A functional definition of Entrepreneurship is THE ABILITY AND READINESS to develop, organize and run a business enterprise, along with any of its uncertainties in order to make a profit. The process can broken into five stages, namely: idea generation, opportunity evaluation, planning, company formation/launch and management and growth.
The definition above looks rather simple and shot, but the actual implementation can be a more complex journey. The kind of experience you have when you see a city on a hill, with the line of sight it looks quite near. You only discover that it is a long distance when you travel it. I mean to indicate that becoming and being a successful entrepreneur is a long and tough demanding endeavour. Essentially, that we need to build a huge reservoir of resilience even before we commence.
Our write up today is aimed at giving us that head on start, or a mindset renovation. This is very important because at every phase of entrepreneurship, we cannot do without resilience.
The Principle Of Resilience
Resilience refers to the ability to successfully adapt to stressors, maintaining psychological well-being in the face of adversity. It’s the ability to “bounce back” from difficult experiences.
Resilience theory explores the process of navigating challenges and thriving. Noting that “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” – Steve Maraboli. Thanks to brain plasticity, (neuroplasticity), we are not immutable and can learn and evolve—and grow our resilience.
Failed Attempts As Success Seedlings
It is a known fact that Lions only succeed in a quarter of their hunting attempts — which means that their success rate is lower that success (one win out of four attempts). Despite this small success rate shared by most predators, they don’t despair in their pursuit and hunting attempts.
The main reason for this is not because of hunger as some might think, but it is the understanding of, the so called “Law of Wasted Efforts”, (which I term success seedling, from the perspective of this article) that has been instinctively built into animals, a law by which nature is governed.
However note that the lion responds to this drawback with a strategy of continuously working harder to improve the rate of hunting success. Another strategy it applies is hunting in groups: Group of lions is called a pride. A pride consist of around 10-15 lions, including some adult males and females with their cubs. The pride is composed of lions who are at different levels of their hunting experience. The pride is a balanced blend of hunters: trainees, retirees, prime hunters at various ages etc. The pride principle advises the business principle which says success is 80% strategy. On this ground comes the business practice of forming a formidable management team (and Board of directors), in managing a business. In entrepreneurship, assembling a team made up of different skill-sets is indispensable.
Scientists have found that animals, trees and other forces of nature are more receptive to the law of “wasted efforts”. Only humans think that the lack of success in a few attempts is failure… but the truth is that: we only fail when we “stop trying”.
Success is not to have a life free of pitfalls and falls… but success is to walk over your mistakes and weaknesses and going beyond every stage where your efforts were short of success and looking forward to the next stage in resilience.
Thomas Edison discovered the light bulb after over 1000 trials. When asked if he felt like having failed 1000 times, he simply said each failed attempt was a discovery of how it will not work. “I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.”
If there is a word that summarizes this world, it will simply be: continue all over again.
An unknown author admonishes entrepreneurs thus, ‘Never stop at any stage of difficulty. Keep moving, keep thinking, keep trying. And above all, keep praying.’
This does not mean repeating failure patterns and being foolhardy. It is only pointing out the need for continuous improvement from one failed attempt to the next, so as to gain expertise while increasing the rate of successful outcomes, achieved from application of lessons learned from the previous failed efforts. And to concentrate more efforts in the areas where higher successes has been recorded.
I listened to the revered Man of God, Pastor (Dr.) W. F. kumuyi, in an expository sermon to leaders on the the Lords parable of the sower and the seed. As the sower sowed the seed some fell on good ground while others on hard ground. And even those on good ground yielded 30%, 60% and 100%. He pointed out a leadership principle as he posited that leaders should observe and note the fruitful ground and give it more attention. The unfruitful ground should not be completely abandoned but nursed over time howbeit with less attention.
Please hear, entrepreneurs and Leaders; Mark 4: 3 – 9; (verse 9 And He (Jesus) said unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.) Here is the sowers wisdom, sow more in the fruitful or productive area, give more attention to what works well from your past experience. On the other side, discern the areas of low productivity and reduce efforts proportionately, but do not abandon altogether but attempt nurturing for a turnaround. (GCK 31/3/2024)
Conclusion
Therefore, do not accept that you have failed in your previous entrepreneurial efforts. Review the steps for insights, with consultation, study and give it a fresh rebirth. Now is time to take a deep breath and focus more on the journey ahead. Finally, “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” – Nelson Mandela.
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