How Entrepreneurship Can Make A Difference (Success Stories)
Dan Sullivan
There are many definitions of entrepreneurship, but I subscribe to one in particular from 19th-century French economist Jean-Baptiste Say. He said that an entrepreneur is someone who takes resources from a lower level of productivity to a higher level of productivity.
Regardless of what the resource is—a product, service, or experience—if it’s adding value to the marketplace, being used in a new way, and a business has been built around it, it’s entrepreneurship. It revolves around innovation and creating resources that are better than what people had before.
The goal of entrepreneurship is always the same: to help people, to provide value, and to make life better for everyone around us. I believe that entrepreneurs make the world a lot better on a daily basis in a very practical way for the highest number of people on the planet.
So, with that said, let’s take a look at how entrepreneurship can make a difference with a few examples from our entrepreneurs at Strategic Coach.
It’s not about the money.
After working with entrepreneurs across all industries for over four decades, I’ve noticed that the most successful entrepreneurs don’t have financial goals as their overriding reason for being in business and taking on the risk of entrepreneurship.
If they were in it only for the money, they’d never succeed. In fact, they’d probably be better off climbing the corporate ladder if money were their ultimate goal.
Instead, those who find success in entrepreneurship are the game changers. They come in with an innovative mindset, knowing that they will introduce the next game changer to the market or that they can provide bigger and better results than what currently exists. They want to make a difference in the lives of their customers and clients—and if they make money in the process, that’s just an added bonus.
All successful entrepreneurs have a particular purpose because they want to achieve a new reality. So if you’re ever feeling unsure or bored with your business, take a look at your goals.
Are you just in it for the money, or is there some bigger goal behind what you’re doing? What if you could introduce something new to the marketplace that would provide more value for your customers?
In the end, the goal of entrepreneurship should always be to provide multiplying value for your customers. This one single mindset is the key to achieving success and making a difference in entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship success stories: Juan Fernandez
You don’t have to look far to find examples of how entrepreneurship can make a difference. Many of our entrepreneurs at Strategic Coach are making a difference for thousands of people in communities around the world.
Just take a look at what Juan Fernandez is doing with his company, Asimetrix Inc. As an animal scientist and animal nutritionist, Juan has years of scientific study behind him. He was raised on a farm in Columbia and always dreamed of a way to make animal agricultural systems better for both humans and their livestock.
He knew that the world needed more protein and that new technological solutions were out there that could solve the problem. Someone just needed to figure out how to get those solutions out to the people who needed them.
This is how most technological advancements come into our society. It’s not just through technological innovation alone—there is always an entrepreneur behind the advancement who is willing to take the risk, often laying all their chips on the table in a bet that they can bring their product to the marketplace.
And that’s exactly what Juan did. As an animal lover, he wanted to find a solution for farmers that would allow them to not only produce more protein through increased production, but do it in an affordable, scalable, and above all, ethical way. This would be a solution that anyone in the global farming community could use.
The technology his company created now helps farmers collect, analyze, and act on data to produce more protein with a higher quality at a lower cost. They’ve brought advanced technological solutions to a relatively old-fashioned industry.
This is a fantastic example of how entrepreneurship can make a difference. Nearly all of the technological breakthroughs we see in today’s world are the result of an entrepreneur behind the scenes. Whether it’s a cell phone or a farming system, the end goal is always the same: to make a difference and help people.
Entrepreneurship success stories: Darryl Bellamy
Darryl Bellamy is the CEO of Bellamy Inspires, a TEDx speaker and author, and a self-made fear researcher. He spends nearly all of his time focusing on one simple question: “Do you know what’s holding you back from achieving your wildest dreams?”
Darryl travels the world talking to students and millennials about fear, empowering and motivating them to overcome the limiting beliefs standing in the way of their goals. So far, he’s collected nearly 50,000 written fears from people around the world, and he’s come to realize the number one thing that holds most people back.
Regardless of upbringing, education, or industry, the fear of not being enough is the number one reason that most people don’t achieve the success they desire. With that knowledge, success simply becomes a matter of embracing the discomfort that comes with fear and learning how to move from fearFUL to fearLESS.
I think it’s pretty obvious that money is not the driving force behind Darryl’s progress in entrepreneurship. No one becomes a speaker to get rich—they do it because they have a unique idea, concept, philosophy, or methodology that they want to share with the world. They have something that can benefit others, and Darryl is doing exactly that.
Entrepreneurship can take on many different forms. It’s not always about creating products or services. Sometimes, it’s about inspiring others—and in this case, Darryl has inspired thousands of people to bring more value into the world and live a happier, more productive life.
By helping so many people achieve more, Darryl has added exponential value to the world. If you’re looking for examples of how entrepreneurship can make a difference, just think about how something as simple as a talk or a book from an entrepreneur can spur thousands of people to achieve more and contribute more to society. These small efforts then produce multiplying value across generations.
Entrepreneurship success stories: Amanda Cassar
When most people think about helping others through entrepreneurship, financial planning probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But just take a look at what Amanda Cassar is doing, and you’ll see how this crucial service can create massive improvements for everyday people.
Amanda runs three companies in the financial planning space—Wealth Planning Partners, Trusted Aged Care Services, and Finance Chicks. Her particular passion is making sure all families have adequate risk protection strategies in place and are able to create wealth to build a better future for themselves.
But Amanda doesn’t just sit at a desk all day. She also travels the world, educating others on how to improve their financial situations. She spends much of her free time helping out with The Hunger Project, an organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger.
Amanda’s financial advisory companies are helping many people create a better future for themselves, but they also empower her to make a difference in the world by giving her the means to contribute her time and effort to causes like The Hunger Project and to educating people around the world on how to improve their financial situations.
Amanda is using her Unique Ability to help people live better lives. Whether that’s teaching them how to improve their finances or donating the wealth and time she’s created through her own businesses to other organizations, it’s all the same. She’s not driven by money; she’s driven by a larger mission to help people and make a difference. And she’s doing it every day.
Entrepreneurship is a global force for good.
These success stories show how entrepreneurship can make a difference, but it’s also important to remember that entrepreneurs are a global force. These are not just isolated incidents—entrepreneurship is the single most powerful economic and creative force at work around the world.
Entrepreneurs are lone wolves by nature. They set out into the world on their own with a mission, a purpose, and a dream. That is, after all, one of the primary benefits of joining an entrepreneurial community like Strategic Coach—to break away from isolation and join a group of like-minded people.
The unfortunate byproduct of this is that entrepreneurs rarely think of themselves as a global, unified force. But they are!
We erect statues for political leaders, war heroes, and scientists—yet rarely do you see a statue for an entrepreneur, even though entrepreneurship on the whole has created the most value, productivity, and happiness for the highest number of people on the planet.
So I will end this by reminding you that, as an entrepreneur, you are part of the largest force for good the world has ever seen. Always remember why you became an entrepreneur: to help people, to make a difference, and to provide value. And you’re not alone!