Us, young Entrepreneurs are Lazy

I recently watched a Multichoice advert on 20 years of freedom, about a gentleman called Johnny Bada, who over a 20 year period has risen from a mere Multichoice installer to become a business owner with 3 DSTV agencies and a staff component of 65 individuals.

Though I cannot attest to the legitimacy and truthfulness of this story, it did capture me – proving again that business and success takes time.

As I have mentioned before, an overnight success takes 14 years.

Us, young entrepreneurs hardly take the time to learn our craft, to master it and be regarded as an industry expert. We tend to expect quick turnarounds in business and life. Our culture of “Now” hampers the growth and development of many aspiring, talented entrepreneurs.

The desire to be a Hollywood entrepreneur sometimes clouds our judgement in finding the right opportunity and gradually growing it into a multibillion enterprise. However, not all entrepreneurs will be billionaires or even millionaires (Rand, Dollar or Naira) – this road is not guaranteed to offer you wealth, at least not monetary.

Looking at the life of Aliko Dangote, of Dangote Group fame – he has been able to build his business over a period of over 20 years.

Having gotten to know some fantastically successful entrepreneurs - I can attest to the longevity and excessive investment and labour required to make a venture viable, and grow it to impressive institutions.

Popular culture speaks about following your passion as a means to attaining financial independence – this is not true.

We as humans tend to not work hard at our passions, they are just there as extensions of our psyche to offer us relief from daily life.

We exercise them according to our whim and desires – business does not work like that. “Tired”, “not feeling like it” or “lack of motivation” do not feature - a clear and present hunger is the drive you require.

A hunger to succeed, a hunger to build a unique product to improve the world and meet the desires of a defined and lucrative target market. That is willing to pay a price well above the cost of the product.

Building wealth and building a sustainable business takes time, unyielding effort, consistency and most importantly discipline to stay the course. Emerging from humble beginning – developed on solid foundations to becoming business employing people and most importantly generating a consistent income and a solid profit with a growth rate far above inflation and enough to build a wealth fund on.