> After all... if you were to truly model
> Dorris, you would do what she did at the
> core... use her existing skills and jump
> into a business which matched those skills.

Let me repeat something from the above...

use existing skills and jump into a business which matched those skills

Now lets apply that simple concept to some well known people who would appear to have succeeded by some element of luck...

We've already covered Dorris but lets do it again anyway...

Skills/Resources: Teaching skills. Kitchen gadget skills. Supportive husband.
Business: Begins business to teach others how to use kitchen gadgets while selling them those gadgets at the same time.

Cheescake Woman...

Skills/Resources: Cheesecake recipe and ability to make it. Supported by govt. Newsworthy story.
Business: Selling cheesecakes and growth by free press of story.

Bill Gates...

Skills/Resources: Operating system. Mother knows IBM head.
Business: Selling Operating System to IBM.

Poppy King (now an unknown and bankrupt)...

Skills/Resources: Parents with contacts in the cosmetic and major retail industries. Funds from parents. Parents business skills. Lipstick idea.
Business: Sells lipstick into major retail stores.

Lindsey Fox (LinFox trucking company)...

Skills/Resources: Truck driving life style from birth. Period in time where companies bought/owned their own trucks.
Business: Independent truck drive until client needed job done which required two trucks. Later, other client desired to sell fleet and outsource.

Aristotle Onassis...

Skills/Resources: Father owned a tabacco company.
Business: Importing tobacco.

Joe Blogs (can't recall his name)...

Skills/Resources: Naturally good at art. Years spent living in beautiful mountain area and taking weekend motorbike rides to other beautiful nature regions. Supported while recoverng from motorbike accident.
Business: Painting and selling paintings of beautiful mountain and nature scenes for $15,000 per piece and up.

Warren Buffett...

Skills/Resources: Paid to learn about stockmarket investing (job). Relevent contacts due to "job". Boss was stockmarket mentor.
Business: Stock market investor.

Calvin Klien...

Skills Resources: Business partner with funds and fashion industry knowledge.
Business: Fashion.

Dean Koontz...

Skills/Resources: Naturally gifted writer. Supported by wife. Industry contacts from previously submitted works.
Business: Author.

Bill Blogs (another name I cannot recall)...

Skills Resources: Tractor companies due to job working in one. Spare parts knowledge gained as tractors needed fixing.
Business: Selling tractor parts to private individuals and companies similar to the one he worked in.

And so on and so forth...

Individually, each person's success can appear to be due to luck. They just happened to have a certain skill set at a certain point in time.

And we might look upon such people and ask "Can their success be duplicated?" Or, "Could I do what they did?"

Often, the answer to that question is NO. You could not duplicate their success and do what they have done. And certainly not within a shorter period of time.

We could say... I could be super wealthy if my mom knew the head of IBM, just like Bill Gates. Or, I could have a successful kitchen gadget business if I had skills with teaching, gadgets and someone to support me.

But think about this...

could the gadget lady think the same thing about Bill Gates? And couldn't Bill Gates also think the same thing about the gadget lady? (Not would he... could he.)

When you think about it this way... Bill Gates would not be able to duplicate what the gadget lady did, she wouldn't be able to duplicate what he did, and none of the people used as examples above would be able to duplicate what the others did.

And the reason is because each person used the available skills/resources they had to start their chosen businesses.

So while they may appear to be "lucky" from a certain point of view... from another point of view all they did was use what they already had to the best of their advantage.

Does that mean you can only be successful by using what you currently have right now this moment?

Good heavens no. There was a point in time when Bill Gates did not have an operating system to sell. At that point... his mother's "relationship" with IBM had no immediate value to him.

Sometimes... the element you need is yet to appear, for some reason. And while it takes its time to arrive you can always learn new skills and acquire new resources.

You may have a certain set of skills and resources. And to start a business all you need is one more resource... or idea... that magically puts all the pieces of the puzzle in to place for you. And that idea might simply point something out to you that you had never thought about before.

And sometimes an idea may lead us to acquire a new set of skills/resources we otherwise wouldn't have had. And if those new skills/resources are then used in a business, others will look on and once again see that the person seemed to already possess those skills before starting the business.

Of course, there are also businesses which can be started by anyone without needing to spend years acquiring new skills, or without needing previously established contacts. And those kinds of ideas are what we try to cover in The Great Ideas Letter - ideas anyone can start.

Michael Ross


Discover The Great Ideas Letter