The Big Free Book of Success

The Big Free
Book of Success
17 Inspiring Examples of People
Who Dared Mighty Things (and
Succeeded)
by Bill Murphy Jr.
copyright 2016 Bill Murphy Jr.

Free to redistribute for noncommercial usebut, please credit me and link
to: www.billmurphyjr.com.
Get the latest version of this ebook for free at www.billmurphyjr.com
Introduction
Before we dive in, just three quick things:
1. This book is free. Youre welcome to share
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please make sure you send the whole thing.
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might want to make sure you have the most
updated edition. How? By going to
billmurphyjr.com and checking out the free
downloads.
3. Got feedback? I welcome it. Send me a quick
note at contact.billmurphyjr.com.
2!
Table of Contents
1. 5 Years Ago He Hated His Dead-End
Job. Now He's a Billionaire
2. Mourn With Me the Greatest
Entrepreneur of All Time
3. How an 8th Grade Dropout Founded a
$5 Billion Company (the Origin Story of
Dunkin Donuts)
4. How to Make $1 Million in a Single
Year (Advice From 10 Successful People
Who've Actually Done It)
5. How to Be on Vacation Every Day for
the Rest of Your Life
6. 10 Things About 1995 That Kinda Put
Launching Amazon in Perspective
7. 17 Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs
Share Their Secrets for Success
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3!
8. Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren

Buffett All Had This Experience Long
Before They Were Successful
9. Facebook and Twitter Turned Him
Down. Now He's Worth $4 Billion
10. This Guy Makes More Money Playing
Video Games Than a Top Quarterback in
the NFL
11. How a Recovering Addict Who Hires
Ex-Convicts Made $63 Million Last Year
12. 17 Extraordinarily Candid
Observations From Shark Tank's Barbara
Corcoran
13. The Guy Who Did That Viral Shaving
Video Now Has a Company Worth $615
Million
14. 11 Inspiring People Who Followed
Their Passions and Found Amazing
Success
15. 7 Leadership Lessons From the SEALs
!
4!
Commander Who Got bin Laden

16. Be Humble When You're Changing
the World
17. Meet the Uber Driver Who Built a $2
Billion Company
5!
~1~
5 Years Ago He Hated
His Dead-End Job.
Now Hes a Billionaire.
Most people miss the most important part of
how Ryan Graves joined the 'three comma
club.'
A little over five years ago, Ryan Graves was
stuck in a dead-end job. Now he's a billionaire.
Here's how it happened--and how his story can
inspire you to make great changes in your life.
The old job.
It wasn't terrible, really--it wasn't as if he were
outside in the rain or carrying heaving objects
!
6!
all day, or toiling in a coal mine. Graves was

three years out of college, working as a
database administrator for GE Health Care,
probably making about $109,000 a year (if the
data at GlassDoor is accurate).
Still, it was "unglamorous" work, he later
recalled according to Daily Finance. "The
corporate career--20 years in the same
company--was not really my thing. I can't be
the GE guy."
The fortunate tweet.
If the name Ryan Graves sounds familiar, you
probably know the most famous part of his
story. In 2010, Travis Kalanick, who had just
co-founded a company called
7!
UberCab, tweeted that he was looking for

people join his team:
Looking 4 entrepreneurial product mgr/bizdev killer 4 a location based service.. prelaunch, BIG equity, big peeps involved-ANY TIPS??
-- travis kalanick (@travisk) January 6, 2010
Graves replied:
heres a tip. email me :)
graves.ryan[at]gmail.com
It worked. Graves joined Uber as its first nonfounder employee--in fact, as its first CEO,
although he's since stepped aside for Kalanick.
(He's now senior vice president of global
operations.) More important, perhaps, he's a
billionaire.
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8!
What happened in between.

Of course, there's more to the story. The short
version is that while still working at GE,
Graves decided in 2009 to apply for a job at
Foursquare. As Daily Finance explained:
He spent hours each week cold-calling bars
around his adopted home of Chicago,
explaining the benefits of Foursquare, showing
business owners how the app worked, and
encouraging them to sign up.
And he didn't even work for Foursquare.
That's the kicker: Foursquare didn't actually
hire him. It turned him down--and yet he
didn't let the rejection faze him.
Instead, as the story goes, he simply faked
working there, and signed up 30 businesses to
the company, and then "emailed that list of
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9!
new customers to people connected with

Foursquare, including investors."
It's not who you know...
Foursquare ultimately brought Graves
onboard officially. (According to Daily
Finance, he was hired outright, but on his
LinkedIn profile, Graves says he was a
business development intern at the company
from October 2009 to January 2010.)
10!
~2~
Mourn With Me the
Greatest Entrepreneur of
All Time
Rest in peace Gary Dahl, the man who convinced
Americans to pay $4 a piece for pet rocks.
The year was... well, we are informed only that
it was sometime in the "mid-'70s."
A man named Gary Dahl was spending a
heady night in a Northern California bar. The
drinkers' talk turned to pets, and Dahl, a
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11!
freelance copywriter ("that's another word for

broke," he later quipped) shared that he had
taken in the easiest, best pet of all time.
He had found a pet that didn't need to be fed,
never needed to be walked, never needed to be
cleaned up after: a rock.
With such a feat of "bibulous inspiration," as
the New York Times described it, Dahl, who
died recently at the age of 78, came up with
what would become an icon of the decade.
As Inc. put it in 1994:
The fad broke in October 1975 and was dead as
a stone the next February, giving Dahl an
Andy Warhol-like five months in the spotlight.
He had to give away tens of thousands of
unsold Pet Rocks.
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Yet, for a few months, for $3.95 (about $17.87

today), you could be the proud owner of a
"smooth Mexican beach stone," accompanied
by 36 pages of careful instructions, according
to the Times.
The genius was in the packaging. Each Pet
Rock came in a cardboard carrying case,
complete with air holes, tenderly nestled on a
bed of excelsior. Mr. Dahl's droll masterstroke
was his accompanying manual on the care,
feeding and house training of Pet Rocks.
"If, when you remove the rock from its box it
appears to be excited, place it on some old
newspapers," the manual read. "The rock will
know what the paper is for and will require no
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further instruction. It will remain on the paper

until you remove it."
Pet Rocks hit the marketplace in time for
Christmas 1975. They were soon featured
on The Tonight Show and in a blizzard of
newspaper articles. In a matter of months,
some 1.5 million rocks were sold.
Dahl became a millionaire almost overnight,
and although his star faded within months and
he wound up mired in litigation with his
investors, his entrepreneurial exploits weren't
quite finished. He later launched an "Original
Sand Breeding Kit," along with "Red China
Dirt," which was described as "a plan to
smuggle mainland China into the United, one
cubic centimeter at a time." He even wrote the
book, Advertising for Dummies.
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But he never achieved the same level of success

as he had with the Pet Rock.
As the Times summarized:
Though the rock made him wealthy, it also
made him wary, for he was besieged ever
after by hordes of would-be inventors,
seeking his advice on the next big thing.
"There's a bizarre lunatic fringe who feel I owe
them a living," Mr. Dahl told The Associated
Press in 1988. "Sometimes I look back and
wonder if my life wouldn't have been simpler
if I hadn't done it."
So, rest in peace Mr. Dahl. And for the rest of
us, think about this rock star entrepreneur of
rocks the next time you're wondering if you
have it in you to launch a business, to found a
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15!
new venture, and to pursue your dreams.

Perhaps you can't squeeze blood from a stone-but at least one man showed how to turn it into
money.
16!
~3~
How an 8th Grade
Dropout Founded a $5
Billion Company (the
Origin Story of Dunkin
Donuts)
If you grew up in New England (as I did), Im
willing to bet I know which coffee-shop chain
you prefer. In fact, its not even close.
Starbucks might be ubiquitous across the
United States, but Dunkin Donuts, which got
its start in 1950 at a store at 543 Southern
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17!
Artery in Quincy, Massachusetts (which has

some pretty good reviews on Yelp, by the
way), is the regional winner.
After acquisitions and expansions that turned
it into a true icon in parts of the country, the
publicly traded, 65-year-old company (now
officially called Dunkin Brands Group) has
11,000 units and a market capitalization north
of $5 billion. All of which makes the fact that
its founder never finished junior high school
all the more amazing.
Here are six fascinating things about Dunkin
Donuts and its founder, William Rosenberg,
that you probably didnt know.
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1. He was an 8th grade dropout.

Rosenberg was a child of the Depression.
When his fathers grocery store went out of
business, he left school to workshining shoes,
shoveling snow, and ultimately becoming a
full-time messenger for Western Union,
making $22 per week.
Some of his first entrepreneurial
exploits involved buying blocks of ice and
carrying them to a local racetrack, where hed
sell chips for 10 cents on hot days. Afterward,
he rose from delivery boy to national sales
manager at a company that sold ice cream
from refrigerated trucks.
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2. He built his own catering-truck business

from the ground up.
You know those mobile food trucks that are all
the rage? Right after World War II, Rosenberg
took $1,500 in profits hed made from buying
war bonds, borrowed an additional $3,500
from his family, and launched a company that
delivered food to workers at construction sites
and factories around Boston.
Because of postwar scarcity, he couldnt buy
enough trucks, so he created his own catering
vehicles, according to an article that ran in
the Los Angeles Times after his death in 2002,
with sides that rose to reveal sandwiches and
snacks stocked on stainless steel shelves, a
prototype for todays mobile catering vans.
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3. His restaurant wasnt called Dunkin

Donuts at first.
The shop was launched as Open Kettle, but
two years into its history, when it was selling
more coffee and donuts than anything else,
Rosenberg put his executives in a room with a
tape recorder and told them to brainstorm,
according to the Times article. He later
credited his architect with the trademark
Dunkin Donuts.
4. He was disarmingly self-deprecating.
Rosenberg often said he was too dumb to
make things complicated, but added that he
knew how to hire good people and was willing
to take their considered advice. As an example,
the Times said that when he wrote his
autobiography in 2001, he wanted to call
!
21!
it Worth the Trip after Dunkin Donuts 1970s

slogan. However, the publisher wanted to use
a more modern slogan as the basis for the
title, Time to Make the Donuts.
Call it whatever you want, Rosenberg
reportedly replied, if it will sell more copies.
5. He also revolutionized franchising.
Dunkin Donuts expanded pretty quickly with
six stores in five years, and Rosenberg started
to offer franchises in other cities, following the
example of restaurateur Howard Johnson. This
was a couple of years before giants like KFC
and McDonalds got into the franchise game,
when franchising was so disreputablethat it
was borderline illegal in some states, and no
company mentioning franchise could be
22!
advertised in the Wall Street Journal or the New

York Times, according to the Los Angeles Times.
About five years later, Rosenberg started the
International Franchise Association, which has
now grown to include more than 800
franchisors and over 30,000 franchisees.
6. He followed his Dunkin Donuts success
with something completely different.
In 1971, Rosenberg was diagnosed with cancer,
and he decided to step back from the company
in favor of his son. He moved to New
Hampshire, where he bought a farm and began
to raise standard-breed horses (the horses used
in harness racing). Despite having no
background in horses or farming, he was so
successful that he ultimately became the
largest breeder in New England.
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23!
Ultimately, he donated his farm to the

University of New Hampshire, and became
involved in philanthropy, primarily benefiting
hospitals.
24!
~4~
How to Make $1 Million
in a Single Year (Advice
From 10 Successful
People Who've Actually
Done It)
I haven't reached this milestone (yet), so I reached
out to people who have. Here's their advice.
A million dollars aint what it used to be, but
its still pretty good money--especially if were
25!
talking about annual income, as opposed to net

worth.
So, how do you get to that milestone? Since I
havent done it myself (yet), I reached out to a
group of people who actually have made at
least $1 million a year. (Hint: If you didnt
inherit a fortune, its all
about entrepreneurship.)
Heres their advice. (Got something to add? Let
me know.)
1. Love your customers.
Tim Nguyen, co-founder and CEO
of BeSmartee:
Everything you do should center on your
customers. Taking a vacation? Ask yourself
how that will affect your customers.
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26!
Thinking about revising your employee

incentive programs? Consider how that will
affect your customers. Dont worry about the
sale, and definitely dont focus on the money.
Focus on your customers.
2. Solidify your foundation.
Margot Micallef, founder and CEO
of Gabriellas Kitchen:
A good foundation [includes] a network of
investors or a strong relationship with a
banker or institutional lender. In any
situation where I have enjoyed significant
returns, it has been based on a foundation built
years earlier.
3. Focus on culture.
Steve Starr of StarrDesign:
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27!
If you get the culture right, the money will

come. After buying out my partner, our design
firm spent the past two years transforming our
approach, process, and firm personality. We
increased our gross revenue, while driving our
net revenue up by 15 percent to more than $2
million. In any business, its essential to
define and keep sight of what inspires your
team. Nearly every group begins with passion-and holding on to that passion is vital to
success.
4. Focus on product and metrics.
Simon Slade, CEO and co-founder
of Affilorama:
My best advice for joining the million-dollarearnings club is to create an awesome product
and then continue its growth. Pick a single,
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28!
straightforward metric, such as sales units or

revenue, and aim to beat yesterdays total
every day. This growth strategy is both
sustainable and manageable.
5. Understand other stakeholders fears.
Ted Leonhardt, career and negotiation expert:
Yes, I have made a million or more a year. I
did it by understanding the interpersonal
issues that drive all social groups, helping my
clients reduce their fear, [and] helping people
achieve their goals. My one piece of advice is to
truly understand the fear that accompanies
spending of large sums, and know how to
reduce that fear for your clients.
29!
6. Be persistent.
Ajay Prasad of GMR Transcription:
Succeeding in business will be harder, cost
more, and take longer than you planned. My
advice for success is persistence.
7. Hustle.
Heidi Burkhart, president of Dane Professional
Consulting Group:
At 21, I got into commercial real estate
brokerage in NYC My first three years I was
hustling, working 24/7, and surviving on
peanuts Fourth quarter of my third year, I
finally started closing deals. Ever since, my
income has consistently been in the six figures,
with many 12-month periods producing more
than $1 million. I credit all this, though, to
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the initial hustle that is now forever embedded

in my system.
8. Grow things organically.
Romy Taormina, Nausea Relief Chief at Psi
Bands:
There's no overnight success here. I have led
our company organically, and this has kept us
in business and allowed us to exceed the $1
million threshold. Case in point: The Psi Bands
team pitched our first retailer using a
prototype. We landed that account--400 Long's
Drugs stores--and garnered a coveted spot in
Oprah's O magazine as an "O Pick. The
associated credibility gave me a great sales
opener, and I was able to land more accounts.
31!
9. Build personal relationships.

Andrew Royce Bauer, CEO of Royce:
Royce is able to make more than $6 million a
year by maintaining personal relationships
with every single one of our customers. We are
a company built on human interaction with
our end user a small amount of really good
customers that we truly treat like family rather
than trying to be the business that serves
everyone.
10. Stay focused on the ultimate goal.
Zach Halmstad, co-founder and partner
of JAMF Software:
My best advice is to stay focused on where you
want to be, and not on what could go wrong
along the way. 99 percent of the things that
you worry about never happen. It's the things
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that you don't worry about that actually

happen. This has stuck with me.
33!
~5~
How to Be on Vacation
Every Day for the Rest of
Your Life (Really)
Yes, it's true that Americans take really halfassed vacations. Here's the unexpected upside.
Bear with me--I think I've figured this out. I
wish I'd done so years ago, but better late than
never. (Hint: It involves entrepreneurship.)
Recently, I asked hundreds of entrepreneurs,
CEOs, and other leaders for their best tips on
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34!
taking great vacations. The result, "17 Habits of

Highly Effective People Who Take Really
Amazing Vacations," seems to have struck a
nerve, since it's been shared more than 14,000
times.
A lot of the advice was about staying
productive while you're away--things like
finding a "vacation office," or coming home on
a Saturday to get ready for the workweek. I
wont rehash it all; you can go back and check
it out if you like. But honestly, writing the
whole thing made me a little bit depressed. Are
we really this horrible at relaxing?
Then, I heard from a reader named Karena de
Souza--and something she told me changed
my thinking entirely.
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35!
About a decade ago, de Souza and her

husband and their kids set off on journey
around the world--a trip that lasted a full year.
They weren't independently wealthy; they
pulled this off despite facing all of the same
kinds of challenges that most normal people
would face. I'll save all of the particulars for
another column. (Let me know if you'd like me
to write about it.)
More important for now was an insight. Since
Americans are almost never totally unplugged
and not working, even on vacation, that means,
ironically, that it's a lot easier than you might
think to be on an American-style vacation
almost every day of your life. Here's how:
36!
1. Find your happiness.

That this isn't just an academic exercise for me.
A few years ago, I almost chucked it all and
moved to the beach in Spain. I was divorced, I
had no kids, and I was running a
ghostwriting business that provided a nice
income and was 100 percent mobile. My plan
involved buying a condo in St. Pete Beach,
Florida (no state income tax), and renting a
former co-worker's apartment in a
Mediterranean town called Altea, about
midway between Barcelona and Gibraltar.
Then, I went to my college reunion, got back
together with a woman I'd dated in my early
20s--and was engaged within four months.
(Best decision I ever made.) It might have been
great to live on the beach in Spain for a while,
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37!
but I realized that wasn't truly what was going

to make me happy.
So, before you set out, take the lot of time to

evaluate your goals, and figure out what truly
makes you happy. Do you want to travel? To
go hiking and rock climbing every day? To be
able to participate in high culture and treat
yourself to world-class art? Be sure you can
answer: Where do you really want to go on this
journey? Your answers will affect everything
else.
2. Embrace your passions.
I don't just mean "follow your passions" no
matter what. That's horrible, horrible advice.
Instead, figure out what it is that you truly
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38!
love, and make this vacation lifestyle part of

your quest to find a way to make it possible.
I know this sounds a little philosophical at the
outset, but it's important. If what you're truly
passionate about is building software, for
example, or playing violin, or U.S. politics, that
clearly will affect where you decide to go and
what you decide to do.
For that matter, if you are a parent--or if you
really hope to have kids--of course you need to
keep their well-being in mind as well. It's not
impossible to pull this off, however; remember.
de Souza and her husband had three children
while they spent a year traveling.
3. Structure your income.
Now we get to the real grit of this exercise. I'm
assuming that you will need to earn money to
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39!
survive. However, even if you can land a job

wherever you decide to travel to, it sort of
defeats the purpose if you have to spend all of
your time working. So, you have to find a way
to become your own boss, and to do so with a
largely virtual business that requires, at the
absolute most, a 40-hour work week.
There's probably nobody who has done more
to explain how to do this than Tim Ferriss, in
his book (and blog) The Four Hour Work Week.
As of January of this year, he says
he's collected more than a thousand case
studies of people pulling it off. (He calls these
businesses "muses," by the way.)
I hope this doesn't sound like a compromise-keep in mind, it's the realization that most
Americans are working during their measly
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40!
two weeks (if they're lucky) of vacation a year

anyway that makes this possible. In my case, I
couldn't have even considered doing this were
it not for my business, ProGhostwriters.
4. Evaluate your expectations.
If your idea of a vacation requires lounging for
weeks at the Four Seasons Bora Bora, I'm not
sure we can really help you here. But if you can
manage your expectations--and your expenses-it's very possible to pull off.
This can mean traveling places during off-peak
times, staying in rooms and apartments you
find on Airbnb--or even couch surfing or
renting locally as opposed to hotels. Of course,
it also means learning to shop and eat like a
local, no matter whether you're spending time
in Phuket or Panama City Beach, Florida.
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Bottom line: The whole thing is much more

possible if you can live like a vacationer but
not spend like a tourist.
5. Establish routines.
I really wanted to write this column without
including phrases like "be reasonable," but the
truth is, to live a vacation-style lifestyle over
the long term, you really do need to be
reasonable. Part of that involves setting up
routines, and sticking to them.
Maybe you should even figure out the
"vacation office" thing that the company
president in my other article was talking about.
A perpetual vacation doesn't mean perpetual
debauchery and lack of structure. (Don't
worry--it will still be a heck of a lot more fun
than working like a drone.) Knowing that you
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42!
have to work for two or three hours every

morning on your "muse," for example, is part
of what will make the whole thing possible.
6. Maintain connectivity.
I mean this in three ways: First, it's about
making sure you maintain connections with
friends and family back home. Trust me, this is
important.
Next, it's about making sure you maintain and
increase connectivity with people who will
help you grow, both professionally and
personally. We all know older people who
retire, spend a few years maybe chasing a little
white ball all over a golf course, and then seem
to deteriorate quickly. You don't want to
follow their example.
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43!
Finally, it's about making sure you have

sufficient digital infrastructure. I once had a
guy who was living this sort of life working for
me. He was a great guy, but it was a nightmare
trying to do phone calls with him when he was
always on a crappy cell phone in some noisy
cafe.
44!
~6~
10 Things About 1995
That Kinda Put
Launching Amazon in
Perspective
The pet rock was still a somewhat recent
memory, and a webcam of a coffee pot was still
kind of a big deal.
Let's just admit it. Back in the mid-1990s, most
of us who were alive at the time hardly knew
what the Internet was. Oh, there were
exceptions, but for most Americans, it was
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45!
limited. Maybe we used email for work; maybe

we had pay-by-the-hour dial-up service with
AOL at home. Maybe we read in dead-tree
media about this weird network of computers
that would change our lives. It all still seemed
like the future. Heck, until September 1995,
you could still register domain names for free.
That's the environment in which Jeff
Bezos launched Amazon, 20 years ago, after
giving up a lucrative Wall Street job and
heading to Washington State. No matter what
you think of his company and how it changed
the world, it took a special kind of vision to be
able to see what the world would look like in
the future, back when most people were still
rooted in a 20th-century, analog mindset. Here
46!
are 10 observations about the mid-1990s that

will put it further in perspective.
1. On a timeline, Amazon's debut was closer
in time to the Pet Rock than it is to the
present day.
Yes, the mid-1990s seem like quite a while ago,
but I have to admit this little thought exercise
blew me away. The Pet Rock (whose inventor I
consider the greatest entrepreneur of all time)
made its debut in October 1975-in other words,
19 years and nine months before the launch of
Amazon, which is now 20 years old.
2. When you won an auction on eBay, you
had to mail a check.
Technically, eBay didn't launch until
September 1995, but set that aside. There were
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47!
no fast, secure ways to send money over the

Internet at the time. So when buyers won
auctions, they literally had to write a paper
check, mail it to the seller, then wait for the
check to clear before they got their stuff.
3. Not only was there no Google, there was
barely a Yahoo.
Yahoo had launched the year before, but it had
only recently shed its original name, Jerry and
David's Guide to the World Wide Web.
Granted, that sounds like a joke now, but it's
legitimate. The site was a hierarchical list of
websites, as opposed to a search engine.
48!
4. A webcam photo of a coffeepot was still a

big draw.
I had an internship around this time in the
(tiny) computer-assisted litigation department
of a major company. I remember a colleague
who was considered the most tech-savvy
among us predicting that the Internet would be
remembered as a fad on which nobody was
ever able to find useful information. Exhibit
No. 1 was this website dedicated to hosting
a 24-hour-a-day image of a coffee machine in
an office in England.
6. MTV's website was owned by a former
employee.
In 1993, MTV reportedly had little interest in
the Internet. So one of its VJs (this was back
when MTV actually played music videos)
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49!
asked for permission to create a website on his

own using the mtv.com domain. Around the
time Bezos launched Amazon, MTV was
still suing its former employee, trying to get its
domain name back.
7. Big-time spam was about a year old.
There had been smaller incidents before, but
around the time Bezos was setting up shop in
Washington State, two Arizona lawyers had
come up with an innovative idea:
sending unsolicited messages to thousands of
Usenet groups, advertising their services in
helping clients with the "green card lottery." By
1995, they'd been written up in The New York
Times, and they had just authored a book
together titled How to Make a Fortune on the
Information Superhighway.
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50!
8. One of the world's top news websites had

been built for $120.
The website for the British magazine The
Economist had been launched by one of the
magazine's correspondents, with the budget
coming out of his own pocket. His motivation:
embarrassment in admitting to other tech
aficionados that his magazine had no online
presence. Still, by the end of 1994, America
Online named it one of the world's 10 best
news sites.
9. Politicians had just joined the party.
The White House's website had gone online
just the previous year. I won't even spoil it for
you except to say it looks like something a
modern-day fourth grader would be mortified
to create; you should check it out. Meanwhile,
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the 1996 Clinton and Dole campaigns were the

first to have websites; they're still
archived here and here.
10. The first banner ads were pretty recent.
They were on Hotwired (described
in Time magazine at the time as "the sassy
online sister of [the magazine] Wired]," and
they advertised things like Zima alcoholic
beverages, 1-800-Collect, and Club Med.
Things were so nascent that as Wired reported
in 2010, the ad agency buying the ads ran into
an obvious but unexpected problem: "It had to
create websites for its clients, who weren't even
sure that interacting online was a good idea-or
that the ads were even legal."
52!
~7~
17 Inspiring Women
Entrepreneurs Share
Their Secrets for Success
Think there aren't enough inspiring women
entrepreneurs? You'd better listen to these
amazing founders.
Successful entrepreneurs are usually inspired
by other successful entrepreneurs. That means
that if people don't have great role models-especially role models in whom they can see
themselves--they're at a big disadvantage.
!
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That's among the biggest challenges facing

women who want to start new ventures. So,
here are key quotes from 17 amazingly
successful women entrepreneurs. Which do
you find most inspiring?
(Know some other women I should have
featured? Let me know here.)
1. Sara Blakely
Founder of Spanx, youngest self-made female
billionaire in America
"It's important to be willing to make mistakes.
The worst thing that can happen is you become
memorable."
54!
2. Shelia Lirio Marcelo

Founder of Care.com
"I think in terms of evolutions, not revolutions.
Failure is not part of my vocabulary."
3. Wendy Kopp
Founder of Teach for America
"Change is not always a process of
improvement. Sometimes it's a process of
invention. When Thomas Edison invented the
light bulb, he didn't start by trying to improve
the candle. He decided that he wanted better
light and went from there."
4. Clara Barton
Founder of American Red Cross
"I may sometimes be willing to teach for
55!
nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a

man's work for less than a man's pay."
5. Martha Stewart
Founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
"My new motto is: When you're through
changing, you're through."
6. Anita Roddick
Founder of The Body Shop
"If you do things well, do them better. Be
daring, be first, be different, be just."
7. Tory Burch
Chairman, CEO, and Designer of Tory Burch LLC.
"I think you can have it all. You just have to
know it's going to work."
56!
8. Arianna Huffington
Founder of The Huffington Post
"Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my
own life that the more I exercise it, the more
natural it becomes to not let my fears run me."
9. J.K. Rowling
Author
"It is impossible to live without failing at
something, unless you live so cautiously that
you might as well not have lived at all--in
which case, you fail by default."
10. Diane Von Furstenberg
Designer, Founder of DvF
"I wanted to be an independent woman, a
woman who could pay for her bills, a woman
who could run her own life--and I became that
woman."
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11. Angie Hicks

Co-founder of Angie's List
"I'm going to be the one to make the donuts. I
don't consider myself a big risk-taker. I was
presented an opportunity by someone I had a
lot of respect for, and I took it."
12. Madam C.J. Walker
Early 20th century hair and beauty entrepreneur
"I am not merely satisfied in making money for
myself, for I am endeavoring to provide
employment for hundreds of women of my
race.... I want to say to every Negro woman
present, don't sit down and wait for the
opportunities to come. Get up and make
them!"
58!
13. Elizabeth Arden

Founder of Elizabeth Arden Inc. cosmetics
"Dear, never forget one little point. It's my
business. You just work here."
14. Coco Chanel
Founder of Chanel
"May my legend prosper and thrive. I wish it a
long and happy life."
15. Estee Lauder
Founder of Estee Lauder Companies
"I didn't get where I am by thinking about it or
dreaming it. I got there by doing it."
16. Debbi Fields
Founder of Mrs. Fields Bakeries
"Good enough never is."
17. Rashmi Sinha
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59!
Founder of SlideShare
"I think it is going to be hard to trace a specific
event that made me want to be an
entrepreneur. I like independence. I like to
build things. Being an entrepreneur allows me
to do both."
60!
~8~
Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and
Warren Buffett All Had
This Experience Long
Before They Were
Successful
Hint: It wasn't just that they spent time becoming
experts in their fields.
If news reports are right, something like 75
percent of today's college and high school
students won't do something this summer that
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61!
I once thought was second-nature. They won't

be getting summer jobs.
This might be a bad trend--with kids missing
out by not working at real jobs during the
summer (as opposed to career-track
internships and enrichment camps). If that isn't
enough reason to reconsider summer plans
however, there's another. Some of the most
successful people we admire in leadership and
entrepreneurship followed the summer-jobs
path.
Here's how 10 of the most amazing

entrepreneurs--including Bill Gates, Warren
Buffett, and Jeff Bezos--spent their spare time
and summer vacations. (Bottom line up front:
They worked.)
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62!
1. Bill Gates
It won't surprise you to know that Gates had a
summer job as a programmer for defense
contractor TRW, but he also spent a summer
working as a congressional page in
Washington. This isn't exactly a glamorous job,
and it wouldn't seem to have much to do with
starting Microsoft. However, it could have
sparked an interest in public policy that led
him to launch the Gates Foundation.
2. Warren Buffett
Long before he was a professional investor,
Buffett spent his spare time working as a
salesman, running a paper route, selling
chewing gum and bottles of soda door to door,
and detailing cars. According to reports, when
63!
he filed his first tax return in 1944, he deducted

the cost of the bike he'd used on his routes.
3. Michael Bloomberg
This might be my favorite entry on this list.
Before he started a gigantic media company
and was elected mayor of New York City,
Bloomberg paid his way through Johns
Hopkins University by working as a parking
lot attendant.
4. Thomas Edison
What is it about selling candy--not just Buffett,
but Edison, too? He didn't exactly come from
money, and it was long before perfecting the
light bulb or starting the company that would
eventually become General Electric, but Edison
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first made money by selling newspapers and

candy on a train.
5. Daymond John
Back to more modern-day entrepreneurs, the
founder of FUBU spent his summers in high
school as a foot messenger, "delivering
packages all over the city," he explained in an
interview. "At age 16, it helped broaden my
horizons and introduce me to completely new
parts of the world that were right in my
backyard."
6. Michael Dell
You probably know that Dell founded his
namesake computer company out of his dorm
room at the University of Texas at Austin, but
his first job? Washing dishes at a Chinese
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65!
restaurant. He also sold newspapers, and

reportedly made enough money to launch his
computer company.
7. Henry Ford
As a child, Ford's father gave him a pocket
watch, which he took apart and reassembled,
thus developing both his interest in machines
and his reputation as someone who could
work on them. He was expected to take over
the family farm, but instead became an
apprentice to a machinist.
8. Andrew Carnegie
Carnegie was born in Scotland and moved
with his family as a child to Pennsylvania, but
they never had much money. He went to work
at 14 as a "bobbin boy" in a cotton mill, where
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66!
his job was to work six days a week changing

thread spools on dangerous, fast-moving
machinery.
9. Alexander Ljung
Speaking of dangerous work, I love this story
about the founder of SoundCloud, Ljung,
who said in an interview that he worked two
summers during school at a construction site,
"assisting with fitting ventilation systems."
Besides being surprised at how early
construction workers start their days, he said
the experience taught him that "any system can
always be improved."
10. Jeff Bezos
Bezos, according to one report, spent summers
when he was growing up living and working
!
67!
on his grandparents' ranch in south

Texas, "laying pipe, vaccinating cattle, and
fixing windmills."
68!
~9~
Facebook and Twitter
Turned Him Down.
Now He's Worth $4
Billion
Remember this story if you ever don't get a job you
really, really want.
First off, I love this kind of story.
Let's go back in time to 2009. Brian Acton was
an accomplished programmer who'd checked
the box with stints at both Apple and Yahoo.
!
69!
Now he was looking for work--and he was

coming up short. His Twitter feed tells the tale.
Then, three months later:

Acton had been the 44th employee at Yahoo,
but he'd lost millions of his dot-com fortune
when the bubble burst in 2000. Despite the
bright-sided nature of his Tweets, the 37-yearold didn't know what was next.
He toyed with a startup idea, but it wasn't
going anywhere. And as Marc Cenedella-founder of The Ladders, and more
recently, Knowzen--wrote on Medium a few
!
70!
days ago, Acton.....was feeling a bit washed up.

His 11 years as an early employee at Yahoo!
was now two years in the past. He'd bounced
from job to job in Silicon Valley's startup land,
and now he'd been turned down by both
Facebook and, as he tweeted a few months
prior, Twitter. It's kind of scary to be pushing
40 and feel like you're being pushed out the
door.
But the most beautiful thing about Brian is the
good grace and optimism with which he
handled his rejection--"It was a great
opportunity to connect with some fantastic
people. Looking forward to life's next
adventure." The hurt radiates from those 140
characters. And also a strength of character.
The happy ending? Acton went to work with
an engineer named Jan Koum, with whom he'd
!
71!
been friends for years, since the two had

worked for Yahoo together.
Acton got "the grand title of 'co-founder' and
no salary for his efforts," as Cenedella points
out--and the two became co-founders
of WhatsApp.
But he joined on in November 2009--three
months after his Facebook interview. They
launched officially in January 2010. Four years
later, Facebook bought their company for $19
billion. Acton's take? An estimated $3 billion at
the time--now closer to $4 billion.
People noticed these tweets a couple of years
ago, but I somehow missed them until
Cenedella's recent article.
72!
By the way, I'd be remiss not to repeat briefly

the story of the other WhatsApp founder,
Koum.
He immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine at age
16, worked at a grocery store, and eventually
dropped out of San Jose State University before
working at Yahoo. His stake in WhatsApp was
even greater than Acton's.
As my colleague Larry Kim wrote:
"Koum signed the papers for Facebook's
acquisition of his company on the steps of the
same welfare office he used to frequent for
food stamps."
How's that for a happy ending?
73!
~10~
This Guy Makes More
Money Playing Video
Games Than a Top
Quarterback in the NFL
The members of Forbes list of the top YouTube stars
are almost all under 30, all independent, and they
made as much as $12 million last year.
This is one of those stories where you start
asking yourself, what have I done with my life?
!
74!
Forbes is out with another list of the wealthiest

people. This time it's the top-earning YouTube
stars, and the number-1 guy on the list is a
Swedish 25-year-old who made $12 million last
year "all for providing expletive-heavy
commentary as he plays video games," the
magazine said. (Because like, advertising and
stuff.)
To put that number in perspective, future Pro
Football Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady,
who won last year's Super Bowl with the New
England Patriots, has a three-year contract
worth $27 million--so, $9 million a year.
It's quite impressive; a decade ago there was
almost no way that people like the ones on this
list could have achieved this level of fame and
fortune. (Even if they were talented, it would
have been impossible to build a following like
!
75!
theirs--to say nothing of monetizing it.) Here

are the top 10 according to Forbes:
1. Felix Kjellberg (aka PewDiePie): $12
million
Plays video games, swears a lot, makes videos.
He's "notoriously private, rarely granting
interviews, doing conferences or visiting the
Los Angeles YouTube studios," Forbes reports.
2. (2-way tie) Benny and Rafi Fine (aka Fine
Brothers): Fine Brothers: $8.5 million
Among other things, their first success was a
video series in which they "film[ed] people
watching over-the-top videos from the likes
of PewDiePie."
2. (2-way tie) Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla
(aka Smosh): $8.5 million
!
76!
Childhood friends and comedians, Hecox and

Padilla "got famous for live-action skits based
on Pokmon games. ... Their first fulllength movie [with the creative title, "Smosh:
The Movie"], came out in July."
4. Lindsey Stirling: $6 million
And now for something completely different:
Stirling dances, plays the violin, and shoots
music videos. Record labels turned her down
back in 2007. Explains Forbes: "Now they are
begging to sign her, but too late--she doesn't
need them anymore."
5. (2-way tie) Olajide Olatunji (aka KSI): $4.5
million
He's British, he's a YouTube star with 11
million followers, he's a "videogame
commentator," according to Forbes, and he
!
77!
released a hip-hop single in the UK earlier this

year.
5. (2-way tie) Rhett McLaughlin and Charles
Lincoln Neal III (Rhett & Link): $4.5 million
College classmates at North Carolina State
University, they're also veterans of corporate
America. Says Forbes: "Nearly half of their
earnings come from sponsored deals--they've
shot sponsored clips for their channels for such
brands as Gillette, Wendy's and Toyota."
7. Michelle Phan: $3 million
A makeup artist with a giant following, Phan is
seeking to evolve past YouTube
and "reinvests most of the money from her
projects-- including her cosmetics line and
ipsy, a monthly makeup-subscription service-right back into her business."
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78!
8 (3-way tie) Rosanna Pansino: $2.5 million

A bubbly chef and baker, her first
cookbook, The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook, is
coming out next month.
8. (3-way tie) Roman Atwood: $2.5 million
He does prank videos, like a recent one in
which he supposedly tricked his girlfriend into
thinking he'd accidentally killed their 3-yearold son.
8. (3-way tie) Lilly Singh
(aka IISuperwomanII): $2.5 million
Singh is a singer and comedian "who
leans heavily on her ethnic background (her
parents immigrated to Canada from India)."
79!
~11~
How a Recovering
Addict Who Hires ExConvicts Made $63
Million Last Year
Then again, he was stabbed in a drunken fight just
after launching his company, so there was really
nowhere to go but up.
Rick Roussin says his computer supply
company, California-based Coast to Coast, did
$63 million in revenue last year. That's quite a
!
80!
feat considering the condition he was when he

started it 30 years ago. He was a ravenous
alcoholic and cocaine addict back then, and
he got stabbed in a drunken fight just after
launching. He even-Wait, I'll just get out of the way let him explain:
"Drugs and alcohol were my life. What I mean by
that was I was doing cocaine on a daily basis,
drinking on a daily basis, and if I couldn't afford
cocaine I was doing whatever other drugs I could
find. I was strictly a party animal... I'd drink until I
puked."
Roussin was a good salesperson, he told me

one recent evening, but he couldn't keep a job.
He launched his firm selling printer ribbons
from his living room at age 24 because he
!
81!
couldn't follow rules well enough to stay

employed anywhere else.
"I was fired for the third time in September
1985, and started my company, but nothing
really good happened until ... I basically hit
rock bottom," he continued. "It was Halloween
1985 and I got stabbed in a gang fight, fighting
over a keg of beer in Culver City."
Right, okay. Stabbed. Roussin was rushed to the
UCLA Trauma Center, where he underwent
surgery for a lacerated liver and diaphragm.
With no health insurance, he spent 10 days in
the county hospital.
"It still took another six weeks before I realized

I had to do something about my alcohol
problem,' Roussin said. Finally, he wound up
!
82!
going to Alcoholics Anonymous, where he

attended 90 meetings in 90 days.
"It's amazing how fast your life can change.
Even being seven days sober, I hired my first
employee in March 1986. Actually he hired
himself--it was someone I met in a meeting," he
said.
That's been a theme ever since, as Roussin said
he's made it a priority to hire recovering
addicts and ex-convicts. While he's quick to
point out that not all of his employees fit this
description, he said seven of his top 10 sales
producers are members of 12-step programs,
and many other employees have served time in
prison--and now have 450 years of combined
sobriety to their credit.
83!
His firm now has 240 employees. It focuses on

selling ink and toner products to small and
medium-sized businesses, along with some
government clients like the U.S. Air Force.
"We're like the second chance company. If
somebody's coming out of prison and they
have some sobriety, we're probably going to be
willing to give them a chance," Roussin said.
"Most of their convictions and time was
around drugs, and if somebody cleans up their
life, we're probably going to give them an
opportunity."
Besides the moral aspect, the fact that few
other employers are willing to take a chance on
addicts and ex-convicts means that if you can
identify people who have truly changed, you
can recruit extremely loyal employees, he said.
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84!
"They're mostly good people, they just had a

flaw. If they engage in a solution they can
become very productive people and members
of society," Roussin said. "Most of them have a
lot of energy and a lot of drive, and if you can
channel that into something positive, they're
extraordinary employees."
Anything else? Besides sobriety, Roussin said
one of the major ingredients of his success was
that for decades, he's listened to recordings of
motivational speakers for 30 minutes each day.
"Early on my favorite was Zig Ziglar. It'd be
great if you can include this quote in your
article: 'You can have everything.
85!
~12~
17 Extraordinarily
Candid Observations
From Shark Tank's
Barbara Corcoran
Ever wondered which of her fellow Sharks she'd like
to sleep with, or what she thinks are the silly ways
entrepreneurs waste money? Here's your chance to
find out.
Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank would totally
sleep with her fellow Shark Mark Cuban.
!
86!
There, did I get your attention? It worked on

Reddit, too, where Corcoran recently did an
impressively candid and interesting "Ask Me
Anything" feature. Sure, she gave some
interesting, straightforward advice about
starting a business or getting the Sharks to
invest on Shark Tank, but that was only after
setting the tone.
A Redditor called SirT6 asked Corcoran, 66,
about her relationship with fellow Sharks Mark
Cuban, Kevin O'Leary, Daymond John, and
Robert Herjavec--basically asking her to play
the KFM game. Maybe you remember this
from high school; he asked her which Shark
she'd want to kill, which she'd want to marry,
which she'd want to do business with, and
which she'd want to--well, I try to keep this
87!
column PG-13 at the worst, so let's paraphrase

and say, sleep with.
Corcoran picked up the gauntlet.
"Sleep with Mark Cuban any day--and do
business between the sheets," she answered.
"From what he looks like in a suit, I'm sure I
wouldn't be disappointed. Like everybody else,
I'd like to kill Kevin on a daily basis for all the
right reasons. ... Did I get off topic?"
"Damn, you're like one of those awesome
ladies in movies where some punk teenager
says some type of crude or sexual remark but
you retort with a witty reply and leave him
speechless," a Redditor replied. (There were
actually a lot of replies like that.)
Before I go any further, a little quick exposition
on Shark Tank. I'm sort of obsessed with the
!
88!
show, to the point that I studied every single

pitch made during the first five seasons. And I
know that Corcoran and her fellow Sharks
have their public personas down pat. Still, here
are 17 extraordinarily candid observations and
revelations from Corcoran's AMA:
1. On how she got the first $1,000 she needed
to start her real estate business ...
"Easy. A guy walked into the diner, while I
was waitressing, gave me a ride home that
night ... and the rest is history."
2. On what she'd do differently if she were
starting over today...
"I would have slept with my boyfriend sooner
rather than waiting six months. I could have
89!
gotten my hands on that $1,000 earlier and

been off and running."
3. On how she feels about entrepreneurs who
are clearly on the show only for the publicity,
and not because they seriously want the
Sharks as investors...
"That stuff happens all the time, and it never
bothers me. Put yourself in their shoes: A
producer calls and says, 'How'd you like to be
on primetime TV with eight million people
watching you?' Who in their right mind would
say no?"
4. On how much she knows about Shark
Tank contestants ahead of time ...
"Every time the doors open, I say to myself, 'I
wonder what we have here...?' We don't know
a thing until they step into the tank."
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90!
5. On the biggest mistakes that small

businesses make ...
"Pissing away money on patents and PR. The
right dance steps are: 1) make the product, 2)
get some sales, 3) make the big guys envy you,
and only then get a patent. But what gets in the
way of all young business is self-doubt. The
little poisonous voice inside all of us that
whispers 'don't go there.' You can't do it. Don't
take the chance.' It took me 20 years to kill that
voice and set myself free."
6. On how many deals actually get done on
the show, and how long she plans to stick
around on it ...
This one was interesting to me in light of
my analysis of Shark Tank contestants. The
short version is that the "deal or no deal"
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91!
percentage, so to speak, was very close to 50

percent. However, we don't know how many
entrepreneurs apply to be on the show to begin
with, or what percentage of agreed-upon deals
on the show actually close after due diligence
and additional negotiations. Anyway,
Corcoran gave some data on that second
question: "Roughly 65% get closed."
7. On how to know whether you're in her
good graces as an entrepreneur once she's
invested in you ...
"I work diligently with every business, but the
minute I spot an unsuccessful entrepreneur in
my lot, I turn his photo upside down in my
office to remind me not to spend anymore time
with him. So I always have room for a new,
great entrepreneur."
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92!
8. On her best and worst investments on the

show ...
"I won't even mention my least successful,
because they're suing me for outing them last
time! But clearly, my most successful are
Cousins Maine Lobster. Because they're
making me the most money, they're the
smartest guys in the bunch and they're damn
good looking. Even better, they have the
common decency to airbrush photos of us
together--my face only--before they send them
to me."
(Murphy notes: A little sleuthing, and I think
I've got the "least successful" deal she
mentioned, from a 2012 interview: "My worst
was investing in a fast-talking cowboy selling
93!
exercise equipment who needed to lose 50

pounds. Instead, he lost my $50,000.")
9. On what books you should read before
becoming an entrepreneur ...
"You shouldn't be reading any books before
venturing out. Get out there now and then
read them as you're working. Still, the best
business book I've ever read is How to Win
Friends and Influence People. Nothing better."
10. On the deal she wishes she'd made but
didn't from Shark Tank ...
"Notehall took my offer, and then the two
young guys shopped it around for a larger
offer. And they sold the company, by year-end,
for $10 million. I regret not stuffing both of
them in my luggage until the deal got signed."
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11. On her academic and educational

background ...
"I achieved impressive straight D's in high
school," Corcoran said in her introduction,
adding later, "The great thing about being a
stupid student is you have the whole damn
day to daydream. And daydreaming, about
who you want to be, is a heck of a lot more
useful than a rock-solid business plan."
12. On what happens to your life when you
become independently wealthy ...
"Wealth complicates things. I'm not really sure
who my real friends are now ... and so I keep
my original circle small. When I cashed out on
my business, everybody I knew suddenly had
a $10,000 problem. But I'm not giving the
money back."
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95!
13. On her morning routine ...

"I have a genius kid on my team who helps me
with all of the businesses. But the real key to
doing a lot at once, and doing it well, is
figuring out every morning what your
priorities for the day really are, as there are
very few. The items I attend to first are the
ones that answer well to the query, How
dramatically would this affect my business?"
14. On the No. 1 personality trait that stops
people from being successful ...
"Fear. The fear of failure. The real question is ...
what makes you fearful of failing? It's usually
lack of self-esteem (or your parents did a
number on you)."
96!
15. On what you should invest in if you had

$10,000 lying around ...
"That's a ridiculous question. The only thing
worth investing in is yourself. And so the real
question is ... what do you feel passionate
about? Is there an angle you could work that
would make you some money?"
16. On her first experience as an entrepreneur
My first business failed miserably. It was a
flower of the week club, for only $3.95 a week.
I would later build my very successful real
estate business. Ironically, the guy who put me
out of my first flower business was none other
than a real estate broker. He owed me 47
weeks of flowers for both him and his mom--at
$3.95 a week! I had a cash flow problem and
went under."
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17. On the most important thing she looks for

when evaluating a business, after sales and
profit ...
"The head of the company has to be able to sell.
You need a salesman at the helm. Because if he
can't sell the product or service, who can?"
98!
~13~
That Viral Shaving
Video Guy Now Has a
Firm Worth $615
Million
This story starts with a funny but low-budget
YouTube video, starring and produced by a
digital marketing guy who spent his off-hours
taking comedy classes. It ends (for now
anyway) with more than half a billion dollars.
99!
Maybe you remember the video, Our Blades

are F**** Great, which went viral to the tune
of something like 19 million views on YouTube
in 2012. It introduced Dollar Shave Club to the
world, and got a lot of press for both its tone
and success.
Offering a subscription service for
razors (starting, as the name suggests, at $1 per
month), the then-tiny startup that Mike Dubin
had launched with his life savings of $35,000
wound up with 12,000 orders overnight. Now,
three years later, its a real company and then
some, after closing a $75 million round of
financing (the companys fifth), which valued
Dollar Shave Club at $615 million. With this
round, the companys taken a total of $150
million in funding.
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100!
According to The Wall Street Journal:

The companys high valuation is the result of fast
revenue growth. Sales were $65 million in 2014,
triple the prior years figure. This year the company
hopes to do better than $140 million, Dubin said.
However, Dollar Shave Club is not yet profitable,
Dubin said. While the viral video helped the
company make a name for itself, last year the
company turned to more expensive television ads to
attract new customers.
We have two million members that get a
shipment every month or every other month,
Dubin said in the same interview. Mens
grooming is exploding, and we think we have
a role to play.
The companys success or failure will turn on
whether its cost of acquiring customers goes
up or down, one investor told the Journal,
!
101!
which reported that Dollar Shave Club burns

through low single-digit millions of dollars
each month. Its customers pay an average of $7
per month for mail-order razors, blades, and
other products.
Dubin started as a page at NBC in New York
City after graduating from college, and had
worked in news writing and production for
MSNBC. He took comedy classes at Upright
Citizens Brigade (whose alumni include actors
and comedians like Amy Poehler and Tina
Fey), and moved on to digital marketing at
Time Inc. There, he did marketing efforts for
big companies like Gatorade, Nike, and
Nintendo, and video marketing campaigns for
Ford, Capital One-and Gillette, which he now
competes with.
102!
Ive never worked for an agency, but Ive

always created content, Dubin said in an
interview with the Los Angeles Times.
He and co-founder Mark Levine, who had a
background in manufacturing, met at a party
in late 2010. They started talking about
shaving-how much it cost, all the technology
breakthroughs that big companies kept
talking about, but that they thought nobody
really needed-and decided to team up.
The original video was a big part of their pitch
to investors, even before it was unveiled on
YouTube. Venture capitalists wanted to see a
strong business model and a bold vision, he
said in the same interview. I think once they
saw that video, they understood that I was a
guy who understood brand and marketing and
103!
how to speak with a clear voice about our core

offer.
It paid off-and now Dollar Shave Club will
need its big war chest, as it faces fierce
competition from older and much more
established competitors in its battle to own
the mens bathroom-like Procter & Gambles
Gillette (which launched its own Gillette
Shave Club), Schick-and a newer entry to the
market, Harrys (launched by the founder of
Warby Parker).
104!
~14~
11 Inspiring People Who
Followed Their Passions
and Found Amazing
Success
Should you follow the market or follow your
passions in launching a new venture?
I was looking for inspiration when I began this
column--trying to find examples of extremely
successful entrepreneurs who had founded
their companies while they were working for
someone else.
!
105!
It turns out these stories are fewer and farther

between than many moonlighting, wanna-be
entrepreneurs would like to believe. (Got some
good examples that I should feature in a future
column? Let me know.)
That said, there is no shortage of people who
took their passions--the things they would and
often did do for free--and turned them
into wildly successful new ventures. Here are
11 such people who pursued their passions
with faith that fortune would follow.
1. Brandon Stanton
Stanton arrived in New York from Chicago in
2010. A self-taught photographer who had just
wound up his short-lived bond-trading career,
he had the goal of photographing 10,000
people on New York City streets. His
!
106!
photoblog was basically ignored for the first

year, but then it took off. Now, Humans of
New York is massively popular, and Stanton
has parlayed his success into two book deals.
2. Jim Koch
A Harvard Business School graduate and
consultant with Boston Consulting Company,
Koch took the Austrian beer recipe that had
been in his family for generations and used it
to launch Samuel Adams (Boston Beer
Company). With Budweiser, Coors, and Miller
now owned by foreign companies, Boston Beer
Company is now the largest American
brewery.
3. Al "Bubba" Baker
Baker, a Pro Bowl defensive end in the NFL,
always loved food--especially barbecue-!
107!
and told me in an interview that he was

"always cooking" on his days off. After
retirement, he launched a successful barbecue
restaurant, and patented a way to debone
spare ribs. He then convinced investor
Daymond John to invest in his company in an
episode of Shark Tank.
4. Chris Michel
A former Naval Flight Officer, Michel attended
Harvard Business School and then launched
Military.com, one of the first social networks in
America, and Affinity Labs, both of which he
ultimately sold to Monster Worldwide. (I
wrote about Michel in my 2010 book, The
Intelligent Entrepreneur.)
5. Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss
!
108!
Business school classmates Hyman and Fleiss

turned their passion for fashion into Rent the
Runway, which now has five brick-and-mortar
stores and offers over 50,000 designer dresses
for rent.
6. Yvon Chouinard
An avid climber, Chouinard bought a secondhand forge and began to make his own
equipment. Ultimately he founded Patagonia,
a manufacturer of high-end outdoor clothing
that did $600 million in sales in 2013.
7. Debbi Fields
Fields was only 20 years old when she started
selling homemade chocolate cookies--a tiny
business that she and her husband, Rands
Fields, ultimately grew into Mrs. Fields, which
!
109!
now has and 390 locations around the United

States and 4,000 employees.
8. Wendy Kopp
Kopp turned her senior thesis at Princeton
University into Teach for America, a $229million-a-year nonprofit organization that
places graduates from some of America's top
colleges and universities as teachers in
challenged public schools.
9. Bill Gates
Right, he created Microsoft. Long before that,
however, he was an amateur programmer who
was passionate enough about computers that
in the eighth grade, he managed to get excused
from math class to design things like early
video games.
!
110!
10. Kevin Plank

A football player at the University of
Maryland, Plank designed shirts that could
wick away sweat, and convinced his former
teammates who went on to play professionally
to try his product and share it with their
teammates. The company that resulted, Under
Armour, had $2.3 billion in revenue in 2013.
11. Walt Disney
What did Disney spend his time doing while
growing up? Well, working--but also drawing,
from an early age. He was pretty young when
he sold his first drawing (of a neighbor's
horse). Disney launched several unsuccessful
animation companies before coming up with
Mickey Mouse in 1928.
111!
~15~
7 Leadership Lessons
From the SEALs
Commander Who Got
bin Laden
You're probably not leading troops on a special
forces raid. But the principles espoused by elite
military units can help you become a better leader.
Five years ago, U.S. Navy SEALs staged a
daring raid into Pakistan, where they caught
and killed the world's most-wanted terrorist.
!
112!
The mission to get Osama bin Laden was

highly dangerous, and it ranks among the
boldest strikes in the history of U.S. special
operations.
The man who planned and commanded the
raid, Admiral William McRaven, is a veteran
leader who served at every level of the SEALs
and who literally wrote the book on special
operations. (He's also the kind of leader who
took the time to reply to a 6-year-old boy who
sent him a letter asking if a Navy SEAL is
quieter than a ninja.)
Recently, McRaven gave a speech at West
Point about the top lessons of his 36-year
military career. You can click here to read his
entire address, but you'll find some of his key
points about truly great leadership below.
You're probably not sending your team on a
!
113!
dangerous and deadly mission, but McRaven's

advice about what it takes to lead troops in
battle is equally valid in business and in almost
any other aspect of life.
1. It's about people
Let's face it: There are so many bad leaders in
the world--for the simple reason that good
leadership is really hard. It's about having clear
goals and a plan to reach them, but it's also
about the constant ebb and flow of human
relationships. Don't underestimate the scope of
that challenge.
"Nothing--nothing--is more daunting, more
frustrating, more complex, than trying to lead
men and women in tough times," McRaven
said. "Those officers that do it well earn your
!
114!
respect, because doing it poorly is

commonplace."
2. Challenge your team
Think of the leaders you've truly respected
most in your life. Did they let you slack off and
do whatever you wanted, or did they press
you to achieve more than you believed
possible? McRaven told the cadets in his
audience that if they want to lead their troops
well, they need to push them.
"Taking care of soldiers is not about coddling
them," McRaven told the cadets. "It is about
challenging them--establishing a standard of
excellence and holding them accountable for
reaching it....You had better be up to the task,
because I have learned that they expect you to
!
115!
be good....[They] expect you to hold them to

high standards."
3. Learn from failure
Everybody screws up, and everybody falls
short, but the best leaders learn to fail
effectively. What does that mean? It means
things such as acknowledging your failures,
learning from them, and moving on quickly.
(Click here to see how one business leader
encourages his team to share their failures
publicly.)
"Nothing so steels you for battle like failure,"
McRaven told the cadets. "No officer I watched
got it right every time. But the great ones know
that when they fail, they must pick themselves
up, learn from their mistakes and move on.... If
116!
you can't stomach failure, then you will never

be a great leader."
4. Take smart risks
Nice people can play it safe, but great leaders
can't. Your team needs to know that you're
dedicated to moving forward and helping
them achieve goals that are bigger than any of
them. That also means taking smart risks and
being willing to do so in support of the greater
good.
"The greatest risk is not on the battlefield but in
standing up for what's right," McRaven told
the cadets, adding, "The truly great officers
know that real victory is achieved when men
and women of character take professional risks
and challenge the weak-kneed, the faint of
heart, the indecisive, or the bullies."
!
117!
5. Be a good follower
Can you tell the difference between a leader
and a follower? Trick question, because all
great leaders are called to be followers
sometimes. Just because you're the person with
"boss" in your title (or in McRaven's case,
admiral's insignia on your military uniform)
doesn't mean you will always have the
smartest plan, the best knowledge, or the
optimal way to lead in every situation.
"Great officers are equally good at following as
they are at leading," McRaven said. "Following
is one of the most underrated aspects of
leadership....I have seen many a good [military
unit] underachieve, because someone...thought
the commander was incompetent, and quietly
worked to undermine his authority."
!
118!
6. Work for the greater good

Part of pushing people to be their best is to aim
for worthy goals, and to ensure that they know
that their accomplishments are what matter
most--not their backgrounds or their personal
idiosyncrasies. People want to be respected,
and that requires leading them toward goals
that are worthy of respect.
"The great leaders in the Army never accept
indifference or injustice, and they only judge
their soldiers based on the merit of their work,"
McRaven said. "Nothing else is important."
7. Go toward the action
When you're up against a deadline or facing a
tough challenge, do the people you work with
know instinctively that they'll find you in the
thick of the fight--pitching in, working long
!
119!
hours, and doing whatever is necessary to

succeed? Or have you suggested somehow that
"rank has its privileges," and that you're
exempted from the least-enjoyable but
essential tasks?
"Move to where the action is the hottest,"
McRaven said. "Spend time with the soldiers
being miserable, exhausted and scared. If
you're a Black Hawk [helicopter] pilot or a tank
commander, spend some time on the flight line
or in the motor pool with the maintainers and
the wrench-turners. Whatever position or
branch you are in, find the toughest, most
dangerous job in your unit and go do it."
120!
~16~
Be Humble When You're
Changing the World
How do you balance the humility of great leaders
against the goals of great entrepreneurs?
This is a column about the universe, the
cofounder of AOL, the World War II movie,
Band of Brothers. It's also a column about a key
component of entrepreneurial leadership,
humility. Bear with me, it will all make sense
soon enough.
!
121!
In the waning days of our honeymoon, my

wife and I recently trekked to the top of Mauna
Kea, a 13,803-foot mountain on the Big Island
of Hawaii. Besides being one of the few places
in Hawaii where a winter coat and hat come in
handy, it also happens to be one of the best
places to gaze up at stars.
I was also drawn to Mauna Kea after reading
that scientists estimate there are about70
sextillion stars in the known universe.
(Another study suggests that number is lower,
at 300 sextillion.)
A sextillion is a 1 with 21 zeroes, so there's no
good way to wrap our arms around those
numbers other than, by way of comparison, to
point out there are about 7 billion living
humans. Even at the lower estimate of 70
sextillion, that's 1 trillion stars for each person.
!
122!
Lessons in Humility
It's a humbling thought, which led me to think
of two people: AOL co-founder and venture
capitalist Steve Case, and the late Maj. Dick
Winters, who led the World War II airborne
infantry company made famous in the book
and film, Band of Brothers.
In a recent interview, Case surprised me when
he said the wrong way to pitch a business idea
was to lack humility. Likewise, Winters' book
preaches the importance of humility in
leadership: "If you don't worry about who gets
the credit, you get a lot more done," wrote the
citizen soldier who led a fierce fight in
Normandy. "Leaders should assume blame
when the operation fails; when it succeeds,
credit the men and women in your team. They
do the lion's share of the work."
!
123!
What About Big Ideas?

Humility is a logical feeling when confronted
by the scope of the universe. But how on Earth
can one accomplish big goals while
maintaining, as the dictionary puts it, "a
modest or low view of one's importance"?
The answer lies in the balance. Having mulled
it all over while admiring one of the most
beautiful sights on the planet, here's what I
came up with.
Humility Means Respecting Your Team
If you don't respect the members of your team,
you'd probably both be better off if they
weren't part of it. Of course that means
respecting their contributions and their
individuality, but it also means respecting
them by leading effectively. You need not only
!
124!
a worthwhile goal, but also a plan to get there-otherwise, your people deserve better.
Humility Means Respecting Your Customers
On a related note, humility requires respecting-and listening to--the people whose problems
you seek to solve. As Jon Burgstone and I
wrote in Breakthrough Entrepreneurship, a
worthwhile entrepreneurial venture must
"solve an important customer problem and in
some small way, improve the world." How you
can identify those important customer
problems without respecting and listening to
your customers?
Humility Means Being Daring
Start the world's biggest Internet company?
That's a worthwhile goal. Defeat the Nazis and
liberate Europe? Obviously a mighty and
worthwhile challenge. It's not surprising that
!
125!
one component of successful entrepreneurship

has something in common with leadership in
all fields: Pick a problem worth solving and an
objective worth your efforts.
One could probably write a doctoral
dissertation in philosophy on this paradox. But
if you want to practice true humility, you have
to reach for the stars. Fortunately, you've got at
least 70 sextillion to choose from.
126!
~17~
Meet the Uber Driver
Who Built a $2 Billion
Company
Paul English was a co-founder of Kayak.com and
ran a $20 million incubator in Boston. So why's he
driving for UberX?
You've heard about the guy who went

from a dead-end job to incredible
wealth in just five years because of Uber.
This story is sort of the other way around.
!
127!
If you're in Boston and you use UberX,

keep an eye out for a driver named Paul
behind the wheel of a Tesla S
P85D (which retails for more
than $100,000). That will be Paul English,
the co-founder of Kayak, which was sold
to the Priceline Group for what turned
out to be about $2.1 billion in 2013.
He's only driving part time--having
picked up 26 customers since he
started on October 31--and it's all about
research for his new stealth-mode startup,
which will focus on the travel industry.
"We're rethinking how people book
travel, from how they conceive travel,
!
128!
who they get advice from, where to go,

how much work it takes to book it,"
English told me this morning, in an
interview before we each headed to our
day jobs. "I always said even when we
were at Kayak that we sucked less than
other websites. I was trying to make it
simple, but even with Kayak there was
some work involved."
His research goal with Uber? Mainly
to learn what the rating experience feels
like.
"I wanted to study what it felt like as a
driver, knowing that at the end of every
ride, you were rated on a scale of 1 to 5,"
!
129!
English told me. "And the drivers rate

[passengers] as well. ... [They're] trying to
reward kindness. I think that's been really
good."
English co-founded Kayak in 2004. The
company went public in 2012 and was
acquired in 2013, after which English
raised $20 million to start an incubator in
Boston called Blade. In July, when his
noncompete agreement with Priceline
expired, he started to focus on this single
idea. (English is also the chairman and cofounder of a nonprofit called Summits
Education that runs 42 schools for 10,000
students in Haiti.)
!
130!
He's given five stars to 25 passengers, but

only one star to a single passenger who
was abusive and angry, he said. Among
his most memorable customers so far:
An eighth-grade girl from China and her

mother, who were looking at Boston-area
high schools. ("She said, 'It's my life's
dream to go to MIT,'" English said.)
A group of people he drove from a

downtown nightclub to South Boston.
("They'd been drinking, and I can't
replicate her Boston accent even though I
have one, but she looked at the 17-inch
screen and said, 'You must be a
millionaire!'")
!
131!
The only fare, out of 26, who figured out

who he is. "When people ask me what I
do [for a full-time job], I say I'm a
programmer," said English. "I don't want
to talk about me; I want to learn about
them. But I picked up this couple about
25 years old, and one's showing an
iPhone to the other, and then one of them
goes: 'Are you Paul English?'"
Perhaps the most surprising thing he's
found, English told me, is that driving
people around is actually kind of fun. He
said he appreciates the fact that it gives
him a chance to talk with people he
would likely never run into otherwise.
!
132!
"I wouldn't be surprised if I still do this a

year from now," he said--maybe less
often, but occasionally and for fun, as a
continual learning experience. "In my day
job, I'm a CEO. Life is different when you
become a service person, and the
customer becomes your boss."
133!

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The Big Free

copyright 2016 Bill Murphy Jr.

Get the latest version of this ebook for free at www.billmurphyjr.com

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8. Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren

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Commander Who Got bin Laden

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all day, or toiling in a coal mine. Graves was

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UberCab, tweeted that he was looking for

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What happened in between.

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new customers to people connected with

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freelance copywriter ("that's another word for

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Yet, for a few months, for $3.95 (about $17.87

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further instruction. It will remain on the paper

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But he never achieved the same level of success

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new venture, and to pursue your dreams.

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Artery in Quincy, Massachusetts (which has

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1. He was an 8th grade dropout.

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2. He built his own catering-truck business

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3. His restaurant wasnt called Dunkin

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it Worth the Trip after Dunkin Donuts 1970s

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advertised in the Wall Street Journal or the New

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Ultimately, he donated his farm to the

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talking about annual income, as opposed to net

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Thinking about revising your employee

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If you get the culture right, the money will

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straightforward metric, such as sales units or

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the initial hustle that is now forever embedded

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9. Build personal relationships.

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that you don't worry about that actually

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taking great vacations. The result, "17 Habits of

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About a decade ago, de Souza and her