You usually notice the best startups after they are successful. However, if you now take a look at the history of most startups, you will notice that some started with stupid ideas, but enjoyed the greatest success ever seen.

It's possible to create a "good" startup for a "good" idea, but "successful" startups are often born out of ideas that seem ridiculous if you've heard them before they work. This truth is rather a good formula - if successful ideas had been so obvious, a lot of companies would have processed them a long time ago. This is why capitalists lose when they think only commercially. Thus, Bemorepanda created a selection of startups that didn't seem so exciting at first.

Here are some ideas that were born out of joke and became well known.

#1. Facebook

Then people needed another social network like MySpace or Friendster. The network was initially accessible to only a few thousand antisocial and overworked members of the Ivy League. Then everyone will join the network, because Harvard students are too cool, right?

#2. Dropbox

A new solution for distributing and synchronizing files has been identified and created in a market where there are dozens of other solutions created by large companies, such as Microsoft. It has only one function and you only have to move your content from the computer screen to Dropbox or vice versa, in order to work.

#3. Amazon

The platform started with the idea of ​​selling books online, even if internet users are still afraid to use credit cards on the web. Shipping costs will be worth all the money they save. They will do it for convenience, even if they have to wait a week for the book to come.

#4. Virgin Atlantic

The creators of this platform have decided that the airlines are fun. This was differentiated through a funnier security video and a more positive attitude towards customers.

#5. Mint

"Give us your bank accounts, brokerage and credit card information" - that's what the platform's shorter explanation sounds like. Then, keep this data on the web and you will receive it back with the fonts changed to something nicer. To make you feel richer, everything will be on a green background.

# 6. Palantir

"We will build mysterious analytical software, the company will be based in California, a lot of fresh graduates will be hired, many of them immigrants. There will be no sales representatives, but we will conclude big business with the security agencies from the District of Columbia ”- this is the idea of ​​this startup.

# 7. Tesla

Instead of building batteries and selling them in Detroit, Tesla is already selling its own cars and will run the distribution system. The company began its existence during the recession and the collapse of the clean technology industry.

# 8.PayPal

PayPal allows individuals and legal entities to send and receive electronic money online. It also provides other financial and associated services. These services are collectively referred to as the "Service".

# 9. Google

Google provides a quick and easy way to find information on the web, with a database of over 8 billion websites.

# 10. Github

Github is an essential tool in the life of any programmer (and not only). By definition, it is a version-control system that tracks file changes and can help collaborate between multiple people working on a particular project.

With an estimated fortune of Forbes magazine at over 74 billion dollars, Warren Buffett remains in the top 3 richest people in the world. His lucrative investments also earned him the nickname The Oracle of Omaha. In 1962 he began buying Berkshire Hathaway shares, when a share cost $ 7.5. Today the same action is worth $ 119,000! He has earned his fortune as a result and can give advice from his own experience to succeed.

Time Magazine call him one of the most influential people of all time. Besides the already famous 2 rules: Rule no. 1: never lose money and Rule no. 2: never forget Rule no. 1. Warren Buffett has some tips for those who seek to be successful in life regardless of their field of activity. Bemorepanda have selected below 10 secrets for success in 2021, and not only. 

1. Invest in yourself!

Warren Buffettt says in all interviews that the first important investment is in ourselves. The best advice he can give is to constantly invest in us in order to permanently improve our skills and information resources that we have. And this is said by someone who still reads books, reports, business magazines daily, although the wealth he already has could give him for the rest of his life the most luxurious place on the most luxurious beach in the world… but he chooses to still invest in it, daily.

2. Discover your strengths and weaknesses.

"You don't need to be an expert in all areas, but it's important to know how far your area of ​​expertise is and stay within it," says Warren Buffettt. It is best to know your strengths and develop them permanently. Weaknesses can always be improved but be careful to prepare and avoid learning at high cost. Prepare before accessing a new domain. You can learn anything but the important thing is to admit that you don't know or to recognize your level and from there to start.

3. Surround yourself with people you admire.

He advises us to choose friends who behave better than us in the idea of ​​learning to behave better and therefore grow. Mentors are absolutely necessary and Warren Buffettt mentions the power of a mentor on every occasion he has. There is a saying in this sense that sounds something like this: if you think you are or are the smartest in the room, it means that you are not in the right room!

4. Time is the most important resource.

Warren Buffett always says that we all have only 24 hours and it is very important how we spend / spend them. He never attends unnecessary sessions and avoids wasting time. Even Bill Gates mentions in an interview that an important lesson learned from Warren Buffettt is not to waste time and that he became much more careful with his time after discussions with Warren Buffett.

5. Do not hesitate to assume the losses

It sometimes happens that we lose: money, time, energy, etc. The fastest way is to take our lesson and not repeat the mistakes. Let's recognize where we are and what we need to change / improve. Warren Buffett says that "the most important thing to do when you are in a pit is to stop digging."

6. The effect of the snowball - think long term

One of his tips as an investor is to invest in the long term in the companies / industries you understand. Invest in yourself constantly so that you can develop new behaviors. The best reward is the long-term one. Choose goals, long-term plans and constantly improve them. Don't expect it to be the perfect idea, but once the action starts, always add something new and updated. You can enjoy short-term rewards from time to time, but the real results appear in the long run. Never risk losing something you need to get something you don't really need, says Warren Buffett. Snowballs, once it's swirling through the snow, grow, grow - that's the parallel that Warren Buffett makes with human life: once you start thinking long-term, you start accumulating information, skills that must grow daily!

7. Don't be addicted to a single income.

Here are many things we can discuss. You don't need 2 jobs, but there are other variants of part-time activities that can bring you additional income, which by adding them together you can invest in something bigger that works and brings higher income. He himself gives some examples in his interviews that may seem trivial or simple, but if you dedicate your time effectively you can turn your passions into constant income.

8. Never ask the barber if it's time to cut your hair.

It is a plastic way to teach us to ask for advice from the right person, but also to take care of the interest he has. There is no point in asking for advice from those who have not already done what you want them to do, nor is it useful to ask for advice from people whose interests you do not know. "Friends" are not always willing to let you grow, to grow.

9. Don't save after you spend, but spend after you save.

Warren Buffett repeats the idea of ​​saving every income / salary no matter how small / large in all his interviews. The idea of ​​saving is not necessarily a habit of ours, but this advice is already repeated in all successful people, regardless of the field in which they have achieved success. Living from salary to salary can never bring us the financial independence so coveted by most people. You need to know when to stop spending if you want to become financially independent or if you want to learn to enjoy long-term rewards rather than short-term rewards that usually last a short time.

10. Never miss a great opportunity.

He says the lack of action at the right time is even worse than doing nothing. He says it's much better to buy an excellent company at a fair price than a fair company at a "wonderful" price. Opportunities are rare so if it rains with gold take out the big barrel not the finger! Taking risks is one of the keys to the success of those who have succeeded. The state of comfort / safety does not increase!

In 2020 the richest man in the world was Jeff Bezos. In the latest ranking, Forbes put him in first place: the assets of the founder of Amazon grew by $ 27.9 billion in a year, to $ 126.2 billion. This guy from New Mexico, raised by a single mother, definitely has a lot to learn. We have collected the details of the biography and the rules of life of Bezos.

The hometown of the future billionaire - Albuquerque became famous all over the world as the scene of the series "Breaking Bad" about a school chemistry teacher who decided to use his talent in the drug business. Indeed, in those places it was a habit to follow a curved path.

The state was considered criminal, and Jeff was born into a not very prosperous family. His mother was only 17 years old when she gave birth to a boy from her fellow young boyfriend, a circus performer. The young father decided not to participate in the child's life and even Jeff did not receive his surname from him. When the boy was 4 years old, his mother married Mexican Mike Bezos, who adopted and raised the future billionaire.

Jeff was an excellent student at school. He was always attracted by technology and physics, so he entered the physics department at Princeton University, and then became interested in computer science and engineering.

After graduating from college, Bezos got a prestigious job on Wall Street, he was engaged in software development for solving financial problems. And then he decided to quit a stable high-paying job and start a business selling books. Bezos was not going to open a bookstore: he came up with an ingenious idea to sell books via the Internet, which then, in 1994, was developing at a frantic pace. This is how Amazon was born.

And in 2017, its creator became the richest man on the planet, surpassing the size of Bill Gates' fortune. Bemorepanda figured out what to do to be like Jeff Bezos.

1. To sleep more

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jeff Bezos talked about the importance of sleep. He said that he sleeps at least 8 hours every night and considers sleep to be the best remedy for stress, so he does not even use an alarm clock and prefers to wake up naturally. It is said that he even brought a sleeping bag to the office so as not to deny himself the pleasure of taking a nap during the working day.

1. Relax in the morning and have a delicious breakfast

A cheerful and pleasant start to the day is the key to success for the rest. The Amazon founder is trying to diversify his morning diet, unlike, for example, Steve Jobs, who ate the same breakfast for years.

One day, Bezos ordered an octopus with bacon and garlic yogurt sauce for breakfast, all in order to better understand the preferences of a top manager from the company he ended up buying. In addition, the billionaire does not like to arrange meetings in the morning and appoint important events. He prefers to spend this time with his family.

1. Do not mix work and personal life

Jeff Bezos adheres to the concept of "work-life balance" (literally: the balance of life and work). It is about finding harmony in life, when the family part is clearly separated from the professional one.

Bezos opposes working overtime, but does not even answer “family” calls during office hours.

“Being happy at home makes me a better employee and boss at work. If I am in demand and productive at work, at home I am a more balanced and positive father and husband, ”he says.

Of course, a businessman of this magnitude does not leave work at exactly 6 pm, but despite his busy schedule, he always finds time for family vacations.

1. Marry the best woman

Jeff Bezos is happily married. The billionaire has been together with his wife Mackenzie for 25 years. The couple has four adopted children, and Bezos puts family first in his value system.

He said that before meeting his future wife, he tried for a long time to establish his personal life, but to no avail. But Jeff did not abandon his search for the best woman in the world and finally found the one he was looking for: inspiring and inventive.

Mackenzie studied literature at Princeton University, and her favorite book, The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro, is now recommended reading for all Amazon executives.

“I needed a woman who would pull me out of the category of second-rate people, would give me ideas and help implement them,” the rich man said.

1. Give up multitasking

Jeff Bezos always takes turns taking turns, rather than being sprayed across multiple tasks at once. Bezos is convinced that in every task you need to achieve maximum concentration, and multitasking interferes with productivity.

1. Defend your ideas

Amazon was founded on a brilliant idea that was doomed to success. At first, Bezos realized that he wanted to launch an online store. Then I thought about what is most profitable to sell online. There are a myriad of online stores now and you can buy everything from food to furniture. In the mid-1990s, this trading format was new to everyone. People are used to choosing goods in ordinary stores, examining them, trying them on, checking their quality.

There could be no tactile contact on the Internet. Then Bezos realized that in this way you can sell books, because the external qualities in them are not as important as the content. He believed in his idea and made others believe in it. Amazon was originally housed in a garage, but now it employs more than 500 thousand employees.

By the way, Bezos constantly argues with his employees, proving the value of his next "strange idea". And he just gushes with ideas: from an online book store Amazon in a short time has turned into a store of everything.

First, Bezos offered to sell music CDs along with books, then video products were added to them. Later, electronics, video games, clothing, toys, furniture and groceries appeared in the assortment.

In 2013, Amazon Studios was established to produce films and TV series. In 2016, Bezos launched a project to deliver goods using a drone, and one of Bezos's most successful ideas can be considered the creation of a line of Amazon Kindle e-books, which now sell better than paper.

1. Save money and look for tax loopholes

According to legend, Jeff Bezos put together his first desktop in the same garage from old doors, and not at all because the former top manager from Wall Street did not have money for normal furniture: a homemade table reminded the future billionaire of the need to save.

In general, Bezos is considered stingy: Amazon does not have any free cafes, tennis courts, massage parlors, as in Google. On the contrary, employees have to pay even for coffee. However, perhaps it was this trait of Bezos that led him to success.

He opened an Amazon office in Seattle, Washington, which is far from the most populous city by American standards. It was a deliberate move.

Bezos could open a store somewhere in California, where more people live and there is more demand for goods, but there he would have to pay taxes. And in Seattle, local law allowed online companies to avoid paying taxes. True, the loophole was closed in 2008: the state of Washington, suffering from the crisis, forced Amazon to pay taxes.

1. Come up with new projects

Amazon alone was not enough for Bezos. In 2000, our hero created the space company Blue Orgin, long before Elon Musk appeared on the space business arena. Bezos's goal is to make space accessible to everyone. Starting next year, the company plans to sell tours to tourists into Earth's orbit, with Bezos himself among the first space travelers.

In 2013, the billionaire bought the American publishing house The Washington Post, which prints the newspaper of the same name, for $ 250 million. Becoming a media mogul, Bezos did not change anything in the publication and does not try to influence its policies. They say that the only thing he ordered to change is the speed of loading pages on the site.

1. Read a lot

Jeff Bezos didn’t just decide to connect his life with selling books: he always loved to read. He makes his staff mandatory to read the book of the American coach Nassim Taleb “Black Swan. Under the sign of unpredictability. " The author calls the “black swan” rare and difficult to predict events that had significant consequences for the world. Based on this theory, all significant discoveries and historical events are "black swans": the creation of the Internet, the collapse of the USSR, the world economic crisis. Bezos makes sure that his employees are held accountable for their actions and weigh the value of each idea.

1. Taking risks so that later all your life you will not regret what has not been done

Deciding on the most important step in your life - quitting your job to launch your project - Jeff Bezos was also pushed by the book. Before going to his boss, the future billionaire finished the book by Booker laureate Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day (that very favorite work of his wife Mackenzie). The plot of the book is based on the memories of the old butler about his life.

Then Bezos thought: “When I turn 80, I will regret not taking the risk. Even if I were defeated, I would despise myself less than for indecision. " From here the businessman deduced another rule of life, which constantly repeats: “I am often asked:“ Why ”? That's a good question. But much more valuable: "Why not?"