WHY “AFRICAN”??
Entrepreneurship in Africa has some requirements slightly (in some cases widely) different from the conventional one’s we have all come to know and accept.
What are they? you wonder… But not so fast; let’s take it a step at a time, from the known to the unknown
Who is an Entrepreneur??
I took a whole course on Entrepreneurship during the previous semester of my MBA course, an Entrepreneur is an all in all, that might not make a lot of sense to you, and going into technical details might bore you, therefore I’ll put it this way;
An entrepreneur is that crazy person who instead of building up a perfect CV, securing a job with a top firm in his industry, become rich at a young age, and possibly make partner at some point in his career; sets up a business, a business not guaranteed to succeed, a business requiring him to take on financial risks all in the hopes of becoming that ‘top firm’, the guy with the perfect CV dreams and pray for… or bigger, in the hope of changing the world.
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Entrepreneurs are like gamblers, and like any gambler, their chances of winning increase if they have the right cards. – study.com
Here is a list of beautiful definitions of an entrepreneur
The major requirements
INNOVATION
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This is the core of entrepreneurship. In my opinion, it is what warrants the existence of the word.
Now, Innovation does not exclusively mean having to create something new from the scratch, it could be creating something new from the existing, consider Steve Jobs for instance, the iphone wasn’t the invention of smart phones, it was the invention of a new perception of smartphones, a new world of functionality of smartphones.
RISK-TAKING PROPENSITY
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It’s what I consider the second most important attribute of an entrepreneur, entrepreneurship is not safe, it come with a red thunder signal…”danger”. Someone once said an entrepreneur is one who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on his way down. Crazy yeah?? I told you before. Entrepreneurship is a world of risks, the entrepreneurs likely to fail consume the risks, the ones likely to succeed take only the calculated risk, but no matter how much calculation, it only reduces the chances of failure, it can’t eliminate it. In entrepreneurship, you can ALWAYS fail, over and again.
INITIATIVE
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You must be able to take action, wise ones, in every situation, and rapidly too. It’s not as simple as it stares at you. It requires hours, days, and weeks of preparation ahead. Preparing for unseen circumstances, unknown turn of events.
The list is inexhaustible (it’s why I said the entrepreneur is all in all)
The entrepreneur will be doing most things, if not all, at the start of the business by himself, he therefore requires
- Ability to work Independently
- Strong organization skills,
- Confidence (to enhance decision making),
- Self-motivation and optimism,
- Marketing skills/Persuasiveness,
- Flexibility
- Passion (it’s the battery, it’s what keep you alive in it)
- Unwavering Vision (Have a mental picture of where you are going)
Who is an African entrepreneur??
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This is what you’ve all been waiting for. Simply put (and this might annoy you), an African entrepreneur, is an African who decides to venture into entrepreneurship, (and for this definition) within the African environment.
Where does the difference lie?
- An African: this is someone who has been brought up breastfed with the “african mentality” and ideologies.
- Within the african environment: this is an environment plagued with a lot of inhibiting factors; negativity, jealousy, superstitious beliefs, spiritual bias, crude mentality, traditional inhibition.
How to become an entrepreneur in Africa
How do you succeed.... No, not in entrepreneurship yet, in getting your ambitions to see the light of day, then in identifying opportunities in line with these ambitions, then in transforming your ambitions into ideas, then in growing those ideas.
It’s hard to dream, with all the uncertainty that evolves in the continent. It’s harder to find someone who understand and/or believe in your dream. It’s hardest to keep your dream alive.
African entrepreneur starter pack (essential requirements)
- Stubbornness: if it was outside the continent, I will call it persistence, but here you need something a little tougher than that.
- Belief/faith: We are superstitious here in Africa, Use it to your advantage, believe and the universe will work in your favor.
- Do not trust/put confidence in anyone no matter how close: We care and want you to do well, but never better than we are doing, thus betrayal is commonplace.
- Do not try to convince or carry others along: Because of the mentality we are brought up with, when an idea is really intelligent, it is hard to believe it will work, (Like, if it was like that someone would have done it). They can easily snuff out the light
- Do not copy foreign ideas/strategies and try to implement them directly: It is common to "google" things that give you problem, but remember to note where your solution is coming from, the climate (politically, economically, socially) is very different.
- Be ready and willing to fight: To keep your dream alive you will fight family, lose friends, fight ego (you’ll be broke a while), fight the climate, fight the government, fight your inherent mental limitations, and any other fight that come your way…. Take it, win it
- Be 85% original.
Disclaimer: This is not an all-inclusive success manual, as there are other things that may have to be done alongside in the pursuit of successful entrepreneurship, that might not listed here due to various constraints.
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cheers.
Signed
3ric
