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”.
Thanks so much Mr A. Barrie for such a great job....
ReplyDeleteThe sky is your beginning..