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Phillip Chichoni
“An entrepreneur sees an opportunity, puts together a team and builds a business that profits from the opportunity” — Robert Kiyosaki in Rich Dad’s Retire Young, Retire Rich
In the above book, son asks rich dad, “What if I see an opportunity I can take advantage of by myself?”
“Great question,” said rich dad. “If you see an opportunity and you can take advantage of the opportunity by yourself, then you are a small businessman of a self-employed person.”
Rich dad went on to explain the difference between a tradesman and an entrepreneur. He said a tradesman or craftsman produces a product or provides a service by himself. For example, a dressmaker can make clothes by herself and a dentist can pull out a tooth by himself.
A true entrepreneur cannot do what he needs to do by himself.
He must be able to pull together a team of smart people from different disciplines and have them work together for a common goal.
Leadership and smart teams create real wealth
When I asked some thought leaders what stops Zimbabweans from creating real wealth, the answers were all about negative attitudes — greed, jealous, selfishness, lack of integrity, individualism.
One expert suggested that if the 20 or 30 flea market stall operators pooled their resources together and opened a large wholesale or retail shop, they could make much more money together than the sum of all of them as individuals.
Nigerians are known to pool resources together and order whole container loads of goods for their shops. They enjoy better profits because of the economies of scale in transport, and discounts from buying in bulk.
Let’s step up from Industrial Age mentality
In the Industrial Age, leading people was like herding sheep.
The formal education system that was developed during that age was designed to mass deliver knowledge to young people in a controlled, logical and cumulative way.
This one-size-fits-all system works reasonably well as a way of sorting people into the different kinds of worker-citizens needed by Industrial Age societies: however, it produces a great deal of “wastage”.
In 14 years, it only prepares a young person to pass examinations, get into college and after that, to look for a job.
I was surprised recently when a graduate in entrepreneurship from a local university sent me a CV asking for a job. I asked her why she was not starting her own venture since she had spent three years learning all about business.
It turned out, the course is not much different from the industrial age schooling system, which does not empower one to think creatively and resourcefully.
Building businesses in the knowledge age
Business in this knowledge age is different from that of the industrial age. Wealth is created from creative thinking rather than from physical work or passing exams.
The most important skills now are people skills: communication, emotional intelligence, team building and leadership.
Success now comes from having project-like work.
Instead of supplying your skills to one company for a long time, you team up with other people from different disciplines and work on projects. When a project is over, you disband and team up with a different group of people for a different project. Leadership comes into play. Leaders are needed to build the teams for specific projects. Unlike in the industrial age, managing in the information age is like herding cats. (Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in the book First, Break All the Rules).
Each person needs to be treated as an individual.
True entrepreneurs need to learn how to deal with different people going in different directions and bring them into a team.
The challenge in this country now is how to change the mindset of young people, from industrial age thinking to knowledge age thinking. How to make them see opportunities and exploit them rather than waiting to find formal work after school.
The BusinessLink team is working together with other entrepreneurs and professionals to provide motivation, entrepreneurial and leadership skills to young people at schools, colleges and communities through the Young Enterprise Club. Those interested in being part of this initiative will find more information on our website http://smebusinesslink.com.
At the next BusinessLink Networking breakfast meeting on February 24th, internet marketing and business building expert, Max Soutter, founder of Business Setup Group, will share some essential tips for growing your business. Don’t miss it.
Phillip Chichoni is a business planning and financial management consultant who works with entrepreneurs and growing businesses. You may contact him on
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Does zim have real entrepreneurs?
Of the thousands of businesses in Zimbabwe, how many are run by entrepreneurs and how many are run by tradespeople?
There is a depressing trend taking shape in this country, most noticeable in downtown Harare. Old buildings are being rebuilt and made into mini malls with dozens of stalls, more like flea markets stands, which are rented out to traders. The traders all sell similar stuff — clothes, shoes, personal accessories, electrical gadgets and so on.
Now, with hundreds of traders selling the same things in the same location, prices are naturally low and profit margins depressed.
The only person who makes a good profit is the landlord, whose rent is guaranteed every month.
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