Tireless. Kim Lorenz

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      Businesses come in all shapes and sizes, each meeting a specific need for specific people. Retail stores such as Costco and Target are satisfying the needs of the public. Others, like accountants, small manufacturing entities or consultants serve the needs of other businesses. Often, those needs were not even known to the businesses buying the product or service until that business launched. I compare this to walking into a Costco and finding dozens of items you didn’t even know you needed!

      Now that I mention it, Costco is another perfect example of a wildly-successful global company that started with an idea and a single store. These days, you can find a Costco in almost every corner of the world. There were hundreds of other entrepreneurs attempting to open large, bulk wholesale stores that were not nearly as successful as Costco. What was that magic formula? What did the Costco founders see that others did not? Much like our other stories, the founders were two ordinary people like you and I. Jeff Brotman and Jim Sinegal founded Costco. Brotman’s family operated a small business, as his grandparents migrated to the U.S. from Romania (via Canada). Sinegal was born to a working-class family. Both men had worked in various retail-focused companies and shared a vision of a better way to fill the needs of consumers. One key ingredient in their success, among many, was quality. Regular customers know Costco sells only quality products and backs them all with an ironclad return policy.

      All of these individuals share the same starting point. They visualized an opportunity so powerful that they just had to do it. They jumped ship from solid, safe jobs to take the risk and start their own companies. These individuals took the vision and opportunity they imagined and did something to make it happen. Again, they practiced perseverance, took the risk, left their careers behind, and made the leap. Every story is different; every person comes from a different background and environment, yet they each carry the same basic success principles. These stories are of ordinary people taking extraordinary risks. Just think, there are thousands more stories to be written about people just like you and the future companies simply waiting to be founded.

      The next story could be yours.

      I do not know where you are in life right now. You might still be in school, investing in yourself in hopes of landing a career that could provide for you or your family. You might be sitting at a desk, serving someone else’s vision and feeling dissatisfied every time you leave for the day. You might be doing exactly what you always said you wanted to, yet you are realizing that you actually have bigger and brighter dreams. Wherever you find yourself, you have the same chance to take a risk as Bill Gates and thousands of others.

      So, how do you know it’s time to take a leap? The exact reason that people leave a job to start a business varies in every case, but it happens every day. I started my first business when realizing the 65-year-old company I had devoted my early work life towards might fail. I did see an opportunity of what the customer really needed from that company, and was developing a great career around such. So, when the company started to fail, instead of doing my work for another company, I started my own.

      When you hear the stories years later from people who left a job or career and started a business that succeeded, rarely do you hear regret, even if they’ve failed. They take pride in what they’ve founded, seeing that they have met needs in a unique way, enabled others to succeed, and built a platform. While new businesses often fail, that is rarely the end of the story. Many successful people pick themselves back up, learn from failure, and start over again—this time, with more experience.

      Successful companies all began in different ways. Some began with one employee—the founder. Others started with a few employees; others with many. Some started in homes or garages, like Jeff Bezos and Amazon. Regardless of size, their success, for the most part, is a result of the same characteristics, which we will explore as we continue through this book.

      Bill Gates and Paul Allen both worked at starting their business while in school and while working other jobs for income before it all came together. They never gave up. They shared a vision of what could be and artfully made it happen through a series of events.

      Those who have incredibly successful businesses are always asked the same questions, “How did you do it?” and “What did you do that made it work?”

      I will address these questions by sharing stories from several business entities and different industries, as well as my own life as a business founder/owner and the lives of those around me that have modeled success in different ways. People tried to convince me not to start my own business—that it would put my family in jeopardy and that we could lose the new home we had built, as well as the new car my wife drove. But I did it, and against all odds, I did it successfully.

      Starting a business is not for everyone, but it could be for you. The same opportunity is in front of every single one of us, and it is up for grabs every day. Will you be the one to take it? Or will you take advantage of opportunities right where you are now? I cannot emphasize enough that opportunities also exist in the company where you work. Open your mind and again, ask what could be, what can be done better.

      Why not you? Why not now? What can you do starting today to make tomorrow better, both for yourself and for others? So often we hear excuses about why something can’t be done, while at the same time, others are not only getting it done, but exceeding expectations. I beg you, do not think about the reasons not to do it. Simply ask yourself, who do you want to be, and when do you plan to start? Only you can answer these questions.

      The best time to start is now.

      1 “Colonel Sanders.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.