5 entrepreneurs who failed first but succeeded later
Turning a small idea in to a large success is not possible for everyone. Downfall can knock on the door for any person. Often, businesses fail due to one or more reasons.
Great businessmen like Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, and many more have suffered from pain of failure in their first attempts.
But if they stopped, then we would have not enjoyed our childhood with Disney Cartoons. Or we’ll probably still be sitting without light and a fan.
They failed, but they stood up again. And the next time, they succeeded beyond all expectations and became famous.
Shiksha presents a list five entrepreneurs who failed the first but succeeded later:
Source: Wikipediacommons; Picture courtesy: Remy Steinegger
1. Sunil Bharti Mittal
After failing in two business ventures, Sunil Mittal witnessed success with Bharti Enterprises. Bharti Airtel is the group’s flagship company.
Mittal first started a business of crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers at the age of 18. Soon, he launched two more factories. But earnings were not up to expectations. So, he sold his business and moved to Mumbai.
Thereafter, Mittal started Bharti Overseas Trading Company in 1980. The company import generators from Japan and did fairly well.
But in 1983, the company was closed because of licensing issues (It was not given license to import material). Mittal went out of business overnight.
Not bowing down to problems, Mittal started a telecom services firm, licensed by the government. Soon Airtel became household telecom brand.
2. NR Narayana Murthy
Source: Wikipediacommons; Picture courtesy: Vee Pee
Now synonymous with IT revolution in India, Narayana Murthy was not always a well-known name.
The founder of Infosys, started his career as chief systems programmer at IIM Ahmedabad. He left the job and started his company named Softronics. The company failed after a year and half. So he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune.
Later with mere a capital of Rs 10000, the father of Indian IT sector started Infosys. And the rest is history.
Murthy saw failure early in his life. But imagine what would have been the condition of the Indian IT market if there would have been no Murthy and no Infosys?
3. Mark Zuckerberg
Founder of world’s favorite social website, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is now world’s youngest billionaire. But Zuckerberg was never a billionaire by birth. His creativity, passion and ability to do something took him to the path of success.
Choosing to develop social networking over a prized computer course from Harvard, Zuckerberg invented Facebook.
It’s not that he succeeded in his maiden attempt.
While studying at Harvard, Zuckerberg created Facemash, HarvardConnection.com and a website for art history (for his college friends). All the three websites failed. They either failed or became a failure due to privacy issues.
Later, Zuckerberg modified and combined all those three ideas and created Facebook. And since then, Facebook is only witnessing growth (except for the 20102 downfall Facebook’s shares). Zuckerberg has faced difficult times with determination to win. And he won.
4. Jack Dorsey
Thanks to Jack Dorsey, tweeting has now become a part of our daily life. But Twitter was not his first idea. The idea developed after he was thrown out of a microblogging site (where he was the CEO) for poor management.
Twitter was born when Dorsey was trying to think on how to improve a startup. Not only Twitter, he also created Square – a US mobile payment chip service.
Managing time between Twitter and Square, Dorsey has now moved on from his past.
5. Colonel Sanders
Earning post-retirement can be quite difficult. Not many think about building a brand after 65. But this notion was changed by Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).
After running a restaurant for several years, Sanders retired at the age of 65. He was penniless at that time. And then he created a cool new chicken recipe. But it was not easy to sell this recipe to a restaurant. Most of them ended on a handshake agreement to sell his chicken.
Before finding a place of his choice, Sanders had to face 1009 rejections. He finally started selling on the roadside. Within a span of a decade, Sanders was ranked as the world’s second most recognisable celebrity. Thank God, Sanders did not lose his hope. Otherwise, where would we get KFC’s jaw dropping chicken?
