Contact us anytime to know more — Kuldeep K., Founder & CEO CISIN
Eleanor Roosevelt
The former First Lady of the United States is an inspirational hero to Sophia Nadur, co-founder of Tg Green Teas.
"She had been a tireless champion for civil rights while First Lady and she afterward petitioned the U.S. to join the UN," states Nadur.
"She remains a quiet icon for so many female entrepreneurs and ethnic minority homosexual people like me. That she could have been a closeted lesbian is a poignant reminder of the personal sacrifices she made to advance the rights of others"
Benjamin Franklin
Nobody has inspired Tim Cameron-Kitchen, mind ninja at digital marketing agency Exposure Ninja, over this versatile and gifted statesman, diplomat, scientist, and inventor, who was also a leading figure in the American struggle for liberty.
"He dwelt 100 lifetimes in a single and had numerous incredible achievements," says Cameron-Kitchen. "It just shows you can alter numerous industries in 1 lifetime.
You have to think big and have the confidence to do it."
Dame Stephanie Shirley
The philanthropist and businesswoman top the list of motivational leaders for Renee Watson, head of explosions at the Curiosity Box, a provider of STEM activities directed at bringing science to life for kids.
Shirley arrived in the UK on the Kinderstransport, aged five, in 1939. In 1962 she put up software firm F. I. Group PLC and is famous for championing women's right to be regarded as equals in the office.
"She's purpose driven, demonstrating that entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and accountability can be incredibly powerful and happy bedfellows," says Watson, who admits to at times having questioned her own business acumen for failing to focus enough on the money.
"I'm sure a thriving business can be one with philanthropy at its heart and using stories such as those of Dame Stephanie to show that it's possible continues to be incredibly useful," she adds.
Lord Alan Sugar
Tee Jay Lyons, the founder of business growth consultancy Cubed Business Development, was in the construction sector since 2004 where he started out as a laborer.
However, it had been British small business magnate Lord Alan Sugar who had the largest influence on his fantasies of being an entrepreneur.
He had decided that he wanted to enter business from a really young age, and in age four was putting signs and cost lists for bike repairs on his family's kitchen window.
A couple of years after Lyons found that the father of a family friend had started out with Alan Sugar and heard tales from the 70s and 80s about them minding thousands of screwdrivers out of China and flashing signals like the ones that you see in bars and salons.
"This made me want to conduct my own import/export company, which I did from the age of 17," he states. "The simple fact that Sugar had started out as a child selling things out of a van was something that I could identify with and it prompted me to aim higher and try bigger things."
Winston Churchill
Remembered for leading Britain through her best hour, the former British prime minister continues to be an inspiration for many company leaders, such as Paul Mizen, managing director of the Recruit Venture Group, that calls him on as a training resource to inspire the rest of his team.
'A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty' is also among his favorite Churchill quotes, which he is presently using to highlight different approaches to the skills shortage within the recruiting market.
He states:"People who reveal that Churchill spirit, who work smarter and harder, will embrace the skills shortage as a chance to charge more since there are a higher demand and a low supply of labors; people are the optimists that sort of people I want to work with."
Eva Peron
As an entrepreneur, you will take knocks and need a feeling of dogged determination to realize your goals and conquer many challenges that are unforeseen.
For the reason, John McLeod CEO of communications agency JEA Associates has always had an admiration for Argentina's most famous first lady.
As a lady in her twenties, born into poverty, and illegitimate in a time when there was a real stigma attached to that, she was believed to be nothing in a universe dominated by military men.
"Despite those considerable barriers she still fought because of her beliefs and with all the courage of her convictions was able to attain enormous social reform and change in what was a very conservative and unequal society," says McLeod.
"That sense of conclusion and self-belief are essential to success as an entrepreneur and that's why I find Eva Peron so inspirational."
Ada Lovelace
As a coder, the most inspiring historical figure for Jules Coleman, CTO, and co-founder of online architectural platform Resi, is the Victorian calculating visionary Ada Lovelace.
"Not only did she design the computer programs, but when she could not get her technologies funded she took her inheritance down to the race track to try and outside math the gamblers," says
Coleman.
The embodiment of innovation, Lovelace clearly demonstrates the amount of determination required by anybody running a startup today.
"No doubt she'd make 1 hell of a business partner if she were around today," says Coleman.
