#THEBIZMICGOTTHINGSTOSAY PART 1(B): BEST DECISION EVER!

Its all part of the Plan!

As it turns out, coming back home was the best decision I have ever made in my whole life. I am now over the crisis that was my premature “akwaaba”, taken from another perspective it was pure destiny. I am still not over the trauma of the local educational system I had to wade back into and the ensuing long and painful readjustment phase; lets just call it a process of reverse culture shock. I have still not fully come to terms with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Sorrows and Tears (KNUST) and until I do, I shall not write much about it; save the necessity of inking that degree onto my CV. I mean I remember how the Frankly Unaccomplished Cabal Keeping Ebullience Radically Short nearly succeeded in preventing a conclusion to my quest for purpose; but like I said, now is not the time. I digress; the topic at hand is that coming back home was the best decision I ever did make. In retrospect I would not have said this and meant it the way I do now a few years ago, but still I can even claim some level of prescience. I remember sitting down with one of the dearest women I have ever met, a counselor at the International Students Office in ‘Cuse who took me under her wing and advised me against coming back to Ghana; she felt it would be a mistake. I told her, “Back home, there are far more opportunities and far less distractions for me; there is a lot less pressure and I really understand the system, I will be able to mature and fully realize my potential.” I was right!

I knew deep down that in the US, I would at best be comfortably mediocre, but that in Ghana I could be truly great; I tired of having to choose between being the token African dude, or part of the close knit African clique – after all I am by nature an outgoing loner. I realize now though that I came to Ghana at precisely the time that the country was on the verge of leaving behind its past of obscurity in favor of a more robust exploitation of its huge potential. It could not have been a better-timed return; within a year of my arrival Ghana discovered oil and I found my calling in life; to be to Ghana what Rockefeller was to America. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the plan! Since our discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities I have been learning and soaking up so much information and experience that in my own biased opinion, I have become quite an astute local expert on the nascent petroleum industry – at only 24. At the same time I was slogging it out with the academics, I was also running around busily building the right connections, networking in the business circles and getting practical on the job expertise the hard way; the entrepreneurial way. I am glad to say that bit-by-bit, we are bringing the plan closer and closer to its fruition, we still have quite a lot to learn before we get there, but it is nice knowing that you are way ahead of the game. Nowadays, I regularly meet a lot of people who are only now trying to do what was done years ago, or learning what has long been known; they are new to the system and frankly they are behind and will be playing catch up for a while.

It has not been easy at all, in fact at times I almost gave up and run away back to the States – I raised the money myself and seriously contemplated that possibility a few times. However I remained in Ghana for so many reasons; first of all I cured myself of some dangerous habits; certainly not all of them but a marked improvement from before. Also I fell deeply in love and suddenly had a reason to be truly happy for once, though that proved to be another failed attempt at searching for an extrinsic source of joy; karma is only pleasant to the guiltless. Thirdly, I made some great friendships with individuals who had been through similar traumatic experiences and they helped me to settle down and re-appreciate the sun, the heat, the food and the sights and sounds of the land of my birth. Another reason was the onset of the Global Economic Crisis, which had very little effect on Ghana but left the prospect of working and financing the rest of my US college education by myself and in such a climate very unpalatable. But the most compelling reason is that I had a very supportive family; the parental unit was constantly admonishing me not to blame external sources for my troubles, but to reflect on the internal causes for my mistakes and seek to correct them. Thank you so much Mum and Dad for not coddling me into a dullard but forging me into the man I am today, a man who can truly survive in any circumstance.

As I gradually went native again, I suddenly began to realize the vast business opportunities available in a region of Africa that has been enjoying some unbridled growth over the past decade. So great was this epiphany that I knew my destiny was to become one of the rising stars of Africa, but only if I put in the necessary quantum of work and sacrifice. Sometimes I miss the good old days when I was carefree and spoilt; but I am far better at being mature, thoughtful and meticulously calculating. I think, I plan and I execute with the calm and precision born of constant practice dealing with both structured and unstructured situations. I am equally comfortable in a Tro-Tro station educating passengers on the recent petroleum product price increments or negotiating a multi-million dollar investment with a foreign investor at the Holiday Inn. I have not finished paying my dues in the school of hard knocks but I can smell the faint fragrance of graduation into the Big Easy, so I have been spurred on even more. I recently read “Talent Is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin and became even more convinced that all this stress I am facing; all this pain I am enduring; all this sweat, blood and tears are not being shed in vain. I am not going to be Rockefeller without it. Please note, he begun working in 1855 at age 16 in very modest circumstances, and it was not until 1865 that he made the decisions that launched him on his career to become America’s first Billionaire. I begun my career at 20, I am four years into the hustle and I have not made much yet but I bet you that by age 30, I would have been already set on a similar upward trajectory – this is not a boast but a simple statement of fact. You see I do not only aspire to be like these people, I know in my very marrow I am capable of doing what they did or even better – these are the personalities that I would deign to compete with and nobody else.

And this is not simply about money or accumulation of wealth for its own sake, this is about showing people that it is possible to achieve anything that you want in this world if you are willing to work hard enough at it. It is about leaving a legacy of hope and opportunity to the masses of African youth who have little chance to better themselves and their circumstances. If they can be shown that they can make their dreams a reality through consistent hard-work and not via any shortcuts, they shall have hope and will be galvanized into action, into developing their nations and bettering their own circumstances. That is the legacy I want to leave this world with and I get personal satisfaction from knowing that I am trying as hard as I can to make this happen; and it can only happen right here on the Dark Continent. I only pray that God grants me life that I may enjoy the blessings that are still accruing and may He be graceful enough to amortize my sins.

Cheers,

TheBizmic

L.J.J @ 2:59am 14/01/11

A HISTORY FROM TIME PAST: AN ESSAY ON NKRUMAH AND GENERATION XYZ

Probably feeling himself small :)

“Kwame Nkrumah had been living abroad for twelve years, an itinerant student, invariably penniless but politically ambitious. In the United States he had collected degrees in economics, sociology and philosophy. To earn a living during student vacations, he had worked as a laborer in a soap factory and as a ship’s steward; he even tried selling fish on street corners in Harlem. Moving to London in 1945, he had intended to study law but soon became caught up in left-wing politics, befriending leading British communists and avidly participating in anti-colonial protests. “There was nothing to stop you getting on your feet and denouncing the whole British Empire,” he recalled. He abandoned his law studies but found it difficult to make ends meet as a political activist. Short of money, he would spend hours discussing politics in cheap cafes in Camden Town, only occasionally able to afford a cup of tea and a bread roll. When the offer of a job with the United Gold Coast Convention reached him, Nkrumah leapt at the opportunity." This excerpt is taken from, ‘The State of AFRICA’ by Martin Meredith. He was a man that believed in the power of politics to cause change, in his seminal speech at the Tenth anniversary of the CPP in Accra he said, “My philosophy, based on two axioms, has been clear from the very beginning, and it is quite simple: ‘Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto it.’ And secondly, we believe that. ‘The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.’ ”

The iconic picture of Nkrumah

When Nkrumah came back to Ghana, he was young but brimming with energy, ideas and ambition. He soon fell out with his colleagues in the UGCC owing to their very different views on how to achieve autonomy from the colonial powers. History remembers him as the liberator of the Ghana (then the Gold Coast) under the CPP banner making it the first country to achieve full independence south of the Sahara. He also built the Akosombo Dam, several schools, hospitals, roads, railways, heavily patronized agriculture, and various other community programs. But most importantly, Nkrumah used his new found power to encourage and support complete liberation for the entire African continent. Nkrumah was a legend among legends and in the age where the African was only beginning to release the shackles of slavery and realize his true potential, here was a man that was way ahead of his time. His vision not only affected the lives of Ghanaians but all other Africans since he turned Accra into the nexus of the African Liberation struggle, organizing conferences that brought together representatives from across the continent and nurtured many who were later to achieve prominence in their own countries – Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Joshua Nkomo (Zimbabwe), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Hastings Banda (Malawi), Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Holden Roberto (Angola), Amilcar Cabral (Guinea) among many others. At the height of his power Nkrumah was prolific on the international front, meeting with eminent personalities of all races and creeds to further his vision for the country and the continent. He travelled around the world bursting with energy, zeal and a magnetism that was unrivaled. He inspired, he motivated, and he fostered a feeling of pride amongst his fellow black men, that we were indeed capable of running our own affairs.

Despite all his achievements, Nkrumah was not perfect. According to Meredith, “Behind all the hurly-burly, Nkrumah was a lonely figure, distrustful of his close colleagues, rarely confiding in them. He enjoyed the company of women, but feared intimacy and declared he had no time to get married”. An English woman with whom he built one of the most trusting relationships he ever formed later described him as “moody, erratic, impatient and volatile, but also charming and considerate when it suited him”. Nkrumah was also known for his harsh treatment of his political opponents, and by the time he was ousted from power in 1966 he had already lost much of the overwhelming support that he had enjoyed in the early part of his political career. In fact in 1964 he orchestrated the passage of a constitutional amendment that made the CPP the only legal party and declared him President of both the nation and the party, for life. I was not there and I do not know, but I can posit that perhaps the trappings of absolute power made him loose touch with the people that he loved so much and it cost him dearly. In the introduction to Selected Speeches of Kwame Nkrumah Vol 3, Samuel Obeng states that, he [Nkrumah] was so reviled and rejected by his own people in his lifetime that it is a testament to his undying charisma that after his death he has been wholeheartedly accepted back by Ghanaians. He remains the greatest icon of love and adoration by all Ghanaians even to this day, and certainly remains one of the most prominent figures that our dark continent has and will ever produce.

Here lie the remains of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, forever Loved by his people

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Nkrumah has not been overthrown in a coup d’état supported by the CIA. Consider the aftermath; the vicious cycle of unproductive upheavals that brought the richest sub-Saharan African country in the early 1950s into abject poverty by the late 1980s. Consider also the plundering of Ghana’s wealth by various military regimes and the political elite that resulted in gross mismanagement of our resources, economy, politics and the very essence of our cultural identity. Sometimes I wonder but who knows perhaps it was all for the best; after all everything happens for a reason. But wonderment at Nkrumah and our nations past must pave way for the realities of the present because now I believe that we, the youth of Ghana and Africa at large, are at a crucial point in our history; a crossroads that echo the choices faced by Nkrumah and his generation: theirs was independence now or independence later and ours is development now or development later. We are the true beneficiaries of their bloody fight for total independence; it was their legacy and our inheritance. I say DEVELOPMENT NOW! Enough with the excuses and the blame game that all politicos love playing nowadays; enough with the corruption, cronyism, nepotism, and elitism that keeps the vast majority of Ghanaians, especially the youth in poverty and uncertainty. There has been enough time wasting and the we of Africa’s generations XYZ are faced with the huge responsibility of implementing system wide CHANGE because we cannot abide by the status quo – it has failed abysmally. And it is up to us, to seize the tools, the technology and the vast opportunities that the 21^st century has provided us to carve our own shining destiny out of the present rot permeating the system.

Africa's Generation XYZ.....The Hope of Africa!

However it is not enough for us to just help ourselves, as Nkrumah said, our development, be it as individuals or as a nation is meaningless unless it is linked up to the development of other individuals or nations. Ghana has enjoyed a relatively long period of freedom and stability that has lead to many socio-economic and political gains but even that is not enough. We must rapidly develop our nation and our continent but the present guard cannot do it. I think they know they truth of this matter themselves and they are not actively engaging the youth because they are afraid of losing their power. So I believe that the youth of today, the indigenous youth of Africa must position itself to use whatever means necessary to better ourselves and help others do the same; even if the Old Horses won’t give us way, we must build our muscles and shove past them. As George Ayittey said in his TEDGlobal ‘07 speech, ours is the Cheetah Generation, with whom lie the hope of Africa and we must take charge from the Generation of Hippos (aka Dinosaurs) that grow fat from the current mess and are quite comfortable with the present state of affairs. Like Nkrumah we must REJECT our past that is rife with poverty and chaos and embrace our bright and prosperous future; a future filled with promise, a future where we can catch up with the rest of the developed Global village. As our forbears will inevitably hand over the reigns of power to us, so shall we do the same to our progeny, and it is my fervent hope that we will be able to give a better account of ourselves to our children and their children. This is our chance; we must not waste it!

It is a momentous task but I know it is possible. Why? Because there was once a man who rose from selling fish on street corners to changing the destiny of millions with his words. This same man that went from toiling in a soap factory to hobnobbing with Kings and Queens; from not being able to afford a cup of tea or a bread roll to feeding a nation and freeing a continent. His name was Kwame Nkrumah; forever etched into our history books as a great man and a true visionary. He was just one of many that came before him and after him. If he was able to effect system wide change then why not you, why not me? It is not just our responsibility, it is our destiny.

We are doing our part on Nov 4 at TEDxHarambe; let us achieve our true destiny! Visit our site at www.tedxharambe.com for more details!

Cheers :D

COMMUNICATION: THE MORTAR THAT BINDS EVERY BUSINESS VENTURE

This blog was written by Samuel "Fiifi" Okore Mintah, the Vice President of BMIC. As always his article is a most inspiring and refreshing piece, I hope you really enjoy this! :)

Communication; the imparting or exchanging of information

Rarely is it such a fairy tale for somebody to finish university and almost immediately be at the helm of his own company with an estimated value of almost $100,000 and counting. Well I did it, through cold nights and lonely days at Evandy Hostel where I marshaled my thoughts to build my imaginary company in the form of a well-written business proposal. Though I wrote that proposal under compulsion, I later came to appreciate the amount and value of the work that was put into the business plan. When this plan metamorphosed into reality, I surrounded myself with a team of some of the smartest and talented minds I knew. We immediately jumped into gear, business prospects were looking good then suddenly I watched it all slip out of my hands. But as a firm optimist who believes in determination, hard work and the power of dreams no matter the problems that one encounters, I knew I had within my power the tools to create new and even better opportunities. As the great Winston Churchill said during the blitzkrieg of London, “Never, never, never give up!”

I graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology a year ago, with the grade class I had always wanted. But most importantly, I left KNUST with the right frame of mind and the right kind of friends, and these factors have been crucial to enabling my ideas and plans to come to life. As soon as this great opportunity to run this firm knocked on my door I called on the battalion to come aboard because I knew they were going to propel the business to the next level. Within a month of the platoon hitting the ground, problems begun to assuage the firm, unforeseen and unpredictable problems cropped up all over the place and I watched in horror as this amazing chance disappeared almost as quickly as it came into being. It was a real nightmare especially looking at the kind of personal investment I had made within that short period of time. I had sacrificed my valuable time, every single dime, and as a man in his prime I was ready to capably run this engine and yet, here was I going home without having barely started the engine itself. When I reminisce about that shattering week, I can only grin and sigh with relief that things are back on track now.

What happened you may ask? It had nothing to do with the team I brought on board to take the business to the next level but rather myself. Several minute flaws that I had neglected in my personnel life grew into the very same abyss that derailed my entrepreneurial train.  I have always been a smooth talker brimming with eloquence but a little miscommunication between my business partner and I created an air of mistrust. After many nights of reflection as to what caused this predicament, I came to the conclusion that communication is the most vital ingredient in any and all forms of business; something like the mortar that binds all the other components of a business venture to make it one big whole. In business we may agree, we may disagree and we may even agree to disagree. However without the essential ingredient – effective communication – which builds trust among all stakeholders, no business will be successful.

Since that fateful week, I have done a lot of soul searching and reassessment; I have completely revamped my way of handling business, and to tell you the truth now, I feel like I can walk on water. I am back on my grind with a big bang; thing is this time everything is in place and nothing is bringing me down. I have been thorough in purging those minute flaws, which do not augur well for business in favor of traits that can earn me the chips that can afford me that trip to Monaco twice a year, the mansion on the hill and that McLaren MP4-12c. What did I do to come back on track and resolve all the problems with my partners?  Well I have always been consumed with a burning desire to make it happen no matter the odds against me, but besides that I read voraciously to further become knowledgeable about the efficient management skills that still eluded me. I also delved into my inner person to discover my latent abilities, which I’m developing everyday, and also took the time to unlearn the unproductive things that were part of my psyche.  So now I am back, consumed with the fire of winning and trust me, I am winning. With my formidable team we have built those efficient mechanisms to weather any storms that may blow no matter how great. KTA is back, and here to stay!

Samuel “Fiifi” Okore Mintah,

Chief Executive Officer,

Kreative Terrain Agency

If KTA was possible, so is this! On track to make my dreams REALITY!

DREAMING ON: HUSTLING AMIDST THE TUMULT.....WHY I TRY!

Le pays historique.....

I try because I dream. I am a wishful thinker at heart; deep down I am wildly optimistic. But all the lessons I have learnt in life have coerced me to build a wall of inscrutable sadness around myself. Yet however sad I may get, my hopeful confidence and enthusiasm to dream always shine through. I try to be infectious in my ambitions as well. I think dreamers like to know other peoples dreams as a matter of consequence. They do this to put their own dreams in perspective. You know, those deep down goals and fantastic objectives you had as a kid, but gradually are losing touch with, as you grow older. I ask other people what kind of life they envision for their future and they tend to give a safe answer; you know, the diplomatic response. The reply is always something sensible and expected instead of something incredible and juvenile. I sometimes feel very foolish because rather than play the safe game, I find Astons and yachts skipping all over the place. Hmmmm.....It’s really not my fault you know; blame my overactive imagination that is on a quest to build castles in the air and then proceed to wish them into being. If you are my friend you know as far as I am concerned Monaco is the place to be (probably because I am always trying to impress you with some tidbit of useless information about the principality) even though the closest I have ever gotten to this place is a mind-meld of James Bond, Wikipedia and recently Facebook. Actually Monaco is 641 miles (or 1032 km) away from London, I guess in geographic terms that is the closest I have been to that city-state. Oh, I almost forgot, I know this information because of....Google. Yeah, ‘technically’ Google is the closest I have been to Monaco. In fact courtesy Google, I go to Monaco whenever I want. I am amidst the tumult of 21^st Century Africa, and I dream of visiting some place in France so bad I find myself in random conversations telling people about it. I sometimes even wonder why, why there, why not somewhere else. I guess its an idiosyncrasy I seek to make a cliché, nothing more, nothing less.

Somebody drives one on the streets of Accra :)

And why, why am I always using words of Brobdingnagian proportions when I write, why bother? Its actually extra work you know. To find some obscure word that isn’t commonly used, string it with its brothers and sisters, and try to make them sing. That’s how I see it; I play with words the way physicists play with numbers. You put them together in interesting ways and then you try to convince other people that what you have conjured up makes sense and is relevant to them somehow. Maybe that is why I enjoy writing business plans because I like playing with both words and numbers. And it must be why I enjoy chasing business deals with such gusto because I enjoy playing with ideas; ideas that have a chance at becoming reality. I am not simply doing what I do to make money, no, that is not enough, not nearly enough. There are several easier ways to simply make money – a myriad really. But there is only one way to make an impact, especially a huge impact in the lives of people around you. And that is to look past the profit incentive, past the cash and dollar signs. I am not saying I don’t want money, I certainly do. But more so than that I want to positively affect the world around me, share what I learn, and show people that it is possible to succeed at anything, no matter how outlandish if you just try hard enough. I have learnt that the whole idea is to believe in yourself and never give up no matter what. That is why when people tell me to be less flamboyant in my writing, reduce the scope of my grandiose dreams or trade what I want for something less, I am obstinate to a fault. I really don’t see the point – personally – of wasting one’s finite time, energy and resources to merely exist safely, when one can truly live dangerously. Risk is always equal to Reward. That is why amidst this tumult, my hustle is to simply, try and never stop doing so.

I will try my hardest for supreme excellence because I can never settle for mediocrity. It is a very deliberate decision on my part to do so. I guess the norm is people grow and adjust to reality by downsizing their true dreams. They dilute their goals and they end up making it through this life safely but unremarkably. A few of us do the opposite, we do not adjust to reality rather we adjust to the fantasy we prefer to live in. We choose not to play it safe nor by the rules. Our whole agenda is to show that being unorthodox is another route through this life. A route that is fraught with so much danger and so much risk. A route that is most likely to end up in abject failure. And that is what most people see when they glance down this road, they see the path less travelled by and they shy away. Well, I tightened my belt, set my jaw and plodded on into the dusty winds. It is the avenue of tears and sorrows; where your confidence is sapped and obstacles beset you at all corners encouraging you to just give up. Yet I plod on, because I am willing to take these risks in order to stand a chance at getting the potential rewards. You see, that is all I will ever get if I try, a chance. The way I see it everything we do in life is a gamble, every decision we make will have certain consequences down the line. I would much rather play my game trying than not because the time we have on this earth is borrowed anyway. It’s not guaranteed that I will dream into reality but I don’t care because simply having that chance is good enough for me. Dare to dream and if at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again!

Cheers,

The Bizmic

TRO-TRO DIARIES PART 3(b): ON ASSIGNMENT – MEETING WITH SANDER

Sander then proceeded to give me some background on SOVEC and why they are operating in Ghana – they could have stayed in Holland or gone elsewhere in Africa with their money, but they chose Ghana because it has a stable political system, an enabling business environment and also because of the presence of a young, yet professional VC infrastructure, providing the right caliber of investment partners they require. He also told me a bit about the investment portfolio of SOVEC in Ghana, particularly their support for the “Private Schools for the Poor” project by Omega Schools which is an innovative idea that seeks to provide high quality education to the poor by bringing such communities on board and giving them an incentive to ensure the schools are self sustainable. And then we launched into the vast entrepreneurial opportunities available in Ghana. 

Sander was particularly interested in discussing my personal entrepreneurial ventures. In fact once I put it out there that I was an up and coming entrepreneur we naturally fell into a deep conversation about my business interests especially in Oilfield Services, which is my day job by the way. I stressed on the fact that I felt it my duty to share my practical experiences as I navigate the entrepreneurial world with others, so as to inspire, encourage and motivate. He commended my meager efforts, and suggested that all groups such as BMIC should collaborate under one umbrella rather than operate as splinter cells going after the same objectives. I assured him that our partnership with Harambe Ghana is just such a co-operative effort and with TEDxHarambe we are marking the beginning of a long and fruitful working relationship; and there is always room for more on board because as a united front, youth-oriented NGOs in Ghana will be able to achieve similar goals quicker and more effectively.

The Dutch venture capitalist was rather insightful so I volunteered information freely knowing it may yield dividends later on. He was very plain spoken about his definition of social entrepreneurship, “being that [he] does not primarily go for profit alone, but that [he is] convinced that it should be a mix of financial (profit incentive) and social things (value creation) to make venture capital investments sustainable. It cannot (and should not) be simply either one.” He was adamant that social entrepreneurship should not be labeled as simply granting money on the basis of pure altruism, or pure profit-making but rather a balanced dance of both; they were not mutually exclusive goals but could become a harmonious model for incentivizing the rapid development of Africa through win-win investor partnerships. And I agree wholeheartedly with him on this one folks, it is not simply possible but prudent to be a businessman with a heart and a conscience in the 21^st century; it is perhaps the only sustainable way forward. 

He also gave me another view as to his personal belief that the present model for AID to Africa is deeply flawed, referring to Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid. Rather he proposed an interesting theory; that there should not be a difference between a good entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur. To him the word ‘social’ is sometimes not appropriate in description because it doesn’t reflect the reality on the ground, which is that the present state of blind philanthropy is not just failing, but acerbating the various issues they seek to solve in the first place. That is the old way of doing things. Though I certainly feel blind philanthropy has its place in the development of Africa owing to how far behind we still are, I also felt his stance was just the kind of edgy and fresh thought that was needed to compel people sit up and take notice that the old way of doing things is simply not enough. We agreed that he should run with his idea and deliver his presentation along these lines.

So finally, Mr. Sander Smits van Oyen broke into a warm smile offered his hand and said, “Okay you have me.” I heaved a silent but heavy sigh of relief, chugged down the rest of up my pineapple juice, smiled broadly, shook his hand, grabbed my Targus book bag and returned to the confused din of night traffic and Spintex. The Tro-tro ride back home that day was not so bad; truly it would not have made any difference if I were in a tram, a train or a Double Decker bus: Okay, save the noise, the jolts and that creeping feeling that the machine is about to break up any second away.

Now things are looking good; not only is Sander speaking at the event, he may be, co-incidentally, bringing along his investors to visit TEDxHarambe with him........Bit by bit, we are doing it!

TROTRO DIARIES PART 2: MR. P. GRAMMAR THESAURUS

So where were we? Yes, yes, I remember! Derek is somewhere in the former marsh and Olivia – the President of Harambe Cameroon, my virtual twin and a member of the TEDxHarambe organizing team – joined him and their Harambe Endeavor colleagues to hobnob with the chic politicos of Yankee – Cheese! All this was in commemoration of almost half of the Dark Continent celebrating 50 years of independence and uniform mismanagement. Honestly, I am neither a cynic nor a Pollyanna because I like to think I’m stuck squarely in between. Well, saying that would be slightly duplicitous because it will demand a concerted effort not to be cheerfully beaming in a 5 Series. In the same vein, it will be an onerous task not to be disconsolate, stuck in traffic – in a Tro-Tro – resigned to the sun-drenched African noon, with absolutely no hope of precipitation and in the certain knowledge that the ineluctable sultriness is inexorably dissipating the last few whiffs of an already dwindling supply of Armani Extreme. I used to detest people that put on too much cologne before they went gallivanting, but after forty-eight contiguous months in this sweltering tropical mugginess (now tell me this tautology is NOT permissible), I am gunning through eau de toilettes with the panache of the leader of the peloton on the home stretch of the Tour de France; not forgetting all associated sweat and drama. That is not to say that you cannot be ebullient in a Tro-tro or morose in a Murcielago...hmmm...now that was a very vague attempt at assonance and not to be considered a remote possibility, not even Jeremy Clarkson can frown in the belly of the raging bull.

What do you think of BMIC's New Logo? Please comment below.

The point I am making is this, positivism and pessimism feed of each other in order to create a realistic view. In other words, “optimism is the force behind a realist’s cautious cynicism.” So it is with an enthusiastic but pragmatic approach that we are implementing TEDxHarambe: we are leaving no stone unturned; no sail unfurled; and no holds barred for all the chips are on the table now. Fortunately, between the services provided by Google Inc, Vodafone Broadband and Skype Limited, communication is VOIP and collaboration is via attachment and virtually free; I reiterate again, the power of IT! But through all this I digress slightly, my first real assignment as a member of the TEDxHarambe Team was to meet with a Dutch venture capitalist called Sander Smits van Oyen and confirm him as a speaker for the event. A few emails and phone calls later (non-VOIP), Sander and I set up an appointment to meet at Shangri-La in the late afternoon. This was incredibly fortuitous because I also had an oily early morning meeting at Shangri La that same day. In retrospect, that morning, my father saved me from the ‘joys’ of a Trosky trip in the early morning which is identical to a Tro-tro ride in the afternoon save for the oppressive heat or one in the evening; when all the rattling and jolting fuses with a day’s worth of fatigue into the most intense feeling of...of...utter despondency. Again I deviate, Mr. Ampofo Snr. treated me to an unending but somehow pleasant cacophony of intense business calls all the way through the idiosyncratic traffic of Spintex Road till he dropped me off. Indeed, we had about 25 seconds of ‘intimate’ conversation which literally went, “Busy morning?” to which I was replied, “Hmmm, it never ends you know”, then he was back to the intermittent tintinnabulation and wheeler-dealing; my patriarch is as bona fide an astute business man as they come.

As at 9:30am that day, I was deeply engrossed in negotiations with some oily gentlemen who were trying to convince me to part with thousands of dollars they did not know I did not have; and fast track negotiations on an ongoing Joint Venture. My business partner’s attorney, having come fashionably late, was now trying to bill me for his client’s expenses. I was just sitting there contemplating how my own legal consultants are racking up some hefty fees under our current tenuous pseudo pro-bono disposition: on account of waning paternal inducements; patrilineally inherited intelligence; maternally acquired gregariousness; and a proclivity for manipulative suasion using any and all means necessary. Now I am wandering again but it serves to illustrate how indignant I had become after this first meeting, dealing with two men old enough to be my father yet selling me a deal with so many encumbrances that I was almost ready to give up that business idea on the spot, and go relax at the beach. I did go to the beach, but I refrained from doing the former, I refrained from letting my tempestuous nature sour the grapes as it were. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon relaxing with friends at the beach, dreaming, laughing and planning. I had been prepping for my next meeting with Sander for a while so I felt adequately prepared because it seemed to me a pretty simple and straightforward affair. Well it turned out to be anything but simple and straightforward.......

To Be Continued, Cheers!

Please Tune in Next Week for the next blurb in the series. I will try to proceed without my trusty friend: Mr. Punctilious G. Thesaurus :)

Mr. P. G. Thesaurus himself

TRO-TRO DIARIES PART 1: INTRODUCING PROJECT 4/11

Spot TheBizmic?

Things have really moved up into high gear of late so I have been moving around a lot. Since I don’t own a car, and my parent’s vehicles are off limits 95% of the time (owing to some bad teenage choices) I have had to consider other transportation options. Taxis have always been a staple part of my mobility requirements and they still are but their outrageous charges when you string the words, “Spintex” and “Regimanuel” in the same sentence encouraged me to master the Art of the Tro-tro. Seriously, whenever these taxi drivers first hear ‘Spintex’ I can see their eyes going dull contemplating the ever-present traffic, but when ‘Regimanuel’ follows, their eyes light up and some will even manage an avaricious smile and gesture me to sit down. That is my cue to release the fluent pidgin or Twi to let them know I am in for business, genially asking the fare before sitting down even as the price fencing proceeds. Perhaps it was the annoying nature of this constant haggling back and forth with taxi drivers over their hyper-inflated prices, or perhaps just the sheer affordability of the Tro-tro, that convinced me by and large to patronize them more and more. Now, I am a certified pro on the Spintex-37 Tro-tro route, I know all the bus stops. Though I am yet to figure out the mechanical jungle that is Kwame Nkrumah Circle, I have enough experience points to face the whole city in these rickety boneshakers. Alas, my knees, my butt, my back, my ears and my nose tend to pay the price but it is well worth the sacrifice – GH¢2 will fully finance the cost of a return trip home and still leave enough change for kelewele. Sometimes, I just love living in Ghana!

Then there are those moments when both the taxi and the ‘trosky’ become dim memories; these are the times when I find myself rolling with any of my friends who unlike me, either did not make those same teenage mistakes or have more indulging parents. I don’t think all the horses in the world can drag some of these people within a 2-mile radius of a Tro-tro station, they even tend to view taxis with such disdain – merely backups for emergencies. I understand them partly because I used to be a member of the “Ghana AC Brigade”, you know those people that talk of winter with nostalgia and cannot live without the air conditioners in their houses, their cars, their offices and yes, even their bathrooms blowing on the arctic scale. It is when I occasionally break into goose bumps and shivers in an air-conditioned environment nowadays that I realize how acclimatized I have become to walking in the sizzling heat that is the African afternoon and the sultry humidity that is the inside of a Tro-tro. For now I am juggling both temperature differentials with some practiced ease and this is all well and good seeing as I have taken upon myself the huge task of Project 4/11 which demands a lot of simultaneous troskying and dilly dallying with the Ghana AC Brigade. Consequently I have developed a very ‘balanced diet’, a heterogeneous mix of taxis, trotros and saloon cars. So when I am bouncing along in a Tro-tro, I dream of the days when it will be a mix of sports cars, yachts and jets; and when I am perched in a sleek saloon I stretch out my knees and lean back as far away from the AC as possible – I think I have found my niche in each setting.

Whichever environment I find myself in though, I am always preoccupied with Project 4/11 – TEDxHarambe. Thanks to the wonders of the internet and the blogosphere I was approached by the president of Harambe Ghana, Derek Nnuro, to jointly organize and host the TEDxHarambe conference – an independently organized event operated under licence from TED, a US conference where the world’s leading thinkers and doers – e.g. Bill Gates, Al Gore etc – congregate to share ideas on what they are most passionate about. In essence we are seeking to recreate the same unique experience of a TED event on Ghanaian soil, our theme for the event is “New Capitalism” seeking to spark a serious conversation among all stakeholders about encouraging youth entrepreneurship and social value creation. When I first heard about Harambe Ghana, TED, TEDx (x=independently organized TED event) and TEDxHarambe, I immediately thought where does BMIC fit in the equation. Well as it turns out, this was really a match made in heaven. “Harambe Ghana is a private, non-political and Ghanaian organization whose mission is to nurture a new generation of young leaders, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who see problems as opportunities in need of solutions and have the ability, will, and inspirational capacity to create long-lasting social impact.” Hmmm....rather much like BMIC’s mission statement don’t you think. Derek was a really cool guy and right off the bat I got the sense we could work together and make this program a prodigious success.  He had gone through the wahala of securing a license from TED to host a TEDx event but he needed someone on the ground with the experience and know-how to make things happen, be it via trosky or AC movement; enter TheBizmic. So he has jetted of back to the US to meet Obama at the Young African Leaders Forum in DC, wrestle with his people (Harambe Ghana is a subsidiary of Harambe Endeavor Alliance) and handle the international front in terms of the speakers flying in and what not. I am on the ground handling the local front tackling all the unending issues that crop up when organizing an event of this scope. It has been a few weeks since I got involved in this project and the momentum is gradually picking up as the team coalesces better and we sort out the workflow of this strategic alliance. Watch this space for more details on TEDxHarambe, the eminent personalities that are making speeches at the event, the who and what of the whole show. For now I give you the when, November 4^th, 2010, so mark your calendars people, you now know that truly, THEBIZMIC IS BAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!

Tune in for Part 2 next week.

Cheers

PICKING AT THE MIND OF A LUMINARY CHIEF WITH MR. INVESTOR: PART TWO

Mr. Investor and myself waited in a Gas Station close to the bus stop until the chief’s wife picked us up and drove us to their commodious abode. We settled into our rooms, had some dinner and had a long chat with Nana Kyia. As always I tried to glean as many nuggets of wisdom as I could from this luminary chief and vastly experienced entrepreneur, and indeed I got a goldmine full of knowledge. During our stay whenever Mr. Investor and I had a chat with our “Chief Consultant”, I had my pen and notebook out, scribbling furiously! And he kept reminding us of how people pay him for similar advice and how lucky we were to be getting all of his precious face time for free. We were very lucky indeed. I probably should have taken videos of our conversations, because we roamed a vast landscape of business, social and economic issues, far more than can be packed into this blog. Mr. Investor and I fielded all the questions that we could, and the chief always gave us a flood of sensible answers from a perspective we did not have enough experience to elevate to yet. He sat adjacent us in this rather comfy chair in a corner of his large living room adorned with biographical pictures of the chief in his younger days, his first wife and his children; a portrait of his life and his legacy. It felt rather appropriate when he said, “Everybody (in Ghana) is having fun making a living but not leaving a legacy”. With his legacy complete he was encouraging us, and you to begin thinking about creating ours, a legacy we can be proud of during our old age.

In relation to a question fielded by Mr. Investor concerning business in Ghana the chief said, “There are many bureaucratic disincentives that prevent investors from coming into Ghana”. Among those we discussed were the poor state of our physical infrastructure; the lack of reliable energy; entrenched corruption, inefficiency and dissatisfaction in all levels of the public sector. According to him, Ghana has “a system that forces conformity” because it doesn’t reward innovation but rather favors blind adherence. In a sense it is a country whose people prefer to follow and therefore leaders are in short supply; people rarely think outside the box. This is difficult for foreign investors to adjust to since the internal and external realities they have to deal with are in a system where things tend to be rather different (I think the actual word Nana used was ‘backward’) from their experience in their home countries. He felt that, “Idea testing is essential for success” because every business investor needs to do a lot of market research before they embark on any business. According to the chief, “Nobody should go into any business without testing; you must have a minimum of a B+ certainty that it will succeed before moving forward”.

The chief also delved into the poverty issue by stating that; “In trying to solve poverty we must move poor people away from what they are used to (their comfort zone of being given freebies; food, water and clothing) by challenging and empowering them to be upwardly mobile economically”. He was greatly dissatisfied with the status quo of begging donors for money to simply throw at the poverty issue, rather we should be teaching poor people to fish rather than just giving them fish. He stressed on the need to provide quality education as the basis for empowering the poor, because according to him as literacy levels increase so will the living standards in general, and this is a self evident fact. Nana Kyia III felt strongly that the Ghanaian youth, especially those in the Diaspora had a lot to give back to the country. He understood the temptation of seeking greener pastures abroad but felt that if they could be encouraged to come back to Ghana they would be critical to the development of the country. He encouraged people to try to monetize their passions saying, “If you have a hobby and if it can be turned into a business, quit your regular job then do it full time” because you are then motivated out of intrinsic passion instead of being stuck in a job that has extrinsic benefits (good pay) but is not truly fulfilling.

Yes, Mr. Investor had reception, AMAZING!

We talked, and talked some more and then he took us on a trip to his beautiful seaside village. We first went to a council meeting of the traditional chiefs of the area, and Mr. Investor and myself had the honor of meeting all the other chiefs in the area, to the extent of being treated like VIPs even though we were wearing simple white tees. We then went on to his village, Ekumfi Ekumpoano and even deep into the hinterland we still had reception on our mobile phones and several of the villagers were busily chatting on theirs; the power of IT! When we got there we had that iconic scene where all the little kids run behind the car. Everybody there was buzzing about the arrival of their chief, and of course a “white man”. Alas Nana himself was at the council meeting, but it was still such great experience, his wife took us on a guided tour and then cut us loose. For me the village was about these little kids, smiling, dancing, treading our footsteps and asking 20 questions a minute. They were such a happy riot, excited and inquisitive beyond belief. I acted as the translator since they seemed so fascinated by the ‘obroni’ who had magically appeared in their midst and then after following the sound of the waves a short while, we hit the beach, and OH was my breath taken away! It was a beguiling sandy beach, untouched by development and pollution, and there were only a few canoes in sight because the fishermen were out to sea. I couldn’t appreciate the scene fully then but now in retrospect I was rather affected by the serene beauty of the soft clean sand, the clear blue sea and the rolling waves all hidden away and unknown, a real unpolished gem waiting to glitter. The ideas begun to flow, and the plans begun to form.........

One day I shall be a luminary business guru but for now I’m just a visionary mind making his dreams a reality, so I seek the counsel of greater minds to inspire me and point me in the right direction. Nana Kyia III is among those whom have had an undeniably positive effect on my personal development and propitious future. Thank you again Nana!

The happy riot of smiles, questions and poses.....cheeeeese!

Tune in next week for the next blog.......Cheers!

The Lucky Percent’s 10,000 Hours...The Truth About Talent!

THE BIZMIC himself is back! It has been a while since I laid bare some of my roaming thoughts and opinions because I have been battling against a great many business priorities as well as personal and emotional issues. Yes, even the motivational and inspiring Bizmic is sometimes unmotivated, uninspired or simply has little time to write. But then BMIC must live on; and I must be disciplined and focused to educate, motivate and inspire others with my gift; my writing; My Talent! My question for you today is are you also one of the so called ‘lucky ones’ who are talented in something like art, sports, music, dancing, cooking, inventing, or in a particular area such as mathematics or comedy. Are you one amongst the fortunate few, the extremely blessed, the exceptions to the rule – The Lucky Percent? Is your gift as simple as being ‘beautiful’ or ‘handsome’, being remarkably intelligent, or easily learning languages? Have you identified your innate talent or are you a one of the vast majority I call the Other Percent: unremarkable and seemingly normal in every way. During my ‘intermission’ from writing I have dedicated a lot of thought to why I write and always seem to be musing over philosophical subjects, reading, writing and pursuing profit-making business ventures. I was beginning to think that I am simply one of those lucky people who are naturally talented at writing, and also one of the lucky few with an uncanny ability to monetize my time and energy. It appears that I am just plain lucky, that I was simply born this way, right? I begun to harbor a rather elitist view that I was an esteemed member of The Fortunate Few and thus I was better off than most other people and would naturally succeed no matter what. Thanks to a YouTube Video a friend posted on my Facebook page I have done some further research and come to the conclusion that Talent is not necessarily equal to Success.

Being talented at something is not a guarantee that one will excel in that area. According to bestselling author, Malcolm Gladwell in an interview promoting his recent book, “The Outliers”, talent is not simply about being naturally good at doing something but rather gaining proficiency at that task over constant and ‘deliberate practice’. He stresses the “10,000 Hour Rule” which he uses to illustrate the point that to be truly great at doing something you need 10,000 hours of practice, which is also equal to about 4 hours of practice everyday for 10 years. Gladwell asserts that achieving greatness requires enormous amounts of time spent practicing; he used the musical talents of the greatest and most successful rock band in history, The Beatles, as well as the programming talent of the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, as examples. The Beatles performed live in a strip club in Hamburg, Germany over 1,200 times, doing 8 hour daily sessions from 1960 to 1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time and Gladwell deduces that this incredible amount of time performing was critical to shaping their talent, “so by the time they returned to England from Hamburg, Germany, they sounded like no one else. It was the making of them.” Bill Gates gained access to a computer in his high school in 1968 at the tender age of 13 – he then spent way more than 10,000 hours programming it and any other computer he could lay his hands on. Gladwell interviews Gates, who says that unique access to a computer at a time when they were not commonplace helped him to succeed. Without that access and subsequent constant practice, Gladwell states that Gates would still be “a highly intelligent, driven, charming person and a successful professional”, but that he might not be worth US$50 billion or so he is worth today.

These and many other examples reveal the real truth about talent: Talent consists of a profound Love for something that is transformed into a Desire to succeed in turn inducing Constant and Deliberate Practice. I mean what if Bill Gates had not spent copious amounts of time programming, or The Beatles gave up playing long 8-hour stints at the German strip club, or I didn’t spend thousands upon thousands of hours reading everything I got my hands on. Would Gates be the wealthy computer genius he is today; would The Beatles be the greatest rock band; would my vocabulary be as polished and erudite as it is? People always ask me why I read so much and my response is always that love reading and I desire to improve my vocabulary and sentence construction and I am not quite at 10,000 hours of writing yet but I’m getting there, day by day, blog by blog. I have been involved in one kind of formal business or another for more than 3 years now and I gain more proficiency and experience in my various businesses as I spend more time deliberately practicing proposal writing, drafting of contracts, deal negotiations, understanding financial information and implementing ideas to create value so in another 7 years of continuing on this path I can guarantee that I will be a Business Guru who is wealthy and quite successful. It appears that the whole point of going to school from Kindergarten through to University, Internships, Apprenticeships and the like is just to equip a young inexperienced individual with their 10,000 hours of practice. It is important to note that it is only something that you love and are willing to work hard at, patiently and with resilience that you will become extremely skilled at doing – in other words your talent is equal to what you desire to constantly and deliberately practice. Robert Iger, the CEO of Disney said in reference to his job that, “You can’t get to places like this without working really hard, loving what you do...and having enormous amounts of energy, patience and resilience”. Note that he was with Disney for almost 30 years before becoming CEO. To reiterate, you may be lucky to have your talent but you will succeed only if you hone that talent with constant and deliberate practice because it takes a long time and massive amounts of effort and toil to succeed at anything so get to work amassing your 10,000 hours at the end of which you are warmly welcome to the much vaunted ranks of The Lucky Percent.

Cheers and may God bless you all!

Underestimated Virtues & Overestimated Faults!

This article was written by L. John Jones, and though he tends to be full of himself his thoughts are really interesting so I edited it and put in a Sun Tzu quote. Enjoy!

Sometime during my teenage years I decided that my personal motto would be "to have my friends always underestimate my virtues and my enemies to always overestimate my faults". I didn't coin this phrase myself but I borrowed it from Mario Puzo’s famous character, Don Corleone, in his novel, ‘The Godfather’. I have come to believe that this is the greatest advantage that a human being can have over others, be they friend or foe: that their true worth should be underestimated and their inevitable blemishes overestimated. Instead of correcting the mistaken assessment, Do Nothing; sometimes I will even go as far as to even stoke the fires and encourage an erroneous approximation of myself. If a friend does not appreciate the full measure of my virtues or an enemy has over estimated my faults, they are at a serious disadvantage to me, so I always try to remind myself to keep things as they are. It is however very difficult not to assert oneself in such situations because most human beings naturally desire to have their full worth appreciated by others. Perhaps I am a bit fortunate in this because I am one of those people that enjoys shocking people constantly; excelling in doing things that they did not think were possible for me to do. Consequently I have decided that it is necessary for me to ensure that both my allies and adversaries never have an accurate measure of what I am fully capable of, what my true intentions, actual goals and inner motivations really are; always be prepared for the unexpected, the awe inspiring and the baffling when it has to do with me (...okay it appears he’s blowing a horn here...ignore this hubris filled narrator when the horn blows – KAA).

At first it appears that allowing people to hold a wrong assessment of you is not just ill advised and irresponsible but reduces your prospects with them; or does it? Underestimated virtues and overestimated faults have been the cause of a great many disappointments and innumerable huge surprises and account for the victories or losses of a myriad battles. They remain an inextricable part of fiction and non-fiction tales as well as movie plot twists. They are a recurring theme in epic anime saga’s that have bleached their mark on our psyche and inspire true-life tales of impossible triumphs. If you assess my virtues and faults inaccurately I have a great advantage over you because you will always be unprepared when I prove that I am more virtuous or less faulty than you thought. This fits in perfectly with what ‘our’ favorite Chinese philosopher has to say, “All [warfare] is based on deception, hence when able to attack, we must seem unable, when using our forces, we must seem inactive, when we are near we must seem far away and [vice versa]”. This is the hallmark of excellence, the ability to deceive people without lying to them but rather allowing (or encouraging) them to lie to themselves about you. It involves using the other persons preconceptions, biases, attitudes, upbringing, observable traits and the like against them in such a way that is simply reaffirming what they expect of you, instead of what you can really do – until the point where it is advantageous for you to play your hand!

To fully explain this concept would be impossible in a three-paragraph blog so I encourage you to deliberate more on this. Essentially this is how magicians create illusions and seasoned poker players always seem to win – they play on your perceptions and misdirect you from the truth about what they are actually doing (or holding) so that your assessment of what is going on is completely wrong. It is important for every Business Mind to appreciate the power of ‘intentional misdirection’ in order to maintain a critical advantage over any competition. Never ever make the mistake of putting all your cards on the table, rather put up your most useless cards first and wait until the advantageous moment to reveal your ace in the hole. But before you can create illusions on your virtues and faults you must first know yourself completely – you must be completely honest about your capabilities and limitations to yourself before you can try to make others assess them inaccurately. When you are completely aware of what you are truly capable of then can you truly become a master strategist who excels at befuddling other people's expectations of you. There is nothing I love to hear more than statements like, “I know you Jones, you can’t do it”, “I have you all figured out Jones” or something along those lines – I laugh with joy inside because I know that there is only one entity that knows me through and through. Anybody else who thinks they have ‘read’ me accurately is only being misled and Yes, preparing to be SHOCKED!

WHO IS AN ENTREPRENEUR?.......Part 2

This is the second part of the article written by Samuel Okore Mintah, the Operations Officer of BMIC. What a marvelous piece - Enjoy!

I initially stated that the journey of every entrepreneur starts with an idea that begins in the mind. But the idea has to be fully developed and nurtured to the extent that it becomes a Burning Desire. It is this burning desire that invigorates the entrepreneur to go every extent no matter the inevitable impediments to attain his or her goal. This burning desire reinforces the mind to focus on a goal and propel the entrepreneur by reinforcing them for the long arduous journey to their desired destination. Having a burning desire will only take an entrepreneur halfway on the journey required to turn an idea into reality: unless the whole mindset of the entrepreneur is consumed by this desire. A consuming desire is stated by Noel Bempong “as the energy, fuel or power that is capable of launching one into action to bring the goal in mind to reality”. This means that consuming desire is what encourages, strengthens and motivates the entrepreneur to endure and act even in the face of adversity. Without this consuming desire, the entrepreneur is bound to stop pursuing his goal when unavoidable obstacles surface, but with this consuming desire any impediment is seen by the entrepreneur as a minor obstruction or even an opportunity in disguise. Apart from external impediments like a lack of funds or required experience, there are internal obstacles that emanate from within the entrepreneur’s own self in the form of low self-esteem, doubts, fear, procrastination etc. Acting at all times and in the face of all these obstacles is the underpinning manifestation of consuming desire that will get you to your destination. Action is the bridge between our dreams and reality, so ACT NOW because without action there is no progress.

They say what you see is what you get but this is not necessarily true in the world of business because what occupies your thoughts most of the time is what tends to manifest in reality. I prefer to say ‘how you think it is how you get it’. How you visualize an idea in your mind’s eye determines the probable reality that [with enough work] will materialize. Therefore as an entrepreneur, the positioning of your thoughts after every experience is what will make or break you. For example after your business suffers an unexpected setback, you have two options; you can admit failing abysmally and give up; or you can decide to see the setback as an opportunity to re-examine what caused the problem and consequently correct mistakes and root out inefficiencies. The second option allows you to approach the same project again but from a different direction which will yield the desired results, but the first option prevents you from trying again. So the difference between the businessman who succeeds and the one who fails lies in their mental outlook to life. Those with a consistently positive mental attitude tend to succeed even after many hiccups whiles those with a negative outlook to life inevitably give up. Human thoughts are powerful enough to transform into a reality exactly as has been envisioned. This means that Success or Failure is already decided in the mind before it manifests into observable reality.

A true entrepreneur never gives up because in the dictionary for entrepreneurial skills the word ‘quit’ does not exist. Perseverance [or persistence] is the word that defines every entrepreneur’s success. Though giving up may seem the best thing to do, your success is inevitable if you refuse to cave in. They say the darkest time of the night is the moment just before the break of dawn; this means that in every endeavour the point where going on seems impossible is when you must realise that victory is just a step away. Persistence is a mental attitude cultivated from self-discipline that will get you to your final destination no matter the odds you face. It is easy to dream but to be determined enough to achieve those dreams is the hardest of all the traits that an entrepreneur must cultivate but with self-discipline and hard work nothing can stand in the way of a person who desires to be an entrepreneurial success.

Acres of diamonds exist right beneath our feet therefore it is up to us the young entrepreneurs to identify these burgeoning opportunities so we can develop them for the benefit of the masses. Though lack of funds and experience may cause us to doubt our capabilities it should be understood that though many have tried and failed those who succeeded were the ones that never gave up. No matter the obstacles that may exist nothing can prevent you from dreaming. Dream and imagine where you want to be and work hard and sacrifice to make them realities. Imagination is the ‘workshop of the mind’ where ideas are assembled together to form big dreams; true entrepreneurs are those individuals that persevere in their efforts and use their failures as stepping-stones to propel them to their final destination - SUCCESS.