“In order to succeed, you must first survive”. I have seen several people use this quote and attribute it to Warren Buffet; so I will reference him. This post is addressed to wantpreneurs and young entrepreneurs as well, and it is a practical approach to the reality of entrepreneurship that many people have not been told. So, you get to run up and down doing the wrong things because you have not built for yourself the right mindset. It will cost you a whole lot if you want to dabble into entrepreneurship without having foreknowledge of what it is all about.

1. Entrepreneurship Is Not For Everyone: There has been the whole noise all over social media that entrepreneurship is now the new profession which is actually not correct. The story goes in a way that the economy is bad and that the only way to be guaranteed success is if you venture into entrepreneurship. That is not true. The first lesson I want you to learn before I proceed to the next is that you should have it at the back of your mind that it isn’t for everyone, which means it’s not something you find yourself in, rather something you make a decisive effort to be in.
2. Be Ready To Face Risks: The honest truth is that not everyone is actually fit to face risk. Risk means trying out something when you’re not sure of its outcomes. Fine, you may have prepared all the business plans, and it all looks like everything will turn out fine. However, there will always be a five percent uncertainty in the achieving of such moves, and that five percent is capable of ruining you. That means that it’s either you back out or continue. What you must ensure is that you make calculated risks and not assumptions. They seem similar but are actually different. Calculated risk means you are partially aware of the consequences of any move you make but you make it because it is a step to your progress while assumptions has no research behind them. Matter of fact, this will not happen once or twice and may sometimes lead to the loss of your finances, but you keep moving.
3. Survive before you succeed: This lesson is golden and in a continent like Africa where there is no life support for entrepreneurs, it is paramount that you have a constant source of income. Yes, a safety net. By safety net, it means that you have something to fall onto when you go bankrupt. It could be your parents wealth or another access to assets. You cannot build a billion dollar company on an empty stomach which means that you need to take on jobs. I perfectly understand that there will be time conflict and how you can manage them and that it means you might not have all the time for 9 – 5 jobs. However, you need to get gigs, per time jobs or work during the day while you build at night.
4. Have a long term mindset: If there’s anyone who should have a long term mindset, it should be entrepreneurs. Firstly, you need to take off the mindset of fast growth or overnight success. It has never in any day of history happened where an entrepreneur succeeded overnight. The reason this piece of advice is priceless is that it will shield you from all forms of pressure from the society. The pressure to want to quickly show off your success. There’s no shortcut to getting to make millions, the only shortcut is that you need to wait for your fruits to ripen before you pluck them. People don’t eat unripe fruits and if you try it, they wouldn’t return to you after discovering you tricked them.
5. Understand the habit of spending: This is not a poverty mindset piece of advice. This advice will save you from going bankrupt before you start. If your goal for going into entrepreneurship is to show the fancy cars and expensive wristwatches, chances are that you may never get to really be a successful one. This mindset is actually the poverty mindset in itself because you will want to show gratification based on material things. This means that your first profit, your little income will be spent on showing how successful young are. Entrepreneurs have a different mindset to building wealth. They do not see wealth as the cars at the garage or the expensive suit in the closet; wealth to entrepreneurs is based on values that are not yet seen and cannot be quantified.

You necessarily don’t need a car unless the car can help you move from one point to another for your business success. You don’t need a new pair of suits if you are not having another meeting to attend with that new investor. The social media has painted success in entrepreneurship as standing in front of expensive cars and jets which is actually fake life. Success in entrepreneurship is actually the amount you have net disposable income. The amount you earn is totally different from the amount you are worth. Your car is simply equal to cash at hand except the car on its own produces money, then it becomes an asset.

I have experienced all these and I know this is part of what defines an entrepreneur. With this mindset, you’re not far from success.

There can be just one president for a nation at a particular time, there can be just one vice president, so also one governor for a state, and just one leader for a role for a period of time. So where do we fit in? Those of us who also want to be presidents, those of us who want to be governors, those of us who want to be leaders, and those of us who want to own companies.

Is there any space left for us to occupy? Can we build the next Facebook and send Zuckerberg home? We all want to matter; we all want people to notice us, to give us respect and honour the big guys have. But how are trying to get it? Now, I would say this as mild as possible. You cannot overthrow the president while he’s on seat by attacking him, you cannot throw away the governor on seat by facing him head on.

You cannot send Zuckerberg home by building the next social media. I’m so sorry but you’d fail before you start and I’ll tell you why and what you need to do. The reason is simply because it’s totally impossible to come into a tribe and seat on the throne by throwing away the leader while the tribesmen watch you. Matter of fact, they would rebel against you. The leader has won their trust over time and trust is all you need to rule. You need their loyalty else they sneak up at night to kill you or escape from the town.

These big businesses you want or wish to overthrow have millions and billions of loyal tribesmen (customers). I call it tribesmen because they have for years successfully gained the attention, trust and loyalty of those customers making them part of the brand, community, state and even area. You would need more money, more magic to win in this case. So does this mean you cannot still be a president or governor or leader? You can! Absolutely!

Here’s what you need to do: You need to seek a small group of people that you matter to. It’s a choice. You choose to become the president of the blind and make them recover their sight, soon enough every blind person who has recovered their sight becomes loyal to you. Then they convince another blind person till the whole country is filled with people who have recovered their sight who see you as the leader. These people are your new tribesmen and it’s easier for them to whisper to even those who were never blind to tell them about your generosity and just like that, your idea spreads.

You cannot build the next Facebook that just connects people and advertises, you have to create a social media for grannies to connect and have memories of the times they’ve spent together. Then the grannies convince their children and their grandchildren and your idea spreads. What I’m implying is that you have to seek a set of people who you would matter to, who would be loyal to you, then you rule over them in generosity and transparency and they spread your idea.

This is a choice you have to make. Don’t go fighting the air. Most times you may not need to be the president of a nation, you just have to be the president of the writers, athletes, and the artistes. Who are the people you matter to? What do you matter to them on? Do they recognize it? Is it something they need? Don’t try to go and rule in a kingdom that doesn’t need you; you’d be fruitless. Seek those you matter to, and nurture them.

Lead your tribe well. That’s how you matter!