Formula for Success
Information Technology (IT) industry has many millionaires and billionaires, each with its own success story. Following are their formula for success based on their interviews with newspapers.
Among people who have who make their fortunes in Information Technology (IT) only Bill Gates has the opportunity to change the world twice in one lifetime. Thirty years ago, he started Microsoft and changed the entire world with his software. Now he wants to change the global health and public education with his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In a recent interview, he shares his formula for success: “I am focusing on hiring very smart people and putting them to work in small teams to solve big issues. People are the key for success and I am very careful in picking the people who work for me.”
In the technology industry, there are successes and failures but only Steve Jobs who got kicked out of the company that he created then came back few years later to rescue Apple on the verge of bankruptcy and transformed it into the largest company in the world. In an interview last year, he shared his formula for success: “You must have vision. Vision is everything. You must use your own intuition to search emerging technologies to identify how they could be integrated into “Great products” that ultimately made the difference. Basically, you must “connect the dots”.
Larry Page, the founder of Google recalls the night in 1996 when he was a 23 years old student. He said: “I dream about downloading the entire web onto computers. Most people say it cannot be done but I am not convinced so I grab a pen and start writing my own idea. I spent the entire night scribbling out the details and convincing myself that it can be done. My formula for success: “Believe in yourself. And do not let others tell you that it cannot be done.” He certainly did well. Every day million people around the world use Google for their searches. Last year Google was valued at $170 billion dollars.
When Jeff Bezos learned about the Internet and came up with the idea for an online store, he told his boss about his dream to sell books on the Internet. His boss said: “That is a good idea for someone who did not have a job but you have a good job, so why bother.” The next day, Jeff quit his well-paying job and started his “Amazon.com” venture. Twenty years later, Amazon is the largest and most successful on-line store, value at more than $80 billion. In an interview, he shares his formula for success: “Opportunity is rare so you must seize it, else it is gone. A lot of people dream but few do. Do not just dream but make your dream happens.”
Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys has proved that India could compete with the world by focusing on software development. He succeeds in making IT outsourcing the most profitable industries in India and brought billions of dollars into the Indian economy and transformed his country into the world’s largest IT giant. He said: “Company must depend on the people with an enduring value system. It is all about sacrifice today, fulfillment tomorrow. As a poor country, we must sacrifice; work hard with the hope that someday we will get adequate returns from that.” Like Microsoft, today Infosys is a company that has more millionaires and billionaires than any other.
By the time Mark Zuckerberg celebrates his 28th birthday, Facebook has become one of the biggest IT companies worth several billion dollars. His formula for success: “Never stop innovating; always move with the flow of innovative changes. You have to make it easier for developers to create applications for the community and ensuring that each new iteration keeps it ahead of the competition. Never stop learning new thing because when you do, your competitor will seize the opportunity.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
