Someone on Quora asked:
What is the best example of success through ignorance? In other words, someone being successful because they didn’t know enough to know that what they were trying to do was “impossible.”
This was my response:
I have this friend. I talk to him every day. I told him to take an IQ test. As a result, he found out he has a very low IQ. Currently his IQ is at 83. When he drinks, I’m sure it drops to 77.
In the past, his IQ used to be around 130, but he owned a bar for nearly half a decade and drank away his cognitive mind. Is what I’m saying correct? I’m trying to pretend I’m smart, but I think I’m just talking gibberish, since I don’t really know much.
Well, anyways, before he managed his bar, he ran a casino in the red and put it back into the green in a month. Prior to that, he sold two small businesses for seven figures each. After his bar failed and he was left penniless since he dumped well over seven figures into his bar, he decided it was time to figure out what industry he wanted to move into next. He tried fashion, manufacturing, etc., then he finally settled on import/export.
He had this client out in Korea who wanted to buy four huge containers of used tires for trucks. His client wanted the tires for a price that was absolutely unattainable.
My friend told everyone he knew about these tires he had to get. Everyone told him it was impossible. So I guess this goes against your situation of not knowing something is impossible, because everyone told him it was. However, he worked at the deal for a whole year.
He encountered scam after scam, since there is a ton of companies who are just full of it in the import/export industry. He learned how the industry worked. Finally, after one year, he met with the manufacturer of Michelin tires, spoke with the daughter of the owner of the company, and closed the deal.
Even though he spoke with everyone who had ten or more years experience in the import/export or tire industry who had told him that the deal was impossible, he just kept moving forward to make it work.
He made $35,000 off that deal alone. Because he did what other people would consider to be impossible, he built a solid reputation in the import/export industry. Now, he’s a mandate for some of the biggest commodity buyers and sellers across the world.
His ignorance encouraged him to pursue his objectives and he was able to close a deal that everyone thought was impossible. He went into the field with zero experience and was able to build a solid reputation behind himself. He had no money and no resources, yet he made it happen.
Sometimes, persistence pays off.
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Originally posted on Quora.
Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.