For the last six months I’ve become fascinated with listening to and reading about successful business people and how they got there. I guess it stems from our natural fascination with the underdog who goes from nothing to conquer his demons and eventually come out on top, but is all this just trivial entertainment or can it be having a longer lasting effect on the way that I think?

In the book Made to Stick, Chip & Dan Heath mention that “when people swap stories – they aren’t just entertaining their peers, they’re providing mental training.” In the same way that Fairy Tales are vital in helping children learn about the world they live in, entrepreneurial success stories could have the ability to teach young people how they can shape it.

Simply by listening to another person’s struggles and then how they managed to overcome them can provide vital training for our brains and reinforce our belief that we too can succeed.

Writer and Director Michael Tierno talks about the way catharsis leaves film audiences with a “renewed sense of mental clarity and better able to function in life,” entrepreneurs sharing their own hero’s journey can have the same effect and is exactly what young people need right now to give them to confidence to build a better future.

I’m currently in the process of building my own online business and just through listening to and reading about others has given me the courage as well as the technical knowledge to start.

Here are some great resources I’d like to thank:

Mixergy – http://mixergy.com/ – Entrepreneurs you admire teach you how to build your business.

Good Life Project –  http://www.goodlifeproject.com/ – It’s about building an extraordinary life, deeper relationships and meaningful bodies of work, businesses and movements.

BufferApp – http://blog.bufferapp.com/ – a blog about productivity, life hacks, writing, user experience, customer happiness and business.

Are there any other people out there that have inspired you? Share them in the comment section below!