You can become an Entrepreneur if...

Last month, I had a chat with an old school mate who took advantage of his Boss leave abroad to start his own business. Another good friend of mine stumbled into blogging some years back and now operates one of the finest web development firms in the Ashanti Region. Few years ago, whiles pursuing my national service, a friend and I decided to venture into the  unknown  to become the Entrepreneurs we  have all being talking of; our ideas, plans and visions are gradually seeing the light  of the day. In my conversation with many young entrepreneurs, there are clear evidences everyone can become an Entrepreneur. Today, I share with you some surprising signs that will catapult you into the world of entrepreneurship. If you are ready; let’s begin.

• Hate the Status Quo – It doesn't make sense to you that something has been done the time-honored way with no explanation why. You are not someone who wants to just go through the motions or sit by idly. Nor do you like following the pack.
• Easily Bored - You find yourself easily bored, and others start viewing you as a problem. But nothing is wrong with you except that you are bored with activities that aren't up to your abilities and aren't challenging. That's why you hated most of the classes you ever attended. Think Bill Gates who dropped out of college to become one of the richest men in the world.
• Fired from Jobs – You're too creative for your own good when it comes to working for others, and you may have some history, as I do, of losing jobs. Being just a cog in wheel is very difficult for you because you want to create something others can be inspired by and contributes to.
• Labelled a Rebel - You know that greatness resides outside the lines of conformity and don't think that policies, laws and regulations apply to you. You have been described as a rebel and rule breaker and would defy gravity if you could. 
• Ready to Improve Everything - You always see how you could do things better. In addition, you are opinionated and freely give your two-cents about your better way of doing things--even when you're not asked. 
• Don't Fit the Norm - You have always been a bit uncomfortable in your own skin. Until you get used to the idea that you are in fact different from most people, it could prove to be a problem--or exactly the motivation you need to acknowledge the entrepreneur screaming to get out.
• Obsessive - You may have been labelled obsessive/compulsive because when you get started on something you have difficulty letting go. Don't let anyone convince you that this is a disease or deficiency. All of the great entrepreneurs become completely immersed in their vision. Howard Schultz stuck with Starbucks even when his family tried to persuade him not to.

What Next?

Do you see yourself in any of the above signs? Then I bet you are an Entrepreneur in the making. Drop me your feedback and let the world support you in your endeavor.

Credit; Grant Cardone

What Does it Take to be Enterprising?

What does it take to be Enterprising? Well, read this interesting article by Jim Rohn, an Entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker and you are sure to get the answer.

• An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture.

• An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.

• To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. It’s to be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities that present themselves… regardless of the economy.

• A person with an enterprising attitude says, “Find out what you can before action is taken.” Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful. Do all you can in preparation of what’s to come.

• Enterprising people always see the future in the present. Enterprising people always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it. And enterprising people aren’t lazy. They don’t wait for opportunities to come to them, they go after the opportunities. Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your ambition.

• Enterprise is two things. The first is creativity. You need creativity to see what’s out there and to shape it to your advantage. You need creativity to look at the world a little differently. You need creativity to take a different approach, to be different.

• What goes hand-in-hand with the creativity of enterprise is the second requirement: the courage to be creative. You need courage to see things differently, courage to go against the crowd, courage to take a different approach, courage to stand alone if you have to, courage to choose activity over inactivity.

• And lastly, being enterprising doesn’t just relate to the ability to make money. Being enterprising also means feeling good enough about yourself, having enough self worth to want to seek advantages and opportunities that will make a difference in your future.

• And by doing so you will increase your confidence, your courage, your creativity and your self-worth, your enterprising nature. 

WHAT NEXT?

Tell me what you think  about this article.

Emmanuel Kumah "chats" with Bill Gates

Why is Bill Gates Rich?

Have you ever asked your self such a question?  Can luck make someone rich , or  being the son of a rich man bestow riches on you, well I have been asking such questions myself and this week I have decided to write a post on some of the richest man on Earth and learn some valuable lessons from them.
Why am  I writing post on richest men in the world and not in Ghana, well is partly because the information of rich men in the world are readily available for us to learn from them. If I  ever meet any rich man in Ghana, I would love to find out the source of  his riches, but whilst  I have still not found one , if only we have some in Ghana, let me introduce you to one  of the richest entrepreneurs in the world and learn from their great worth of knowledge and experience.

Why is Bill Gates Rich?

Well before answering such a million dollar  question, let’s take a look at the early life of the
one time richest man on Earth .
                                                                  Early life

I would be Rich!

Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington to William H , Gates and Mary Maxwell  Gates. His family was upper middle class. Bill Gates parents wanted him to be a lawyer when he was young but it  did not then out that way.
At 13 he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school.When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy an ASR-33 Teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school's students. Bill  Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC, and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Bill Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly.After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC), which banned four Lakeside students—Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans—for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.
Gates did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard and spent a lot of time using the school's computers. He remained in contact with Paul Allen, joining him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974.The following year saw the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software company.He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.

So why is Bill Gates Rich?

Well I believed as you read the history I  got from Wikipedia , you were able to point out some few reasons why Bill Gates became the richest man in the world. If you didn’t get the lessons don’t worry I would teach you those valuable lessons, I only pray you would learn from them and tailor them to your own dreams.

• ·         Passion or Interest: One key lessons I  gathered  from Bill Gates biography is the interest or passion that he had for computers, he was so crazy about this machine he was even excused from mathematics class to pursue his interest. What are you passionate about, find that out and work your way up  for you would definitely be at the top

• ·        Firelighters: Bill Gates surrounded himself with friends who were also passionate about computers and those colleagues served as firelighters in his way to the top. Unfortunately, most of us surround ourselves with firefighters- people who don’t believe in what we do and always want to quench the fire that is burning within. It may be colleagues at work, at home or even your own friends and family.Identify  all the firelighters in your life and be with them the more if  you want to be rich.

• ·         Effective Networking: Even after completing elementary school, Bill Gates got in touch with Paul Allen for several years until they saw  the  opportunity to start their own business. Have you gotten contact with those friends who are interested in what you are interested in?  You never know what you can do together.

• ·         Approval: Bill Gates got the approval from his parents when they realized his passions for  computers,and did not force him to be a lawyer as they have envisioned. Parents,please support your children when you see them getting interested in one thing and don’t shut them down , you never know who they would become.
• 
  

 What Next?
Well, I don’t know about you but I belive, this   are some of the things that made Bill Gates rich and we can learn from them. What do you think, drop me your comment. Thanks.

Entrepreneurs in Ghana.

 

 Why you need to be self employed.

Yesterday, I attended a conference organized by the British Council Ghana, christened the Fast Track. It was organized for the fresh, unemployed graduates and national service personnel in Ghana who would soon be hitting the streets of Ghana looking for white color jobs.

At the end of the seminar, I went into my little box trying to figure out why I don’t need to look for a job in Ghana, in other words I challenged my  brain to think of how  I can be an  entrepreneur  in Ghana and leave the  scanty jobs available to  the majority to struggle over.

You know, before you find out how to do something, it is always better to answer the WHY? before the HOW. So today, I have decided to write a post on why you need to be self employed if you are in Ghana and to encourage Ghanaian Graduates to develop the Entrepreneurial spirit and stop chasing for the limited jobs in Ghana. Interestingly, about 60,000 graduates come out of our various tertiary institutions each year but the number of jobs created in a year is less than 10. Have you now considered being  self employed?, if you are still not convinced, here are some reasons why I think you need to be self employed in Ghana.

·         Money: If you become self employed you would work hard to have all the money you ever desire and would get time to spend the money with the people that matters most in your life. If you work for someone, the harder  or smarter you work the richer that individual becomes and he only pays you only a fraction of the money you have earned for him. Scripture says, God would bless the work of your hand, well , what if someone owns  the work of your hands?

·         Time: Time is the most limited commodity in the 21^st century, most people’s relationship and family is in the ruin because they go about  chasing for money. IF you are however self employed you would have the time to visit that family member who needs  those words of encouragement , and the time to visit those places  of interest without intimidation from your boss. Think about it?

·         You are in Control; if your are self employed, you  are in control, you take control of your life and take responsibility for anything that happens. In other words you would stop the blame Game many Ghanaians are involved in.

What Next?

I believe a word to the wise is enough, let’s think of establishing our own business even whist we are in school and stop chasing for the limited jobs in Ghana. Let’s us create our own world and frame our world by our words. The one who believes is possible always achieve their dreams. Remember whatever the mind conceive and believe it can achieve.