For example, I met with an entrepreneur who wanted to build an indoor sports arena in Tacoma, Washington. All she had was the idea and the determination. It took almost two years of relentless effort and non-stop problem solving and today the sports arena is being built. All of the odds were against her however, she applied her entrepreneurial magic and made it happen. Another entrepreneur works in a mature industry (where there is very little growth) with more than 19 direct competitors in Kent, Washington. Working against their competition and the economy, they were able to experience over 40% growth this last year. Another company, a medical billing service added more more than 10 new team members to their business last year and are experiencing tremendous success while most of their competitors are struggling to survive. Even after several setbacks each time a business gets an investor, a bank loan, or turns their business around we are reminded the fact that entrepreneurs are achieving the impossible every day.
What do these entrepreneurs have in common? They have a visionary belief that what they see in their mind will happen no matter how distant or impossible it seems. I want to share the following article from Inc.com with you by Harvey Mackay titled, "How to Accomplish the Impossible."
Believe in your dreams, believe in yourself, and fight for what you want because you are an entrepreneur.
About the Author
Kirk Davis is a Certified Business Advisor with the Washington Small Business Assistance Center (SBDC) located at Green River Community College in Kent, Washington. See his Linkedin profile.
SWIM WITH THE SHARKS
How to Accomplish the Impossible
Genius sometimes just means not realizing that something is impossible.
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A college student arrived a few minutes late for his final exam in mathematics. The room was quiet, with everyone working hard, and the professor silently handed him the test. It consisted of five math problems on the first page and two on the second. The student sat down and began to work. He solved the first five problems in half the time, but the two on the second page were tougher. Everyone else finished the exam and left, so the student was alone by the end of the time period. He finished the final problem at the last second.
The next day he got a phone call in his dorm room from the professor. “I don’t believe it! You solved the final two problems?”
“Uh, yeah,” the student said. “What’s the big deal?”
“Those were brain teasers,” the prof explained. “I announced before the exam that they wouldn’t count toward your final grade, but you missed that because you were late. But hardly anyone solves those problems in so short a time! You must be a genius!”
“Genius” sometimes means just not realizing that something is impossible.
Some days you have have to wonder how you’ll do all you have to do. You'll ask whatever made you think that you could challenge the incumbent players in your industry, let alone create a company that could one day be worth something. Those days are inevitable, but they pass. And when they do, you're usually left with a sense of pride that you have greater capacity for achievement than you realized.
Every successful entrepreneur faced doubts, both within and without: Steve Jobs was fired from Apple. Fred Smith of Fedex was told his blueprint for overnight delivery was wildly impractical, and Jack Bogle of the Vanguard Group was told his idea for a financial services company owned by its shareholders was doomed to failure.
The only antidote is to believe in yourself and your idea–but mainly in yourself. After all, every business plan is wrong in its original form: A good part of entrepreneurial genius is being able change quickly. Jennifer Hyman of Rent the Runway, for example, originally thought her business was about saving frugal women money on their workday wardrobes. After watching one of her customers try on a couture gown, though, she realized she was in the business of helping women realize their Cinderella fantasies. Ideas change, but the entrepreneurs don't.
And what gives entrepreneurs the ability to pull off the impossible, is belief. Belief leads you to ask “what’s possible?” and then follows that question with “what else is possible?” You have to do this in your business, if you intend to survive. A positive attitude, creativity and determination combine to create genius.
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan recounts a story about the genius of the Greatest Generation. “Once, at the University of California, a student got up to say that it was impossible for people of her generation to understand the next generation of young people.
‘You grew up in a different world,’ the student said. ‘Today we have television, jet planes, space travel, nuclear energy, computers...’
“When the student paused for breath, Nancy said: ‘You're right. We didn't have those things when we were young. We invented them.’”
Mackay’s Moral: What could you accomplish if no one told you it was impossible?
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