Starting your own business is an incredibly daunting task; to make things even worse, you’re up against the statistical fact that the majority of small businesses will fail. But there are some businesses that beat the odds and become empires. Here are some of the entrepreneurs behind those empires to take inspiration from.
Thomas Edison
While you might regard Edison as a brilliant inventor — rightfully, of course — his success was less due to genius and more due to business sense. Edison invented the research and development methods that have followed innovators into the present day. He was also a master of networking and he was connected to many companies before striking out to found General Electric.
Charles Merrill
While stock trading might be a pastime of the wealthy nowadays, Merrill was determined to make it accessible to everyone. After the catastrophic 1929 market crash, the public was afraid of anything to do with the financial world.
Merrill was dedicated to easing this fear and educating clients from all sorts of backgrounds, offering free classes and charging much lower commission rates so that his customers could feel secure in the financial game again.
Walt Disney
The Disney name is ubiquitous nowadays, but the company that is now on its way to becoming the first media megacorporation began with one man. Walt Disney began as an animator for an advertising company, working on animated shorts in a mouse-infested garage in his spare time.
His creativity and dedication to his craft allowed him to handle multiple rejections before finally founding the Disney company with the release of Steamboat Willie in 1928.
Sam Walton
You might not be familiar with his name, but you’ve definitely heard of the company that this man helped create — Walmart. Walton was a master of logistics, allowing him to deliver goods to stores faster and lower his cost margins through inventory systems and lower shipping.
The savings that he was creating didn’t just roll into his pocket, however. Walton transformed them into savings for the customer.