Over 40 years ago, former President Barack Obama was a 16-year-old teenager scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. He had no idea he would eventually be elected as the United States’ first African American president. Like the former president, every successful person in the world began somewhere. Looking at the success stories of those who have come before us can inspire us to push harder to achieve our dreams.
Career Path of Sara Blakely
We have previously featured Sara Blakely, the founder of the shapewear company Spanx. Before she stumbled on her idea for footless stockings, which became the cornerstone of Spanx, Sara worked several odd jobs. She worked as a ride operator at Disneyworld. Then worked selling fax machines and office copiers for office-supply company Danka Business Systems in Atlanta, Georgia.
At night, she worked on Spanx, which started due to her need for body-shaping pantyhose that she could wear with pants and sandals. Today, Spanx has become the generic term for compression fabric shapewear. You can get Spanx from select retailers such as Macy’s.
Career Path of Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, first worked at McDonald’s. Yes, that fast-food giant! Bezos, the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, tweeted a photo of him eating a McDonald’s burger, captioning it “My first job.”
Bezos worked at a McDonald’s in Miami in high school. From that gig, he learned that customer service is “really hard… They wouldn’t let me near the customers.” In an interview with Fast Company, he said:
One of the great gifts I got from that job is that I can crack eggs with one hand. My favorite shift was Saturday morning. The first thing I would do is get a big bowl and crack 300 eggs into it. One of the things that’s really fun about working at McDonald’s is to get really fast at all of this stuff. See how many eggs you can crack in a period of time and still not get any shell in them. (laughing)
– Fast Company
After college, Bezos accepted a job at a telecommunications startup called Fitel. He started debugging code for the company and quickly rose through the ranks as the company’s head of development and director of customer service.
He then took a job in the hedge fund company D.E. Shaw where he became one of its vice presidents. In that role, he was tasked to research new business opportunities in the then-growing Internet. That’s when he came up with the idea of selling books online. He pitched the idea to D.E. Shaw, but when the company refused, he decided to leave and start his own company. Amazon.com was born.
If you’re frustrated with your career paths or are just looking for some inspiration, be encouraged by the simple first jobs of some of the highest-achieving individuals in the world from Resume-Now. You never know where your path will take you next.
Source: Resume-now.com
