9-day intensive business training. Day 5. Module 9. Start Stupidly. Image credit: terarrianonline.com

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1 Day 5 Module 9 Start Stupidly Image credit: terarrianonline.com Do not despise the day of small beginning (Bible; Zechariah 4; 10) After you have discovered that product you want to produce or sell or that service you want to render (to help people, to meet their needs and wants, because that`s only way to make a lot of money), don`t make the mistake most people make by trying to start big or perfectly. Today as I am writing this, the world richest and most influential online company is google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin started google from Susan Wojcicki`s garage in September Google is now making over 40 billion dollars each year. When Coca-Cola started, it was an ugly product. There wasn`t any w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 1

2 package. People would go and lineup for Coke and get it with cup, jug or whatever. It was odd. Today, Coke is the most famous product in the world. Near 2 billion bottles of Coca Cola products are being sold every day all over the world. When Linda Ikeji started her blog in the year 2004, she wasn`t known by anybody except herself. Her effort wasn`t paying back and she would have been advised by some people to stop wasting her time. Today, she is having the most populous blog in Africa and arguably making over 3 million naira each month. My experience with life since a decade ago has thought me three important lesson: Permit me to explain. First, you will never start anything perfectly. Second, starting big is dangerous. Third, there is magic in starting small. Nothing in the realm of man can be started perfectly and most times when we`re waiting for a perfect time, we wait forever, Ecclesiastes 11: 4 (Bible) says, Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap Achievers in the world are people who start when it is stupid to start when things are not right or perfect. I started my first business venture with bicycle. No, not selling bicycle but renting out bicycle to my mates at #5 for 5 minutes. w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 2

3 That was stupid, but you can tell me, Stephen, you were just 15 years old that time so it wasn`t a big deal Yes, you are right. I was only a boy then. But think about this. After I had achieved what 99.9% of people cannot achieve academically and politically on campus and left school (as the most famous, most influential and most respected guy in my department), I rejected the offer for good job and started a phone call business making calls for people at #20 per minute. There was a day I made #5 as profit. It was horrible. I am talking of I moved from that to another ugly but better business (snacks making) and to another and to another. Today as I am writing this I have not arrived, but I have seen the promised land. Now I work in the kind of business I love and make money easier than most people (hey, I am not a millionaire now, but maybe I might have made millions before you will be reading this course). What am I saying here? Forget the dream of planting when there will be no wind. Forget the dream of starting when all is ready. Stop thinking of starting big. Get out. Get your hands dirty. Start that stupid (because it`s little) but legal business. You will learn, grow and become a giant. Every seed has to die before it can multiply, don`t you know? w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 3

4 If (for instance) you plant corn today, that corn has to be rotten, die, before it can germinate to produce in multiple folds. Every man must die before he can live, so don`t be afraid to die (by doing little, dirty, ugly things for a better tomorrow). Have you forgotten? Mike Adenuga was once a taxi driver and a security guard. When he started his business, he started by selling Coca-Cola and Lace materials. Today, he`s one of the 10 richest people in Africa. If he had not started rough, how could he become a giant today? Do you know Orji Uzor Kanu, a former governor in Nigeria, I think Abia former governor? He`s a business tycoon who started with nonsense. He borrowed $35 from his mother after being expelled from school for being part of a riot and started selling palm oil. Yes, palm oil. From that stupid beginning, he failed, learned, grew and finally made it to be among the richest business men in Africa. Now you get what I m telling you where you start, how you start or with what you start really doesn`t matter. What matters is your willingness to start, learn and grow. The second important lesson I ve learned in my life is that, contrary to what most people think, it`s actually dangerous to start big. If you want to understand what I m saying here, just imagine an attempt to make a nine months old baby run. Dangerous? Yes, dangerous because you could break the legs of that baby or even kill him. w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 4

5 A baby has to crawl first, gain strength and experience, then walk, gain more strength and experience, before he can now run. If I had gotten a million naira to start with when I started business, I m not sure you will be reading this business training today. The reason is obvious. When you start out in the business world (just like a little baby, trying to walk), you will make mistakes and experience some failures. I had wake up into my business one day, saw everything was fine, but slept at night with nothing. I mean, almost everything was lost that day. But you see, everything was actually a small amount so I was able to stand up again without much wound. If everything I lost was huge, like 5 million naira that might be the end of my entrepreneurial journey. The problem we have is that, most of us assume that we know how to run certain business and make much money, if we could just get huge capital to start. That`s an error. You don`t know, and even if you know, you don`t know all you should know. I have read more than 150 books on business and life related topics before I fully went into the business world. I was so proud and thought I knew much. Well, I knew much in theory. Life`s lesson (and business lesson) has to be learnt both in theory and in practical. Think about this. There is no amount of books you can read to learn how to drive a car. w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 5

6 You will never learn how to drive a car well until you get inside a car, drive, make mistakes, hit some wall or fence or hit some other vehicles at the back (I know you don`t like this, but it must happen for you to become an expert driver). Just as it`s dangerous to run with high speed when you`re just learning how to drive a car, it`s dangerous to start big in the business world. Whenever you think of starting a big business, just think of an attempt to make a nine months old baby run or driving a car with 180 speed kilometer as a learner. It`s dangerous! The third important thing I have learnt so far about life is, starting small has magic in it. Though tough, rough and hard, what you`ll experience is that, after starting and committing yourself to growing your business, magic begins to happen. That courage to start is magical. What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Courage has genius, power and magic in it Johann Wolfgang Though the beginning may not be easy for you, few years from now when you see what you have achieved, where you`re coming from and your mates who are afraid of starting, you will thank yourself for your courage. When you look at today giant businesses and entrepreneurs, it`s very easy to think, I can never get to this height. Well, they all started where you are, with little or nothing. Michael Dunlop said: w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 6

7 Everything starts as nothing That`s the truth about life. Everything starts as nothing, even the present world where we live. There was a time in the world when there was no living thing. God created the first man, the first woman. The world`s population became two, five, ten, fifty and today we are over 7 billion. Everything starts from nothing, so don`t be afraid of starting a business with little or nothing. Start with a stupid thing (because that`s what people around you will call it). Start where you are, with what you have. Don`t plan to start big or perfect. Nothing starts big or perfect Start small (or stupidly). Keep on learning. Keep your vision alive. Keep on growing and you will become a successful business owner. w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 7

8 Module 10 Work for Free Image credit: linkendin.com Robert Kiyosaki is probably the world most famous financial educator. He is the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. According to him, when he was a young boy he was being trained by an experienced entrepreneur. Guess what is the most important out of those trainings? What? Working for free? Work for free. His mentor forced him to work for free. He taught him that everyone who wants to succeed as a business owner must learn how to work for free. What is the meaning of this? Let me explain. w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 8

9 If today you`re employed by the United Bank of Africa (UBA), in the next 30 days you will receive a payment alert, your salary. From that time on, you will be receiving salary every month, no matter what. This is not so in business. If you start a business today, you have to learn how to work for free for a period of time. You won`t start making a lot of money immediately. In fact, you`ll have to be re-investing the token you`re making at the beginning. Then when I was planning for the business world, I knew I was never going to make it big immediately. My goal was to earn a meager amount that would give me the cheapest food just to keep my body and soul together. One of the mistakes most people make when they are out to start a business is that, they want to make a lot of money immediately. It doesn`t work that way. There were once two brothers (let`s say A and B). Their father gave them one maize each. A ate and enjoy his own maize while B dried and planted his own. Three months after, B had enough maize to feed himself for the next one month while A had none. The above analogy is not perfect, but it is similar to what is happening between people who are employees and people who are successful business owners. Employees never work for free. w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 9

10 They start receiving their reward immediately when they start working. Business owners have to work for free for many months before their reward start coming. But at the end of the whole thing, successful business owners earn thousands of times than the employees. Be willing to pay yourself last. Be willing to work for free. When you start a business, it`s time to pay the price. You have to be willing to continue learning, trying things, make mistakes, fail and grow. You have to be willing to make mistakes. You don`t like that statement? Let me tell you the one you`ll like you have to be willing to fail. Hahahahaha. If you hate those statements, you actually hate to be rich. I know you love to be rich. So be strong. Be strong. Be strong. Take heart. Arm yourself. Prepare you mind. Be rugged. Get (positively) desperate. Be willing to pay the price. Be willing to fight for your financial freedom. Be willing to endure the pains require to climb the mountain that leads to riches. As long as you have truly decided to be a successful business owner (do-or-die), nothing can stop you from succeeding. Starting a business today will not make you rich tomorrow, but it can make you the richest in the future, if you do according to the teaching of this business course. To make money faster in business however, you must answer this question w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 10

11 Get that question tomorrow. We Love You! w w w. A f r i c a B u s i n e s s C l a s s r o o m. c o m Page 11