10 Inspiring Stories of Ordinary Women Who Turned Their Ideas Into Success.

Here are some great 'origin stories' that will definitely inspire you. and personal qualities that drove them to make their big idea a reality. Here's what these women had to share about getting their start as entrepreneurs. Sophia has transformed the business into a multimillion-dollar empire with its own.
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Shirley mapped a 2,mile walking route that began in Jacksonville, Florida, and ended in San Diego, California, that he followed with his dog Archer and best friend John for nine and a half months, raising money for his fellow servicemen along the way. When Cynthia Hellmann and Gregory Flatt arrived in Mali to volunteer with the Peace Corps 15 years ago, they had no idea that they would end up falling for one another, let alone feel so passionately about their mission's work.

They continued supporting the local community's needs for economic development and food sustainability by founding Ecova Mali upon returning home to the United States. Motivated by the talents and kindness of their Malian friends, the couple issues micro loans and mini grants, funds community projects, and organizes best farming and business practices trainings for their former community to help them continue to thrive financially and improve their overall food security.

Earlier this year Anurag Gupta, a year-old Indian immigrant, founded BE MORE , a nonprofit organization that uses research, storytelling and online social communities to bring change to the systems that perpetuate social inequity in America.

Abhash Kumar

He has harbored a passion for resolving issues of international ethnic inequality for most of his life, but decided to focus his activist efforts domestically after his completing his law degree. Spearheading his own movement against systemic challenges rather than fighting them in the courtroom has allowed him to connect more deeply with others and find the sense of spiritual fulfillment he was looking for. Our job is to explain to people how this construct came to be, and how it's changed the world in how human beings relate to one another.

When Chris Hooley showed his year-old daughter Kaylee a touching video about making the homeless smile last summer, he had no idea that she would feel so inspired to give back to those in need herself that she would create a full-fledged charitable organization. Together, the father-daughter duo has spent the past 18 months hosting street events where they hand out food, water, clothing and toiletries to the homeless in Phoenix, Arizona, alongside their team of volunteers, and post videos of their outings on YouTube.

With ReKindle , they hope to continue expanding their efforts to help the homeless across the country in the future. This is my path in life, and it took my year-old daughter to help me figure it out. Sometimes it takes going beyond the call of duty to help those who need it most. Deputy Andy Conner used to spend the majority of his time on duty patrolling one of Washington's most problematic highways for prostitution.

However, when he grew tired of arresting young women, he decided to instead ask them why they wouldn't leave that lifestyle behind. He realized that many of them were not on the streets out of choice. He then set out to organize a community home for these girls, offering them counseling, a safe shelter and vocational training to give them the fresh start they needed.

He was broke, owned a small house and a beat up car.

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He made a decision that things had to change. His friends used to like his chicken recipe very much. The fact that this was the only novel idea he had, he decided to act upon it. He left Kentucky and started his travels to different US states to sell his idea. He would tell restaurant owners that he had a chicken recipe which people liked and he was ready to give it to them for free, in return for a small percentage on the items sold.

He got rejections after rejections, but did not give up. In fact, he got over rejections. Soichiro Honda was a mechanic at a garage. His job was to tune cars to prepare them for races. This company won a contract to supply piston rings to an established automobile company - Toyota.

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But soon after, he lost the contract due to the poor quality of the products. He took time out to better understand Toyota's quality control processes, and by , Honda was able to mass produce piston rings acceptable to Toyota. Honda sold the salvageable remains of the company to Toyota and used the proceeds to found the Honda Technical Research Institute in October He worked with a staff of 12 men in a square-foot shack. They built and sold improvised motorized bicycles by building their own copy of Tohatsu engines, and supplying these to customers to attach to their bicycles.


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Honda Motor Company grew in a short time to become the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles by But they had an idea and they believed in it and most importantly, they started. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.

12 Ordinary People Whose Lives Can Inspire Us In | HuffPost

Please follow these instructions to subscribe: I knew how to sell and market. So, now that I had my own shingle out, I took off and built a thriving and fulfilling practice. It hasn't always been easy, but it continues to bring me great joy and satisfaction. I then purchased an existing blog business, and almost overnight, started making more money than I had in my previous job. Tara, one of our most successful business instructors here at CreativeLive, has successfully gone from selling her services, to packaging them into digital products for her clients.

It's helped her significantly scale her business, and now she teaches a class about how to turn your services into a product.

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It took me the ensuing five years to understand the lesson in her passing. Life is too short to do something you don't love. She had been a maverick in her field, an Oscar winning actress who knew at age 7 what she wanted. It took me a bit longer. However, I was still frustrated that I was not in charge of my day and my decisions. When I asked my manager for time off, she said I didn't have it.

I said I did, and dug my heels in.


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Arguing with your manager when you need your job is never wise. I launched immediately while taking up side jobs supervising a catering kitchen and teaching busy professionals aka potential clients for my interior design practice during evening education programs. I worked 15 hour days, 6 days a week, because I wanted to. I couldn't wait to get up, and hated to go to bed at night. I was totally on fire. Today, I design both home and business environments, while also advising the business and lifestyles that go on inside of them.

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You will meet with unexpected success. When I was young, I wanted them but couldn't afford them. Then I realized, if I ordered them for my friends and became a distributor, I could get mine for free. So at the age of 12, I started a poster distribution business out of my bedroom. I had a lot of freedom to express my ideas after all, ideas are what a magazine thrives on. Upon further examination, I arrived at three facts:. I've been an entrepreneur pretty much my entire professional career. You have to overcome the fear, and it's a lot of work, but the rewards are fantastic. After checking into different businesses, I actually won a camera, so that sealed the deal for a photography business.

I built that business by moonlighting for a few years until the income surpassed my corporate job and then went full-time. Even though it was painful to leave my corporate security, I am forever grateful that I did, because it led to a life and business I love!


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