Shawn Tsao, co-founder of food delivery app Caviar.
Building a successful business from scratch may not be easy, but it turns out it is possible.
During my time at CNBC, I spoke with a variety of entrepreneurs, from people running successful side hustles to founders of global unicorns. Ultimately, I discovered that it all comes down to belief—what one chooses to believe.
These people choose to believe in themselves. They know it won’t be easy, but they also know it’s possible. With this belief, they continue to take risks and sacrifice almost everything for their dreams.
The world may view them as inspirational figures, but many times, they are just ordinary people with some setbacks and hard-earned lessons in life.
In conversations with successful entrepreneurs, I’ve found that those who are successful and “made it” tend to echo the same advice.
Here’s what they attribute their success to:
Tip 1: Anyone can do it
Jason McGowan wasn’t a professional baker before co-founding Crumbl Cookies in 2017, but that didn’t stop him from building a cookie empire.
Today, Crumbl is a unicorn company with approximately 1,000 locations worldwide. The company has sales of more than $1 billion in 2022, according to documents seen by CNBC Make It.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we would exceed $1 billion in sales,” McGowan said. CNBC did it. “The older I get, the more I realize as I build this company — everything we do is really just something that anyone can do.”
Although McGowan and his co-founders had never set foot in a professional baking kitchen before, they would often get together to try out chocolate chip cookie recipes whenever they had free time. Today, millions of their cookies are sold around the world, and it all started with a decision to believe in an idea and try it.
The most important thing I learned through Solidcore is that you can do anything you want if you want to.
Anne Malham
Founder, Solidcore
Anne Malham echoed this sentiment.
In 2013, she founded New York-based boutique fitness chain Solidcore. Ten years later, the company has more than 100 locations.
Mahlum said she made $88.4 million in 2023 after cashing out her stake in the company, making her a multimillionaire.
“The most important thing I learned through Solidcore is: you can do anything you want if you want to,” Mahlum told CNBC Make It.
Tip #2: Focus on what makes you unique
Another tip Malham gives is to focus on the things that shape you. In fact, she thinks that’s why she’s successful.
“I really believe in the power of uniqueness. When we…rely on our uniqueness, it really works to our advantage, and it’s really been a big part of my personal and professional success.”
“I think a lot of times we look at entrepreneurs or successful people and we think they just have something that you don’t have or they have a special set of strengths and honestly, that’s probably true — the world and life is not fair. of, never have been and never will be,” she said.
Malham said everyone has some unique circumstances, strengths and weaknesses.
“I think it’s up to each of us to figure out what those strengths are, what our talents and skills are, and take advantage of them and make them work for you.”
People tend to think that there is something special about those who are “successful.” However, according to McGowan and Malham, they are nothing special. They just double down on what makes them unique.
“I think the best advice I can give other entrepreneurs is to be different,” he told CNBC.
“The next Starbucks is not going to look like Starbucks, the next McDonald’s is not going to look like McDonald’s. The next Google is not going to look like Google — you need to be completely different to compete with the current incumbent,” he said.
Tirtanata founded the company in 2017, initially as a local coffee stall in Indonesia. Today, the company has grown into an international coffee brand with more than 800 stores across Southeast Asia and annual sales of more than $100 million, according to documents seen by CNBC Make It.
Tip 3: Be passionate
Shawn Tsao loves sandwiches—a burning passion, some might say.
One day in 2012, he was craving a sandwich from a particular store across town, but he didn’t have time to buy it.
“What if Uber provides food?” he thought. That’s how the idea for food delivery service Caviar was born.
In 2014, Jack Dorsey’s payments company Square (now known as Block) acquired Caviar for more than $100 million. Cao and his co-founders made millions from the deal.
“If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re really passionate about the product you’re building — not just because you want the glory of being a CEO or a founder (but) you’re really passionate about the product you’re working on, Keep things going with enthusiasm — that will help you get through the toughest days,” Cao said.
Cao created caviar for himself. The business fulfilled a personal need for him, and it was this passion that helped him persevere through the inevitable obstacles that came with building a business.
Likewise, Tirtanata loves coffee, Mahlum cares about fitness, and McGowan is passionate about cookies—all of these founders have created something for themselves.
It is this sincere passion that has led them through the most difficult times.
Tip #4: Get started
In all of my conversations with entrepreneurs so far, the one piece of advice I hear the most is to simply get started.
“The best thing Nike does is ‘just do it.’ I have a saying: ‘Just enjoy the first day,'” Malham said.
One day, Malham stumbled into a Pilates studio in Los Angeles and fell in love with it. A few months later, she invested all her savings to open her first studio. That was her first day.
Likewise, McGowan didn’t know how to bake cookies, but that didn’t stop him from starting a cookie company.
“One of the most important lessons I learned from starting Crumbl is to start. Whether you don’t have a mixer yet, or you don’t have a cookie recipe, you start – you start making things, you start moving,” McGowan told CNBC.
“I think action in the early stages is very important to success — just taking action,” he said.
These four founders have all made millions by choosing to believe in themselves, taking risks when they saw opportunities, and enjoying their first day.
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