Mark Zuckeberg (Facebook), Steve Case (AOL),
Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), and Pierre
Omidyar (Ebay) and a host of other internet entrepreneurs became wealthy working
online. Just what were the secrets of their success and what can you learn from
their strategies to reap wealth on the
internet too?
Principally they used the following seven categories:
1. They recognized
a trend and seized it
2. They started
from the bottom up
3. They worked without
salaries
4. They were
innovative
5. They gave
themselves a strong mission
6. They offered
free services to all
7.
They reinvested their income
in their businesses.
Now, let’s look at the strategies one by one:
They recognized a trend and seized
it
The internet millionaires and billionaires did not just become rich. They
were prepared for it. This preparedness enabled them to seize the opportunity
when it came their way.
At the time these guys started their businesses, the internet was just a
fad. Recognizing its potential, they set about harnessing its potential and their foresight paid
big.
If you want to make money on the internet too, you must be on the lookout
for the trends; then accept the change and use it to advantage. This is what
sets successful entrepreneurs and their average counterparts apart.
But know that there are no shortcuts to business success. What are needed
are hard work and the right positioning which will enable you to keep your
options open. In this way if opportunity knocks, you can see it and grab
it.
They started from the bottom
up
We all know that wealthy internet entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Larry Page
did not start rich neither did they make it overnight. They started small, from
the bottom and worked their way up. You are permitted to dream big but if you
don’t have the means and you don’t start where you are, you are never going to
get where you want.
Is it again necessary to repeat that Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Jerry
Yang, David Filo, Sergey Brin, etc. started their internet businesses from the
dorms of their schools? Did you know that Jeff Bezos even started Amazon from
his garage?
Now, is it the idea which worked for them? No, says Mark Cuban. According
to him if it were the ideas everyone would become rich. Why? Everyone has
ideas. What is it then? The homework which enables to know if the idea would
work in a particular industry, then preparing oneself to work the idea into
reality.
The lesson here is that when these internet
millionaires and billionaires got the idea, they did not wait for a big
investor before putting them into practice. They started with their meager means
and kept going until the idea brought fame and fortune.
Are you prepared to do the same if you had an idea? Of course you must, if
you want to be like these guys one day.
They worked without salaries
Another quality to learn and practice is the ability to sacrifice. Mark
Zuckerberg made it clear that he and his colleagues did not work for the money.
What was important to them was that they had created an information flow for
people.
You too must be prepared to work for free for your idea in the startup stages
of your internet business. Like those millionaires and billionaires, don’t
worry at all if you are not paid a dime. Like them, concentrate solely on developing
your business idea and keep on sacrificing for it. Success will surely come one
day. Why? Because you would not be killing softly the hen that will lay the
golden eggs.
They were innovative
Innovation is key to success in any business, maybe even more so in
internet entrepreneurship. We said above that the internet millionaires and
billionaires were well positioned to seize the opportunities which came their
ways. Dos this mean that they were pioneers in their niche?
No. Many of them were even latecomers but the difference was that they
brought innovation into the sector. Larry Page once made it clear that
they were targeting innovation and had the belief that mobile applications were
essential.
He was right.
Before Google and
Yahoo there was the ask.com search engine. Other small independent online bookstores
existed before Jeff Bezos created Amazon and positioned it as the world largest bookstore. Facebook wasn’t the
first social networking site either; MySpace was already an established social
site. But Mark Zuckerberg hitched up
Facebook. Thanks to the innovative spirit of these internet entrepreneurs, you
know the rest of the stories.
So you don’t necessarily have to be the first in your industry to make it
big. You don’t have to reinvent the
wheel either. The most important requirement for success on the internet is
that you bring innovation (improvement) to bear on an existing idea
and success will follow.
They gave themselves a strong mission
Mark Zuckerberg really made this clear when he said that what he really
cared about was the mission to make the world open.
The internet millionaire and billionaire entrepreneurs mentioned above and
the others believed that they had a mission to fulfill with their internet
businesses. Not just any mission but the one which would enable them to change
people’s destinies.
If you want to give yourself such a mission too, then at the beginning of
your internet business you must ask yourself why you want to start the
business. Then never lose that focus as the business grows.
Is your answer similar to Jeff Bezos’ who claimed that the most important goal for him was to focus
obsessively on the customer, to be the world’s most customer-centric company?
This can make the difference between success and failure. This is because a business
mission helps maintain focus, keeping the entrepreneur right on course.
The business mission must also be strong. That will help you sustain
success when it comes. Maybe this is what made the difference between MySpace and
Facebook as this latter’s stronger mission became the driving force which made
it eclipse the former. The same is true for Google’s phenomenal success.
According to Larry Page their mission was to organize the world’s information and make it useful and accessible anywhere
on the planet.
They offered free services to
all
How much did you pay to use Google search or to have a Yahoo, Google or Facebook
account? Nothing.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook enabled family and friends maintain vital
contact for free. Google furnished vital information for free; Craiglist is
also a free resource. As people love free services, no doubt they flocked these
sites and the internet service providers became richer and richer. Didn’t Rich
Dad say that if you want to be rich,
simply serve more people?
So if you want to be successful on the internet too, offer a valuable
service to people for free or at least at an affordable fee.
They reinvested their income in
their business
The seventh secret to the success of the internet billionaire was that they
reinvested what they earned in their businesses. Jeff Bezos for instance didn’t pay a dividend for five years;
Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked hard without any gratification. Reinvesting
their profits, time and resources these internet guys stayed committed and expanded their business via strategic acquisitions.
No doubt they became millionaires and billionaires.
If you too want to get where they are now, re-investing in your business would
be critical for business growth and expansion.
Now that you know the seven secrets
to the success of the internet millionaires and billionaires, why don’t you
make them your roadmap to success?
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