Breaking down the Simple Recipe on How to Be Successful
Growing up, we are commonly asked one question: what do you want to be when you are older? We all have high hopes and dreams, whether it is to be something cool like a policeman or a firefighter, or in recent years, the owner of your own company, a startup.
To be blunt, it is nowhere near as easy as it sounds, but it is not impossible. The trick to being able to do anything in life is hard work.
I recently attended a startup pitch competition hosted by StartUp Toronto (now known as TorontoStarts). In the event, 5 different startup companies pitched their product ideas to a panel of judges and a group of event attendees. While listening to these presentations and the struggles that the companies went through, one theme was constantly floating through my mind. These people have worked through many ups and downs to be able to do what they are doing right now. After seeing and hearing so many real examples in front of me, it became apparent to me that the path wasn’t as straight cut as I thought it was.
To get a better grasp on this concept, I interviewed one of the presenters, Zain Manji, co-founder of Fiix. During our conversation, he told me how difficult it is to run a company. When I asked him what the biggest threat to his company was (if any), he told me it is running out of cash. He said, “A lot of companies don’t focus on the economics and don’t get the retention that they need. The biggest threat to us is not being diligent and discipline with our economics and us not measuring our stats…”. While presenting, he told the audience about a time when their company almost went bankrupt. A customer stiffed them out of a $7,000 payment, and at the time they were low on funding. Nevertheless, they were resilient and able to put the past behind them. They received a $10,000 loan from a friend and built up from there. This went to the point where they appeared on Dragon’s Den and closed a huge deal, their company valuation at the time was $10 million.
It was their hard work and perseverance that helped make Fiix a multi million-dollar company.
The lesson I learned in the interview resonated with me and inspired me to push myself. After so many years of telling myself that I want to create an online game, I actually spent the next few weeks working harder than ever before. I created a game called Wall Runner, and all though it is in its basic stages, it was a huge accomplishment for me.
Key Takeaways
It all comes to show that we can dream big, be whomever we want to be and do whatever we want to do. In order to make it all possible, we only need to do one simple thing and that is work hard.
“The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow. Don’t give up.”
-Robert Tew
