Key traits that make start-up owners succeed in business

My former classmate Jaliwa, who is a police inspector, prevailed upon me to view the police service differently. I opened a discussion on what most of us associate police with — corruption and unnecessary use or misuse of force on the very people they are called to serve.

In a friendly but combative mood, reminiscent of our old days in the debating club, he argued that the police service is one of the least understood institutions in our society.

Without disputing that corruption is rife within the ranks, he lamented that most people have a distorted mindset that one cannot get the service they rightly deserve without bribing.

I concurred with him that most bribes are actually not solicited but thrust upon police officers by people who generally think that it is the magic key to getting services.

There are others who in principle keep off and only maintain absolutely essential contact with police officers and fail to access vital services because of this misconception.

Entrepreneurial success is a subject equally misunderstood by many people. Some people apparently think that to succeed in business one must have a lot of connections, be lucky, use several short-cuts, invent a unique product that has no competition, have a lot of money, and have several businesses or income streams and so on.

Those who have truly succeeded in business will tell you all those are myths. Several studies tend to agree that entrepreneurial success is hinged on mastery of three key skills possessed in large measures by all top achievers.
First, they have the ability to concentrate on a single goal, business, idea, or problem at a time and to shun all other diversions or distractions. 

We often covet and imitate successful entrepreneurs who boast of several businesses and income generating streams.

But we fail or ignore the fact that they did not start with all of them at once. They started one at a time and only diversified when they had systems in place to ensure the old venture could operate with their minimal involvement.

Many start-ups fail because they do so many things. It is not uncommon to find a person is working on a formal job, has three small businesses, brags as a part-time consultant, is in multilevel marketing and doing all sort of farming and still looking for more opportunities. There is no better description of a failure.

Second, they have well developed problem solving skills. Whereas most of your rewards in life will come from solving other people’s problems, your own survival depends on your ability to solve problems that will inevitably come in between you and your success.

You will have problems with your staff, market environment, sales, cash flow, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Fortunately, problem solving skills are learnable. Dale Carnegie has written a simple formula for solving any problem.

He writes that the first step is to get and write down all the facts before beginning to solve the problem.

Then ask and answer four key questions: What is the problem? What is the cause of the problem?, What are all possible solutions? And what is the best solution? A clear problem definition leads to an automatic solution in half of all the cases.

Finally, they have an open mind. You are in business to provide what people need not necessarily what you are passionate about.

Let your customers guide you on what they need and how they need it.

Always try to be in your customers’ hearts and change or evolve with them. And if you find you are riding on a dead donkey, disembark immediately. You are not destined to die in whatever you currently do. All successful people change business line without delay if they do not work.