I was recently lucky enough to be sent a story which – well if it doesn’t inspire you, you need to crawl under a stone and hibernate til winter 2040!!

This story is a true story about a truly amazing woman who took, probably without even knowing it, the exact steps that it takes to become a true entrepreneur.

  • Find a problem
  • Find a solution to the problem
  • Find a hungry market that has the problem and market to them
  • Keep going without waning, allowing nothing to dissuade you…

That woman was Sarah Breedlove.

Why, I hear you ask, is she SO different from any other woman in the world who becomes an emtrepreneur?

Well, if I tell you Sarah was born in 1867 on a Louisiana plantation and was an African American, the daughter of former slaves, can you begin to see why she IS SO inspirational?

Sarah was orphaned at the age of 7 and only survived by working in the cotton fields with her older sister. She got married at the tender age of 14 to escape the abuse of her brother in law.

She had a daughter at the age of 18 and was widowed at the age of 20. She then moved to St Louis to be near her 4 brothers who had become barbers. She worked her butt off for $1.50 a DAY and saved enough to educate her daughter. It was during this time that she began to view the world differently (although I would say that her tenacity and obvious mindset enabled her to do so!).

In her mid twenties she began to suffer from what I would say was alopecia (balding of the scalp). Imagine suffering that as a woman in your mid twenties?

She researched the ailment and tried a ton of home made remedies, one of which was by a lady called Annie Malone – an entrepreneur of the time.

In 1905 Sarah moved to Denver as a sales rep for Annie Malone, and met and married Charles Joseph Walker, a newspaperman. She changed her name to Madam CJ Walker, found a miracle cure for the scalp condition which contained sulphur, had a dream and started her own business.

Now, I am sure she could have mad a nice little business locally with her idea.

NOT Madam CJ Walker

She travelled the deep South and South East of the US for a year and a half KNOCKING DOORS!  giving demonstrations and growing her business. People have never liked door to door salesman let alone the fact that she was a woman in a time when men ruled the home.

  • How many times do you think she had the door slammed in her face?
  • How many times do you think she suffered rejection?
  • How many times you you think she ran the risk of physical abuse ?

What A Woman!

She then moved to Pittsburgh where she opened a college to train people to do what she did.

By 1910 she had settled in Indianapolis and opened a factory. She began to travel the whole of the US telling all about her products.

When she died in 1919 at the age of 51 she had become the first self made woman American millionaire.

NOW !

If Madam CJ Walker did not have a millionaire mindset, then I dont know who has!

If you have your own Business or have thought about starting your own Business or maybe you are just starting out?

How much more inspiration do you need than what you have just read? Let me know your thoughts

(If you would like more info on Madam CJ Walker go to http://madamcjwalker.com/ )