With the new year just behind us and as we prepare the year end financials, our fellow business owners will be reviewing how their business did this past year and reflecting on new goals for 2024. It always starts with what you want to achieve in life and in business.
Here are three inspiring examples of those who managed to make it from humble beginnings and what we can all learn from them.
Jan Koum Koum was born into poverty in a tiny village in Ukraine. After migrating to America with his family as a teenager, Koum became fascinated with computers and eventually began working for Yahoo! In 2009, he had the foresight to predict the future success of the embryonic mobile app industry, so he founded WhatsApp. By 2014, he’d sold it to Facebook for $19 billion. Koum’s story shows that intelligent forward planning can be the key to reaching your goals.
John Paul DeJoria DeJoria began his working life moving from low-paid job to low-paid job, from shifts as a janitor to delivering newspapers. Befriending Paul Mitchell while working in hair care, the pair took out a small loan of $700 and founded John Paul Mitchell Systems, today a global conglomerate. Since then, he has helped to found Patron Sports and is worth over $3.1 billion, proving that strong drive and good friendships can take you farther than you think.
Kevin Plank Plank was on the edge of going broke when he decided to put his life savings together with a $40,000 advance on a credit card to fund a company selling clothing under his brand, Under Armor. After making a $17,000 sale to Georgia Tech University, sales to 24 NFL teams followed, and in a few short years, it turned into a multimillion dollar company. Today the company is worth billions. Plank’s journey shows the power of investing in yourself!