Super Success Secrets from 25 Successful Entrepreneurs
We all stand on the shoulders of giants and we can always learn more. By studying others secrets of success we can only keep improving ourselves. Hearing and reading these nuggets of wisdom once is never enough, keep hearing and reading them over and over again until they become part of the woof and weave of our being. Read on rock star and keep shining.
1. Naveen Jain Founder and CEO of Inome
“I can’t imagine anyone ever achieving long-term success without having honesty and integrity.”
These two qualities need to be at the core of everything we do. Everybody has a conscience, but too many people stop listening to it. There is always that faint voice that warns you when you are not being completely honest or even slightly off track from the path of integrity. Be sure to listen to that voice.
2. Alisha Navarro, 2 Hounds Design
“Before anything else, I ask why, how, or what. Read between the lines: A customer or employee might make a simple statement, but what is behind that statement? I experiment and ask, "What would happen if..." If it doesn't work, have the resilience to bounce back, ask more questions and try again. Trying again is key; I probably fail more than I succeed, but I learn from what didn't work and tweak it.”
3. James Dyson, Inventor
In a recent and rare interview, the billionaire inventor James Dyson revealed the secret to his success. Dyson told the Wall Street Journal that his success is due to: “Perseverance, taking risks and having a willingness to fail.” Dyson doesn’t shy away from celebrating his failures. He embraces his mistakes. “We fail every day,” he says. “Failure is the best medicine–as long as you learn something.”
By now the story of Dyson’s failures are legendary. Supported by his wife’s salary as an art teacher, Dyson spent 15 years and created 5,126 versions of a Dual Cyclone vacuum before making a product that worked. “I don’t mind failure,” Dyson once said. “I’ve always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they’ve had.”
4. Carrie Kerpen, Author and Entrepreneur
Carrie says, "We all want a magic bullet -- the secret that will tell us how to be successful in today's world."
“Your network is your net worth.”
Carrie recalls the time she struck up a correspondence with Meredith Vieira after another chance encounter on a plane. (Clearly, the secret to networking is to take more plane rides.)
Your network is one of the most valuable things you possess -- which is why, as one bold businesswoman argues, you shouldn't consider networking as a "nice to have" but as part of your job description, whatever your role may be.
5. R.L. Adams Entrepreneur, software engineer, author, blogger and founder of WanderlustWorker.com
“How to Sell Anything to Anyone”
There are so many facets to sales. I talk about sales because it's the foundation for success. To succeed, you have to know how to sell. Hands down, it's the most important skill you can have. Everything revolves around sales. If you're no good at sales, you'll have a hard time succeeding in business.
Sales is about influence. There are methods of persuasion that work very well in business. But, there are also several fundamentals that need to be in place if you want to succeed. If those fundamentals aren't in place, you can pretty much kiss your chances for success goodbye.
6. Justin Sachs Highly sought-after business and marketing expert and CEO of Motivational Press
“The Secret To Every Entrepreneur's Success: Accountability”
The biggest missing element entrepreneurs and business owners have when pursuing their goals is holding themselves accountable. Without a structure in place, there is nothing holding our feet to the fire.
Entrepreneurs have hundreds, if not thousands, of opportunities thrown their way every day: a new way to market, someone selling the newest gadget that will "revolutionize the industry," employee challenges, and more. These may not be top priorities, but they still consume valuable time. An entrepreneur must be able to make a clear path to achieving their goals, even when everything else seems to be standing in the way.
The key to your success is to have accountability partners!
7. Richard Branson, business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist.
“The best businesses come from people’s bad personal experiences. If you just keep your eyes open, you’re going to find something that frustrates you, and then you think, ‘well I could maybe do it better than it’s being done,’ and there you have a business.”
“If you can improve people’s lives, you have a business. People think, ‘well everything’s been thought of,’ but actually, all of the time, there are gaps in the market here and gaps in the market there.”
8. Oprah Winfrey, media executive, actress, talk show host, television producer and philanthropist
The secret, she explained, is “the power of service.” But you have to hear her out or risk believing she thinks success equals serving others.
9. J. Paul Getty, American industrialist who was one of America’s richest men,
"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him—and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires."
Having strong self-discipline will also help you develop additional key traits that will eventually ensure your success, including:
An Awareness of the Value of Time—Guarding your time jealously will help you prioritize tasks and get things done
The Ability to Make Clear Decisions—Being deliberate and methodical about what goals you're setting, why you're setting them, and how you will go about achieving them increases the likelihood you'll accomplish what you set out to do.
The Strength to Take Action—Sticking to a task will help you see it through from implementation to follow-through and, finally, completion.
10. Walt Disney, entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer
“Curiosity keeps us moving forward in life. It transforms your perceptions of the world from negativity to positivity and possibility. Curiosity kills procrastination (judgment breeds it). It is the engine behind drive and stamina. Time to start looking at the people, places and things in your life with more wonder and curiosity.”
11. J.K. Rowling, the best-selling author behind the "Harry Potter" series, has sold over 450 million books and is worth more than $1 billion.
But she wasn't always a runaway success. Before publishing "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," the author was a struggling single mother, surviving on state benefits. It started when Rowling replied to a Tweet from fellow writer Melanie Dione, who said: "HEY! YOU! You're working on something and you're thinking 'Nobody's gonna watch, read, listen.' Finish it anyway." Rowling quotes the Tweet, adding: "There were so many times in the early 90s when I needed somebody to say this to me. It's great advice for many reasons."
She goes on to encourage writers to see their projects through to the end, saying, "Even if it isn't the piece of work that finds an audience, it will teach you things you could have learned no other way."
12. Madam C. J. Walker, entrepreneur, philanthropist, activist, patron of the arts
“There is no royal flower strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for whatever success I have attained has been the result of much hard work and many sleepless nights.”
“I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the wash tub. . .from there to the kitchen. . .and from there, I promoted myself!” − Madam C.J. Walker (1912)
13. Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and business magnate.
“Focus On What Matters: Prioritize Ruthlessly. Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. It’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.”
Here’s an exercise you can do right now:
Start with the end goal: What are you trying to achieve? Write it down. Be specific by using metrics and a timeline to achieve them. E.g. Acquire 3 new clients this Quarter
Break it down: divide the goal into specific actions you need to take to get there. Think in terms of systems: actions that you can do repeatedly. E.g. Make 100 phone calls to new leads
Order tasks: list all your tasks and rank them according to two criteria: effort and impact. For effort: 1 is easy, 10 is hard to do. For impact: 1 is minimal impact, 10 is a high-leverage activity
Prioritize: Divide the potential results by the amount of effort to get a “priority” ranking. Do the item with the lowest resulting priority number first. This is your most important task. Schedule it on your calendar, blocking out time to perform Deep Work that moves the needle on your goals
Rinse and repeat: until you achieve your goal
14. Andrew Carnegie, industrialist, business magnate, and philanthropist
“Have A Definite Major Purpose. It has been said the world makes a place for the man that knows what he wants and makes a plan to get it.”
What do YOU want so bad that it has become a burning desire?? If you don’t know, FIND IT. Hold on to it, seek it’s materialization for it will be inevitable after following the remaining 16 principles.
15. Jeff Bezos, technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist.
Surround yourself with the best possible team.
“Every time we hire someone, he or she should raise the bar for the next hire, so that the overall talent pool is always improving,”
16. Sergey Brin, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur
Learn from watching
Being first to market sounds great. But is it? The pioneer often makes a rash of mistakes. How could you expect anything else? You have some combination of new product concepts, business models, distribution methods, and markets. The pioneer is bound to get swept down rivers, fall into holes, or otherwise court disaster.
Far better to hang back and watch what someone else is doing. Does there seem to be a good idea? Where does a predecessor go wrong? How would you put together something differently to avoid the obstacles?
17. Vera Wang, fashion designer
Vera Wang Says Keep Your Feet on the Ground and Don't Get Ahead of Yourself
“People have done far better than me in far shorter periods of time, but that wasn’t my story,” Vera Wang tells. “It was brick by brick, client by client, store by store. It’s been a trip of passion, but it has not been a quick trip. Nor has it been easy. And that is the truth.” “I wear many hats,” she says. “I have to be a promoter, a designer, a costumer of movie stars and celebrities, and a businesswoman,” says Wang, who heads both the business and creative sides of the company. “When you throw all of that into one bag, it’s a rough day. I love it, though.”
18. Sean Combs (Puff Daddy - Diddy), rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur
Passion – Do What You Love
Combs said he learned that "if I give the customers my best and service them differently, whether music, clothing or vodka, I'll get a return on my hard work."
19. Henry Ford, captain of industry and a business magnate
“An absence of fear of the future or of veneration for the past. One who fears the future, who fears failure, limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail. What is past is useful only as it suggests ways and means for progress.”
20. Thomas Alva Edison, inventor and businessman
“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent,” he said. “Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.” He realized he needed to put the customers’ needs first and tailor his thinking accordingly, despite any temptation to invent for invention’s sake.
21. George Eastman, entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak
Focusing on the Customer
Eastman stayed true to his principles through thick and thin; especially focusing on his customers. At one point as Eastman was trying to grow his company, he faced a situation where bad product was threatening his reputation. Many of his dealers had a whole bunch of dry plates go bad and Eastman stood up to his promise by recalling all of the bad product and replacing it with working dry plates- an act that almost sunk his business. “Making good on those plates took our last dollar,” he said. “But what we had left was more important – reputation.”
22. Coco Chanel, designer and business magnate
“Don’t be like the rest of them darling.” Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel understood women’s fashion, perfume, and jewelry. But what she understood the most was that consumers don’t just buy fashion, they buy brands. And Coco Chanel was one of the first to understand branding as we know it today.
23. P.T. Barnum, showman, politician, and businessman
"Whatever you do, do it with all your might"
"Work at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now."
24. Ray Kroc, businessman
“Have a big vision”
Thinking big requires stretching the boundaries of possibilities. It enables acceptance of new challenges and creation of capabilities to overcome those challenges. McDonald brothers innovated and mastered the efficient restaurant business model and decided to have one best in a class restaurant instead of multiple mediocre restaurants. Ray Kroc thought big and with his persistence, he innovated and mastered the art of business expansion through franchisee model.
25. Sam Walton, businessman and entrepreneur
“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.”
“Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations. Remain a corporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader in your partnership. Encourage your associates to hold a stake in the company. Offer discounted stock, and grant them stock for their retirement. It's the single best thing we ever did.”