By Jon Lee
It was 1974. The Canadian Stock Exchange had just merged with the Montreal Stock Exchange and Jules Léger was sworn in as Governor General.
Thousands of miles away from Hollywood, in a small Canadian town called Newmarket, a tall, lanky 12-year-old boy laughed to himself as he mopped the floors of an old tire factory. He was reciting jokes.
The boy had dreamed of being a comedian. He practiced non-stop even as he worked 8 hour shifts every night after school. The economy was harsh that year and his dad, a trying musician and part-time accountant had just lost his job. Working as janitors and security guards at the local factory was the only way his family knew how to make ends meet.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]Laughter was the only medicine he knew and he spared no effort, even if it meant bouncing off walls or throwing himself down the stairs.[/su_pullquote]
Humor inspired him. It came naturally after years of practice. His mother had suffered from severe hypochondria and he took it upon himself to cheer her during bouts of extreme depression. Laughter was the only medicine he knew and he spared no effort, even if it meant bouncing off walls or throwing himself down the stairs.
It was 1975. Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced the creation of the Foreign Investment Review Agency.
He debuted as a comedian for the first time at Yuk Yuks, a comedy club in Toronto. It had taken his dad 36 hours to drive him there, and he was booed off stage.
Life was hard but it had its moments. His teacher, possibly out of pity, had promised to let him perform in front of his fellow classmates, a few minutes each day before school ended. It wasnt much but it was a start.
A chance was a chance. He would never give up.
The boy, now a teenager, was back at Yuk Yuks. He practiced his jokes every night while mopping floors and it had finally paid off.
He dropped out of high school. He decided to pursue a full-time career as a comedian in the city of Los Angeles.
It was progress. It could only get better.
He decides to turn his attention towards film and television as a comedic actor. His first major debut happens, but there was no success.
Movie offers are out there for me, I just dont hear them yet.
He was cast as a regular member of a comedy television series and it was progress but not what he wanted.
He drove his old Toyota up the mountains and dreamed of his future. He wrote himself a check. $10 million dollars, for services rendered, dated Thanksgiving 1995.
He was relentless.
It was 1994. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb & Dumber became box office hits, grossing over $700 million globally.
The boy was Jim Carrey. His paycheck that year was $12.5 million dollars, $2.5 million dollars more than he had promised himself.
This is Jim Carreys story of overnight success. It took was 11 years of hard work and perseverance.
At one point or another, founders dream. They dream of overnight success, of creating a product used by millions, of being the next Zuckerberg.
But thats all it is. At the end of the day, thats exactly what they are. Dreams.
Its easy to dream about overnight success because thats what were taught. Our media romanticizes success because thats what dreamers want. Its entrepreneur porn and like real porn, what you only see are the good parts.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]What you dont read about is the perseverance required to overcome those failures and move on.[/su_pullquote]
What you dont read about are the failures that it takes to gain the experience to building a successful business. What you dont read about is the perseverance required to overcome those failures and move on. What you dont read about is the passion you need to fuel that perseverance.
Building a business is not easy. What appears as an overnight success is the accumulation of years and years of hard work, the thousands of hours youve poured into your business, the hundreds of hard decisions youve had to make, and the dozens of people in your life that made it possible. Business is one of the hardest, most difficult things youll ever do in your life. And its worth it.
Success Stories of those who did not give up
Rand Fishkin, Founder of Moz, had dropped out of college in 2001 to help his mom grow her marketing business. By 2005, Rand and his mother had accrued $450,000 in personal debt. Rand kept at it, eventually started the SEOmoz blog in 2007 as a place to share his thoughts on SEO. In 2013, Moz reported a $29.3MM in total gross revenue and is now one of the most widely recognized names in the SEO industry.
Ryan Hoover, CEO & founder of Product Hunt blogged about products and startups for years before it transformed into what would eventually be Product Hunt. He blogged relentlessly for 2 years, working on establishing relationships within the startup community. These relationships were key to the success of Product Hunts launch and those relationships had been years in the making. Product Hunt has now grown to hundred of thousands of users and recognized as one of the major contributors to many startups early growth success.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]If one thing didnt work, he would try something else until he found something that did.[/su_pullquote]
Nathan Kontny, CEO of Highrise and founder of Draft had written for years before anyone ever paid attention to his writing. Despite having given up multiple times, he would always write again. If one thing didnt work, he would try something else until he found something that did. Draft was built in the process as a better way to write and eventually created opportunities for Nate to take over as CEO of Highrise. Hes where he is today because he continued pushing forward, engineering his own success. Draft is loved by thousands while Highrise generates multi-million dollar annual profits and is known as one of the best CRM tools.
Alex Turnbull, CEO and founder of Groove spent years building his first company, BatamLive before it was acquired. Using the experience and knowledge he had learned, he decided to build Groove. His goal was to reach $100,000 in revenue per month and he blogged about his progress which took months of prep work and outreach. It paid off. Groove currently makes over $224,000 a month is known amongst startup communities as one of the best customer help desk softwares available.
The key is finding passion for what you do. You dont have to love what you do.
Just be passionate about the problem that youre solving, why youre solving it, and the potential of the solution.
When you build a business, youre in it for the long haul and if youre not passionate about what you do, youll give up for all the wrong reasons.
Overnight success? Its possible. Just dont be surprised if it takes years.
Dont let anything deter you. Be relentless.
Jon Lee is the founder of Rabbut.com
This article was originally published on 45 Miles Per Hour.
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