Young People, here's why you don’t need what you think you need to get started with your great idea

A few weeks back I was in a conversation with a friend of a friend who has a great idea for a business he wanted to start up. Of course I won’t say his name or discuss the details of the business, but it is an idea that could service a big gap existing in the Sierra Leonean economy and could help him achieve his dream of becoming an entrepreneur; doing something he is passioned about, solving a real problem and being rewarded for doing so. He even went on to conduct market research on the idea, and the result of his discussions with his target customers (middle class professionals and local businesses) showed there was great demand for the product. He became animated as we discussed the details of his business; his original idea is part digital and part physical.

In his mind however, there’s just one problem; he thought he needed $22,000 to get started with the idea. Now, I became animated, because I have learned a hard lesson about this myself and have since developed this habit of dissecting ideas to get to their most vital core and working from those essentials. Actually, he was able to justify the amount of money he said he needed, he just doesn’t need it to get started!

My experience with this was when I saw that too many young people in Sierra Leone cannot afford quality teaching and their dreams of going to university were derailed simply because they cannot attain the credits (especially in English Language and Mathematics) they needed to pursue their careers. Being a trained and experienced educator myself, I knew I had the skills to get started. However, the long list of all I needed before I can start made it impossible  – I needed a studio, a professional camera, microphone kit, video editing software, a graphic tablet etc. etc. Seeing that I couldn’t get started I called a former colleague, whom I have known to be a very practical person. He thought this is a great idea and even offered to put me in touch with some Internet Service providers to expand reach of this content. His advice was simply for me to get started by recording the videos with my phone! I was shocked at first, but this ended up being all I needed to get started. It also turned out that a friend of mine has a graphics tablet and another has professional video editing software they were more than ready to give to me the moment I asked. This was strange, but since it worked, I have been obsessed with the idea of breaking down ideas to their most essential elements and finding already available resources to take things off the ground.

An entrepreneur is not someone with all the resources to get started, it is the resourceful person who has a vision for an idea and one who employs readily available resources to get their feet in the waters. If you wait to be ready or have all the tiles piled up before you can get started on that great idea you have, I can tell you there’ll never be such a time. We often postpone our dreams or worse never get to pursue them as a result of our preconceived notions of all that needs to be in place before we can get in motion.

This young man has been experimenting with technology since he was 14 and currently pursues his BSc in Business Information Technology (BIT), so he seems to have what it takes to get this idea off the ground. It turned out that he didn’t even need a dime to get started! As I probed him with more questions on the various aspects of the business, we either saw that he didn’t need that aspect at all, doesn’t need it to get started or it is an aspect that can more efficiently be dealt with by third parties.

The other interesting realization we came to was that half the idea (the physical product), which accounted for most of the $22,000 he thought he needed, is not necessary to for him to start his enterprise at all. My advice to him was that since it was clear that a) he doesn’t have the money to incur those high capital costs, and b) that that aspect of the business doesn’t seem to play to his strengths and experience, it’s best to just focus on the digital product for which all he needs is his tech skills and the core of the business is tied around.

I have had this conversation with many other young people; many trying to start community-based organizations, businesses, social platforms etc. In all these cases, our conversations made it clear that a) you don’t need most of what you think you need to get started and b) the best time to get started is now!

I wish you can muster the courage to get started on your dream. “Be the change you want to see in the world”.