Ten basic obstacles present themselves to the African. And these obstacles cause failure before we even start to trade. An inability to understand opportunities Lack of professionalism Lack of confidence Lack of vision Lack of trust Lack of unity Extremely myopic Lack of discipline Very naive of the workings of the business world Deceived by instant gratification What this adds up to is a general lack of representation of African People in the business world, and even where we are represented—a lack of diversity in business models. What it also means is that the level of business Africans can engage in at any serious level are always one man secondary business, rarely primary businesses. This is because solo favors the person who cannot work with others; it favors the person with no confidence to expand and no vision to see opportunities beyond the length of their nose. It is easy to have a business with yourself as the only client; i.e. a record company with one artist - the hand to mouth hawker shop on a street corner. Lack of trust prevents the street vendors from uniting and forming a larger, primary business. Lack of confidence translates into a lack of ability to secure skills and execute them in the real world. It takes confidence to set up a PLC or a LTD, LLC or Inc. If we cannot find a way to remedy this lack of confidence, we will always be sole traders employing only ourselves and working at break even. The Africans who learn to expand out of this mental trap are always the ones able to lean into their social networks and extended families. This is why Ethiopians and Somali people thrive, especially outside of their countries because they lend upon family structures (consciously practicing unity/umoja) to grow business beyond the secondary model. They can employ their cousins and brothers with trust to manage their business while they extend into other specialized areas like travel, business meetings etc. PROFESSIONALISM: Professionalism is a critical aspect of business--yet many use the term without observing its basic tenants. It is shocking that many people in business do not have basic skills like even the curtosy needed when sending a buisness email.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 07:43:30 +0000
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