One day, a social networking app for whiskey drinkers called burbn was created. It failed due to it’s complexity. The creators realized the picture function was the most popular aspect. Soon after that realization, they created an app dedicated to photo sharing. Instagram was born.
A few years ago, 2 guys needed to find a way to make some money. So they bought some air mattresses and told people they could pay for a bed and breakfast. Airbnb was born. However, it only made $200/month for a long time. The owners needed money, so they created Obama O’s cereal during the election and made 30k. Soon after, the owners of Airbnb improved their product with that money and took advantage of Craigslist’s API. Now they’re one the biggest hospitality businesses in the world.
Steve Jobs saw the potential of the computer. It was an already existing technology, just one not usable by the general public. Years later, he revolutionized the tech industry by making a real computer that was simple enough for the average American. AND he did it with flair. Want to know the funny part? It wasn’t even he who did it. It was Steve Wozniak, his partner.
Daymond John was once just a regular guy. One day, he had the idea to create a line of clothing for hip-hop lovers. He spent thousands of hours selling his clothing on the streets and going to as many conventions as he could. He spent more time going after up and coming rappers to wear his shirt. His mom even mortgaged their home to acquire an extra 100k in funding for the business. Now he’s sitting as a shark on Shark Tank as a multi-millionaire.
Gary Vaynechuck was an immigrant from Belarus. As a very young teen, he was able to sell baseball cards at the mall making 2k every weekend. After graduating college, he took his dad’s wine business called Discount Liquors, rebranded it to Wine Library and grew the business from 3 million (at a 10% gross margin) to 60 million in 4 years by working 18 hour days selling and creating over 1,000 episodes of his Wine Library TV show. Now he owns an 8 figure, soon to be 9 figure social media marketing agency. And he started it with no capital, a year after the 2008 crash, and during a time big businesses did not believe in the ROI of social.
Twitter was made in 2 weeks.
The guy behind Levi’s started by selling his jeans out of the trunk of his car.
Paul Mitchell didn’t even have the money to pay for designs of his product. So he chose white and black, since they were the cheapest. His product “design” is now iconic.
The founder of Macy’s was a sailor before he started Macy’s.
Most millionaires and billionaires are self made, yet most people say they got their due to “luck”.
Recording and uploading 1,000 videos on Youtube isn’t lucky. Selling jeans out of the trunk of your car isn’t lucky. Spending thousands of hours selling your clothing on the street wasn’t lucky. Creating a highly popular photo-sharing app AFTER a big failure wasn’t lucky. Working 18 hour day’s isn’t lucky.
Luck is not only a jealous loser’s mentality, it’s also inaccurate.
It doesn’t matter what degree’s or certifications you have. It doesn’t matter how you look like. It doesn’t even matter of what people think about you.
All that matters is the creation and exchange of value.
And that process only happens with hours upon hours of work, lots of lots of testing, and more work to adjust based on those results.
“Luck” is just an excuse.
And no one ever becomes successful by giving excuses.