I was reading recently about the incredible career of Robert Bassam, the CEO of Eastern Automotive Group and it is a story which anyone who is looking at getting into business should know about.

The young Robert Bassam was raised on food stamps and had a tough life growing up in Miami, Bassam moved to Washington in 1986 to scratch a living working in a Mexican restaurant, but he always had dreams of success. A lover of cars, Robert saved up $50 from his tips at the restaurant and bough two cars from the local Salvation Army and within a week flipped them to two of his co-workers for $300.

“That’s when the light bulb went off,” Bassam said

Assam took this success and began turning it into an idea, he pooled his money with another co-worker and they bough 20 more cars. After making significant profits from being a car wholesaler, BAssam continued with his dream and in 1991 he opened his first dealership. Twenty five years later, Bassam is now the successful CEO of Eastern Automotive Group and his company is seeing annual revenue of over $300 million.

This story is a true rags to riches tale and if you want to get into business then here are some lessons you can learn about what kind of attitude you need to get into business.

Persistence

The business world will test you incredibly, you will face failures and you will make mistakes but you need to have an attitude which doesn’t quit, regardless of adversity. Any business leader in the World will be able to tell you the times that they have failed but there persistence eventually saw them through.

Hard Working

By his own admission, Bassam was working 90 -100 hour weeks when he was trying to get his company off the ground and in the long run, this hard working approach bore fruit. If you have an idea that you believe in then you are going to need to be prepared to put in all of the hours that you can to make it work.

Making Friends

There was a time in Bassam’s career when things weren’t going to plan but thanks to some friend which he had made during his rise, he was able to pull things around. The old adage is really true that if you treat people badly when you are on the way up then don’t expect to feel bad if they kick you on the way down. Make good contacts, build strong relationships and ensure that you maintain them.

Forward Thinking

You should of course always focus on the present but if you want to be successful in business then you must always be thinking of the future. Planning for growth, predicting customer trends, forecasting how the market might go and constantly having a 5 and 10 year plan is the kind of attitude which you need to have when thinking about the future.