Whenever the idea of starting a business pops up, people shiver and tend to back out owing to the paucity of funds. However, what if we tell you that biggies like Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Bob Evans walked that path already, they took a leap of faith. Actually, a giant leap of faith.
These tech moguls kickstarted from grass root level, and today their success knows no bounds. What’s more interesting and a common factor among all of them is that they have remained active contributors to the ecosystem.
During the times of lockdown, we can only learn to know about their lives, and keep the mojo going high…
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
Most of us are acquainted with the exploits of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, starting Apple Computer in a garage. The duo earned immense recognition among people, and were often called the Lennon-McCartney (Beatles) combination. Both the Steves were college dropouts, and had begun to develop consumer computer devices in Jobs’ parent garage in California. They had become successful initially, and they knew they would need more financing. Thus, Jobs had to look for a co-signer, in order to get a bank loan for $250,000.
Bob Evans
A popular chain of restaurants, Bob Evans Restaurants is a pretty established one in the US. You would be amazed to know that Bob Evans had started out with a 12-stool diner and a small firm. It was in this firm that he produced his own sausage since he failed to find good quality sausage anywhere else. As his demand intensified, he started branching out the business to include multiple sausage plants and restaurants.
Michael Dell
Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computers had started Dell in 1984, while attending the University of Texas, Austin. Dell had worked hard to build the company out of his off-campus dorm, and had dropped out eventually to focus on building Dell full time. The first investment that went into Dell was $1,000, from Michael’s family.
Bill Gates
Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and his business partner Paul Allen, with a smaller software rollout. Both of them had a simple idea which was to create a basic interpreter program for the Altair 8800 Microcomputer. Although the program that was designed worked only on a stimulator of the Altair, but people were highly impressed. The rest, as they say, is history.
Jan Koum
During the time when Facebook purchased popular messaging platform WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion in February 2014, it was seen as a great development in the tech space. Not much is known about WhatsApp founder Jan Koum though. He was born in a small village in the outskirts of Ukraine, where his father was a labourer and his mother a homemaker.
When he was 16, his family migrated to the States, where he worked as a sweeper in one of the grocery stores. He used to be pretty much interested in computers, when he purchased an iPhone and realised what disruptions an app like WhatsApp could make. There was no looking back since then.
The Takeaway?
As mentioned earlier, entrepreneurship is a mindset, and every entrepreneur belives in taking a deep plunge into the ocean of entrepreneurship. If, its the funds factor, that’s bothering you, we suggest that you take a relook at our great leaders’ journey and you would be good to go.