Figuring out the next

Life is a journey, at certain points in our life we come to crossroads when we are faced with decisions of what to do next.

Life is a journey, at certain points in our life we come to crossroads when we are faced with decisions of what to do next.

It could be choice between career paths, or educational options. We are just faced with hard decisions between choices or even confusion or lack of choices bordering on purposelessness.

I have been at this crossroad many times over the course of my life, most recently I have been trying to figure out what path to take in starting a new business.

I had started businesses in the past, back when I was in the university I converted a freelance career into a web design agency (www.velexoweb.com) with a friend. We were such an awesome team that we went on to start a couple of other small projects and eventually a small tech hub/co-working space in Enugu, Nigeria (Hub of Tech and Entrepreneurship Hub10) and an Exam preparation platform (www.smashrite.com). They where mildly successful based on why we started them and they started quite organically. But these things happened so organically, I didn’t have to sit down and analyze problems and solutions based on market size and ROI.

There are 2 ways businesses start, organically or inorganically. www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

Organically is often the most recommended way because it flows from a problem one or all of the members of the team has experienced. Big companies like Facebook or Airbnb were all started organically.

But this may not always be the case, most time entrepreneurs just look for problems to solve, create value and monetize while doing that. Certain times also a startup may have to pivot from an organic idea to do something else. Where they have to open their eyes and look for problems to solve or opportunities to leverage on.

I am fascinated by the whole process of creating vehicles that create value and monetize by it. I have quite an interest in systems, structure and processes. Right from one my childhood days I have always been interested in how things work. That’s probably why I ended up studying engineering in school. Also because one of my dreams in life is to build a conglomerate. I am quite interested in what the system of building disruptive businesses look like.

Recently, I saw a TED talk where a lady talked about the difference between success and mastery. It is one thing to build a successful business but quite another to master the art/science of building successful companies. For me that’s the exciting part of being able to replicate success over and over again… men like Sir Richard or Elon are my hero’s as they have become masters at building successful companies.

Generally building tech businesses in Sub Saharan Africa is quite in this early stages, meaning there’s fewer proven methodologies. Fewer people to look up to and learn from. While there are some, we are not in the habit of documenting our experiences for others to learn from. Most of the resources you will find online on startups and best practices often don’t work here in Africa as our culture is quite different from whats obtainable in Western culture.

But one thing I have learnt on being on this journey is that, It fulfilling to be chasing my dream. I might not be there yet but every day I wake up and work on my business I am a step closer …