Lesson #1: Go In Search of Inexperience
Lesson #1: Go In Search of Inexperience
Eastman quit his job at the bank, vowing to his bosses, “I will succeed!” Meanwhile, his co-workers and bosses alike were shocked that he would leave his lucrative banking job to pursue photography. Asking him to return, one of the bankers even wrote Eastman a letter that read: “What a foolish thing to do, to pursue this will-of-a-wisp, when you have such a promising career as a banker.”
He had not graduated from high school, let alone obtained a college degree. He had not even been involved with photography for more than a few months. Yet here was Eastman, determined to make a success out of his newest passion – the camera.
Eastman was living proof that experience is no deciding factor for success. In fact, it was his very lack of experience that propelled him forward, that gave him the optimism and hope that something better was possible.
What Eastman lacked in formal experience he made up for with dogged persistence and hard work. While working as an errand boy, he would spend his evenings pouring over accounting books in the hopes of getting a job that paid more than his then salary of $3 a week. His strategy worked, so he continued to do the same thing while working at the bank: using his evenings to learn more about whatever it was he needed to succeed.
Eastman knew that he did not need to be an insider in order to innovate. He did not need to be a college graduate in order to build a successful company. And, he did not need to know anything about cameras to first know that it was his passion.
It was the attitude of going in search of fellow inexperienced people that helped take Eastman’s company to the top. He did not want people that had been in business for 20 years to join him. He wanted the inexperienced, the hungry. He wanted people like him, who were self-taught and inspired to work because they were ambitious.
Along those lines, Eastman first hired Henry Reichenbach, a science student at the University of Rochester. Although not self-taught, Reichenbach had no prior experience with cameras. “We have a young chemist who devotes his time entirely to experiments and we hope he will strike the right emulsion sooner or later,” said Eastman of his new hire. “He knows nothing about photography, which is all the better.”
Much like you did not have to be a skilled photographer to use Eastman’s Kodak camera, neither did you have to be a model student or experienced business person to work for him. Eastman was inexperienced and he went in search of the same on the road to success.
Lesson 1 Go In Search of Inexperience
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Eastman was a hard worker at the Rochester Savings Bank. He was meticulous in his record-keeping and never missed a day, despite staying awake at nights to work on his photographic dry plates. So, when he was passed over for a promotion in favour of one of the bank executive’s relatives, he was outraged. If his work was not going to be recognized, then he did not want to be doing it any longer.
Eastman quit his job at the bank, vowing to his bosses, “I will succeed!” Meanwhile, his co-workers and bosses alike were shocked that he would leave his lucrative banking job to pursue photography. Asking him to return, one of the bankers even wrote Eastman a letter that read: “What a foolish thing to do, to pursue this will-of-a-wisp, when you have such a promising career as a banker.”
He had not graduated from high school, let alone obtained a college degree. He had not even been involved with photography for more than a few months. Yet here was Eastman, determined to make a success out of his newest passion – the camera.
Eastman was living proof that experience is no deciding factor for success. In fact, it was his very lack of experience that propelled him forward, that gave him the optimism and hope that something better was possible.
What Eastman lacked in formal experience he made up for with dogged persistence and hard work. While working as an errand boy, he would spend his evenings pouring over accounting books in the hopes of getting a job that paid more than his then salary of $3 a week. His strategy worked, so he continued to do the same thing while working at the bank: using his evenings to learn more about whatever it was he needed to succeed.
Eastman knew that he did not need to be an insider in order to innovate. He did not need to be a college graduate in order to build a successful company. And, he did not need to know anything about cameras to first know that it was his passion.
It was the attitude of going in search of fellow inexperienced people that helped take Eastman’s company to the top. He did not want people that had been in business for 20 years to join him. He wanted the inexperienced, the hungry. He wanted people like him, who were self-taught and inspired to work because they were ambitious.
Along those lines, Eastman first hired Henry Reichenbach, a science student at the University of Rochester. Although not self-taught, Reichenbach had no prior experience with cameras. “We have a young chemist who devotes his time entirely to experiments and we hope he will strike the right emulsion sooner or later,” said Eastman of his new hire. “He knows nothing about photography, which is all the better.”
Much like you did not have to be a skilled photographer to use Eastman’s Kodak camera, neither did you have to be a model student or experienced business person to work for him. Eastman was inexperienced and he went in search of the same on the road to success.
Lesson 1 Go In Search of Inexperience
Like this article? Share it with your friends
| |||
 |
No article feedback found. | ||
|
Leave Your Feedback | ||
|
|||
 Fast Food Fury: How DeLuca Created a Franchising Phenomenon
| |||
 “What's happening to us is beyond whatever I imagined,” says DeLuca, looking back on his career. “If you told me 30 years ago that one day I'd be sitting in a Subway store in Russia, I'd have said you were crazy.” D... |
|||
|
SEO Myths
| |||
| SEO Myth #1 |
|||
|
Lesson #2: High Hopes Help Hold You Up
| |||
 Hall was 16 years old when he came up with the idea of starting the Norfolk Post Card Company. He was ambitious to say the least. At the time, the market for imported postcards was limited, which would have made his... |
|||
|
Entrepreneur – How Not To Have A Bad Employee?
| |||
| You hired a new member of staff and made the mistake of not conducting an immediate background check. They seemed so nice and looked like they would be a good fit in your business but now you are having second thoug... |
|||
|
Search Engine Optimization
| |||
| Utah Web Services brings you an overview of what search engine optimization is and how it can help you. |
|||
| |||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
 |
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
 |
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 |
 TeleSeminar Etiquette Confidentiality Agreement Positive Thinking Power of Concentration Accessing Capital |
|
 | ||
 |
The Top 10 ProBlogger Posts
Best Posts for Bloggers | |
 |
Top 50 Marketing Blogs
Top Marketing Blogs of 2009 | |
| ||
 |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||
