Failure is the road towards Success ...
At the age of 17 I made my 1st $100,000 and became a top school icon for my business in events organizing and teens parties every Saturday. I even quit all my positions at the various school clubs I held - President of Computer Club, Interact Club Funding Director and ..... as it was more fun and more money coming my way every weekend then spending time at these clubs which do not profits me. Then after leaving school to college I make the business into a real business and soon I was operating 3 companies - an event company, a model and show agency + a chocolate business ( Ashburry Chocolates ). A holiday trip to Taiwan allowed me to see the karaoke craze there and soon I own a Karaoke bar in downtown too.
Business were good and I was a millionaire by the age of 19. I get to parties every night but my studies were definitely affected. Luckily life is not always good sailing as the storm set foot into my life just when I bought a brand new BMW with cash. My karaoke bar one night was found to be heavily in debt as my partner and manager had been stealing from the club buying in loads of stocks and selling it off at much lower price to fuel his losses on the stock market. He is no where to be found when people start knocking at the club door. Then the recession breaks in and my clients started defaulting on their payments and eventually closed door. I had little experience in managing such situation then and went into heavy debt.
Eventually losing everything including my new BMW.
This failure taught me a lot in the coming years of my life. Especially how to handle a deep fall and that business is never about winning at every game. I had come back up after my studies, paid back every penny of my debts and became a millionaire once again but only to lose it all once again. This time not a BMW but a 3 storey villa with 9 rooms.
Business is like playing poker.
There is no super poker player as even the top guys dont always win but they do win more than they lose. In business its the same ... as long as you win more than you lose eventually you'll become a top winner. The online games business is such certainly ! Not every game on Shanda portfolio is making money, the same goes for THE 9 which WOW used to contribute more than 90% of its revenues.
Learn from these failures and as long as we dont repeat the same mistakes we are setting a path towards success. Great start-up entrepreneurs such as Marc Andreessen, Steve Jobs, Mark Pincus, Mark Cuban and Evan Williams are “winners for all time” not because they don’t fail, but because they win more often than average players. Remember behind these guys have a forgotten story of loses and failures too which help set their path today.
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