Personal Finance

Six Ps of achieving success in your dream enterprise

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Action and good use of time differentiates between success and failure in business. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH

During my management consultancy work, I always meet clients who want to turn from employee to employer, today shall address this topic. An entrepreneurial spirit is a mindset. It is an attitude and approach to thinking that actively seeks out change, rather than waiting to adapt to change. It is a mindset that embraces critical questioning, innovation, service and continuous improvement.

Former President Daniel arap Moi during university graduation ceremonies always advised graduates to go and create their own job and for two other people. What passion do you have in life? Start from there the rest will follow.

If I were to ask you, Are you an entrepreneur? what would you say? Yes or no? Maybe is not an option. If your answer is yes, how so? What makes you an entrepreneur? Be specific now!

How would you describe the tell-tale signs of entrepreneurial spirit in you? If your answer is no, I recommend that you take a closer look at your life, your work and relationships. Maybe entrepreneurship is so natural to you that you have not thought of giving a name to it. It is just who you are and you just do it! So who is an entrepreneur? It is really more about the mindset, the problem-solving mindset. You are prepared to go out there to try new things. Even if you start something and fail, the learning that you acquire through it, especially in the early stages, is extremely valuable. You can be an entrepreneur wherever you are — in your own business, working in a big business or SME and in government. It is really about the mindset and passion.

Well, so you don’t have to be perfect or gifted from birth. Anyone can do something extraordinary. Do you ever look around at the world, evaluate your life, and see the way you would like it to be instead of the way it is? That is all you need to get started. In fact, that desire to wonder what is possible is what defines your entrepre­neurial spirit. You can nurture this side of you into believing you have the power to create change.

All of this capacity within you is what as a consultant I will tap into to unleash your entrepreneurial spirit and ignite that passion. First, you are going to need to believe that confidence comes before competence, failure comes before winning and happiness comes before success.

Deep down, I think you already know that life is determined not by your past or your circumstances but rather by what you choose to do next.

The doing is the difference. Your inner kick-ass entrepreneur is all about planning, partnering and persisting until what you dream and imagine is made real. It is about getting out there and creating success in your life. And I am talking real success.

I have narrowed the entrepreneurial spirit down to what I shall the six Ps: Passion, Path, Positivity, People, Perseverance and Productivity. These are the essential tools that will make your goals reachable and your life extraordinary. A lot of people go all passion but with no sense of their path.

Passion gives you the gusto to bounce out of bed every morning, but without the path, you will have trouble translating thought into impactful action. Your path is your plan for getting there, at the pace you set.

And no success is possible without cultivating an optimistic perspective — in short, positivity. I am a deep believer in the power of positive thinking. Learning to shift into a positive mindset helps you dodge the obstacles on your path.

But without the power of people around you to support you, mentor you, and otherwise love you, your passion will fall flat and your plan will never get done. Other people help us make our dreams real, keep us accountable, cheer us on, and make it all worthwhile.

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And none of these Ps will work if we do not fuel them with perseverance. You will never hear me say that you can make your dreams come true without hard work. That would be like ocean­front property in Malindi — people may want to buy it, but that does not make it real. If you want to be extraordinary, you need to build the resilience to weather the naysayers and develop the deter­mination to reach your goals.

The final P is productivity — how you use your time to make it count, for you. How come something as unsexy as productivity is the last P? Because it is essential if you want to achieve awesome things in life without running yourself ragged.

Success is about working smarter, not just harder. Productivity pulls all of the other Ps together and enables you to love your life.

Together, these six Ps are your roadmap for finding your ex­traordinary life.

By cultivating the six Ps, you will learn to shift your gaze to see the opportunities all around you, instead of focusing on the obsta­cles.

So, are you ready? If you aren’t going to create what you want in your life, who is? And if you aren’t going to do it now, then when? Get started! Follow your passion.