Today I’m going to share a real-life story that will not only inspire you to dream big but will also show you that if you believe in yourself then you can achieve anything in life no matter where you come from. This story will show you that success is not reserved for rich or born talented; it’s for everyone who’s willing to pay the price and believe in the power of self-belief.
The Beginning
Born in 1894 in a small Japanese village to a well to do family he had a promising future but due to his father’s gambling habit and some bad investments he was forced to leave his home with his family.
There was lack of food, clothing and medical care. Since it was hard to survive now, he had to leave his studies and started working at the age of 9. He started his first job at a bicycle store where he used to work all day long which include working at the store and then take care of the store owner’s children as well. Bank then, bicycles were expensive as they were being imported from different countries. He was a bright kid and was always eager to learn things and he got involved in metalworking jobs and learned lot of things however this shop went out of business in few years and he had to leave this job.
He was fascinated by electricity and wanted to work with an electric company so he joined Osaka Electric at the age of 15. Working with Osaka Electric was a challenging as it requires him to work very hard which he managed to do and was quickly promoted. With growth came responsibilities too which he handled nicely as well. He was incharge of interior wiring at Osaka and he would go to any level to complete the assigned task everytime.
While working with Osaka, he got interested in light bulbs and sockets. He started learning more about it after the work hour and after a lot of hard work and experiments, he invented an improved version of the socket all by himself. He was very excited about this and went to his boss to show it but his boss was least interested in it and said: “it will not work, it’s of no use.”
The Turning Point
He was sad but still believed in his idea and decided to sell this on his own. Although he had no experience and formal education, He quit his well-paying job and set up a small production area in his house and with the help of his wife who he married few years back he started selling this by going door to door.
The response from customers was not good and he was hardly able to sell much of the sockets to make his daily expenses. Months passed by but he hardly gets any orders from anywhere, he lost most of his money and he had to sell his furniture and borrow some money to survive now. He many times thought of quitting this and going back to his regular job but he still believed in himself and the socket and that’s when it showed the power of self-belief.
But as they say, hard work always pays off, he was about to go bankrupt and was about give up on his dream, a miracle happened. In 1918, out of nowhere, he got his first major order of 1000 pieces.
The Miracle
Now after 125 years after his first major order of 1000 pieces, his company now has more than 250000 employees with annual sales of $70 billion. His company’s products are being sold all over the world now.
Any guess who was this person and which company are we talking about?
Let’s see what we can learn from this first and then I’ll tell you his name and company too.
Believing in yourself or the power of self-belief is one of the most important keys to succeeding in anything. No matter what you want to achieve in life, if you don’t believe in yourself, you’ll never put in the full efforts.
You have to work for something to happen, be it a job finding or a paycheck from a job, a relationship, or finding a partner to have a relationship with. If you invent something, write a book, paint a picture, and take a photograph. Then do nothing with it but leave it sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Nothing will happen. If you go out in the world around you and try to accomplish selling that item, and you work very hard at it, chances are some good of that action will pay you back.
Anything is Possible if Approached With Conviction!!
Konosuke Matsushita
So coming back to answer the question, this person was Konosuke Matsushita and the company he started from his home, with no money, no education, and no experience is known today as Panasonic. I’m sure you can see the power of self-belief regardless of where you come from. I hope you got some value out of this story and it made you believe in yourself. Please do share it with your friends and let me know how I can improve in writing more articles.
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