Overnight Success: The Myth

Overnight success does not happen overnight. The reality is most overnight successes have worked long hours, have had sleepless nights and have been developing their brand for years. The main difference between the person, the night before their success and the day that they become an overnight success is we are now aware of them. Leslie Jones says it best “ People think I’m an overnight success. No. It’s just that you all found me overnight”.

Most Entrepreneurs have been building their brand for years prior to you hearing about them.  The issue is the media prefers to speak about their rise to success rather than their roller coaster success journey. We love to hear about someone starting from the bottom and bringing their company or brand to the top of their field in one swift rise to the top. We ignore the 7-year journey that is filled with ups and downs, and tears and sweats, threats of quitting and finding a renewed sense of faith in the brand. We like instant gratification and overnight successes are just that.

We hear stories of these amazing unicorn startups or privately held companies valued at 1 billion or more. It seems these startups started one day and the next day they became unicorns, but many people fail to realize the path the companies took to get them there.

One example of this is Weworks. Weworks wasn't the first company that co-founders Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey founded. The original company was called green desk. While green desk was a co-working office, it didn’t offer the same features that Weworks does. After selling their stakes in Green Desk, Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey went back to the drawing board and started their second co-working office, Weworks.

Weworks and most companies are not overnight successes. These companies have founders that invested years of their lives to building and ensuring the success of their brand.

One thing these founders have in common is they did not give up. The myth of overnight successes can push many entrepreneurs to give up. Many founders believe that their business will automatically take off and that is usually not the case.

As you are building your business, remember that things take time. There aren't very many true overnight successes. You have to dedicate yourself to building the brand. You will be faced with many ups and downs. Do not allow the overnight success myth to discourage you.