Top 5 Businessmen/Women To Model Your Goals After

By Francine Fluetsch on May 12, 2016

This article is brought to you by Kaplan, the leader in test prep for over 90 standardized tests, including the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT.

When striving towards success, it’s always good to have some role models in your pocket to model your goals after. Maybe it’s their journey to success that inspires you, who they are as a person, what they have accomplished, or all of the above. In the business world, there are many great businesswomen and men that might come to be your motivation for success.

Here are a few of the greats to keep in mind, so if your relatives or professors ask who has inspired you, you’ll have some names to drop and reasons to back it up.

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1. Oprah Winfrey:

Oprah has become so popular, her last name doesn’t even have to be dropped for people to know who you are talking about. She is one of the greats who is very successful and passionate about what she does, and how she does it. She is a prime example that success doesn’t just fall into your lap, you have to go out there and make it for yourself.

Despite hardships in her childhood, she chased after her dreams, and her love of acting and the production of good quality entertainment is what inspired her to start up her very own production company, Harpo Productions, Inc. Through this, Oprah became the first woman to own and produce her own talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show! She used her show to break the mold of talk shows as they were at the time, and shed light on issues like self-help and child abuse.

Her business ventures didn’t stop with her own production company. I’m sure you’ve seen her magazine — O, the Oprah Magazine — which she publishes. She is also a partner with Oxygen Media, Inc, and is quite the philanthropist. She is definitely a woman of inspiration, a person who takes their success and uses it to give back to those who need it — those who didn’t have a voice before.

2. Bill Gates:

This is yet another brilliant mind whom you should know fairly well. While there are many things that make this man noteworthy — you know, like being the co-founder of Microsoft, the author of several books, and being one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution — it’s the way that he gives back that makes him even greater as a human being.

Someone who hits the mark of being one of the wealthiest people in the world could horde it all to themselves, but Mr. Gates donates large sums of his hard earned cash to various charities and scientific research programs through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

3. Mary Barra:

Mary Barra is #65 on Forbes list of Most Powerful People, and #5 on the list of most powerful women. You go girl! Last year, she became the first woman ever to head a Big 8 Automaker, and though there were bumps along the way, she persevered. Don’t you just love these awesome moments in history? We are living through them, people. She has made many decisions that have proved to make GM more disciplined in the financial aspects, and got to lay down her ideas for the future and what is to come to keep business thriving. This is a risk taker right here.

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4. Steve Jobs:

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the name Steve Jobs? Apple products of course. Could you imagine where we would be today without this man? The co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, was an active entrepreneur who paved the way in the world of the personal computer revolution. He is also the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, and CEO of NeXT Inc. to name a few. Whether you like Jobs or not, you can’t deny that his aspirations are inspiring. Could you imagine inventing something so insanely out of this world that everyone would be talking about it, using it, fighting over it, suing it, copying it, etc.?

He is a great example that you should never give up, that if you have an idea and a will, there will be a way.

5. Martha Stewart:

We all know her for her cooking, and this woman goes to show that you can turn any passion into a business. After devoting herself to cooking, she decided to start her own catering business, where her gourmet menus and unique ways of presenting all the delicious food got her noticed by the masses. Martha Stewart Inc. grew and grew, allowing her to publish cookbooks and even her own magazines. And while she had a scandal or two along the way, you can’t help but admire her passion turning into a million dollar business, thriving and giving the people what they want.

These are just a few of the many successful business folks out there that you can aspire to be, aspire to beat, or take as a template to model your goals after. They all had to start somewhere, right?

Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

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