If you stream any business news, you would be forgiven for thinking that starting a business is as easy as setting up a blog and a Facebook page and the money starts rolling in!
We all wish it were that easy. And while there are some great stories of successful entrepreneurs whose star has risen rapidly, for most of us, success comes after hard work and persistence.
As the saying goes by various entrepreneurs
“It takes 6/10/20 years to be an overnight success”
And if you want to be an overnight success you have to be an everyday hustler!
Even the fastest growing companies in the world have taken time to get there.
Some stats:
- It took 3 years and four versions of the Ipod to make respectable sales
- The Beatles were playing in small bars for 7 years before having a number one after appearing on the Ed Sullivan show
- The Fedex idea was born in 1965, launched in 1973 with only 7 packages on the first day.
- Twitter Founder Biz Stone was creating apps for 8 years before launching twitter
- Amazon did not make a profit for the first 7 years
- Facebook, Google, and Yahoo! – took decades to make money.
Even small-scale operators who are happy to earn 6 figure salaries working from their laptops do not reach those figures overnight.
An ‘overnight success’ is more likely ‘overnight exposure’. Those are the people and businesses who have been doing something well for a long time are made visible and escalated to success.
And when you hear their success stories the focus is rarely about the hard work, the amount of money and time taken. The huge risks, the mammoth failures and major catastrophes. The second mortgages, the disgruntled investors, the broken families and missed holidays. The miracles!
The notion of overnight success can be dangerous for the start-up entrepreneur. While it is great to be positive about your business and you do need to be optimistic about your future success, you also need to be realistic about the time and money taken to get there.
I would be more happy to be proven wrong – if you have been an overnight success please share your story with me. And if you want to take the leap into business with a realistic approach – start your business small and grow big on your success then join my 30 day Business Start-Up Course starting February 8, 2016. Reserve your place here.
