Entrepreneurs

Starting From the Scratch to the Top as Young Leader and Entrepreneur

By Charles C. Sholokwu

Posted on August 21, 2017

Where do the Top Entrepreneurs start From?

Do you have all it takes to be an entrepreneur? I think you do. But find out for yourself. All top leaders and entrepreneurs started from somewhere, and that is from scratch. A lot of this entrepreneurs start with a great idea and dedication to make it work no matter what. This article is to show you how three top entrepreneurs started and the various competencies that help them scale through all odds and detours on their ways.

Steve Jobs, Apple

Steve Jobs garage where Apple Started. Photo credit: ideachampions.com

Steve Jobs started in his parents’ garage. The legendary founder built Apple into a billion dollar company, admired worldwide. The first Apple, computer of Steve Jobs and his companion Steve Wozniak, was built in his parent’s garage. A few years later, he opened an office in Cupertino, not far from the current post.

In 2017, Apple will launch a new headquarters, the mother ship. The office campus looks like a spaceship and offers space for over 13,000 employees from Apple. Of course, the new office called Apple Campus 2 is equipped with a theater room of over 120,000 m2 with 1000 seats and a gym of over 100,000 m2. Apple expects to complete the construction of all buildings by the end of this year. The full completion of the Apple Campus is scheduled for early 2017. If all the buildings are ready as planned, over 13,000 employees can enter the new 2.8 million m2 Apple Campus.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

What began as a joke in his second year at Harvard under the name ‘Facemash’ has become a worldwide-known social network. Zuckerberg launched the “thefacebook.com” site from his student room on the campus in February, 2004. The site was first limited to Harvard’s staff and students, but the site was such a hit that Zuckerberg and the others began to see that they might have something very great. Zuckerberg kept his study, moving to Silicon Valley, California.

As of the second quarter of 2017, according to Statista, Facebook had 2 billion monthly active users. In the third quarter of 2012, the number of active Facebook users had surpassed 1 billion, making it the first social network ever to do so. Reason enough for Zuckerberg to scale up to a 400,000 m2 office. With the opening of the office, Facebook immediately had a world record for the world’s largest open workplace to its name.

Larry Page & Sergey Brin, Google

Google started with two students Larry Page  23  and Sergey Brin 24, who were pursuing their Ph.D at Stanford University, when they got the  idea to create a new search engine. Google was founded in a garage. They rented a room while still living on Stanford’s campus, used the university’s servers to host their new search engine. The rented room belonged to Susan Wojcicki, who is now senior VP at Google. Before renting out the room, she was afraid that Larry and Sergey may not be able to pay the rent. In August 2004, Google’s headquarters moved to Mountain View, better known as the Googleplex.

What competencies should a starting entrepreneur have?

How enterprising are you? Everyone can start a business and become a leader, but what do you need to do well? Check that you have the skills to make your starting business successful:

1. See opportunities in your own setbacks.
2. The value of an idea lies in its use.
3. Do any job that needs doing.  Nothing is outside your job scope.
4. Always be willing to learn something new.
5. Push forward after people tell you ‘no’.
6. Be honesty not just to others but to yourself also.