Formula for success | Dream Big, Start Small And Be Disciplined Website
Ghana's foremost Most Respected Chief Executive Officer, retired army Capt. Prince Kofi Amoabeng, says discipline to a fault is a must attitude for any entrepreneur seeking to succeed especially in the Ghanaian context of an extended family and needs. The Unique Trust Financial Services CEO said for starters, the business idea should be people-oriented and should aim to satisfy the needs of people; improve their lives, lead to their development and make them better, but if the idea is to make you rich basically and you are skinny about the idea, I think it’s a useless idea. Prince Amoabeng who was speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, said a second key requirement is that the entrepreneur should believe in the idea and get committed to it. Once you start moving with every new thing, there are numerous obstacles especially in Ghana or Africa for that matter, numerous, numerous obstacles and unless you are committed, and I say some of the time you must be disciplined to a fault to be able to attain success because there are so many things which will come your way; hurdles that you have to go over. And it’s very frustrating and I think there are a lot of people who could achieve very good things, better than what Unique Trust is doing, who have either left Ghana because of the frustrations or they have just abandoned the beautiful ideas that they have because it is very frustrating especially in our setting. He said locally, two key issues confront successful entrepreneurship right from the outset; traditional beliefs and norms of the people and the lack of requisite structures and systems. Now the first one, it’s very interesting, as soon as you start with the idea and you think that you have some small money to move it, your mother, your brother, your sisters, your uncles, your friends, your chiefs, your ministers, whatever, will actually want to have a bit of you, your time or your money that is why you have to be disciplined to a fault and say that this is capital I want to keep and move the business forward because you can only help people from a position of strength, so if you allow them to take away your capital because your uncle is dead and definitely you must fund it, then that is the end of your business. Prince Amoabeng said the situation is a very uncomfortable one, especially when family money has been expended in getting you education, however, being disciplined to a fault means you must also be practical enough to spurn the scorn that may follow your decision. He said to be successful also means that the individual must be bold enough to challenge the status quo and be convinced that the results are achievable. Again underlying discipline is the fact that you need always to be clear about systems and processes, and this should be instilled in you and it should be clear with people who are dealing with you that this is the way to treat it. If you respect systems what it does is that it gives equal opportunity to everybody, everybody gets respect because you know that if I do ABCDE, I get to F. Now if you don’t apply the systems, then of course you are going to put the wrong people in the right places and you are going to be very subjective like we have in governance; in corporate governance, in national governance, people are appointed because they are friends, because they went to exile with them or they were colleagues playing football when they were kids. And these are not competent people, for example, who can move the nation forward. You need people who have the right competencies who would be judged by targets that are set them and have the discipline to fire if they are not performing. Of course if you put your uncle or your cousin or your friend, then so long as he remains your uncle or your cousin or your friend, he keeps his post. He said while it is difficult even for people with brilliant business ideas, and more so for people coming out of school, to convince banks and other financial institutions for financing, they could do so by starting on a small note and raising the needed capital from known associates or family members who can attest to their mettle. Again, the business plan will not be sufficient most often, and it should be backed with a promise of a return (5%, 10% etc) on the amount, which contract should be honoured at all cost. Start small. It’s good to start small because one, even if you make mistakes, you don’t hurt too many people. Start small and you learn by starting small. I, when I started Unique Trust I was thinking I was going to get big monies from friends and other institutions that had promised me they all failed me but in hind sight, that was a good omen because they failed me therefore I had to start very, very small. I didn’t abandon it, I started very small; from zero then my capital went to some ¢20 million (old Ghana cedi) to hundred and I made mistakes along the way but because I didn’t have much to invest, the mistakes I could recover. It’s like when you are walking and you fall, of course you get minor bruises but when you are running and you fall. Read concluding part on Friday.
Source: MJFM
