{"id":276279,"date":"2015-06-26T07:07:55","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T21:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.easyweddings.com\/au\/pro-education\/10-inspirational-business-stories-things-get-tough\/"},"modified":"2015-06-26T07:07:55","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T21:07:55","slug":"10-inspirational-business-stories-things-get-tough","status":"publish","type":"au-pro-education","link":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/pro-education\/10-inspirational-business-stories-things-get-tough\/","title":{"rendered":"10 inspirational business stories – for when things get tough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"small<\/a><\/p>\n

If there’s one\u00a0instantly recognisable characteristic all business owners share, it’s\u00a0resilience. On their\u00a0tool belts, hanging right next to resilience and failure, you’ll find\u00a0optimism. Every now and again however, even the most enduring spirits need a little motivational boost. If\u00a0you’re having ‘one of those days’, here are 10 inspiring stories\u00a0of commitment, courage and hard-earned success to keep you pumping\u00a0those business pedals:<\/p>\n

1. Forever\u00a0Striving<\/h2>\n

When\u00a0Do Won Chang<\/a> moved from Korea to the USA in 1981\u00a0he\u00a0maintained three jobs to support himself and his wife, Jin Sook. The then janitor, petrol station attendant and coffee shop worker saved his pennies to\u00a0open a humble\u00a0clothing store in 1984. That clothing store grew into the multi-national retail giant today known as Forever 21<\/a>. With more than 600\u00a0stores<\/a>\u00a0in 2015 turning over approximately $4.4 billion\u00a0in annual sales, the couple have had to recruit the help of their two daughters Linda and Esther.<\/p>\n

\"business<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2. Girl power<\/h2>\n

In 1976 when environmental and human rights activist Anita Roddick opened her first shop in the UK with\u00a0around 25 beauty products, a pair of\u00a0nearby funeral parlours took issue with the name, The Body Shop<\/a>. Whether intentional or not,\u00a0Roddick then cemented her success by\u00a0suggesting to a local newspaper that she was a woman entrepreneur under siege<\/a>. This\u00a0resulted in increased exposure for the ethical brand, now\u00a0carried by over\u00a02,500 stores in over 60 markets worldwide<\/a>. In 2003, Roddick was\u00a0appointed a Dame of the British Empire for her service to retailing, the\u00a0environment and charitable endeavours, before dying of an acute\u00a0brain haemorrhage\u00a0in\u00a02007, leaving behind a legacy of ethical consumerism.<\/p>\n

\"business<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3. Opes, she did it again!<\/h2>\n

American talk show host Oprah Winfrey<\/a> rose from a culture of sexism and harassment in her first television job as an anchor (where she was ultimately fired), to become #5 on Forbes’ America’s Richest\u00a0Self-Made Women (2015)<\/a>\u00a0list and\u00a0#12 on their\u00a0Power Women (2015)<\/a>\u00a0list.\u00a0The\u00a061-year-old actress, director\/producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist endured an unenvious childhood in an\u00a0extremely poor and dangerous neighborhood<\/a>\u00a0to having donated hundreds of millions of dollars to educational initiatives like her school for girls in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\"business<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

4.\u00a0Success sucks<\/h2>\n

5,126 failed prototypes to show for\u00a015 years worth of savings\u00a0and you’d think\u00a0Sir James Dyson would have pulled the pin on his invention. Instead, he pulled the bag – and prototype number 5,127 went on to become\u00a0the best-selling bagless vacuum in the USA. According to Forbes<\/a>, Dyson<\/a> now employs\u00a0650 engineers and scientists<\/a>, and boasts\u00a0more than 560 patents. In an interview with Entrepreneur<\/a>, he said of success:\u00a0“You never learn from success, but you do learn from failure. (When I created the Dual Cyclone vacuum), I started out with a simple idea, and by the end, it got more audacious and interesting. I got to a place I never could have imagined because I learned what worked and didn’t work.”<\/p>\n

\"James<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5. Give up or GoPro<\/h2>\n

American businessman Nick Woodman wasn’t always a businessman; he was a B-grade university\u00a0student with a passion for surfing that saw his grades remain average, but it was his\u00a0commitment to overcome failure that saw him create the world’s most recognisable wearable camera, the GoPro<\/a>, on the back of two failed and unrecognisable online startups; EmpowerAll.com (an e-commerce site selling cheap electronics, and the online marketing business, FunBug).\u00a0After losing nearly\u00a0$4 million\u00a0investors’ dollars, Nick’s faith in his\u00a0entrepreneurial ability was shaken, but not stifled. As Hongkiat<\/a> tells, he picked himself up and went on a surf trip to clear his head; a move that ended up making him one of the youngest billionaires in the world.<\/p>\n

\"gopro<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

6. Mary ‘Can Do’ Ash<\/h2>\n

Frustrated from 25 years in sales<\/a> at Stanley Home Products\u00a0feeling overlooked for promotions awarded to male colleagues (that she had trained herself), Mary Kay Ash resigned and turned her efforts towards writing a book for\u00a0women in business. She soon realised what she was writing was in fact a business plan for herself, from which\u00a0Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc.<\/a> was born. When Ash died in 2001, the company boasted\u00a0total annual sales of over $200 million and more than 800,000 representatives in 37 countries, which has today grown to\u00a0an international sales force\u00a0of more than 3 million independent consultants\u00a0and a wholesale volume exceeding 3 billion.<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7.\u00a0Christopher Reeve<\/h2>\n

When the Superman actor became a quadriplegic in 1995 after after being thrown off a horse in an equestrian competition, Reeve suffered lifelong paralysis and lived out the remainder of his life\u00a0in a wheelchair, attached to\u00a0a ventilator. The America actor had a hard time coming to terms<\/a> with\u00a0this new life:\u00a0\u201cIn the morning, I need twenty minutes to cry. To wake up and make that shift, you know, and to just say, ‘This really sucks,’ to really allow yourself the feeling of loss. It still needs to be acknowledged.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>And then, he’d say, “And now…forward<\/a>!” And forward he went – on to do international public speaking; lobbying as a voice for\u00a0people affected by spinal injury. But he didn’t stop there – he raised funds for his charity, the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation<\/a>, co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Centre and\u00a0co-directed the\u00a0animated\u00a0sports comedy family film, Everyone’s Hero.<\/p>\n

\"Christopher<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

8. Cirque de Success<\/h2>\n

From modest\u00a0beginnings as a street performer playing the accordion, walking on stilts and eating fire, Canadian-born\u00a0Guy Lalibert\u00e9 became\u00a0dually\u00a0responsible for\u00a0the most renowned\u00a0circus troupe in the world today, Cirque du Soleil<\/a>. After accompanying\u00a0a talented team of performers to Los Angeles Arts Festival in 1987 on a one-way ticket<\/a>, the act was\u00a0ushered off to Las Vegas, where they began the Cirque legacy, now affording Lalibert\u00e9\u00a0a total net-worth of $2 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"business<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

9. Happy Vera After<\/h2>\n

American fashion icon Vera Wang\u00a0let\u00a0go of an\u00a0Olympic ice-skating dream in her late teens because she felt\u00a0she was “never going to get better<\/a>.” With younger skaters arriving on the scene, she was convinced she’d never\u00a0make the US team, so she quit. She went on to become a salesgirl at Yves Saint Laurent where she came to the attention of Vogue fashion director,\u00a0Frances Stein, who was instrumental in Wang later becoming an editor at Vogue. Realising she wasn’t in line for\u00a0editor-in-chief, Wang \u00a0reinvented herself at age 40 to become a wedding designer, taking\u00a0a single bridal boutique and turning Vera Wang<\/a>\u00a0into a bridal empire with a retail value exceeding\u00a0$1 billion.<\/p>\n

\"Vera<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

10. Hair today, billionaire tomorrow<\/h2>\n

From working his first job at 9 years of age selling Christmas cards and newspapers, to passing through foster homes before joining the ranks of an L.A.\u00a0gang (and later military), to\u00a0end up homeless at 22<\/a>, John Paul DeJoria has experienced\u00a0his share of struggle. With a janitor’s job and an insurance salesman position under his belt in adulthood, he landed an entry-level job at professional haircare\u00a0company, Redken<\/a>. He then went on to\u00a0turn a\u00a0$700 loan into\u00a0Paul Mitchell Systems<\/a>, with the help of companion Paul Mitchell, in 1980. His door-to-door hawking (while living out of his car) paid off, and Paul Mitchell Systems\u00a0$900 million annual turnover<\/a> is testament to the quality of the products, sold to\u00a0more than 150,000 beauty salons in 87 countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"business<\/a>
Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

See what a partnership with Easy Weddings<\/a> can do for your business!<\/h3>\n\n
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Interested in the state of the Australian Wedding Industry right now? Download our FREE Wedding Industry Report.<\/h2>\nGet Wedding Industry Report<\/span><\/a>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":268949,"template":"","au_pro_edu_tags":[],"class_list":["post-276279","au-pro-education","type-au-pro-education","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","au_pro_edu_categories-share-worthy-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-pro-education\/276279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-pro-education"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/au-pro-education"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"au_pro_edu_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au_pro_edu_tags?post=276279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}