Real-life Success Stories

Now, I like to share with you some real-life stories of ordinary people who tapped on other people’s business or simple ideas they have and turn them into money-spinning businesses :

McDonalds Restaurant

I’m sure everybody knows about the McDonalds fast food restaurant. Do you know the history behind it ? Here goes – the present chairman, Ray Kroc, was not the creator of the famous McDonalds restaurant. The very first McDonalds restaurant was created by Dick and Mac McDonald in a very small shop in California. The McDonalds restaurant sold very high quality burgers at a very cheap price.

However, the McDonald brothers did not see the potential of the restaurant and it was bought over by Ray Kroc, who saw the potential of this business, for only $2.7million.

He franchised the business worldwide, and within a short period of 6 years, there were about 20,000 franchised outlets worldwide, earning Ray Kroc millions of dollars in royalties !

Microsoft DOS

Many of us thought that the very first Operating System, the Microsoft DOS (Disk Operating System), was created by Bill Gates (the founder of Microsoft). The truth is that Bill Gates did not create Microsoft DOS, but he purchased the Operating System called “QDOS” (what MS-DOS was based on) from Seattle Computer Products for a mere sum of $50,000. He then generated billions of dollars in revenue by licensing non-exclusive rights of the software to IBM and their clone manufacturers.

"Chicken Soup" Inspirational Books

The “Chicken Soup” inspirational books you see in bookshops are not written by Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen. The stories in those inspirational books were written by hundreds of contributing writers. What Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen did was to compile the stories into “Chicken Soup” books, and guess what ? It managed to fetch them over $160 million by publishing and selling these books worldwide !

Virgin Airways

Richard Branson found this business by chance when he was vacationing in Beef Island (part of Virgin Islands) with his wife. He and his wife were stranded in the airport when the local Puerto Rican flight got cancelled.

When caught up in situations like this, most people will either hang around the airport waiting for things to happen or lodge complaints with the authorities. Richard Branson, unlike most people, saw this problem as an opportunity.

What he did was that he made calls to aircraft charter companies and managed to charter a private plane for $2,000. He also borrowed a blackboard and wrote the following – “Virgin Airways $39 Single Flight to Puerto Rico”, offering flights to other passengers who were also stranded at the airport. He managed to sell EVERY SINGLE seat within an hour, and even managed to make a profit from offering the flight ! Amazing isn’t it ?

When he got back, the thought about the comments of one happy passenger who said “Virgin Airways isn’t too bad – smarten up the service a little and you could be in business.”

This marked the birth of Virgin Airways and today, it is a global budget airline and one of the most profitable in the world !

I am PERFECTLY sure that if people like Ray Kroc, Bill Gates, Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen and Richard Branson can do it, SO CAN YOU ! If you are looking for a right time to start your own business, let me tell you something - NOW's the right time ! If you like to find out ways and means to make money on the Internet, please visit my blog at http://www.think-rich-grow-rich.com. I would like to warmly welcome you there.