Business

Aaron Sansoni - Amancio Ortega

Think Like Spotlight: Amancio Ortega
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This month’s entrepreneur spotlight focuses on one of the richest men in Europe! As of the date I wrote this blog post, his real-time net worth was listed at $65.5 billion. Ortega is considered a revolutionary in the field of fast-fashion and has investments in more than 6 cities across 3 countries.

Claim To Fame: Zara, Inditex

Entrepreneurial History:

Amancio Ortega is a Spanish-born entrepreneur. He got his first taste of the fashion industry around the age of 14 when he gained employment at Gala, a local shirtmaker. It was here that Ortega learned how to handcraft clothing. After some time, he moved on to manage a retail store meant specifically for wealthy gentlemen.

The billionaire has a reputation for being extremely private about his personal life, so not much else is known about his early years. In fact, he’s so private that he had only given three journalist interviews as of 1986, and the first photo of him wasn’t published until 1999; an impressive feat considering he began his ascent into entrepreneur stardom nearly two decades earlier.

Amancio founded his first company in 1963. It was called Confecciones Goa and it specialized in the sale of bathrobes.

Amancio Ortega and his late wife Rosalia Mera opened their first Zara location in 1975. By 2009, the company was a part of a larger group known as Inditex. The parent company is home to several well-known brands including Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, and Bershka. Ortega owned just under 60% of Inditex —the Spanish entrepreneur founded the holding company in 1985. It went public in 2009.

A (then) unique feature of Ortega’s Zara stores was the concept of fast-fashion. For those unfamiliar with the concept, fast-fashion occurs when clothing manufacturers “sample” looks from prominent runways and reproduce them using less expensive materials and more efficient manufacturing methods and supply chains. It was a relatively new idea in the 1970s, but it took hold quickly because it provided consumers with a quick, affordable way to obtain looks that were or would be trending in the fashion industry.

In 2011, Amancio Ortega retired from Inditex while maintaining his majority stake. Within the year he began acquiring various commercial buildings around the world. His real estate holdings, which he purchased with the help of dividends from his entrepreneurial career, helped bolster his already significant wealth. As of February 2019, Forbes reported that Ortega tends to earn approximately $400 million per year in dividends.

Find out more about Amancio Ortega and other Entrepreneurs in Think Like by Aaron Sansoni!

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Aaron Sansoni - Learn from Think LIke

What You’ll Learn From Reading Think Like
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I’ve mentioned once or twice now that reading Think Like is not like reading your everyday self-help book. It’s meant to motivate, inspire, and advise on a very real, very professional level. You won’t hear wishy-washy words or vague bits of generic instructions. Instead, you’ll be exposed to the true success stories of some of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time in hopes that understanding their mindset helps to condition your own.

When you read Think Like, you should expect to walk away with a better understanding of the following concepts:

How To Think Like A Leader

It is true that leaders are required to think and behave differently. Great leaders are working for their team and not the other way around. And, while leadership goals are usually similar in nature, there are countless different ways to approach achieving them.

Best Practices

Theories are great, but examples are better. Think Like features sample best practices that you can implement on your own as you create your personal entrepreneurial journey.

Obtaining Insights From Various Backgrounds 

 There’s more than one path to successful leadership. Each of the 21 entrepreneurs featured in Think Like took their own path. They all came from different backgrounds, had different life experiences, and mastered different fields, meaning you are benefitting from a comprehensive and diverse range of experience.

Building and Nurturing Business For A Lifetime

Once you’ve decided to commit to yourself and your business, you’ll want to make sure that you are working in ways that ensure long-term success as opposed to short-term satisfaction.

Inspiration and Motivation To Create A Bigger Life For Yourself 

 Motivation is contagious. When you read about the work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit of the world’s top 21st-century business leaders, you can’t help but be inspired to make changes in your own life.

Thinking and Acting For A More Lucrative and Rewarding Professional Life

Think Like guides you in creating a mindset and behavioral patterns that are in line with crushing your goals and obtaining personal and professional satisfaction.

Reading Think Like is a great first step towards creating your own path to entrepreneurial success. Learn what worked for household names like Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffet. Choose recommended best practices that fit your goals and capabilities. And then? Get out there and create your future.

For additional advice on leadership and business best practices, check out AaronSansoniTraining.com.au.

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Aaron Sansoni - Spotlight Oprah Winfrey Blog Header

Think Like Spotlight: Oprah Winfrey
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Think Like contains a wealth of knowledge and tips passed down for world-renowned entrepreneurs to readers like you and me. All of the businessmen and women featured in the book followed their own path to success. It stands to reason that they all have a unique story to tell. Each month, I break down a small bit of the entrepreneurial history of one Think Like entrepreneur here on this blog. This month, we’re looking at Oprah Winfrey!

Claim To Fame: The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oxygen Network, Harpo Productions

Entrepreneurial Highlights

Oprah was born in an extremely impoverished area in rural Mississippi and raised in inner-city Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While her early years were riddled with struggle and strife, Oprah came into her own during high school. She began working in the communications and media industry before she graduated, and very quickly made an impression on everyone she came into contact with. She was setting and breaking records by the age of 17.

Winfrey would go on to work her way up the ranks in the media/communications field, capturing the attention of her viewers. Her first entrepreneurial ventures, Harpo Productions, Inc. and The Oprah Winfrey Show, would stem from this success. The widely popular show debuted in September of 1986 and aired for 25 seasons. Although the show was originally typecast as a tabloid talk show, Oprah soon put her own personal brand on every episode. She pioneered a new form of “public confessional” interview known as Oprahfication. The tv hostess moved to own and produce her own show via Harpo Productions in 1988.

Harpo Productions, Inc. contributed to various media and production projects over the next ten years both in and out of the film industry. In 1996, Winfrey launched a book club that changed the literary sales landscape for many unknown authors. 1998 saw her join forces with Geraldine Laybourne and others to establish Oxygen– a women’s cable television network. She debuted her own magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, in 2000, helped produce a Broadway rendition of The Color Purple in 2005, and started The Oprah Winfrey Network with Discovery Communications in 2011.

Today, Oprah Winfrey is consistently referred to as one of the most powerful women in the world. She influences consumers everywhere whenever she makes an endorsement— a phenomena known as the “Oprah Effect.” And, she’s received countless honorable titles including but not limited to:

  • One of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century – TIME (2004-2011),
  • One of the most influential people – TIME (2004-2011),
  • Most influential woman of the previous quarter century – USA TODAY (2007),
  • Most influential black person of the previous quarter century – USA TODAY (2007), and
  • Most powerful celebrity – FORBES (2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013).

To learn more about Oprah Winfrey and her success mindset, pick up a copy of Think Like.

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Aaron Sansoni - Think Like Spotlight Richard Branson Blog Header

Think Like Spotlight: Richard Branson
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When you read Think Like you are not just reading another self-help book. You are reading over 20 different roadmaps to success. Perhaps one of the most non-traditional roadmaps in the book is that of a well-known entrepreneur from England: Sir Richard Branson.

Claim To Fame: Virgin Group

Entrepreneurial History

Like many other entrepreneurs, Richard Branson developed an early interest in entrepreneurship. In fact, he was just 16 years old when he embarked on his first business venture in 1966: a magazine called Student. With the magazine as his medium, Branson was able to interview and interact with some of the most influential musical names at the time. He also utilized the magazine to sell discounted versions of popular records. It was this success that sparked his first brick and mortar business — Virgin Record Stores.

Virgin started out simple enough. Richard and his business partners were merely selling records after all. But the money was good and the interest was there so, in 1972, Richard Branson launched the very first Virgin Records label. Virgin Records would remain a part of Branson’s repertoire until 1992 when he sold it for £500 million to assist in maintaining another of his more prominent business ventures: Virgin Atlantic Airways.

The airline company was formed in 1984 after a flight Richard was scheduled to be on was canceled. Rather than change his plans, the entrepreneur decided to charter his own plane and offer a ride to the rest of the would-be passengers for a reasonable sum. The company received enough public support and attention to worry other key industry players like British Airways.

Later, Richard would expand his travel interests, which already included air (Virgin Atlantic) and earth (Virgin Trains), to space with the creation of Virgin Galactic. This particular subset of the Virgin group is preparing to offer space tours to the general public.

Always looking to diversify, Branson had also established media group Virgin Mobile in 1999. He owned roughly 75% of the company until 2006 when he executed a sale that would effectively merge the mobile group with a tv/broadband/telephone company called NTL: Telewest. Virgin Mobile “sold” for almost £1 billion, and Richard still owns 15% of the new, merged entity.

The Virgin Group (and Richard Branson) would go on to control more than 400 companies. Some were considered extremely successful, others less so. What’s most important is that Richard’s entrepreneurial brain never stops spinning. He is unafraid to diversify, and he is unafraid to fail. And, in true Richard fashion, he is unafraid to vocalize his thoughts on several modern-day issues like environmentalism and global warming, thereby creating the thin level of transparency valued by modern consumers.

Be sure to pick up a copy of Think Like to learn more about the mindset and practices that enabled Richard Branson to build the Virgin empire.

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