About 30 years ago I wrote a letter that changed my life as an entrepreneur. I've told some of you about this before.
I had come across a newspaper article announcing the private sector arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, was setting up a special fund to help what they called at the time “Small and Medium Size Businesses” - SMEs. [We don’t really use that term much anymore; today we say “Entrepreneurs].
The article was right there in the local newspaper that we all #Read. But I read to DO, so I always have a pen and paper... READY to FOLLOW UP!
Back then there was no email, no Internet. I decided to write a letter and then had to wait months and months for the reply. A black guy from Guyana eventually wrote back, and said he was one of the people working on it.
To cut a long story short: he traveled to Harare to undertake a Due Diligence of my first little business. Together we worked on my Business Plan. He actually had the first laptop that I had ever seen! I had only a desktop.
It must have taken six months, and at least five visits by Dr Lawrence Clarke, to help me develop an investable Business Plan.
During those six months, I learnt more about financing structures, and debt and equity in a business, than I had known in five years.
At the time, it was only $250,000. But the #Principles including the 3Ps that I learnt would apply to any amount you need.
In addition to #People, #Product and #Process that I've talk to you about for years, let me leave you with a few more P's...
1. #Persistence!
One of the hallmarks of a good entrepreneur is #Persistence. However, a note of caution: “Persistence without insight will usually lead to the same result—failure!” [anon]
You must be persistent, yes, but you must first seek clarity and INSIGHT before trying again! Never allow your emotions, or sense of injustice [perceived or real] to cloud how you go back in, to try again.
I’m the most #Persistent person you will ever meet, but I do so through the constant pursuit of #Insight. How else can I approach this?
What mistakes did I make last time? I go over the minutest of detail. I consult people who are not emotionally invested, yet knowledgeable [on the matter at hand].
2. #Patience!
If you are going to succeed at anything as an entrepreneur, you will need #Patience. Lots and lots of it! I cannot stress enough: Everything I have tried to show you, there is also an implicit message about the importance of Patience.
Yes, I know that in America, some young entrepreneurs can create multi-billionaire businesses almost overnight. That is good, and I hope it happens to some of you, but that's not going to be the case for 99% of you, and you should have the humility to accept that.
Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are #MasterClass entrepreneurs, but their ventures 20+ years in the making!
I first started thinking about the business that's now Liquid Intelligent Technologies in 1997. It would be more than 15 years before the first investor believed in what I was trying to do with it. And now global investors have turned it into the largest business in my group.
Patience, patience, patience!
3. #Plan to #PLANT
Learn this from the farmer:
__If you don’t actually #Plant something, you have nothing!
A farmer knows that it is important to plan properly for the next season, but you cannot continue to #Plan forever without doing anything.
You don’t wait for the perfect conditions to get started. Everything is a risk; you don’t know whether the crop will not fail before harvest; you don’t know if there will be a change in the market. If problems come, you cannot pack your crop and run.
You must work in the conditions, because you don’t control at least 80% of the conditions you will face, and yet for that 20% or less, you take the risk.
# Are you asking yourself the right questions?
# Are you making observations that really matter? [For so many of you now on this platform, the answer is increasingly YES!]
# ARE YOU ACTING ON WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT?
There will be many opportunities for you, even today, such as the one I had the day when I saw that article.
Almost every day I write stuff for you that is just as important as that newspaper article, but you and you alone, are the one to ACT.
If I get you to accept this, there is nothing you cannot do!
"Keep your eyes on the stars but your hands at the task" [adapted from Theodore Roosevelt]
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