by Siimon
26. May 2010 11:20
Every day we are hit with articles about people who have built huge businesses almost instantly.
Facebook. Red Bull. Amazon. Google. The entrepreneur is the new rock star.
The examples seem so plentiful they give the impression that these rags to riches scenarios are the norm.
The stats, however, show they are anything but.
Almost every great business started slowly.
Walmart had only 2 stores for its first 7 years. Now it's the third biggest company in the world.
Marriott has thousands of hotels worldwide. But it started with just one root beer stand.
Merck is valued at over $50 billion. But it struggled initially with just a single small pharmacy.
Starbucks has over 16,000 stores, but for the first 13 years it only had 5.
Nike took years before it exceeded $1m in revenue.
So please remember this as you try to build something great.
If you're doing it slow and tough, you just may be doing it right.
Keep persisting. Keep refining. Keep visioning. But most of all keep moving forward.
For almost everyone, the road to greatness is long.
Despite what the media may say.