Networking with Successful People
For many years, I hold the belief that people are the catalysts to their success. I believe this can be achieved through networking with successful people, accepting yourself, having positive thinking, and inventing a formula for happiness. My story begins on the hot July day of 2017 in the small town of Yorkville. As an 18-year-old international student from China, I decided to open a juice business, in my first year as a university freshman. Despite my interest in the juice business, I also developed an interest in joining the university music club. My idea was to start something that could engage me in raising my tuition fees since I come from a low-income family. Having spent two years in America for my high school studies, I dated a girlfriend who had great entrepreneurial skills. Interestingly, we joined the same university and she dedicated her free time to help me run the business. However, things got worse when I began utilizing my free time for music practice sessions. Moreover, I had to represent my school for a music competition in another school miles away living my girlfriend with the difficult task of managing the business on her own.
Learning from Successful People
At the end of the competition, I got into a battle to revive the business due to stiff competition. It is during this time that my girlfriend advised me to attend inspirational talks about successful people in the business. There, I learned that starting a business is a daunting task. Although many people start businesses, only a fraction succeed and I was no exception. After socializing with many successful people in the business, I realized that I failed because of many reasons: I implemented the same business model as others in the same industry and I did not give the business my time since I had developed other interest in music. In this sense, networking not only plays a vital role in success in today's life but also helps people to find solutions to the problems they face daily. Precisely, since it involves sharing information about certain important things, it aids in creating business awareness.
The Power of Acceptance
I realized my business was facing a challenge in adapting to change. As an entrepreneur, I was also supposed to adapt to the changing circumstance. As a way to revive the business, I explored the potential of acceptance, although I knew it was a powerful force to change. As part of the problem, it is evident that the word "acceptance" has different meanings to people. Many people believe that learning acceptance is accepting failure. This makes them resist change strenuously. Ironically, such people wrestle with the same problems for years without solutions. But, in my opinion, acceptance has nothing to do with failure.
Embracing Teamwork
On the contrary, I view it as a springboard for positive change. According to me, I had to reinvent the way I pursued the business if I was to transform it. In this regard, I allowed my girlfriend to run the business since I was also involved in a co-curriculum activity. A great idea is not enough, and I needed to embrace teamwork. I considered myself lucky to work with someone I can trust. Shortly after that, the business started doing well. It is clear to me that teamwork is vital in business. There is a variation of skills brought about by more people working together. Different individuals bring with them different skills of expertise. An institution that does not support teamwork lags behind and cannot compete in the world market. Hence, each person becomes a catalyst to the success of another as well as the organization since there is an existing relationship between an employee's growth and the company's growth.
Overcoming Challenges
No path is always smooth. There are ups and downs in every life situation, and my belief is no exception. As much as I have tried to discuss the importance of what I feel to be one of my greatest ideologies, there are some experiences I have faced that made me start to question my belief. When the business was on the verge of collapsing, I started questioning myself whether to give up or assign all duties to my girlfriend. But once we sat together as a team and came up with the best possible solution regarding the issue, everything went back to normal and business, as usual, continued to grow.
Among the possible problems that we came across in our discussion was; who was to be in charge of the business. Notably, competition is necessary and healthy in our lives. But, to my partner, this was too much, and it was almost destroying the business morale. At first, each one of us wanted to be seen as the head of the business. It started to spread distrust among us, as a result, made us not accomplish most of the tasks required in the business. We resolved it by allowing my partner to lead the business. Self-centeredness was another issue that came across. I started to care for myself at the expense of the company. It was a hard thing letting someone lead a business I started from scratch. Luckily, we decided to put aside our interests and focus on the goals and objectives of the business. Overall, one should be willing to associate with other people and embrace realities to be successful.
