I love the backstory of “overnight successes”.

This is a track off Kanye West’s debut album, College Dropout, which gives an oral history of his struggles and failures leading up to him signing his first record deal. Broke and brokem, evicted from his apartment, its a fascinating story on one person’s ambition and determination to succeed.

Its a great story for entrepreneurs as it spins a tale of not only hard work, but the role luck and serendipity play in the overall scheme of one person’s rise to the top. The line that always sticks in my mind as the truning point for him is the line where he says “there comes a time in every man’s life where they need to take it to the next level”. Whether you’re at a job you hate, have an dream you want to pursue, or just want to take something in your life to the next level, here’s a little inspiration for you.

College Dropout went on to sell 3.5M copies in the US and landed Kanye a Grammy. Not bad for a first album. Easy road to the top right? As they say, there’s no such thing as an overnight success.