When Marshall Brain sold his popular website howstuffworks.com, he reportedly made nearly a million bucks. And anyone can be successful, if they’ll just stop thinking about it and actually do something with the opportunities around them, says the entrepreneur, who spoke to students at NC State.
Brain said his first entrepreneurial success came after a set of notes he wrote to help students gained popularity and landed him a book contract.
Many people will not take advantage of the entrepreneurial opportunities afforded them, Brain said.
“Here is the fact: 99.95 percent of you won’t do anything with [this information],” Brain said. “You’ll never get started. There just aren’t that many people who are trying, so your chance of success is actually high.”
Entrepreneurship is not about elaborate ideas, according to Brain. Many companies like Netflix, Walmart and Southwest Airlines started as simple ways for their respective founders to make money.
“It’s just a matter of getting started,” Brain said.
And it’s a matter of breaking free from the dependency mindset that now permeates this country.
