FOUR LESSONS FROM HOGWARTS SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS
by Ky Ekinci
For one reason or another , I never got into Harry Potter back in the 90s and early 2000s when the books and movies were huge . That is , not until HBO Max added the series during the Summer of 2021 and I binge-watched all eight movies over the course of a week .
As I watched each and every movie in the series , I started making some observations and drawing parallels to the small business world .
Here are 4 of these parallels :
1
Don ’ t just hope for success - put the work in .
Harry Potter ’ s success as a wizard was not an overnight achievement . It took years of hard work , perseverance and seeking help from others before he became successful in accomplishing the big goal of defeating Voldemort ( oops , maybe I should not have said his name ).
Though Harry was given some of Voldemort ’ s power back when he was a baby , he was only able to defeat Voldemort in the end because he had learned and practiced the necessary skills . He went to class , learned the spells , practiced when he could and came out on top in the end . Had he not had the diligence to prepare , he may not have been the victor .
His natural talent for wizardry was high but his progress was slow . Like in anything , mastery takes years .
If you ’ ve read Malcolm Gladwell ’ s best-selling book “ Outliers ,” you are probably familiar with the concept of the 10,000 hours rule . Gladwell claims that it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials . Many are not
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