Entrepreneurship is not always an easy task and building a startup requires much more than is often portrayed by the media. It takes diligent efforts and risk-taking to overcome the challenges associated with building a successful startup from conception to reality.
In this article, we will bring to the spotlight Braxton Amundson, a successful entrepreneur and founder of Academia Book Buyers who, despite all the odds, succeeded in actualizing his passion.
While Braxton was in college, he engaged in a door to door campaign for Southwestern Advantage selling educational books. He worked long hours each week and this helped him build entrepreneurial skills. After college graduation, he decided to put his skills into use by establishing a textbook business. He would buy textbooks from college professors and sell them online. He was not restricted to a particular area. He traveled from one college to another across the country.
He traveled a lot around this time, dedicating his early twenties on a path of self-discovery. According to Braxton, he wanted to discover himself and find out what the most important thing to him was. As he traveled, he would take mountain hikes during the day and at night, he would be at the back of his truck. Living like this for years helped him get in touch with nature and his inner self.
When he was 23 years old, he was able to rent a warehouse, buy an inventory and employ a few workers using a $25k loan he took from his dad. Things started falling apart when he ended up owing his workers $4k with barely $800 in his account. This was a pivotal point in his business. He recounted having a panic attack as he could not foresee all of these.
Amundson did not have any thought of giving up. Sleeping in his truck, he was able to save more money and implement strategies to boost his revenue. He also mentioned that emotional support from his family helped him in those struggling times. It helped him deal with his challenges and also to maintain a positive outlook.
He was introduced to Nate Goebel, an entrepreneur also involved in the bookselling industry as well. Nate was an experienced man in the field and they formed a partnership. Soon he was able to pay off his debts, hire more workers and had an 80% increase in revenue.
He mentioned that his journey in life has made him more insightful. He sees each mistake he had made as a gift and also a blessing. All of them are opportunities for him to learn more. His advice for people who want to become successful is to use every opportunity they get to achieve their dreams. Learn from your mistakes and take responsibility for every decision you make or any action you take. Learn to be committed to your partner.
Not only does Braxton sell books, he is also a life coach, using his experience and the lessons learned from his mistakes in helping people who want to be successful to achieve their passion despite the odds or whatever circumstances they find themselves. Braxton offers to coach people on valuable lessons they can learn on how to successfully manage their business and even how they should behave at work. We can learn a lot from his journey, how he overcame several challenges that came his way, and how he built his business into one of the most successful startups.
Braxton is a source of inspiration to others. We can learn from his example of showing courage and accepting responsibility in life. When people do not accept responsibility for their changing circumstances, he states, they reduce the potential to change them and that is dangerous to their business. Taking ownership for his actions enabled him to bring a change.
In any business, there are no shortcuts. As Braxton Amundson proves, hard work, innovation, and good leadership can help startups become successful.
