If you live in Nigeria, there has never been a better time to become an entrepreneur like now. Declining oil prices have wiped away every definition we once held about our economy. And for us, it is time to start providing substitutes to things we easily used to import with our petrodollars-that have now vanished into thin air.
To succeed as an entrepreneur, here are six things you must do to succeed:
Read Books
To succeed, you must read books. Yes, Nigerians don’t read but that should now be a myth with you. Don’t kid yourself about picking up this habit because it will hurt if you don’t. Start with the general books like
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki, Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hillor
The Richest Man In Babylon by George Clason and then graduate to books that are more specific to the kind of business you do. And try rereading some of these books year after year as new things will come to you with each reread. For me, I ready
Jeff Olson’s Slight Edge and
Think And Grow Rich yearly. What reading will do for you, is help you model success.
Create Goals On Paper
A goal on paper is a goal. Anything else is worthless. You must practice writing down the things you want to accomplish on paper, otherwise what you want to do is a wish. Brian Tracy in his book,
Create Your Own Future says it this way:
You can improve your probabilities of achieving great success by writing down your goals.
Get A Mentor Or A Coach
There is reason why some people are successful. Go to them and ask them politely to show you the ropes. If Lebron James, the best basketball player in the world needs a coach, so do you. Learning from a mentor or someone who is ahead of you in your field can cut back your learning process by decades. The secret of successful people are in their stories. You learn to use their success principles and avoid their mistakes. So getting a mentor is not negotiable.
Always Be Prepared For Change
Be mentally prepared for change. Improve you because the better you are, the better your business will become. You business is an extension of you and if it is going to become successful you must be growing mentally year in, year out. You can’t run a 2016 business with a 2011 mindset. It just won’t work.
Your Business Must Be In Constant Beta Mode
By this I mean your business must be able to adapt to new developments quickly. It must be ready to evolve at the slightest notice of a change in the economy or the sectoral environment you operate in. If you are in Tech, you might grasp this faster but it’s the same for other businesses too. In Nigeria, import businesses should now be evolving into finished goods manufacturers to meet the new demands of the time.
Stay Hyper Focused
Entrepreneurs experiment a lot. But the thing about becoming a successful entrepreneur is that you must stay focused on the goal you want to accomplish no matter how distracting things might get. Staying focus too is not negotiable. F.O.C.U.S means you ‘Face One Course Until Successful’
