Christopher Jan Benitez — April 23, 2018 — April 23, 2018
geralt / Pixabay
As crazy as it sounds, accidental entrepreneurs initially didn’t dream of becoming entrepreneurs. Because they followed their passion, they were able to earn lots of money from it. Nothing was premeditated – success just happened.
Accidental entrepreneurs may seem like thorns on the side of entrepreneurs who are dragging their business out of the gutter and into respectability. Far from it, in fact – accidental entrepreneurs are testaments to the fact of having an excellent product or service that lots of people love. Even if you don’t dream of becoming an entrepreneur, your passion and commitment to helping out people will eventually lead you in that direction.
Below are accidental entrepreneurs that you need to take cues from if you want to jumpstart your business and achieve greater heights with it.
Melissa Kieling
Melissa founded PackIt in 2009 after her son didn’t want to take blueberries to school because they would be warm and mushy come lunchtime. As a stay-at-home mom and was trying to make ends meet, she took it upon herself to find better ways to keep products cool for a long time. She looked into gel cooling technology and patched up her shower curtains which would become the first prototype of PackIt. After two years of developing her product, PackIt has been available in most major retailers including Target, which just rejected them a year ago.
What’s amazing about Melissa is that she succeeded by process of trial and error. She didn’t go to college and had no marketing experience, but that didn’t deter her from finding success with PackIt.
Jessica Alba
Already a household name as a Hollywood actress, Jessica Alba found her true calling as one of the co-founders of The Honest Company. She couldn’t find non-toxic bath products for her child so made one for her own. She wanted to share her creation with the world, but some people advised her from going up against a saturated and top-heavy market. However, she persevered by refining her business plan and market research before pitching the idea to serial entrepreneur Brian Lee, who also became the co-founder of the company. As of 2015, The Honest Company has over 250 employees and is generating $ 150 million in revenue.
Aaron Leupp
As a club promoter, Aaron’s business was to reach out to as many people to help fill out venues. The key to his success was by building a network of social media influencers and on-street promoters to help spread his message.
His tenure as promoter came when Uber launched their referral program. Aaron successfully referred lots of people to the ride-sharing platform by tapping into his network of promoters. Aaron asked Uber to convert ride credits into cash instead, to which the company obliged. After generating money from hundreds of referrals he made with Uber, he transitioned from creating a marketing agency through his site. It’s inspiring to see that being a club promoter can lead to more significant and profitable avenues in life by putting your skills developed from your previous job to good use.
Jane Lu
It’s never enough to be complacent in life, as Jane Lu’s story would suggest. She quit her cushy job as an analyst for international consulting firm Ernst and Young after a spontaneous multi-month trip to see the world. After coming back from her vacation, she wanted more than just working in a cubicle all her life.
Her first venture as an entrepreneur was a failure within weeks of launching it, which left her with AUD 60,000 in debt. Without anything to fall back on, there was nothing for her to do but keep moving forward. She tried her hands on entrepreneurship again by launching online clothing shop Showpo. Using her initial failures as lessons for her new venture, Jane taught herself how to do HTML and hired a consignment dealer for her inventory. More importantly, she leveraged Facebook to promote and drive interest in her business.
The result is an online business that now costs $ 30 million, speaking engagements to inspire people in Australia’s startup scene, and accolades that were beyond her imagination even before starting out.
Success is not an accident
Let’s face it – through smart work and perseverance, everything it possible. It’s not an accident that the people featured above are successful entrepreneurs. It may look like their newfound glory is an accident, but make no mistake about it – they deserve all the money and praises they are getting. Therefore, if you want to succeed, you need to strive and work hard for it like the people above have.
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