NOTE: Reprinted from Solo Build It

Hello!

We’ve looked to Thomas Edison and Henry Ford for inspiration in our quest to become a successful solopreneur. Those men were giants of industry, and contemporaries, back in the late 1800s.

Let’s now fast forward 25 years to a young man growing up in the midwest. Bouncing around from Illinois to Missouri to Kansas, young Walt took whatever jobs he could find, like delivering newspapers. He did whatever he could to make ends meet. He took night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Initially, he wanted to create cartoons and drawings for the papers.

No one would hire him.

But he kept at it. He landed a job creating advertisements for a bank, and then, when his first startup with his brother was struggling, he worked for the Kansas City Film Ad Company.

You see, Walt Disney wasn’t going to wait for some investor to come along and hand him a check. He knew that he was going to have to figure things out on his own, and be ready for whatever opportunities arose.

In 1920, while working at that same company, Walt was allowed to take home one of their film cameras to experiment with. He had been reading about how animated cartoons were made and wanted to try some things on his own.

The result was the creation of a series of animated cartoons that were wildly popular in Kansas City, and launched the rest of Walt Disney’s animation career.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

While many of us may lack Walt’s creativity when it comes to cartoons, we can all take a page from his determined resolve to keep working and trying, no matter what. He never lost sight of his dream to be a successful animator — and to make people laugh — and we can all agree he was incredibly successful.

If you’re waiting for angel investors, or a business loan, or a Kickstarter campaign, consider whether that’s really necessary for what you want to accomplish.

Think back to our last conversation about perfection, and the need to first do market research, and then bring a Minimum Viable Product to market as quickly as possible.

“Stay self-funded as long as possible.” —Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, and StumbleUpon

Ready to get started? Check out Solo Build It.