No one is born a prodigy. A prodigy is a term used lightly to describe someone who has adopted a skill early in life and is now proficient in it. I always frowned upon people who used the term prodigy lightly. Because then it would have no meaning.
So, who is a prodigy?
Prodigy is someone who was selling matchboxes in the Swedish countryside about 85 years ago to make extra money. That prodigy was none other than IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, who managed to turn a small-scale mail order business into a global furniture empire.
Born on March 30, 1926, Ingvar Kamprad was a genius entrepreneur. While kids his age were busy doing drugs or wasting their life away, Kamprad focused on grabbing the extra cash by selling matchboxes. He figured that he could buy them very cheaply from Stockholm and sell them at a low price but still make a good profit.
His business eventually started to gain traction, and he began advertising in local newspapers and operating a makeshift mail-order catalog. Things got real in 1950 when Kamprad introduced furniture into his catalog. This is how IKEA was formed.
Today, IKEA has 422 stores spread all across the globe. In the fiscal year of 2018 alone, €38.8 billion (US$44.6 billion) worth of IKEA goods were sold, making it one of the largest users of wood in the retail sector.
Unfortunately, on January 27, 2018, Ingvar Kamprad died of pneumonia; at his home in Småland. He was 91-year-old at the time of his death.
Remembering the legendary soul for the legacy he left behind, here are 3- lessons to take away from the life of Ingvar Kamprad:
Table of Contents
Think different :
What’s special about IKEA is it allows the consumers to get involved in the furniture-making process. This ingenious idea helped IKEA cut shipping and handling costs by placing the responsibility on the customer to assemble their product. When consumers spend their precious time building furniture, it gives them a sense of purpose.
Don’t be afraid of challenges:
Kamprad struggled with dyslexia and had a difficult time navigating his school life. Even in the latter part of his life, this minor setback caused him numerous problems. He struggled to identify specific types of furniture based on their number codes.
So, he chose to use men’s and women’s names, Swedish islands, and Norwegian places instead.This way, identifying furniture became easy for him. By hook or crook, Kamprad got the job done. According to him, we limit our growth according to the standards we set for ourselves. So, move away from the words like ‘never’ and ‘impossible’. When you do so, your problems get automatically solved.
Stay humble:
Even though Kamprad was listed as the world’s 8th richest man on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he stayed humble his entire life. With an estimated net worth of $59 billion, one would expect Kamprad to travel inexpensive cars more often. Well, one anecdote suggests Kamprad preferred traveling through public buses when he was at the pinnacle of his success. Stories like these make us realize what a wonderful person Kamprad was.
Conclusion:
With an expansive career of 85 years, Kamprad’s legacy is something to be marveled at. The business mogul had once said, “A better everyday life means getting away from status and conventions — being freer and more at ease as human beings.”
He was a humble soul with a great passion to go beyond his limits. His success story has a profound impact on the lives of many entrepreneurs, and I am sure it will be a source of inspiration for many others to come- concludes business development expert and Astro strategist- Hirav Shah.
