THIS IS HOW TO SECURE YOUR HERITAGE AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

Years ago when I was Associate Editor of one of Africa’s Leading magazine at age 21, I thought I was the most successful young Nigerian. My valued friend, Tade Esan was a Book Consultant to some of the top Business Executives, both of us had a lot of good things going on for us. I and Tade had met at a Developmental program created by another good friend, Kunle Samuel. The program was called, Adding to Life. It was an in-door program for some of the great young minds in Nigeria, which was where I and Tade had the first contact. Each of us struck the other with insightful thoughts, that we became friends immediately even at a time when I rarely made friends. The journey of our friendship had remained stronger and glorious by the day.

Later, as we progressed in our relationship, I started experiencing a growing melancholy towards my exalted position and work as a Development Consultant and Associate Editor. I wanted something more that could be more strategic and helpful to Entrepreneurs. The passion was so strong that I began to write and research on Entrepreneurship in Africa. It was an amazement that I found that successful Entrepreneurship in Africa has not endured.

As usual, I told my valued friend, Tade but discovered that it was the same thought that has been brewing in his mind too. Soon both of us left our various occupations to start a Consulting Firm. We’d thought we had the solution to Africa’s Entrepreneurs problems. Our consulting Firm was known as Potsherd Human Development Company.

To kick off, we began interviewing top African Entrepreneurs in a project tagged, The Billionaires Chat. We soon discovered that it was necessary for Entrepreneurs to learn the wisdom inherent in Successful Entrepreneurs, a great idea strucked us to begin a Business Academy known as Fortunes Entrepreneurs School. At this stage of our lives, we were perhaps the busiest of our peers, even though today I am not happy to use the word, ‘busiest’.

Then in the course of our ‘running around’, we met an incredible fellow… a man who created more than 105 businesses…. A man whose conversation and teaching changed our lives positively forever. This man was RARE! Never in my little life had I met such wisdom and soundness from any mortal man. I and my partner, Tade Esan called this man, Our RARE Mentor.

Perhaps, we would have ended up with hypertension if not for our encounter with RARE Mentor. RARE Mentor created 105 businesses in countries that he never lived in and countries that he couldn’t speak the people’s native language. It was not the businesses he created that killed him when he eventually died… he died a peaceful death… he never had the diseases mostly associated with Entrepreneurs. In our early encounters with RARE Mentor, he said concerning the way we approached business, ‘if you two,’ referring to I and Tade, ‘continue this way, you may soon die before me.’ Those words made my mind run wild, hitting me so hard in the chest. Continuing, he said, ‘there is a difference between hard labour and wise labour…. Your job as an Entrepreneur is to choose the one that you find suitable for you.’
‘Who wouldn’t pick Wise Labour?’ I thought to myself. ‘It would be an unwise decision to choose hard labour.’

As though reading my thoughts, RARE Mentor said, ‘My sons, the way you are going is the hard route to success and it is not a guarantee that you will get there… you need to take another route, which is the wise route.’
‘Which sir,’ Tade said, ‘is the wise route?’ bringing out his pen to scribbled the thoughts of RARE Mentor in his journal.
‘The wise route to Entrepreneurship is to understand the essence of Entrepreneurship. Business has become an unconscious trap for many Entrepreneurs today,’ he said smiling at our young faces. Then he said, ‘a lot of people fail to understand the true meaning of business before they jump into starting one… they think business is all about starting.’
Curiously, I asked, ‘what then is the essence of business to an Entrepreneur?’
Answering, RARE Mentor said, ‘a business is simply a money-making machine that an Entrepreneur invents that adds value to mankind whilst pouring wealth into his own life and those around him.’

According to RARE Mentor, the job of an Entrepreneur is to invent a machine called business… ‘every Inventors job ends at inventing not managing their inventions,’ he often said, ‘An Inventor knows that he has created a limitation if the invention is only something that can only work when he show up. In that same way, an Entrepreneur’s job is to invent a business that will always work without him. It is a faulty business that you have invented when it works only when you are working physically in the businesses.

‘Can you imagine,’ RARE Mentor said later in our conversation, ‘if Orville and Wilbur Wright had only invented the airplane that only them could operate.’ Immediately, I started having a dialogue in my heart. I realized that we may not have the privilege of travelling so quickly if the invention of the Wright brothers had been poor. As RARE Mentor took us through the journey of Successful Entrepreneurship, it soon occurred to us why Entrepreneurship has not endured in Africa. Many are simply sing their energy to manage the businesses that they don’t have time for inventing. The Entrepreneur is only successful at inventing a business that is valuable to mankind and to himself.

‘Being busy’ he often said, ‘does not mean business. Never mistake being busy for being a Business Owner. You are not a business Owner if you owned by your business… you are only a slave to a business that owns you.’ Being your own Boss can be paraphrased as Being in Your Box. The essence of business is that you should be slave to your business.


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Chudi Onyemeri lrc.
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