“Anything is possible if you put your mind to it and you really work hard and you bring the right perspective to it,You shouldn't focus on why you can't do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions.”
says Steve Case.

Founder of America Online.

Steve starting up a greeting card company or selling newspapers door-to-door when he was ten, Case realized as a boy that he was interested in business. Steve was indeed one of the exceptions, with dreams of becoming a rock star, he  would soon use his entrepreneurial zest to become chairman of the world’s largest media and communications conglomerate. He made history by leading the largest ever merger of two media companies, and will go down in the record books as being one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time.
Steve look back on the early stage  of his career , it was struggling to become success to make a name for himself in an industry in which he saw limitless potential. “I just believed, and so I kept doing it…we're going to make this happen. We were going to stick with it.”  Steve said , so how did he make it ?

1- Success doesn't happen overnight:

Steve attained the level of success that he did because he believed in his dreams beyond all reason , When he first got started in the late 1970s, and first began thinking about the potential of the online and interactive world, Case thought his vision would be realized immediately. “I was overestimating the pace at which it would happen early on, and then, mostly because I was a believer, was sort of underestimating exactly when it would happen,” says Case.

2- True entrepreneurs never stop thinking outside the box:

For Case, one of the number one challenges for more philanthropic organizations is that of sustainability ,in order for these non-profit groups to become more successful, Case suggests that they need to begin thinking like an entrepreneur. “The key area I'm focused on is how to move the concept of entrepreneurship into the mainstream in the not-for-profit world,” says Case. you do need to think like one if you’re going to achieve any level of success in any field. It is only by thinking creatively  like true entrepreneur, that you will be able to set yourself apart from the crowd.

3- See the forest through the trees:

Case believes that his general liberal arts training was one of biggest factors of his success later in life. In the beginning, Case was walking new ground in the world of personal computers , few had them and few saw the need for them. It was only in understanding the history of the nature of innovation that Case knew he would have to wait for the world to catch up with his dream. Case rich  success to that of the telephone and the automobile, before those products came out, consumers were happy with just their horse and buggies as the major means of transportation and communication.

4-In order to get ahead, you must take the lead:

“It's not like you just sit back and eventually it's going to happen,” says Case. It's going to happen when people make it happen, and you have to kind of have a strategy that is pragmatic at one level, so you can hang in for the long run, but proactive in another level, so you can actually try to accelerate the pace that it's going to take for something to take off.
“If you're doing something new you've got to have a vision,” says Case. You've got to have some north star you're aiming for, and you just believe somehow you'll get there. Case arrived at his north star and he brought Americans along with him for the ride.