Inspiration can call at any time. For Yanik Silver, inspiration called him at 3 a.m. Inspiration comes to me often times when I am vacuuming or taking walks in nature. At the end of the post you’ll find out what idea struck Yanik in the wee hours of the morning. But first, a brief background on Yanik’s background in the world of business.
Yanik Silver is the child of immigrants who came to the US with nearly nothing. Starting with nothing can create a drive in people and Yanik Silver likely got his drive through knowing that the only way up is through his own actions. From an early age Yanik was working alongside his father. He wound up working in sales with great success and then moved onto publishing and onto other business ventures that would form him into the successful businessman he is today. But in the eyes of people like Yanik Silver and myself, success in business is not simply about the bottom line.
Like Silver, I am constantly looking to educate myself and to keep improving as a businessperson. You’re following along with me in the latest form of my self-education in reading Evolved Enterprise and applying the principles in this book to my business, Clarity Finances. I don’t want to be just a better businessperson, but a better person overall. I want my business to thrive but I am drawn to the teachings of those like Yanik Silver because he shows how to leverage the success of one’s business into making the world a better place.
Leveraging a business’ success to make the world a better place does sound like a lofty goal, I’ll admit it. But how the leveraging is done is what makes the difference. Evolved Enterprise shows that a business does not leverage itself for the greater good by simply writing checks to charities.
A business that comes to mind when I think of an example of an Evolved Enterprise is Tom’s Shoes, which if you are not familiar with has a ‘One for One’ business model that for every pair of shoes sold in the retail market they will donate a pair of shoes to children of need around the world. The business model of Tom’s Shoes also gives back through hookworm prevention, maternal health, clean water and more.
Now what was Silver’s idea that came to him at 3 in the morning? This was back in 1999 and he had a hunch that doing something involved with the Internet could be lucrative. Already an expert in sales and publishing, Silver wrote sales letters that businesses could use for a variety of uses. He bought his domain name and before he knew it the sales were pouring in. The rest, as they say, is history.
On paper, Clarity Finances is a bookkeeping and QuickBooks business, but through Evolved Enterprise I’m finding its soul, which is to provide the upmost accuracy in bookkeeping while trying to make the world a better place through the leveraging of Clarity Finances’ success.
Have you ever been struck by inspiration in the wee hours of the morning? Would you want a copy of Evolved Enterprise? Please share you thoughts with me on this blog post, Facebook and LinkedIn.