Posts tagged ‘entrepreneurship’
The Land Where Unicorns Roam
In a dream, I traveled 20 years into the future and I landed in a piece of the earth where unicorns roam. No, I am not talking about some fairy tale type of land where strange horse-looking animals fly. I am talking about an awe-inspiring place for an entrepreneur where the unicorns are billion dollar companies with innovative technologies that are changing the world.
As the legend goes, it started with one company that was acquired for more than $1 B by a US Fortune 500 company. Everyone thought that it was a fluke. And then there were more (2 to 4 companies having a valuation exceeding $1 B in any given year). When people realized that amongst these unicorns, there were several smaller innovative companies they started to call this land ‘The Silicon Valley of the Caribbean” and some dubbed it “Silicon-H”.
Yes, the place where unicorns roam is none other than Haiti. It’s true none of these unicorns have yet to appear. More than a belief, I know they will come into existence 20 years or less from now. I’ve seen these unicorns in the determination, creativity, persistence and the hunger for success from our millennials. When I look at these young entrepreneurs, I see the founders, CEOS, and CXOs of these future companies.
The question is why would anyone be surprised that Haiti would be a country where unicorns roam. After all, we are a country of entrepreneurs. This is a country where people have to create their own employment by necessity because there is a lack of good paying jobs. My inspiration as an entrepreneur was my mother who told me that she would whip water to turn it into butter to feed me if she had to. Truth be told, while even as a young child I knew there are many times that the poor woman had no clue where our next meal would come from, she always came through. In a flat world, we should encourage and expect that Haitian entrepreneurs would develop goods and services that they will sell to the larger market that is the entire world!
To create the environment for these unicorns to birth, policymakers and other actors must embrace the dream. It is true that we have a high illiteracy rate in Haiti. What’s also true is that we have a high percentage of college educated members of our population for which we need to create good paying jobs or give them the tools to create such jobs. We can have policies and programs in infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture to create jobs for those with less skills AND at the same time have policies and programs that leverage the part of our workforce that is well educated, smart and innovative. The two are not exclusive.
I am encouraged by President Jovenel Moise’s goal to create an incubator center in Haiti. This is a good step. I hope this will not be an isolated policy initiative and instead will be part of a coordinated policy program to seed a tech culture in Haiti.
A key aspect of the approach is to encourage Haitian entrepreneurs to produce for the broader world market. Haitians are also 100% world citizens and can develop solutions to address the needs of their brethren who are outside of Haiti. While we have about 11 million people in Haiti, there are more than 7 billion people elsewhere in the world.
I ask all my fellow entrepreneurs both in Haiti and the Diaspora, policymakers, business leaders, philanthropists to be a cause in the matter: Let the unicorns that are roaming the country materialize sooner rather than later.
Why Entrepreneurs Take Risks
There is a high rate of failure for businesses. The statistics I have seen say as much as 90% of businesses fail in the first year (1). If this is so, then why would an entrepreneur believe it’s possible to be in the minority of enterprises that will succeed? Explanations that I have heard range from entrepreneurs must be delusional, to ‘they have the means’ to afford failure.
The rest of this blog will debunk the former (we all know that entrepreneurs are delusional). As for the latter, I won’t even spend much time addressing it, given that so many entrepreneurs have risked everything they own to start a business knowing there are no parents with deep pockets or trust funds to the rescue if they fail.
Of course, from an entrepreneurial standpoint, going into business is the very rational thing to do. Let me share with you some reasons that hard core entrepreneurs start businesses and what non-entrepreneurs can learn from it.
1) The risks are not that bad
If you consider that entrepreneurship is a journey, the risks are not that bad. In fact, the probability of success for an entrepreneur who has committed to the journey is 100%. Let me explain.
Suppose, you were given a coin with the following attributes: a) the coin lands Heads (success) 10% the first time you flip it, and b) on subsequent flips you can learn from your mistakes and improve the probability of success considerably. It is unfair to compare entrepreneurship to the rolling of dice. Most entrepreneurs learn from their first mistakes and improve their success rates on the next go round.
Before, I quit my full-time job to engage heart and soul into running my own venture, one of the best ideas I was given was that “entrepreneurship is a journey” and I should engage in it with no thoughts of turning back.
Lesson for non-entrepreneurs: Overestimating risk and underestimating future gains
I believe that by nature, human beings tend to overestimate the risk of losing what they have, and at the same time, underestimate the potential for future gains. This is probably why many put their money in the bank instead of investing in the stock market where history would indicate they are likely to achieve higher returns. Some don’t even put money in a 401(k) when they could get a guaranteed 100% return with an employer match. One of the attributes of entrepreneurs is that they are able to assess risk better than the average person.
Question: Are you evaluating risk properly?
2) Entrepreneurs are not afraid of losing immaterial assets
One of the reasons that people are afraid of going into business is the fear of what they might lose: Reputation – what would their friends think or say about them, or tangible assets such as money or the nice house in the suburbs. I call all of these immaterial assets. For entrepreneurs, their main asset is themselves and not the things they have.
So as long as there are humans and there are problems to be solved, an entrepreneur will create solutions for which people are willing to pay. Even if humans were able to solve all their problems, I am convinced that there will be entrepreneurs who would convince some to pay for problems that are inexistent but could materialize in the future.
Lesson for non-entrepreneurs: You are your greatest asset. Just like an entrepreneur, for all humans, their asset is not what they have; it is the person who created those assets in the first place. Are you spending time increasing the value of your assets through learning, meditating, going to retreats, keeping yourself in top condition both mentally and physically?
3) Entrepreneurs live their lives
There is no job advertisement for entrepreneurs. By definition, entrepreneurs are passionate about their ventures. They believe they were created to be entrepreneurs. The fact that they take the paths less traveled doesn’t bother them. What other people think is not going to stop entrepreneurs for doing what they love to do. There is a reason why many entrepreneurs leave very good jobs even when a promotion is imminent.
Before I started SciMetrika, I had an older friend who had a great job at IBM. He had an MBA with a technical background which was rare in those days. He believed that he would rise up quickly to the top. Deep in his heart, he wanted to be an entrepreneur and start his own business. The nice house and good pay kept him from ever following his passion. I knew I did not want to end up that way which is why I started SciMetrika in my early 30s.
Entrepreneurs would rather risk failure, living the life that was meant for them, rather than being successful doing a 9-to-5 job. (Of course, the greatest failure is to lose your soul and not be who you are meant to be.)
Lesson for non-entrepreneurs: Live your life with no regret. Deep inside, you have a passion and calling. Follow your passion and don’t let excuses like people, money, age (too young or too old) or background (education/race) stand in your way.
(1) Neil Patel. 90% Of Startups Fail: Here’s What You Need To Know About The 10%. Forbes Magazine; January 16, 2015. Accessed online on August 15, 2015 at http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/01/16/90-of-startups-will-fail-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-10/
AyiPreneur 