10/06/2021
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__What is that?!
If you have recently suffered a setback, I’m telling you to get back on your feet, right now! You are not alone; there will always be challenges. As an entrepreneur you are going to face setbacks; heck, even life has its fair share of setbacks!
Setbacks for entrepreneurs often come thick and fast, and you can feel so overwhelmed. I’m here to tell you that it’s absolutely part of the game. Even if you end up going out of business, that, too, is part of the game! Actually, more StartUps go out of business than succeed.
Most successful entrepreneurs did not succeed the first time. Never be ashamed of failure or setbacks. Don’t get depressed.
When it happens, take a deep breath. Take time out. Learn some lessons from it. Accept at least the humility that it brings.
And then start again; this time you will succeed: !
Use the setback to reset yourself, and propel yourself to the next level. I have always used these stumbling blocks to reset myself, and then to move onward and upward to the next level. Sometimes the setbacks are completely outside your own control; it might be a natural disaster, an outbreak of war, a new law—in Africa, the list can be almost endless.
__But as an entrepreneur I taught you early on, a powerful, powerful principle: “We fight in the conditions, and not the conditions.”
One thing you must never do is sit around and feel sorry for yourself, or even become bitter towards other people, including public officials.
Sometimes you may need to move away for a while, but don’t lose HOPE. During the five years, I was fighting a court battle to get a license in Zimbabwe, I lost everything including my car and my house to creditors. My construction equipment was sold off at a public auction, as newspapers relished and jeered.
At the same time, I studied Mobile Telecommunications until I became known throughout the world, as a “leading African expert in the field.”
I realized that I would need to diversify my risk by developing a skill to operate in other countries. In 1997, I successfully bid for a license to operate in Botswana. Mascom Botswana, not Econet Zimbabwe, was my first mobile operation!
When I was forced to leave Zimbabwe, it was a massive setback. But it accelerated my own development as an entrepreneur. I was no longer afraid to go and work far from home—Nigeria, New Zealand, Latin America. I started a business in the UK—all from nothing!
When I was kicked out of Nigeria, it was a massive setback. But in my reset, I turned my attention to the next big thing in communications [Data Infrastructure] much earlier than I would ever have done.
It is hard to feel you can reset yourself after you have had a major setback. I’m here to tell you that “YOU CAN DO IT”!
ON IT!!!
“Every sunset is an opportunity for reset…” Richie Norton [entrepreneur!]
End.
Image credit: Shetzers Photography. The last time I shared this photo here on the platform was back on 10 February 2016 in my series, for a post titled: "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging".
