“If you risk nothing, you risk everything!” – Geena Davis
Almost all successful people will tell you that at some point in their life, they thought that they were going to fail miserably. Not because they didn’t have enough confidence in themselves, but because they had risked everything! Sometimes, not really knowing whether it’s going to be worth it or not. Well, it surely was in the case of these 10 visionaries who ended up changing the world:
1. Dhirubhai Ambani decided to give up a promising life in Yemen and move back to India to set up Reliance.
Little did he know he was embarking on a journey which would change the face of India and the world!
2. Walt Disney continued to work even after his first studio, Laugh-O-Gram, went bankrupt in 1923.
But like the quintessential entertainer and entrepreneur he was, he kept at it and eventually debuted a new character named Mickey Mouse in 1928.
3. Edmund Hilary & Tenzing Norgay risked their lives to inspire the entire world with wanderlust.
Their extraordinary feat of scaling the Mount Everest in 1953 was literally the start of a string of expeditions by other climbers!
4. Bill Gates took a huge risk, starting Microsoft based on his vision that computers would be a useful tool in every office and home.
He was prepared to travel in the wilderness of the unknown and would do anything to win! He even went up against Steve Jobs and was not threatened to copy or borrow ideas from other great tech companies.
5. During the early years of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg took the risk of turning down offers from numerous venture capitalists.
Only to later accept the offer from Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal. And the rest, as they say, is history.
6. Steve Jobs had literally risked everything to launch the original Macintosh in 1984.
From redesigning the hardware three times to making a switch to disk drives at the last moment, everything had created doubts about the product and about Job’s reputation as well.
7. Henry Ford had slashed prices so steeply for the Model T that he risked going bankrupt!
In order to keep up with the demand, Ford had to take it to the next level with a do or die attitude. He even cut down the working hours and increased minimum wages for his workers so that they could work for a longer period of time before quitting.
8. Even when Tesla & SpaceX were not doing well, Elon Musk continued to fund both the companies.
At present, both Tesla & SpaceX are pushing the boundaries in their relative fields and Elon Musks’ net worth is $13 billion and growing!
9. Jeff Bezos credits his success to all the risks he has taken throughout his career.
He started his first company from a garage in 1995 and by 1998 he was in charge of a $22.1 billion market presence.
10. John D. Rockefeller bought thousands of acres of forests to block his competitors from running their own pipelines.
This calculated risk gave him the edge as he bought all his competitors in just a matter of months, created a near monopoly for himself and unknowingly ended up playing a pivotal role in the US Industrial Revolution.
Clearly, the bigger the risk, the bigger is the reward! But let’s face it, with all those what-ifs clouding your mind, you can’t really enjoy taking one, can you? Unless you’ve insured yourself to outfox risk, which now with CoverFox , is just a click away.
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