entrepreneurship (minus) 101
TRANSCRIPT
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to the Master Entrepreneur and to
those who have fallen and to those yet to join the successful
of society.
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Author’s Disclaimer
This written work is designed to provide competent and
reliable information regarding the subject matter as is
contained in each chapter covered. However, this book is sold
with the clear understanding that the author is not engaged in
rendering legal, financial or any other professional advice.
aws and practices will vary from country to country, province
to province and state to state around the world and if legal or
other e!pert assistance is re"uired, the services of a
professional should be considered. The author therefore
specifically disclaims any liability that is incurred from the use
or application of the contents of this written work.
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Contents
Acknowledgments #
Introduction $$
$% Passion: The &ey to 'nlocking Human (usiness )otential $*
+% Optimism: The Mainstay in vercoming ife-s bstacles *
% Attitude: /t 0ays 12es / 3an4 or 15o / 3an-t46 $78
9% Self-Image: :re 2ou Missing ;hat 2ou :re 3apable of
(ecoming< $+9
=% Values: 3ritical )arameters ;ill Dictate 2our (usiness Destiny
$>#
>% Goal Setting: The :im and )urpose of /t :ll $#8
8% Setting Objecties: 0trategy ? @oal 0etting )rocedures +8$
*% Self-!iscoer": The Aoundation of 2our wn 0uccess +*#
#% #o"alt": E!ceed all E!pectations +
$7% #istening: :n :rt That 3ould 0ave 2ou 98
Conclusion: *+
!o $ou %ualif"& *>
Action Stations' #+
Spreading t(e )ord #9
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Acknowledgments
Arom the time that / could remember / was being taught one
lesson after the other and endured many challenges throughout
my life. ;hile trying to find my way, like you, some of the
lessons / learned were sweet, some were 1bitter sweet4 and
some were just plain bitter. ;hile we go through the good or
sweet times we feel that we are on top of the world B as / did.
However, when things go wrong the human and wrong
reaction is to find someone else to blame. / "uestioned @od on
many occasions but somehow always knew that / was the
master of my own demise in almost all of my failures in life.
Having been brought up in an environment which most would
consider being poor and destitute / most certainly may have
been numbered amongst the criminal elite should / have
allowed my early influences to overcome me. /n fact, even atan early age / recogniCed that there was something or someone
greater than me, and if / was to remain 1on the straight and
narrow4, / would need to have His influence and protection as
long as / lived. Having been walking the 3hristian life for so
many years now, / can honestly inform you today that my life
has been guided, protected and directed by my Heavenly
Aather for as long as / can remember. Therefore, for this book,
and the lessons which / have learned in the business
environment and the rest of my life, / give praise, honor and
glory to whom it truly belongs B @od the Aather, @od the 0on
and @od the Holy 0pirit.
My dear, dear wife, 0unly:nn, / pay a special tribute to in that
she has been my earthly inspiration for this book. / have never
B in all the time that / spent on putting pen to paper so to speak
in order to complete this work B heard a single complaint fromher. /nstead, what / received from my loving wife is a
tremendous amount of encouragement and a woman who
1stood in the gap4 at the office every ;ednesday and Thursday
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so that / could write this book in the peace and "uiet of our
lovely home which we designed together. Thank you baby, and
as / have always said% 12ou are the best64 My friend, my lover
and my greatest supporter6
/ want to say a big thank you to all of my children Donovan,
icky, &risten, 5atasha and 0hamarie who have spent time
encouraging me to produce this work but more for the lessons
which each of you teach me every single day of my life. )lease
never forget that if you walk with the ord, focus on the task at
hand, and 5EFE give up you will achieve your dreams. To
our departed little :shton, / miss you, handsome6 Thank you
for the tremendous lessons of courage which you taught methrough your debilitating illness which finally took you from
us but placed you into the loving arms of our Heavenly Aather.
/ love you and we will not forget6
To my brothers and sisters wherever you may find yourselves,
thank you for the 1fights4 which taught me to say sorry and
thank you for the lessons which made me strong. / would not
change you for the world and no matter what we all wentthrough as children @od saw it all and loved us despite our
circumstances.
astly, Gbut most certainly not least to my dearly departed
mother :lma, mom / know that you are proud. The apple tree
was a great lesson and you were most certainly smarter than
me on the day. ;ell done on your victory because your win
became my lesson. 2ou taught me so many lessons for which /shall be eternally grateful. 2ou taught me to love when things
are at their worst, you taught me to sell when we could not buy
food to eat and you taught me what it feels like to rely upon
other people for help. However, most of all you showed me
how to laugh and to understand that a sense of humor in all of
life-s events is like a 1spoon full of sugar making the medicine
go down4. / miss you and will always love you6
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Introduction
This morning / had a consultation with my 5eurologist, no, not
because / have brain damage, but / do want to tell you that my
heart broke for this dear lady. Her story goes something like
this. :ccording to her she spent many years "ualifying for her
passion in life namely neurology. :s is the case with many professionals, if they can afford it, they want to get into their
own practice as "uickly as they can and want all the prestige
that goes with owning their own business. They want to be
entrepreneurs6
:t the university which she attended she was taught all about
the science of the brain and the ultimate science of neurology
but nothing about business let alone the concept of starting her own business. ;hether we like it or not, the medical fraternity
is not immune to a lack of or poor business skills and many
want to start businesses before thinking the idea through.
Many times it does not even dawn on these good people that it
may be a bright idea to take a business course at least
(EAE contemplating a business initiative or as part of such
an initiative. The end result was inevitable for my neurologist.
0he shared the utter devastation of her business life with me briefly, but the long and the short of it all was that she lost
everything which she had in a short space of time which
included her home and other material possessions. The impact
of this failure was so great that it affected her health to such an
e!tent that, according to her, she spent around a year in an /3'
recovering from this devastating time in her life.
Does this sound familiar< 0pending a year in /3' may not bewhat wellmeaning entrepreneurs all land up doingI however,
the devastation for families is very similar indeed. ecently /
heard of a family who were so e!cited about the prospect of
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not working for a boss anymore and had decided to apply for a
second mortgage in order to finance a business venture. :gain,
the passion was there and the e!citement and enthusiasm was
abounding but the issue with this couple was that neither of
them had ever owned a business before and had spent the
larger part of their lives working for a boss. /t seemed so easy
to get the salary check at the end of the month without having
to be concerned about the actual management of a business.
They thought, after all, how difficult can it actually be right<
The boss goes away when she likes and drives a top of the
range Mercedes (enC. The way that she dressed was always
impeccable and in fact she actually looked rich and behavedwith a great deal of confidence and if she could be successful
in business then it is possible for anyone to do it they thought.
eally6
This couple was different though in that they made some effort
to receive a certain amount of business knowledge and part of
what they learned was that they needed a few things before
they even opened the doors. The banks are very good todaywith encouraging potential and prospective entrepreneurs to
first develop a business plan before starting a business and /
agree with this policy and form of encouragement. / think that
every business needs a road map and a formal business plan
does this% the problem is that very few entrepreneurs actually
adhere to their own business plan. This couple went a step
further and also prepared an in depth and reasonable marketing
plan Gthe problem is that entrepreneurs do not follow their ownmarketing plan for their future business and have their
accountant formulate additional cashflow projections Gthe
problem is that entrepreneurs do not follow prepared cashflow
projections just to make sure that they were on the right track.
How could they go wrong
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the food manufacturing industry. The food manufacturing
industry was good, they thought, because it is a consumable
product and food companies always have lots of money.
:nother good thing was that the food manufacturing industry
needed specialist housekeeping services and they were both
trained in the 1art4 of H:33) G1HaCard :nalysis 3ritical
3ontrol )oint4 apparently this is an international "uality
standards program designed very specifically for the food
manufacturing industry all around the world. )ersonally, /
thought 1wow4 this couple may have something here and all
the pieces to this puCCle seem to be coming together very
nicely. / was impressed6;hat / could not understand then was if they had done their
homework, went into a business which they were fairly
familiar with but also cleverly separated themselves from their
competition by focusing on the food manufacturing industry,
and H:33), why did they go out of business less than a year
later< / was personally devastated and saddened when this
particular story was shared with me. / truly felt for this couple.;hile the good thing is that their marriage survived the
negative business e!perience their financial lives were in ruin.
(en and 0ue had a great business model and the finances to
start their dream lives. They were initially well on their way to
becoming their own boss just as they had planned. However
their financiers and sponsors had no mercy when the cashflow
went into the negative. They lost their home and all their
possessions as they were declared bankrupt and the childrenwere taken from a private school which they had known most
of their school lives and were forced to start over in the public
school system. The couple had great difficulty finding new
employment with the international economy being what it is
and had to move into a small apartment. ne could argue, /
suppose, that these are but mere material possessions and that
they have their health and the ability to earn an income but /want to tell you that this breaks my heart because they will
also have to deal with the psychological and physiological fall
out from their first e!perience in business. They did share with
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me though that at least they had not lost their faith and this
pleased me a great deal.
;hile / can go on citing one e!ample after the other / have to
realiCe that if you are reading the material contained in this book then you have either e!perienced personal failure in
business or at least know of someone who has B if you are
neither then you will most certainly be glad that you are
reading the words between these pages should you be wanting
to start your own business. n behalf of people like you and
me then / want to do all that / can to prevent the current
devastation which e!ists around the world as this relates to
wellmeaning people wanting to own their own business butfinding themselves losing everything soon after they opened
their business doors. /t is this constant devastation in the lives
of people in the business world which has stirred me to write
this book with the sincerest hope that the right people would
read the material contained herein (EAE they enter into the
big wide world of entrepreneurship.
The "uestion that each future entrepreneur should ask then, before going into business is 1am / reall" ready for business
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biggest challenge will be managing your cashflow simply
because your clients are forced to take care of their business
before yours and this means that they will hold on to your
money longer than they used to and longer than they should.
The entrepreneur will also soon see that staff, which they
employ to do a job, will do the same at their own pace and in
their own time and will be the single greatest cause of
frustration in any business. ;hen staff don-t perform then
clients become unhappy and when clients become unhappy
they don-t pay or cancel contracts and or orders and we all
know where this will ultimately lead to. ;ow6 ne would
think that / am trying to put people off from starting their own business and / can assure you that this is not the case at all. /
care deeply for families who are destroyed sometimes by
reckless actions demonstrated in their insatiable determination
to get into their own business no matter the possible
conse"uences.
/n all honesty, in my humble opinion, w(at makes "ou and
me successful in business comes from a place so muc(deeper t(an an idea* a business plan* a good marketing
plan and good financial forecasts+
(efore you enter into business of any sort you are encouraged
by me personally to consider the words which follow in these
pages, and in fact, if you never got the message the first time
then you should read this book over and over again until you
finally get the message.
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What makes you and me successful in business
comes from a place so much deeper than an idea, a
business plan, a good marketing plan and good
financial forecasts.
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nce you are personally convinced that you have finally
received the message as transmitted then you can consider a
business idea and then you can prepare your business plan and
whatever other preparation you feel necessary before opening
your doors. 2ou have much at stake, my friend, but the greatest
disaster is that your decision to enter the business world will
affect your entire family should things go wrong. / don-t want
this for you or your family.
/t is my great pleasure to announce to you today that other
books will follow this foundational and critical book and if you
understand where / am coming from in these pages then you
will understand the way forward from here. 2ou will notice thecontents page and you will see that we will be dealing with at
least ten crucial concepts which may not be foreign to you at
this stage but the secret is how each of these affects one
another and you personally not only in the business
environment but also in your personal life. /t is my goal to
have you consider the impact that these ten secrets will have
on your idea to enter the business world and how each one isso very intertwined and work together in order to assist in your
aspirations which are truly admirable. 3reating jobs is vital in
any economy. However, do so without destroying your life and
that of your family. ead on, my friend, and absorb6
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1
Passion: The &ey to 'nlocking Human (usiness )otential
Introduction
ecently / took a trip to the 'nited 0tates and after si!teen and
a half hours of being on an aircraft / found myself sitting in the
Delta :irlines boarding lounge after a session with '0
3ustoms. 2ou must understand that / was tired as / am not one
to sleep sitting up when flying and what did not help matters
was that / was awake when / should have been sleeping Gtime
Cone changes. However, even in my moment of awakenedlimbo / was astounded for a moment at what / saw. Hundreds
of people hustling and bustling their way through the airport
terminal and from one departure lounge to the ne!t. The
atmosphere was electric and the noise from people who had
places to go and things to do was deafening to say the least but
the difference here was that all seemed to know what they
were doing and where they were going. / noticed friendliness
in people, cleanliness in the buildings and professionalism allover the place. )eople were laughing and greeting one another
as though they had been friends forever, and yet, / was almost
sure that they were total strangers.
/ felt that / was missing something but could not "uite put my
finger on what it was, and then, out of the blue, a word came to
mind which perfectly described what / was e!periencing that
Thursday morning in :prilB):00/56Having spent many years in business and having truly enjoyed
being an entrepreneur during this time / have always wondered
why it is that so many businesses fail before they reach the
$=
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twelve month critical period or why someone who has become
so successful over the years suddenly shows signs of burnout
or lack of interest in life and occupation< There is no doubt
whatsoever in my mind that there is a critical link between the
negative signs as stated previously and the loss of the very
electric moment which / had e!perienced at the airport in
:tlanta, @eorgia namely, ):00/5.
,(e concept of passion* or t(e lack of t(is mental and
attitudinal state of mind* is t(e ultimate ke" to unlocking
potential for aboe aerage ac(ieement in ones business
life+
The announcement to board my onward flight to :lbu"uer"ue,
5ew Me!ico was made and / was on my way to the Midwest
'nited 0tates. My goal was to assess new services for our own
business with a view to implementation as an addon for our
current client base of my business. / was wondering, now that /
had been e!posed to the 1:merican passion4 at the :tlanta
airport, if my e!perience in :lbu"uer"ue would produce a
similar response from me< / was not disappointed at all6
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The concept of passion, or the lack of this mental and
attitudinal state of mind, is the ultimate key to
unlocking potential for above average achievement
in one’s business life.
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(y now you must understand that / was e!cited to reach my
final destination and to meet my new friends who were going
to reveal the new services to me. / knew that / was passionate
about the trip and the opportunity to learn so / needed to keep
an open mind but / was tired physically. ;hen / finally met
)eter and Kohn / immediately noticed 1the thing4. 2es, the very
same ):00/5 which / had noticed in :tlanta had not eluded
me in my new found friends. Aor one thing / noticed that they
were not interested in how tired / was but got me back to my
hotel room and gave me about a half an hour to shower and
unpack before meeting them in the hotel reception area. / was
never asked if / was tired but was politely asked if / had a pleasant flight, and being the man / am, even if / was dog tired
/ would not have said anything at all that would dampen the
wonderful spirit of passion which / saw in these two men so /
decided to ignore how tired / was.
5eedless to say / was kept busy with the most incredibly
passionate training for the entire evening and / was dropped off
at the hotel around one thirty the ne!t morning. / am not afraidto admit that Kohn and )eter-s enthusiasm and e!citement,
brought about by such great passion for what they were doing,
was what kept me going to the point where / had no time to be
tired. The one other thing that / noticed was that they had the
most amaCing sense of humor and / can tell you that in
between all the work, concentration and training we laughed
and laughed and this most certainly helped to create a
brotherly bond between us during my eight day stay. ;e nowrefer to one another as brothers. / realiCed from this trip, and
began to believe, that the concept of passion was a reality with
me as / have seen in the eyes and the lives of many good
business people. However, / also understood that the biggest
problem and challenge which others face was in fact
themselves B they had never found their passion, and those that
had initially understood the driver had lost it completely.
)assion has been described in many ways so what we will need
to do is to ask the very pertinent "uestion then and that is
1;hat is passion
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passion referred to by many when a couple are in love or the
lust moments as described in many dictionaries rather we are
referring to the passion that it takes to move us forward in the
working environment andJor in our families and to keep us
focused on the things that matter and the actions that have
made us successful to date. There is also a direct correlation, in
my opinion, between the lack of passion in any form and the
failure in many areas of our lives.
.nderstanding Passion
Any strongly felt emotion; a strong enthusiasm for something;the object of an intense desire or enthusiasm [Latin pati to
suffer]; passionate adj: capable of or revealing intense
emotion.
3ollins Dictionary
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There is also a direct correlation, in my opinion,
between the lack of passion in any form and the
failure in many areas of our lives.
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Intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction; a
strong liing or desire for or devotion to some activity, object
or concept; an object of desire or deep interest; passion
applies to an emotion that is deeply stirring or ungovernable.
! "ebster#s $ictionary
The two definitions above use terms like strong, enthusiasm,
intense, passionate, overmastering, desire, devotion in order to
describe all the inner actions and stirrings to assist us towards
understanding the true business of passion. / also like the way
that ;ebster-s Dictionary has added concepts such as
overmastering feeling or conviction, a strong liing or desire ,
and an object of desire or deep interest. However, to me
personally, the words that best describe my own personal
passion Gas far as ;ebster goes that is have got to be passion
applies to an emotion that is deeply stirring or ungovernable.
;ow6 / could not have summed it up better but / do want to
take some time to help you to understand how this works in
your life and mine. 2es, it is that important, because if you and
/ don-t get the basic concept then we may as well not continueon with this journey of discovery. emember, your future and
mine is at stake so we will not take short cuts and we will
commit to doing things right the first time including us
discovering our true passion in life.
The best way to describe and understand the emotion of
passion is to go back to some of the 1firsts4 in our lives. Aor
instance, the very first time / kicked a soccer ball / thought that/ had fallen in love. 0omething happened to me from that day
on and all / wanted to do was kick a soccer ball. / used to
dream about scoring goals at the tender age of eight Gmy first
time at the game and then actually try to do just that in the
very ne!t game. / lived and breathed soccer and / can tell you
that the feelings only got stronger as / grew older. The more /
loved the game the better / became at playing the game and the
higher my level of proficiency the more / wanted to play. / played for my club. / also played for my school in the same
week and going to constant practice was not even a "uestion
for me and / never needed any coa!ing in this regard
+$
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whatsoever. / was brought up in a very poor neighborhood
however we forgot our troubles when the kids in the
neighborhood got together on the playground area daily to play
the game we were all so passionate about. / went on to play at
senior level and was invited to play for the army, then the
national defense force side, senior level and finally at
university level. / will never forget how / felt to make the :ll
0tar team for my university. / decided to call it a day when /
was around thirty eight and this only due to the fact that /
thought it time. Aor so many years / was so passionate about
playing the game that at the time soccer was all / ever thought
about to the point where nothing else mattered. / wasconsumed with my sport passion for many, many years of my
life, and at times to the detriment of many other more
important activities and responsibilities. Maybe you can relate
to this intense passion<
2ou and / will probably never forget our very first time at love.
This was such an intense moment for me / am able to
remember her name to this day. / did not care that she was astall as a @iraffe or that she was full of freckles from head to toe
/ was 1in love4 and that was all that mattered. / was so
passionate about this first 1love4 that / could not wait for
school G)rimaryJKunior school grade si! or seven
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;hat did you feel like when you saw the very first car that you
ever owned< My first car story brings back good memories and
bad. (ack in those days / thought that my friend drove the best
car on the road and of course this was a vehicle which would
have appealed to any young man as the girls looked each time
that we drove by. / made a plan and bought the vehicle from
my friend for cash and never stopped wa!ing it from that day
on. / could not bear to see the car dirty or scratched so /
checked it regularly. The engine and the engine compartment
were absolutely spotless. / polished the tires, used special
leather polish on the upholstery Gvery e!pensive / may add
and added every accessory that / could find to the point wherethe car looked like a mobile version of a 3hristmas tree. /
made sure that / parked the car away from other cars as they
were just not good enough to be close to my 1baby4 G/ also
didn-t want any damage and scratches you understand and my
garage was hygienically clean or / would not park her until /
made it so. / made sure that the gas Gor petrol attendant was
formally trained before he filled her up Gor / preferred to
actually do this myself back then and any mess would be metwith a serious mouthful from me. :t this stage of my life
nothing was more important to me than my 3anary 2ellow
5issan $>772. The passion / felt for her at the time could not
be compared to anyone or anything. 0he deeply stirred me6
/ found her6 This was what / told my family and friends when /
met my wife. / found the one that / can spend the rest of my
life with and despite all our faults we loved each other. Howwonderful it was to know that with all of my wrongs in life /
found someone that could understand me. Aor everyone else /
was always labeled as too complicated6 5ot easy to live with6
Too focused on business and not enough on me6 ;hile / do not
believe that it is the lot of a partner to change one another my
wife changes me by virtue of who she is. Her gentle and soft
personality understood me better than anyone / know and /
decided to change in order to accommodate such a wonderfulnature. :s we grew in our relationship we changed for a better
partnership so to speak and this suitable partnership helped us
come together as one. /t was wonderful to see how our love
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