Thursday, January 24, 2013

Overnight success is just a fallacy, ask any millionaire

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment