It takes time, tenacity and hard work to get to the top

Businesses do not become major successes over-night. They go through ups and downs before they finally make it big. It takes time, tenacity and hard work to get to the top. Many companies appear to gain instant success but it is only when one digs deeper, that their problems and setbacks become apparent. The world is interested in what it perceives as overnight success but many of these companies may never have done well if their owners had given up when the going was bad. Let’s look at 5 such companies which went through a particularly bad patch and then went on to become leaders in their field.

The Apple story

Apple made a name for itself with its innovative products and then collapsed when Steve Jobs quit the company in 1985. It went nearly bankrupt before Jobs was re-recruited and the company climbed back to its current heights with its new products and re-branding strategies.

The Fedex story

Fedex, one of the world leaders in logistics, crashed when fuel prices went through the roof and it faced immense logistics problems. But it re-positioned itself and took other corrective measures and is again a big success today.

Airbnb story

Airbnb, aiming to provide safe, clean, inexpensive accommodation to travelers found it difficult to raise capital to start its operations in 2008. It resorted to other businesses to raise sufficient funds for the core business and slowly went on to become the preferred choice of world travelers across the globe.

Evernote story

Evernote, the leader in note-taking and organization software almost did not make it till it suddenly found one investor ready to invest and take a chance on its performance. The gamble paid off and the company took off.

Reddit story

Reddit, the online platform started with zero visitors in 2005 and now has more than 169 million unique visitors a month – it built up its business one step at a time by changing its business strategy in order to attract visitors.

As in the case of all these companies, when things don’t work, change your strategy, shift your positioning, tweak your product – but don’t quit. Keep going  and you will succeed in spite of initial failures.