Entrepreneurial Lessons To Learn From Madam C.J. Walker

In the immortal words of Madam C.J. Walker, who wrote "I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them." These words are guide signs that any entrepreneur wishing to follow in her footsteps to realize their own dreams can make a huge difference in the outcome of their own lives with the right MO or mode of operation to realize the same driving force and principles that propelled Madam Walker to the honors of being the first known African American woman to become a self made millionaire.

She Filled a Need. Walker, like most entrepreneurs was influenced by a personal need. She found herself in a situation where she could find almost no help for her particular need. After lots of research, she finally found a product that helped her and solved her problem. Figuring that there were others like her, who were suffering from the same need but had no solution, Walker began to promote the product to others. This is the first rule of entrepreneurship. It is important to meet a need. When you sell a solution, and not just a product, people tend to want to buy from you.

Walker became very passionate, not just for her products and the real solutions they offered, but also for helping others find solutions to their problems. Another very important rule about being a entrepreneur is passion. It is impossible to be a successful entrepreneur without passion. There are many people selling products with a passion that they don't use and this is possible, but they do stand 100% behind what they are selling.

She also learned to develop her own products and selling someone else's products in not such a bad thing either, but the real success and riches come from ones own products. She realized this early on and began to develop her own brand of hair care products. Her own products allowed her to work for herself and not someone else. She learned that this a very important fact to remember if you are focused on being a successful entrepreneur; work for yourself.

She also learned that positive sales aggression was necessary. She found new ways of promoting her products aggressively throughout the southern states and could be considered an early door to door saleswoman in her time. She pioneered new ways to get her products to the people who needed them the most. True entrepreneurs do whatever it takes to get the message of their products and the solutions to the masses regardless of how aggressive or sometimes shamelessly it seemed they were promoting their products and they never tire of selling what they believe in.

She Created Multiple Streams. It would have made a lot of sense for Madam Walker to settle for merely selling her products and she would have made a good bundle. But she chose to diversify her income and created multiple streams out of that product. She created a school to teach people how to use her products and had numerous licensed agents. An entrepreneur knows that he or she needs to build on present success and makes plans and strategies to do so. Being an entrepreneur means that you need to be relentless and passionate about what you do. Think smart and think ahead. Madam C.J Walker embodied all these and more; every aspiring entrepreneur (and even some established ones) have much to learn from her life.

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