“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” — Napoleon Hill.
SME’s Chat with Phillip Chichoni
Last week business leaders met at Davos in Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum summit. One of the debates focused on finding solutions to the economic slowdown affecting many countries.
The extent of the recession is being felt, particularly by young people who are failing to get jobs and become productive in their lives.
The WEF Global Agenda Council on Youth Unemployment’s white paper found that “youth unemployment threatens societies, not only in developing countries, but also in the developed world.
The financial crisis has become a socio-economic crisis impacting the young by increasing the burden of debt, creating a lack of job opportunities, causing resource degradation and decreasing the overall quality of life.”
To squarely face the challenges in this economy, youths need to be nurtured to think differently, to acquire an entrepreneurial mindset and develop the habits that will help them succeed in developing their own small businesses.
Youths cite lack of finance, limited business opportunities and little support from government and established business. With the way bigger businesses are struggling, they find themselves without hope of succeeding.
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Youths need a clear vision
The first thing young people need, is a clear and powerful vision. An expert in behavioural science, Collins Cramer of the University of Chicago, carried out some research on intersections between cognitive science and economics which show that many people sabotage their own chances of success by not having a powerful enough vision.
People have a bias for instant gratification, grasping things that they see now rather than sacrificing and waiting. To counter this natural weakness, one needs to envision a desired outcome and take time to fantasise about the moment.
When you clearly see the future you want, you will work harder and more purposefully to make sure you achieve it. A few young people I have worked with are building growing businesses after getting loans from the youth fund, some amounts as small as US$2 000.Then there are others who got much more than that and failed.
The difference is in their mindsets. some have visions of building very successful businesses and making significant achievements in their lives, while the others seek instant gratification in one way or another. It is all in one’s mind; about seeing the future.
You can see it in little children. Make them choose between a lollipop in your hand and a promise of an ice cream after dinner and they will likely choose what they can see at that moment. They cannot imagine the delights of an ice-cream six hours away and would rather get what they see.
Vision is seen in a person who approaches a bank for a loan after making some significant progress in building their business. Having already designed a brochure, a website or blog and produced some samples for marketing your products and services, shows you believe in the success of your business.
Or having built a team with the relevant talent and skills needed to make the venture successful. Convincing others to buy into your dream is a sign of passion and a clear vision.
