YOU CANNOT TEACH DRIVE
Recently had the chance to talk about entrepreneurship with a friend of mine. We shared on many different aspects of the idea. As the conversation continued my friend said he believed that a person can learn those necessary skills that would allow him/her to succeed as an entrepreneur and I agreed him. Most of the skills that allow many successful entrepreneurs to be successful can actually be learnt.
However, I told my friend that as much as one can be mentored, read books and watch videos to gain all those skills there is one key thing that cannot be taught and that is ultimately the deciding factor whether someone succeeds or not in a particular venture. That key factor is something I call drive. A dogged determination to not let go of a particular goal or dream is something no one can teach you. I like saying to my siblings I cannot make you want it enough to go after it when it comes to them doing well in school and that is the case in business. No matter how skilled the person if they do not have the drive required to steer the enterprise in the right direction then their business will crumble.
As former Dragon, James Caan, said “Yes you are the best in your company but do you have what it takes to start your own company?” Being good at something does not mean you have what it takes to turn that into a profitable business. It boils down to your drive. When everything is going wrong and everything you have learnt does not seem relevant to the situation at hand and everyone seems to be giving up on the venture it is your drive that will help you overcome those problems. Whether people believe in your idea or not is affected by your drive with regards to the idea. How far are you willing to go for this idea or company?
I have said many times over that I do not regard myself as particularly smart or great. I am just too stupid to understand what I cannot do and too dumb to know when to stop. Many of the things of the things I accomplished I did without any prior knowledge of how I would accomplish them. I just knew what I wanted and was prepared to do whatever it took to make sure I achieved the goal I wanted. My drive is the reason I do not give up on an idea even when I am told no one my age can do what I want to do. Drive does not have an age restriction. There are 14 year olds building businesses that made over a million. A few years ago Apple bought an app from a 17 year old for $30 million!
The main killer of drive is our environment. There are all these unwritten rules about when you can do what and how you must do it. Who makes up these rules anyway?! Who said at 22 you are too young to build your own company? Who gets to set the limit on what should be regarded as ‘realistic?’ I believe if you have the drive to make it happen then go for it. Do not let anybody use the fact that it has never been done before as the reason why you cannot do it. Far too many dreams have been shuttered but that reasoning. Parents telling their kids that no one in their family has ever built a company, they only ended at spaza shops what makes you think you are so special? To a small extent our environments still believe some things are only meant for a certain race or group of individuals.
Instead of encouraging our driven individuals to break the mould, we try to break them down until they fit in the mould. The same mould that has imprisoned so many has now become the status quo. But who built this mould? Why don’t we build a new mould? Drive is the cry of our dreams to be realized! Drive is our innermost desires saying “I don’t have to be just a dream. You can make me real!” The successful are those who heeded the cry of their dreams. They decided not to suppress the cry of their dream. The successful are those people when told them that what they wanted to do had never been done, they simply, asked “why not?!” Why can’t you be the first to make it happen?
Yes you can read the books, watch the videos and even idolize those that heeded the cry of their dreams, but the question that now remains is; will you follow suit?