Embrace Little Beginnings

The one thing all big success have in common is a small beginning.

Every big man started life as a tiny baby. Every big company started as someone's small idea. Every CEO was once an unimportant staff. Even Barack Obama started small: ever seen his Kenyan photos?

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I spent the nights of last week trying to beat the deadline for the submission of my Strategic Marketing MBA module exam/assignments. One of the assignments involved writing a 4000 words essay critiquing IKEA's business strategy in China and Japan.

IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer. They are in over 28 countries and employ over 140,000 people. Every year they publish a catalog (magazine) of their products. They print over 200 million copies in over 30 languages every year; that is more than the yearly volume of Bibles distributed. And last year they made revenue of over N7 trillion Naira.

Here's the part I want you to pay attention to: IKEA was started/founded by a 17 year old boy in a small town in Sweden. He started with his own tiny savings and idea. He slowly grew it from there to what it is now. Not only did he start small, he was also small when he started. It's one of the most inspiring true stories about small beginnings.

Every idea and skill that is making me money now all started as one little side thing. Things I used to do free for people and never saw a future in, now they are the things earning me my living and getting me big company clients.

The best relationships - personal and business - I have built all started like a joke. No expectations and some were with people I never expected to meet again.

Looking through everything going right in my life, I am now learning to embrace little beginnings. I don't look down on any interaction with someone else nor treat as insignificant any idea, whether mine or another's. The greatest things come from the most unexpected places. And big things have little beginnings.