ENTREPRENEURSHIP WITH MUIDEEN ADEBAYO IBRAHIM, ACIS ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET: CHANGE YOUR THINKING

Muideen Adebayo Ibrahim; the Founder, LIBRA CONSULTING a Management Consultancy Firm and BAMIB RESOURCES

 “As a man thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.”-      James Allen

I sincerely welcome my highly esteemed readers to this unique and specially packaged write up and the reason for this edition is to enable us change our thinking, unlock our potentials, that is; our capacity for development in other words, to succeed or become something great in this life. This write up is a clarion call that you can make it as well, because it is in you and together we shall succeed!

What is entrepreneurship? There are various definitions of Entrepreneurship, however, according to Robert, Michael and Dean A. Shepherd in their book entitled; Entrepreneurship, they asserted that “entrepreneurship is the process of creating something new with value by devoting the necessary time and effort, assuming the accompanying financial, psychic, social risks and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary, personal satisfaction and independence.”

An entrepreneur is someone who creates wealth, something new (an innovator), who must be very sound in organizing and must be a risk taker. Kindly note that the risk to take must be a calculated one. Do not take risk for taking sake please!

It is the fear of the unknown that has made a lot of people to be enslaved in where they are working, simply because they do not want to take calculated risk. It should be noted that it is the fear of failure that has permanently caged a lot of people into servitude.

Historically, according to Wikipedia, entrepreneur is a factor in microeconomics and the study of entrepreneurship dates back to the work of Rehichand and Cantillon as well as Adam Smith in the 17^th and early 18^th centuries but was largely ignored theoretically until the late 19^th and 20^th centuries and empirically until a profound resurgence in business and economics in the last 40 years. However, in the 20^th century, the understanding of entrepreneurship owes much work of economist Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Carl Menger, Ludwig ven Mises and Friedrich von Hayek.

An entrepreneur must have the character of leaders because aside from being a risk taker, an entrepreneur must be; a good planner, superb organizer, a great team builder, must be able to see opportunities and also explore the opportunities to the fullest advantage.

Other skills or competencies that an entrepreneur must have include; Effective Communication, Assertiveness, Financial Capability, Marketing, Selling, People Management, Customer Needs Analysis, Creativity, Negotiation, Presentation, Customer Problem Solving, Interpersonal Relationship, Customer Management, Effective Listening, Sensitivity Analysis and Emotional Intelligence amongst others.

Based on the foregoing, it is crystal clear that an entrepreneur is someone with innate skills and abilities with the knack to succeed. This is principally because before a new product/service could be launched and later have a global presence, it will pass through teething stages and if the entrepreneur is not careful, the product and/or service may not see the light of the day. However, with the aforementioned skills or core competencies, the business will be very successful all things being equal. Most business fail in their first five years of existence as a result of lack of essential skills that can make an entrepreneur excel or take the business to the next level.

It is pertinent to point out that the importance of entrepreneurship in economic development cannot be overemphasized, principally in terms of technological innovations or breakthroughs (such as Microsoft, Facebook, Apple Computer, Whatsapp, Twitter, Telegram, Zilox Computer in Nigeria and so on), creativity (ability to do things differently or in a unique way by thinking outside the box), reward (which is the gain of an entrepreneur), independence, problem solving, employer of labour and total control and/or management amongst others.

Attributes of an entrepreneur are; Passion, Persistency, Perseverance, Patience, Prayer and Focus (5Ps + F = Success). I hold tenaciously to this formula so that I will be very conversant with the attributes at all times.

None of the aforementioned attributes can be toyed with if an entrepreneur really wants to succeed. 

An entrepreneur must have passion, without which he/she cannot succeed. Infact, passion is the driving force and an entrepreneur must turn his passion into money cum profit at the end of the day. What do you have passion for? Please, think about it critically!

 Persistency on the other hand is that during rain or sun, the entrepreneur must be on course and not be discouraged by any factor that could mitigate against success. Simply put, persistency is the quality of continuing steadily despite problems or difficulties. You will recall that in Nigeria, we are operating in an unusual environment in which one cannot be successful if the person is not very strong minded or persistent. A lot of threats which are militating against every business venture are abound in the country viz-a-viz; erratic power supply, unfavourable government policies, double taxation, lack of access to finance, lack of will power from the populace, insecurity and so on. With persistency, success will come eventually for an entrepreneur.

Perseverance is steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks, in other words, Rome with her magnificent buildings was not built in a day.

It is a truism that a business venture must pass through the Five Stages of Product Life Cycle; Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline and Death. These are the stages a normal human being must also pass through in life as well all things being equal.

The success of an entrepreneur to a large extent depends on his/her ability to manage each stage of the product life cycle effectively. Great success requires long, hard work and not only that, an entrepreneur must cultivate the habit of Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). Simply put, ‘Nothing is impossible’ attitude. Infact that is the inscription on the table of Aliko Dangote. Please, see the Tell Magazine, June 24, 2015 No. 25 Edition. Actually, what propels me is “Nothing is Impossible if you have Faith.”

Patience on the other hand is the ability to endure waiting, delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset. One of the main characteristics of an entrepreneur is to wait for result. Some entrepreneurs want quick result hence they jettison a laudable idea after serious investment because they cannot wait patiently for desired result and as such, they abandon the business or close down.

Brain Tracy in his book, No More Excuses said inter alia that “The first rule of success is simple: Vote yourself off the island! Do it or don’t do it but don’t make excuses. Stop using your incredible brain to think up elaborate rationalizations and justifications for not taking action. Do something. Do anything. Get on with it! Repeat to yourself: If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”

Nick Vujicic was born without limbs and legs, but the man saw an opportunity and he tapped into it and he became a motivational speaker and he became very rich. He eventually married and now has kids. So what is your own excuse? As long as you press forward, anything is possible. So keep moving!

Prayer is the key to success. With all the management savvy, without prayer, an entrepreneur may not succeed if care is not taken. The Holy Quran Verse 2, Chapter 153 says that ”Oh ye who believe! Seek help with patient, perseverance and prayer: for God is with those who patiently persevere.”

The efficacy of prayer in one’s life cannot be over emphasized. Alhaji Aliko Dangote in his biography book entitled; The Biography of the richest black person in the world written by Moshood Ademola Fayemiwo and Margie Marie Neal, stated inter alia that “I am a very prayerful person, I believe so much in God but you also have to condition your mind as a business person and know that today I can make quite a lot of money and tomorrow I can lose quite a lot of money.” This presupposes that as an entrepreneur, you must be very prayerful at all times.

Focus is the ability to have a concentrated effort or attention on a particular thing, a lot of entrepreneurs are not successful because of lack of focus. An entrepreneur must begin with the end in mind. So, dream big dreams! Brain Tracy in his book Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life said that  “Your main goal in life must be to harness your amazing powers and direct them intelligently and systematically toward achieving everything you really want.”

There is need for you to have Vision as well. Vision is the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. Please, cultivate the culture of creating a fantastic vision for yourself. It does not cost money to craft a vision. What you need is biro/pencil and a paper. Endeavour to put your vision down now in about two or three lines!

On this note, the time to change your mindset towards entrepreneurship is now, so that you too can create something tangible, take calculated risk, become an employer of labour, have immeasurable rewards and contribute to Nigeria’s economic development.

So keep the dream alive! Success shall be yours!

See You at the TOP!!

It is well!!!

Muideen Adebayo Ibrahim is an entrepreneur: the Founder, LIBRA CONSULTING; a Management Consultancy Firm and BAMIB RESOURCES (a Premium Pencil Company) based in Lagos and can be reached via muideenibrahim2004@yahoo.com or 08037221517 (sms) only please!