Throughout my journey of building businesses, there were many times when I felt like giving up. Like the time my business partner Frank Restuccia and I received a bill from the ATO for a quarter of a million dollars, or when we couldnt afford to pay ourselves for the first two years, or when we got penalised by Google and lost most of our traffic.

Building a business from scratch is hard and its even harder to make it sustainable. In fact, over one in 10 Australian businesses fail each year.

Every time I make a decision, or feel that intense struggle of getting a new business idea off the ground, or feel overwhelmed, I turn to these tips from the greatest business owners Ive learned from over the years that have changed my life.

Elon Musk will go down in history as one of the most prolific business leaders of our time.

His astounding mind and never-give-up attitude has led to his incredible success. The guy has blown up more rockets and cars than anyone on the planet and when hes down, he brushes himself off and gets back up.

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor. Elon Musk.

The PayPal co-founder taught me to question how things are done and think deeper into problems I want to solve.

In his book, Zero to One, he highlights the very reason why you want to start a business: by changing the world, making a difference or changing the future.

To do so, you need to be innovative, dont be scared to test and work out new ways of doing things. This is how businesses succeed.

Most people dont think of Mick Jagger as a brand expert, but the lead singer and founding member of the Rolling Stones has built a personal brand that has spanned over five decades.

Jagger has been described as one of the most powerful and influential frontmen in the history of rock and roll, worth an estimated US$360 million.

His career includes 26 albums, four solo albums, 26 film appearances and he produced seven films. Jagger has used his influential power and interests to launch educational music programs in schools and a sports promotion company, he owns a music studio and was also knighted by the queen in 2002.

Making mistakes is a big part of our culture at Finder.

Winfrey said, Do the one thing you think you can not do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.

I always tell my crew that if they arent making mistakes they arent trying hard enough.

Not long ago, Jeff Bezos was named the richest man in the world, amassing a fortune of over US$100 billion, and the Amazon founder is someone I look to for inspiration when Im dreaming up big ideas.

The founder of the worlds largest online retailer, Amazon.com, is big on diversity, testing ideas, constantly improving and focusing on the customer as the number on priority.

He built businesses that challenged how people shopped, how people read books, how businesses operate, and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on acquisitions and investments. Bezos builds sustainable businesses for the long-term, with a key mission to help people make decisions.

Arguably the most famous reality star on the planet, Kim Kardashian leverages her worldwide following to build an empire of business lines worth an estimated US$350 million.

The key to success for Kim K is content marketing, starting with the hit reality show, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and growing an audience to market to (she has 151 million followers on Instagram alone) with a consistent stream of content.

One of the worlds top life coaches has built success by helping others succeed.

With a value of $500 million, six international best seller books and seminars in over 100 countries, Robbins has been spreading the power of positive thinking for almost four decades. Life coaching has improved every aspect of my life, Im a big believer in learning self reflection, mindfulness and overcoming fears.

Story continues

One of my all time favourite books is Dale Carnegies How to Win Friends and Influence People, which was first published back in 1936 and still relevant today. It teaches the power of persuasion, the impact your behaviour can have on others, and techniques on how to be a better communicator and leader.

From almost flying around the world in a hot air balloon, bungee jumping, driving a tank through New York City, cross-dressing and wearing a space suit to a press conference, I have certainly learnt a thing or two about Richard Bransons incredible showmanship to cut through the noise with publicity.

Ive even wore a space suit a couple of times at our own events! There is nothing more important than being unique and creating a spectacle when going to market.

When I met Arianna Huffington at a luncheon in 2015, I was burning my candle at both ends. I would work so hard for so many weeks straight that I would get brutally sick and need timeout to recover.

Arianna spoke about her latest book, Thrive, and the importance of sleep on the body and mind. I took action and improved my sleep routine by going to bed at 9.30pm most nights and waking at 3.30am. When I give myself six hours of sleep regularly I dont crash as hard or as often.

When I first read Ben Horowitzs book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers, when it came out in 2014, it was a pivotal point in Finders culture.

Something Horowitz wrote about was wartime versus peacetime CEOs, and this led to Finders newfound war on its competitors. We had sandbags in the office, everyone wore army hats, and I told our crew that our competitors were breaking into our homes and stealing our TVs off the walls. We got pretty fired up and havent looked back.

While on my journey of personal growth, I discovered Ben Horowitz was also a massive fan of Andy Grove. A founder and CEO of Intel, Grove led the company to be the biggest computer processor manufacturer in the world, before he died in 2016. We use many of Groves strategies at Finder, including OKRs objectives, key results to set goals and measure our performance.

The co-founder of music file-sharing company Napster taught me about the importance of being a visionary.

He was the first President of Facebook, and co-founded several other companies to amass an estimated fortune of US$2.4 billion.

Even though Napster was short lived, it was one of the fastest-growing businesses ever and it revolutionised the music industry. The key lesson here is to build things for the future and industries will catch up or lose out.

Fred Schebesta. Source: Supplied

One of the wealthiest people in the world, worth an estimated US$82 billion, Ive learnt the key to building wealth from Warren Buffett is frugality.

Buffetts money lessons that I live by include living below your means, putting money aside to save each month before paying any expenses, and the value in things Price if what you pay, value is what you get.

As the co-founder and former CEO of once the biggest company on the planet, Bill Gates is inspirational as he continues his mission on improving our world.

First it was bringing home computers into our homes and businesses, then Gates founded what is reportedly the largest private foundation in the world, dedicated to improving the quality of life globally.

Building businesses that make a positive impact on people is why I get out of bed every day.

Theres a reason why more people have watched Bren Browns TedX presentation on YouTube than any other. Its because her 20 years of studying vulnerability, courage and shame resonates deep inside your core.

She said, Vulnerability is having the courage to show up when you dont know the outcome. Its about being uncomfortable, and being ok with that. Vulnerability stifles creativity: If youre not willing to fail, youre not willing to innovate. If youre not willing to build a vulnerable culture you cant create.

I love how the lead singer of Queen, Freddy Mercury, created a brand that rebelled on so many levels.

The bands music defied mainstream pop culture of the 1970s, it combined genres in an innovative way, it pushed boundaries of music industry rules, and created a style that was shocking and dramatic.

Even its name was defiant. In an interview when Mercury was asked why the name Queen, he replied, because at the time it was outrageous. Dont ever conform. Do things differently.

Stephen Coveys famous book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, is my bible. Make all of these seven lessons your daily habit and it will change your life.

No one championed the customer better than Steve Jobs.

The co-founder, and former CEO and Chairman of Apple Inc. was obsessed about the user experience and made Apple devices so smooth and easy to use that it became the benchmark worldwide.

Everyone who builds a product or service should benchmark Apples user experience.

Just win baby! is Al Daviss most famous line and the motto for the American football team, the Oakland Raiders Davis was the owner and general manager of the team for 39 years.

With Daviss leadership, the Raiders were one of the most successful teams in history. In business, winning is the only thing that matters. Second place is the first loser. If you are driven to win, you will stay focused on your goals.

When there is too much going on or new ideas are presented, this is when you need to stop and think back to what the goal is. If they dont contribute to achieving your original goal it may not be worth pursuing.

Fred Schebesta is Co-founder of Australias most visited financial comparison website, Finder, Co-founder of cryptocurrency broker, HiveEx, and 2019 Australian Financial Review Young Rich Lister. Hear from Fred and business partner Frank Restuccia about how they build sustainable businesses at Finders Founders Lunch in Sydney on December 3.

Make your money work with Yahoo Finances daily newsletter. Sign uphereand stay on top of the latest money, news and tech news.

See the original post here:
My life-changing tips from 20 of the best business owners in the world - Yahoo Finance Australia