Inspiring and creative people key to growing your venture

Last week in this column we saw how you can exploit your past successes to set up a thriving business. Today we look at how the people you associate with can help you get inspiration and ideas to set up a venture.

When I joined university, I was passionate about writing. I asked Prof Egara Kabaji, my literature lecturer, what I needed to do to be a writer.

He told me the first thing was to read a lot, and especially in the field I want to write. The second, he said, was to interact and befriend people who would inspire and mentor me.

I told him I wanted to write articles and book reviews in newspapers. “In that case then, you must read a lot of books, book reviews and newspapers and make friends with journalists as well as other book lovers.”

I followed his advice and within a couple of months my first article was published in the Daily Nation and soon I was supplementing by university upkeep with money I earned from contributing book reviews and articles.

Later, when I wanted to move from employment to business it was much easier as I already knew the way.

I stayed close to seasoned entrepreneurs who gave me endless ideas, inspiration and mentorship. Fortunately my job enabled me to interact with many business people and reading was already in by blood.

The late US basketball coach John Wooden said, “Five years from now, you are the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read.”

And Jim Rohn wrote, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” What we get from these gems of wisdom are two fundamental things that influence the outcome of your life — the people we meet and interact with and the books we read and reflect on. It shows the importance of meeting the right people and reading the right books.

Books in this case refer to various media that allow you to capture the works of, and interact with, authors without meeting face to face. It includes reading books, newspapers, magazines, blogs as well as good content on the Internet.

Reading is important because in many ways it is the same as meeting people and interacting with them.

You interact with the author through his or her work and get to know their thoughts. It is not common to find people who aspire one to start a business yet they do very little to get news and information on what is happening in the business world.

They don’t interact with business people, visit trade fairs and exhibitions or even read business literature. This way, their dreams will remain just that— pipe dreams.

The law of attraction states that like attracts like. If you want to ditch employment for business but all your friends are employed, you will definitely have a rough time.

They will undoubtedly keep pulling you back by showing you how business is risky and how you are not well prepared, yet they have no clue or experience on business preparation, having not done it themselves.

One the other hand, if you read and interact with business people they will attract you to the business world by demystifying it, giving you credible ideas and much needed inspiration.

Thus, if you want to get ideas either to start a business or growth one, don’t stay in isolation. Reach out to people in the field and they will help you with practical ideas which have been tested over time.

Mr Kiunga is a business trainer and the author of ‘The Art of Entrepreneurship: Strategies to Succeed in a Competitive Market’[email protected]