Got an encouraging letter from the CEO of IKEA

[Dainan]

Hi there. I have a question for all you creative minds out there!
I speak English and Swedish fluently, Japanese with great proficiency and Portuguese with great verbal skills but poor writing skills since I only learnt it from speaking it with my father and never studied it. Anyways, I am burning with desire to have my own business and as you might have guessed I am a big fan of languages and I am trying to find a way to apply my language skills professionally.

I like to hear peoples opinions and ask them for advice and just for the heck of it sent a letter to Ingvar Kamprad, the CEO of IKEA and asked him for advice on getting started and I actually got a handwritten letter back from him. Judging by the postage stamps he sent it from his other home in Switzerland ( I sent it to the head office here in Sweden) He encouraged me to follow my dreams, make the best of this life and to never forget that action is what counts, and that part really spoke to me. I have so much inspiration inside that it could last for a lifetime, but for some reason I seem to have trouble converting it into action.

So that's why I decided to ask you guys for ideas, and then go with whichever idea feels best to me and just DO IT no matter what, and then post the results here! =)
So do you guys have any ideas for what might be a good next action step for me to take in order to start up my own business?
My very best regards

//Manuel

[Mega B]

Do you have any hobbies,interests infact anything that we may be able to suggest some ideas as this is usually a good place to start and yes it is nice to receive a letter from the Top man at Ikea unless you take action it means very little,so it is totally upto you to carry this one forward you may want to start a Blog as you have language skills and prehaps move on from that one.

You can have a Blog up and running within a day so at least you would have taken the 1st step.

[lmadam]

Its always great that a CEO of a major company like Ikea would take the time to reply to just one letter asking for advice, it really says alot about Ikea as a whole. Just imagine how many letters he must get per day!

I think you should indeed follow your dreams, no matter how many times your pushed back I think you should stick to those dreams, the business world is a dog eat dog world everyone is trying to make it somewhere, but the dreams and the will power is really what really counts. As for ideas for your next business, I think you should really start up something you have a love for (not just the skills), most entrepreneur's set up a business just for the money. When i'm working on new ideas I like to think of the stuff I love doing, and then brainstorm those ideas.

Good luck working on your new business!

Regards,
Adam

[Dainan]

Do you have any hobbies,interests infact anything that we may be able to suggest some ideas as this is usually a good place to start and yes it is nice to receive a letter from the Top man at Ikea unless you take action it means very little,so it is totally upto you to carry this one forward you may want to start a Blog as you have language skills and prehaps move on from that one.

You can have a Blog up and running within a day so at least you would have taken the 1st step.

Thank you for your advice and I absolutely agree with what you say, it all boils down to the action.
A blog is a very good idea, and I have asked a friend of mine who is really good at designing webpages to help me out with it.

Sorry for not providing more clues about my interests, apart from languages I am very interested in traveling, personal development and aviation.
One idea that popped up was blogging or writing an ebook about my various experiances in Japan that might be relevant to other travelers but that might not be available in the more common travel guide books. Just a thought though, does it sound like a realistic startingpoint or do you think that I'd better brainstorm for some more ideas?

[Mega B]

I think that is a superb niche to be in its something that you have a passion about by the sound of it and i feel that could do very well.You will be suprised actually how just by starting out doing something that appears to be a small project leads on to maybe something bigger.Good luck with it and dont be afraid to ask for help if you are not sure on anything !!!

[Dainan]

Its always great that a CEO of a major company like Ikea would take the time to reply to just one letter asking for advice, it really says alot about Ikea as a whole. Just imagine how many letters he must get per day!

I think you should indeed follow your dreams, no matter how many times your pushed back I think you should stick to those dreams, the business world is a dog eat dog world everyone is trying to make it somewhere, but the dreams and the will power is really what really counts. As for ideas for your next business, I think you should really start up something you have a love for (not just the skills), most entrepreneur's set up a business just for the money. When i'm working on new ideas I like to think of the stuff I love doing, and then brainstorm those ideas.

Good luck working on your new business!

Regards,
Adam

Thank you for your great advice. I am begining to realize more and more that love and passion for what you do is more important than anything. If you have those two, the money seems to follow more easily, and besides if I were to fail, than at least I would enjoy the process leading up to the failure and re-motivating myself would most likely be easier. Great words of wisdom indeed, thank you very much

[Dainan]

I think that is a superb niche to be in its something that you have a passion about by the sound of it and i feel that could do very well.You will be suprised actually how just by starting out doing something that appears to be a small project leads on to maybe something bigger.Good luck with it and dont be afraid to ask for help if you are not sure on anything !!!

This is the reason I love this forum! You guys are extremely helpful and it feels great to have people to run ideas by and get inspiration from, forums like this one are indeed a rare thing
I have decided that I will go for this idea, I feel no resitance about it what so ever and the worst case scenario is that I make no money but at least have a few memoirs of mine written down Thanks for offering your help, I'll defenitively keep you posted on the progress!

My kind regards

Manuel