Saturday, April 29, 2017

Critical Business Lessons To Learn From Successful African Entrepreneurs

By Arthur Peterson


Success in entrepreneurship is never easily attainable. The often talked about ingredients for a thriving enterprise are capital and good market. However, there are other contributing factors that are less talked about. A vast majority of successful African entrepreneurs adopted these factors in their journey to business excellence.

The continent possesses a lot of untapped potential for economic growth, potential that can be harnessed by those looking for business excellence. Africans who owe their victories in business to this potential, Nigerian internet mogul Jason Njoku and Zimbabwean tech commodore Strive Masiyiwa, have stories that inspire. Some of the traits that appear common in all business success stories are passion, devotion, attentiveness and the all important trait of learning from faults.

Jason Njoku boasts of a success story that has graced the covers of acclaimed business magazines in Africa and the world over. A simple activity that he loved undertaking morphed into the greatest online streaming service in Africa. Before he burst into the internet streaming business, YouTube enjoyed a monopoly among the online content viewers in the continent.

In one of his interviews with an entrepreneurship magazine, Jason credited his success to a passion for seeing people happy. Building on this passion, he learnt how traditional players operated and leveraged on this knowledge to build his own brand. Today, he is a renowned venture capitalist who helps others with the same ambition get to where he is by sponsoring them.

Commitment, an equally important trait, is exactly what drove Strive Masiyiwa to emerge triumphant. The Zimbabwean launched Econet Wireless, a company whose footprints are felt globally, and now acts as its permanent chairman. As expected of any entrepreneur, an idea that many may have considered inconceivable grew to enviable heights, government resistance notwithstanding. A five year court duel instituted by the government did not dampen his spirit. He spurred on to build a company that is today a haven for any sane investor.

Learning to draw lessons from mistakes and failure is a crucial trait as well. No one knows this better than Gina Din Kariuki, a Kenyan management consultant with countless accolades to her name. Her success took her a whole nineteen years to attain, part of it coupled with failure.

Before forming her company and seeing it to success, she did public relations stints for many companies in her homeland. One mistake she has owned to date is her failure to research on market trends and leadership before quitting her job to start her company. Upon quitting, she realized she did not have the corporate structure and support she used to have as an employee.

She was finally in charge of the running of a business. With her initial oversight behind her, her company transformed into a household name in East Africa and the continent at large. These stories of triumph should spur you to aim for more. If you adhere to the same principles, there is no doubt you will make a name for yourself.




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