What the Universe and CEO’s have in Common

by Wynand Brand, Frog Recruitment

The small business website Under30CEO has recently released a list of the top 30 CEO’s under the age of 30. The list is filled with a plethora of truly inspirational stories of entrepreneurial success, but if you look past the billions of dollars shared between the 30, what can the rest of us draw from their success?

While some people treat university as a holiday, others like Mark Zuckerberg , founder of Facebook, use the time to develop billion dollar electronic media platforms. Granted, you don’t need to go to Harvard to have a good business idea, in fact a few of the CEO’s on the list began developing their empires from as young as age 14.

The common denominator across the 30 CEO’s is not remarkable academic qualifications, but the ability to identify new consumer needs brought on by the evolution of the electronic marketplace. Simple stuff right?

Wrong.

Having a good business idea is one thing, but being a CEO of a billion dollar company is an entirely different cup of tea. What makes these CEO’s so remarkable is their ability to capitalize on a good idea.

Everyone has had New Year’s resolutions that sounded great at the time, but when the time comes to actually put on some sneakers and go for a run, the wind can leave the sails quite quickly. The same applies to these entrepreneurs – they didn’t simply have the idea, they worked tirelessly to make it a reality.
 
Think about things you have been putting off and how your life would be different now if you have acted on a good idea one, two, three years ago. What would have changed? What were the obstacles? What’s stopping you from going ahead now?

All good business ideas hinge on implementing and embracing change. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius recognized 2,000 years ago that “All things are in a process of change…so too is the whole universe”.  These CEO’s embraced the change and in Mark Zuckerberg’s case created such dramatic change that the change is now a normal part of the life of millions of Facebook users.

So go ahead. Change something.

See what happens.

You may not make a billion dollars, but at least you’ll be changing along with the rest of the universe; and the universe is hard to resist.

Source: The most influential CEOs under 30 on Stuff.co.nz, Last updated 12/01/2011