How do you come up with new business ideas?

If you’re like Steve Jobs, Brad Pitt or Brian Chesky, inspiration and those magical “Aha!” moments come from a place everyone can access: everyday life.

San Francisco’s Funders and Founders took a look at how super successful people have found that one thing that took them from struggling to industry icons.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, for example, had a huge Aha! moment when he realized he would have to sell his product before he could even make it. That just wasn’t how things were done then, but he saw the necessity of it if he planned on going forward with development. Now, software and hardware presales are commonplace.

GoPro founder Nick Woodman was inspired to invent a sturdier adventure camera when he wanted to take pictures of himself surfing. There simply wasn’t anything on the market to fulfill that need.

Sara Blakely started out in sales and though she liked the support of pantyhose, she hated the way they looked with open-toed shoes. Her Aha! moment came when she realized she could cut the feet off and work on redesigning the women’s undergarment. That little idea of hers ballooned into a multi-million dollar business, making her the youngest self-made female billionaire on the planet in 2012!

See how other great inventors, famous founders and super successful people got inspired and came up with the ideas they’ll go down for in history in the infographic below:

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