Article by Murori Kiunga, Source: Business Daily Posted
Monday, April 16 2012 at 17:35 http://tinyurl.com/bf5mozc
Robert Kiyosaki, an
authoritative figure in entrepreneurship says: “Most people are waiting for the
perfect time to start a business; they are waiting for all stars to line up and
all lights to go green.
Unfortunately, that
perfect time will never come. To be an entrepreneur, you must start with what
you have on the ground and pick up the rest along the way.”
You do not have to
accumulate a lot of capital to start a business in a big way. You don’t have to
wait until you have educated all your children, built your own house or paid
all your debts before you can venture into that risky venture laced with good
prospects.
You can start
something that will earn you money right now from where you are. You can start
it right in your house while you are working or studying. All you need to do is
to be creative and focus on what you have rather than what you don’t have.
One of the greatest
enemies of success in business is fear. Often people tell me that they would
like to start a business but they fear to fail. I always tell them boldly what
I believe; that entrepreneurs don’t fail. It is enterprises that fail.
The first thing you
should do from the moment you start the entrepreneurial journey is to disengage
yourself from the business in a way. Do not be too emotionally attached to
business.
Let your business have
its own life. This means that in the event the business collapses, you do not
collapse with it.
Don’t venture into
business with expectations of becoming fabulously wealthy like some
entrepreneurs you know or hear about.
Entrepreneurship is
journey; a marathon, not a sprint.
In 2008 a Nigerian
entrepreneur Alhaji Aliko Dangote was ranked by Forbes as the richest man in
Africa, the position he holds to date.
In 2011 his net worth
was estimates at $13.8 billion.
He is also
simultaneously the richest person of African descent in the world, surpassing
Mohammed Al Amoudi ($12.3 billion) and Oprah Winfrey ($2.7 billion.)
Born in Kano, his
grandfather, the late Alhaji Sanusi Dantata provided him with a small capital
to start his own business.
He started business in
Kano in 1977 trading in commodities and building materials.
He later moved to
Lagos and continued trading in cement and commodities. Encouraged by tremendous
success and increase in business activities, he incorporated two companies in
1981.
These and others that
followed now make up the conglomerate known as Dangote Group.
By any standard this
man is qualified to give you advice on entrepreneurship and wealth creation.
These are the words
from his own mouth, “I built a conglomerate and emerged the richest black in
the world in 2008 but it didn't happen overnight. It took me thirty years to
get to where I am today. Youths of today aspire to be like me but they want to
achieve it overnight. It’s not going to work. To build a successful business,
you must start small and dream big. In the journey of entrepreneurship,
tenacity of purpose is supreme.”
Your desire and
inspiration should be something higher than money. Oprah Winfrey said, “You
know you are on the road to success if you would do your job and not get paid
for it.” In other words your motivation in business should be giving your
customers with solutions to their problems. Your rewards, not wages will be
money.
Mr Kiunga is the
author of The 7 Pillars of Financial Success and The Art of Entrepreneurship:
Strategies to Succeed in a Competitive Market.
In our
next post, Swahili proverb: Haba na haba,hujaza kibaba, practically speaking.
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