I remember my popular friend in secondary school, Ajibola. She was multi-talented personified. She could twerk even before the twerk was invented. She could sing like an opera singer and she was good at sports! It just didn’t seem fair that one person had so many talents while some of us seem to be good at only academics! I lost touch with her after high school and met her again a few years ago. She proudly introduced me to her husband as ‘her best friend in high school who was the most brilliant person in the class’. Little did she know that all those years ago, I had considered her ‘the most brilliant’ because of her ability to do so many things at once. The dilemma of being multi-talented came to the fore again when I interviewed Bisola Aiyeola for the find your niche series. Bisola is a multi-talented singer, actress, presenter and MC. If you have not seen Bisola in action, check out her Instagram page or watch her on Ndani tv’s ‘Skinny Girl in Transit’ or Ebonylife TV’s ‘the Life of a Nigerian Couple’. I did not know she had such multiple talents because of how we met. When I met Bisola, she was the Head of Operations of the radio station where I had my show- The Entrepreneur’s Journey. She was a serious minded and darn good radio executive, you can imagine my shock when I bumped into one of her programs and saw her cracking everyone up. I could not reconcile the two people as one and the same! During my interview with her, I surprisingly found out that she started her career as a singer and had gotten to the top 5 on the MTN Project Fame West Africa! This lady is so full of surprises and reminded me once again of my high school friend, Ajibola. So what does this have to do with starting or building a successful business? The multi-talented dilemma is very similar with the entrepreneurial itch. A lot of entrepreneurial minded people are quite restless. They find it difficult to stay doing one thing at a time. I confess to be as guilty as charged! I have a couple of clients within the business leaders’ circle (BLC) program who have multiple businesses. I wondered how they were able to do different businesses across multiple sectors at once. As I work with them closely, I have realized this is the multi-talented dilemma; when you have multiple interests in multiple things and because of your entrepreneurial spirit you want to express them all. From my interview with Bisola, I learned a few things:
- Explore your various talents.
- Focus on one or two you want to dedicate your time and effort to build.
- Master your art.
I believe these tips also apply to you if you are struggling to decide what business to start or you are currently trying to juggle multiple businesses. Like I have said to a few of the BLC participants, decide where you want to win, and focus on it. Aliko Dangote had to make this decision some years ago when he divested from multiple businesses to focus on a few industries where he could become the dominant player. Can you do multiple businesses at once? Yes, you can! But you can’t build them up all at the same time. Every new business is like a new baby, you need to nurture it and spend time with it or hire help to spend time with it so you can focus on your ‘other’ children. Are you currently dealing with the multi-talented or multi-passionate dilemma? How are you handling it? If that is not your cup of tea, but rather you are still struggling to even find one passion that you can turn to profit, then sign up for the Find your niche challenge that starts at the end of this month. P.S: Watch my interview with Bisola below:
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