Entrepreneurs

Andrew Layman:  PCB CEO

Not every person who starts a business, or aspires to do so, can be called an entrepreneur, even though this is the trend in South Africa where the term is used very loosely.   True entrepreneurs are identifiable by their possession of certain qualities.  These, among others I suppose, are courage, creativity, pioneering spirit, determination, ambition, confidence and passion.   In addition, he or she will be inclined to “stir things up” and is driven to a considerable degree by the excitement of risk.   It is virtual rapids-shooting in a business context.   It is akin to the hunter’s excitement of the chase; not a rather mundane, day-to-day operation of a solid business which puts food on the family table.   Entrepreneurs strive for wealth-creation and, importantly, will take risks in order to achieve this.   This means that they generally know all about failure since creative and innovative ideas are not likely to be successful every time.   

Thus, entrepreneurship is not as much an action or a series of actions, but rather, an attitude towards business.   The fortunate person who has this spirit is able to assess the market intuitively and come up with ideas, sometimes crazy ones, to exploit it in a way that others have not thought of before.   Because we are talking of human qualities, many believe that entrepreneurs are born and that if one is not fortunate enough to have been given the range of innate qualities requited, one cannot be a successful entrepreneur.    There is only some truth in this, I believe.    I think that the entrepreneurial spirit can be released in people by the right kind of education and upbringing.    Among the important qualities are determination and courage, both qualities that may be enhanced by example and also by the encouragement of self-sufficiency and self-confidence.    In my experience, schools are not places for the stimulation of enterprise.  Indeed, they often shun enterprise by expectations that all learners should conform to a particular, pre-determined mould of acceptability.  Enterprising people, who have individuality, are often perceived to be rebellious and, generally, they do not fit in.   Even in the ways in which schools are often run, as institutions they do not exhibit much enterprise.   For example, when things are broken, they are often content to wait for ‘works branch’ to arrange for the repair.    They do not seek innovative ways to enhance their income when it is clear that the school fees will not cover their costs, or, should I say, the costs of improving their offering to their learners.   Since confidence is at the very heart of entrepreneurship, schools should do all they can to encourage self-confidence among young people.   They must grow to adulthood believing that there is nothing they can’t achieve.  All too often, for a variety of reasons, young people lose confidence badly during the adolescent years and, despite their pretences, do not easily recover the ability to believe that they are good enough to meet all life’s challenges on their own.    It might be interesting to readers to know that in quite a number of countries in the world, schools offer cohesive programmes in enterprise education.   These are not solely about entrepreneurship and making money in business, but include the promotion of self-sufficiency and the ability of people to manage their own fortunes rather than rely on hand-outs of money and effort on the part of others. 

It is important to think about these things this week, in particular, for it is earmarked throughout the world as Global Entrepreneurship Week.     This will see more than ten million people in a hundred countries celebrating entrepreneurship by participating in over forty thousand events.    I am pleased to say that there will be one in KZN for the first time.  The Umbono Challenge will be held for the first time.  It will culminate in a final on Friday this week when, after preliminary rounds, the young people with the most creative and feasible business ideas will present them to an audience for adjudication.   This has been organised by the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.  

Whether entrepreneurs run their own businesses, or work within larger companies, they hold the key to the universal challenges that lie ahead.   These are such that conservative and unimaginative ideas will not allow us to overcome them.    We must rely on people with passion, courage and the ability to ‘think out of the box’.      

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