Inspiring Business Leaders

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3 Unlikely Business Leaders

Sometimes, to succeed in corporate America, it might seem like no one has a chance without a Harvard business degree or similarly prestigious background. However, as some unlikely leaders can show us, formalized education isn’t always a prerequisite for leading a company.

Theodore Agranat: From High School Dropout to Tech Company CEO

Theodore Agranat is the CEO of Leadix, a social business software company located in Massachusetts. Born in Russia, Agranat had a tough childhood that was profiled in a Huffington Post article. As a boy, Theodore had to cope with the difficulties of an alcoholic father and a mother who left the household when he was 7. Seven years after that, Theodore’s father was committed to a psychiatric hospital, leaving Agranat scrambling to find foster families for his younger siblings, and deciding to drop out of high school shortly thereafter.

Theodore moved to the United States at the age of 17, and although he didn’t have a smooth start right away things are much more stable now, and he credits a positive mindset to his eventual successes.

Nick D’ Aloisio: A Teenage Computer Whiz

Whereas many people who have an idea for a smartphone app are content to wait for others to create it, Nick D’ Aloisio took matters into his own hands, and now, at the age of 17, has recently sold the technology for his Summly App to Yahoo! for $30 million. The app converts news snippets, so they’re more easily viewable on mobile devices. According to coverage from a Chicago CBS affiliate, D’ Aloisio said that although other companies were interested, Yahoo! was the most appropriate fit.

Despite his young age, Nick D’ Aloisio quickly became familiar with the business world to complement his desire to build apps, an interest that sparked at age 12. At 15, he became the youngest person in the world to successfully raise venture capital, and now that he’s a bit older and has made a sale who knows what’s in store?

Dennis Anderson: Living Out of His Car to Launching an Online Store

2003 wasn’t an easy year for now-entrepreneur Dennis Anderson. As reported in the Huffington Post, Anderson found himself at the point of having completed a community college program Massachusetts but having no idea what to do next. As things progressed, he went through a series of relationship problems that caused him to begin living out of his car and adapt to an environment where he was even unable to shower on a regular basis. Desperate to change things, he drained his saving account and used the money to drive across the country, finally settling on the West Coast, where he still had to sleep in his car for a month.

Things took a better turn when Anderson met a person who sold jewelry on the online marketplace Etsy. Investing a small sum of about $20, Anderson drew from that inspiration and began creating soaps to sell through the Internet. Today, the company is based in Portland Oregon, and has dozens of product pages filled with inventive items like soap bars made Guinness beer, whipped soaps that come in a jar and a large assortment of made-from-scratch lip balms.

These three dedicated individuals have demonstrated by example that there are many traits that make up successful business leaders, and it’s not always necessary to learn those in a traditional classroom, wait to start working on a dream until later in life, or delay aspirations until a living situation seems secure.

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