Every Passion Has A Journey
How much dedication are you willing to invest?
If you want to be great then you have to unlock the gift that lays dormant inside of you. It is a great benefit to listen to people that step out of their comfort zone daily to achieve their goals with life-changing actions. However, you can listen to all the successful gurus you want to, but if you don’t have any action behind it, then you are just another person with an unaccomplished dream.
There are three people that you should research if you are serious about becoming an entrepreneur full-time and you are mentally ready to go ALL-IN.
1.) Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter, known as Jay-Z, grew up in Brooklyn, New York City. Jay-Z watched his mother take care of the family while working. He took heed of his mother’s work ethic and took on some hustles of his own. Jay-Z used his fist and a kitchen table to make the beats he needed until he got the equipment he wanted to become a successful music artist. Sometimes you do not have to wait for everything to fall into place just to get started. The most powerful move you can make is to get started!
“I was forced to be an artist and a CEO from the beginning, so I was forced to be like a businessman because when I was trying to get a record deal, it was so hard to get a record deal on my own that it was either give up or create my own company.” — Jay-Z
Jay-Z has gained so much knowledge in his music career and it has given him a keen eye to find the most lucrative business deals. Though he never attended business school, it did not stop him from being the founder of $100 million companies and serving as a co-brand director for Budweiser Select. His secret to his entrepreneurial success is understanding that skills are transferable. Skills you possess may seem useless right now, but as you unlock more and more of your potential, you will see that just having the basic knowledge of sales, management, and promotion can take you a long way. Observe all of the skills life has to offer, do not wait to attend college to learn these things. Pay attention because LIFE and EXPERIENCE are great teachers!
Andrew Carnegie
Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie was a very wealthy American industrialist who succeeded in making a fortune in the steel industry. His father lost his job in Scotland, which brought him and his family to America for better opportunities. He started out in a Pittsburgh cotton factory as a young boy. He made some smart moves while he worked at the factory. He invested in various business ventures, including iron and oil companies, and made his first fortune in his early 30s. Your determination in having a successful business will lead to wise financial decisions.
“To try to make the world in some way better than you found it is to have a noble motive in life.” — Andrew Carnegie, The Empire of Business
He became a dominant force in the steel industry and it grew massively for the next two decades. He sold the Carnegie Steel Company to banker John Pierpont Morgan for $480 million. His philanthropic acts were just as grand in giving away more than $350 million. He even opened libraries in different places because of his love of reading. He is considered the Father of Modern Philanthropy.
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, did not have an easy start to her successful career. She was a single mother on government assistance and overcame dozens of rejections from publishers. To her fans, what seemed like an overnight success, was a tough journey that broke free from the negativity. Harry Potter is one of the most successful and widely read authors in the history of the world. The book's Facebook page has around 70 million followers! How do you think the publishers who rejected her feel about her novels now?
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
As time passed and the momentum of Harry Potter took off, Rowlings turned the boy wizard into an entertainment franchise. There were not only books, but movies, plays, a theme park, video games, toys, and so much more. She stated in a 2008 Harvard University commencement speech, “I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do was write novels. However, my parents both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and no college degree took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.”
You could call these stories “rags-to-riches” or just an overnight success (which is obviously inaccurate), but the most important takeaway is that the PASSION of each person mentioned has always been there and no matter what obstacles came they only focused on their end goal. They pushed past rejection and negativity and jumped on the bandwagon to success. Once there, they still did not stop pushing. Some people may think once you are successful, you have it all but that is when the work gets harder because you must keep a level head and plan for the best and prepare for the worst. Allow planning and strategy to be your advisors and when things take a left turn, don’t get off-balance because you feel discouraged. If you do not have anything that you are passionate about yet, then take some time to soul-search and take inventory of your skills. If you have found your passion, then let the journey begin…
