as a small online bookstore made Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world. A website to connect the students of Harvard became the most profitable social media platform in history. Skipping classes in college led Elon Musk to become the second richest man in the world. What you need to do is take a little risk and follow your dreams.
