Do you aspire to be an entrepreneur? Throughout our career life, most of us have an idea that came across but have no idea where to start. Maybe we are comfortable with our current job, maybe we are not confident whether our ideas may work or not which stops us from starting our own business.
Recently, I borrowed a few books from Singapore National Library which is about startups and entrepreneurship. One of the book “How They Started (How 25 Good Ideas Became Great Companies)” contains case studies of great companies today such as Blackberry, Chipotle Grill, Coca-Cola, Disney, Dropbox, eBay, Electronic Arts, Etsy, Gatorade, Google, Groupon, IBM, Jamba Juice, KFC, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Pinkberry, Spanx, Trip Advisor, Twitter, Wholefoods, Zipcar, Zynga.
All the companies above started from an idea and how their founder turn them into great companies that are worth millions and billions.
There are a few pointers I learnt from the book.
- During initial startup, what problems did the founders of the companies run into?
- How did they overcome them?
- How they find their first customers?
- Ideas may not work the first time but with persistence, you will succeed.
- You will not get rich instantly. The starting journey is tough and most entrepreneurs take a pay cut.
An good read and I give the book an average rating 3 out of 5 stars.
