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Colin Powell, an American statesman and a retired four-star general of the U.S. Army even said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” Whether you are trying out a sport, studying for a test, or trying to launch a business, we as individuals must note that success is bred from hard work.

Gaston Taratuta, CEO and Founder of Internet Media Services (IMS), gave expert advice on the importance of a hard work ethic for young entrepreneurs during an interview at the Brainfood event at the LAB Miami. As an individual who started a company with only 5,000 dollars and an idea, Taratuta transformed this idea into Latin America’s largest independent digital ad sales and media buying firm. This process is an example of determination and hard work, yielding significant results.

While many people believe that there must be a balance between life and business, Taratuta stressed that the only way to achieve success is to make your business your life. In his words “entrepreneurs do not want days off, they want to make it happen now, and if you work now, there will be financial freedom later.”

What we can learn from successful individuals such as Gaston Taratuta, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Phelps, Gaby Douglas and many more, is that success and results are not handed out, but instead reflected by the work you put in. Whether you are training 16 hours a day for a gold medal at the Olympics or whether you are sitting behind a desk, grinding hours on end, the hours you put in can only result in positive outcomes. No one has ever been hurt by putting in hard work and as Derek Jeter, one of the greatest baseball players to play the game, once said, “When you put a lot of hard work into one goal and you achieve it, that’s a really good feeling.”

Overall, from the perspective of a self-made entrepreneur who started from the literal bottom, Gaston Taratuta is the epitome of a hard-worker. He constantly reminds us that days off, and free-time have never shown results, but hard work and diligent effort will always pay off. He concluded his talk with a quote about persistence in entrepreneurship. He said “ Success is defined as how many times you can fail, and continue to work harder.”

As always, we hope you continue to learn, act, and build with the LAB Miami. Join us at our next #BrainfoodMIA in October with M8 CEO, John Santiago.