IMPETUS TO ACHIEVE: YOU CANNOT DO IT ALONE

ONE of our biggest weaknesses as a people is our failure to work together. Yes, I am talking about us Africans again. There are certain elements that cause us to fail to work together.

One of these elements is petty jealousy; everybody is too busy trying to be better than the person next to them such that the idea of working together where you both win becomes inconceivable.

In fact, some people have such a rotten attitude that even if they stood to walk away with three-quarters of the benefit in a partnership, they still wouldn’t because their fellow Zambian would have a quarter. It’s really sad.

I remember talking to one of Zambia’s leading entrepreneurs and asking her how she got started and managed to scale her business. By the way, scaling a business is what separates market players; once you scale, it puts you in a different league.

She told me that scaling the business was always going to be a tall order for her simply because she and her fellow co-founders did not have the money. Therefore, they made the business attractive, sold their idea to prospective investors who later bought in. The business today has a capital base in the millions.

What’s important to note here is that she started with very little and did not have the capacity to take the business to the next level, but inviting others on board allowed her dream to be made reality thereby opening doors and effectively rendering the sky as the limit.

I remember watching an interview a few years ago. It was the programme CNBC Meets hosted by Tania Bryer. I can’t remember the guest’s name, but it was one of the successful British businessmen.

What I remember him saying about ownership is that it is not always practical to own 100 percent of a business. In fact, I remember a line he used which has stuck with me since, “A hundred percent of nothing is still nothing.”

Now if you have the resources to start a project on a huge scale, this might not mean much to you, but for most Zambians, who spend all day trekking, pursuing one lead to another in search of capital to realise their dreams, it is advice worth following.

To put the man’s words in a way most Zambians would understand: a hundred percent of a ntemba still leaves you at ka ntemba level. That is what he meant when he said a hundred percent of nothing is still nothing.

Which do you prefer, to build a business with others that eventually grows to generate millions every year and at some point can afford to pay you a hefty salary and get you decent car? Or to continue to operate on your own as your business generates sales which are much less than an employee’s decent salary?

We all get into business for different reasons, but if you are an entrepreneur in the true sense, you will understand that a vision statement is not just empty words on a piece of paper. The idea is to take your business to those same dizzy heights you speak of in the statement.

You will also know that getting to a level where you actually engage the best experts such as lawyers, accountants, and stockbrokers is an indicator that you are playing in a certain league.

This notion where a business founder wants to remain doing all jobs – receptionist, secretary, accounting, driver - for an eternity means the individual is missing something fundamental about business.

What the founder is missing is that a true business is a system. Moreover, a well-run system will generate income regardless of whether the owner of the business has to physically work.

As a company generates more income, astute and visionary business founders invest that money in recruiting competent staff and developing a system that ensures goals and objectives are met.

This happens whilst implementing a strong control environment to guard against risk. If you are not a visionary on the other hand, all you will do is buy nice cars as more income is generated.

By the way, being a ntemba is not just having a tiny operation without a vision, it is also making a lot of money and squandering it.

I know most people may have issues with working with other people. I will also submit that perhaps the biggest challenge when it comes to doing business is the aspect of having to deal with different kinds of people, different sets of personalities.

Human beings can be complicated. Some have a complex, others want to mess you up for no good reason. It follows that you really don’t want to go into bed with people anyhow, let alone the inevitable encounters you have with them in business.

As mentioned, if you do have the resources to go it alone, then by all means do so, but the only hurdle you will have jumped is that of partnership at the level of promoter of the business. You will still have to partner with employees, fellow managers, customers, suppliers and important stakeholders in your business network.

This is why I am saying today building a successful business is not something one can do alone. You will need to deal with so many people and have the skill and guile to handle all of them to good effect.

Remember that treating people badly when you are finally successful is never a good idea. Some say the people that you meet when you are on the rise are the same ones you will meet when you’re falling from grace. That’s one of life’s little ironies.

Let’s build our businesses to last a long time, to last until Kingdom come if anything. Our country needs that as much us we need it too, but we must remember that no one, absolutely no one, makes it alone.

Which do you prefer, to build a business with others that eventually grows to generate millions every year and at some point can afford to pay you a hefty salary and get you decent car? Or to continue to operate on your own as your business generates sales which are much less than an employee’s decent salary?