The Sunday Mail
Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
Ask any renowned entrepreneur how they started their journey. They will all tell you how restless they became in their minds at some point in time. It all starts in the mind. Lasting entrepreneurship emanates from the need to change things for the better. The difference between what you are and what you should be, is a decision coupled with action, so you’re a decision and action away from your desired person. Once we start talking of decisions, we’re already into the mindset territory. At its core, entrepreneurship is a mindset, a way of thinking and acting.
Bruce Bachenheimer, clinical professor of management and executive director of the entrepreneurship laboratory at Pace University, defined entrepreneurship as imagining new ways to solve problems and create value. It is about the ability to recognise and methodically analyse an opportunity and, ultimately capture its value.
I picked five dimensions of an entrepreneurship mindset in Professor Bachenheimer’s sentiments that I will explore.
- Way of thinking
Entrepreneurship is indeed a way of thinking. It is a philosophy. It is a dogma. Most entrepreneurs’ minds explore the future, identify possible challenges and come up with solutions. It proves the fact that it is indeed their way of thinking. They think solutions.
Bhudda once said; “The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”
Think solutions, you create them. Think entrepreneurship, you will become one. The more you ponder on an idea, the sooner you will take action within that context.
If Napoleon Hill said, whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve, I then question the way we think as Africans and what we collectively achieve as a continent.
To be net importers as a continent, what kind of a mindset do we have and what are we conceiving and ultimately achieving?
Rather than thinking and investing in solutions and furthering research and development, we’re all after undue visibility, show off and heavy spending. We are so porous in a big way. While others are thinking entrepreneurial sustainability now and in the long term, we are busy prematurely self-gratifying.
- Way of life
Great entrepreneurs are driven by passion more than rewards. Indeed, there are rewards at the end of all that necessary versatility and innovation. You don’t need a supervisor on things that you are passionate about.
It’s your way of life. The reason why most Indian run businesses are successful is that, the business mindset is enculturated within their children at an early age. An age when the mind is still fresh and full of the ability to grasp and conceptualise things.
They told themselves that they will be great business people in the world and that stuck in their minds and so is told to their kids from infancy. Africans on the other hand have a spending mentality which ultimately turn even to cost the whole continent plunging it into a net importer. Once something settles in, adopted and practiced, it literally becomes a way of life.
- Seizing opportunities
Entrepreneurs make use of eyesight, foresight and mindsight to see and seize opportunities. Look at what’s currently obtaining in our own continent Africa with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic remedy. We are relying on imported solutions as if our own scientists are blinded of the need to come up with a home-grown panacea.
The biggest challenge we have is, we don’t take things seriously. I still believe Africa can come up with an African solution to this pandemic. If our local zumbani is doing it, it’s just a tip of an iceberg.
Africa is endowed beyond measure. It all bows down to the way we think. Opportunities usually come disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognise them. In the words of Ann Landers, entrepreneurs possess the mental disposition to unmask and tap into them. This ability sets entrepreneurs apart.
- New ways of
solving problems
The major distinction between real entrepreneurs and the masses is that they have a unique way of tackling challenges. It is this uniqueness that makes them stand out from the crowd. Entrepreneurship involves coming up with a new product or service for the existing market or a new market altogether.
Alternatively, it may be bringing in a unique way of packaging existing products or services for the same or a different market.
What makes an entrepreneur stand out among others is the ability to come up with a new way of solving current and future challenges. The sharper the solution, the more outstanding an entrepreneur becomes.
Innovation is a virtue in entrepreneurs, it gives birth to the uniqueness that they display in their execution. I happen to be in a group of national transformational coaches.
They are quite a number but each appeal to the same market in a different way.
That’s innovation. You can be in the same retail, manufacturing, mining or logistics business, to mention a few but it is how you differentiate your products or services that gives you that competing edge in the marketplace.
- Create value
The mind of an entrepreneur is set on creating value. It is when customers get satisfaction either through your products or services that they would want to continuously deal with you.
Therefore, the more you work on improving the welfare of other people, the more value you create for yourself.
At first, it is not about getting loads of money coming your direction. It’s about making sure that your customers or clients smile all the way to their domicile delighted. They will act as broadcasters for whatever products or service you offer, thus creating a pool of followers.
Conclusion
Sustainable entrepreneurship should indeed be first and foremost a mindset issue that will have capillary effect to other facets of the entire business endeavour. Such kind of value addition thinking calls for well-established mental muscles to untangle the value that lies at the centre of things. Internalise this, entrepreneurship at its core, is a mindset, a way of thinking, a way of life and seizing opportunities.
The author, Master Coach Dr. Kudzanai Vere is an entrepreneur, author and transformational speaker. He is the founder and CEO of Kudfort, founder and director of programmes at Transformational Mindset Institute, founder and executive president of Premium Business Network International, secretary for the Kadoma Economic Development Chamber and a lecturer at Women’s University in Africa. Dr. Vere have spoken extensively in Zimbabwe and across the borders in areas of entrepreneurship and business management. He authored four books including the best-selling entrepreneurship book, Exceed beyond the ordinary: A step by step guide on how to become a high voltage entrepreneur and a personal development toolkit, Becoming a person of impact: The six pack approach. He can be contacted on +263719 592232 or email [email protected] or [email protected]
