entrepreneurship (minus) 101

8/21/2019 ENTREPRENEURSHIP (minus) 101

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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

8


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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

$9


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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.

$8


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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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