This is a recent conversation I had at an entrepreneurship forum.
Me: What do you do?
Joe: I am a hustler
Me: (Confused). What does that mean? What do you do?
Joe. I hustle. I bring in things from China, Japan or India sometimes and sell.
Me: What do you import?
Joe: Anything I think will sell. Electronics, phones, furniture. Last week I brought in a car from Japan.
Me: How long will you do this for?
Joe: Until I’ve made enough money and I am sorted. And you? What do you do?
Me: I train people in personal finances and entrepreneurship
Joe: Oh (Looks bored and uninterested. His eyes start scouting room for Chinese suppliers).
Let’s be clear. Joe is not an entrepreneur. He has a hustle. He is in it to see where he can find gaps to make a shilling as quickly as possible. But entrepreneurship is a whole different ball game. Some people will turn their ‘hustles’ into an enterprise but some may just decide that they are OK. So what does entrepreneurship look like? How different is it from Joe’s hustle? It has absolutely nothing to do with the size of the business. It has to do with focus. I got the feeling that if Joe, thought importing carrots from Angola today would make him money, that’s what he would do. If it was ferrying rabbits between Meru and Mombasa, that would suit him just fine as well. Entrepreneurs are not willing to do everything; they want to do fewer things but well. They are interested in the journey and where it could take us. Building excites us. Seeing something grow and change along the way drives us
Sense of Purpose. The commitment entrepreneurs have is not just about the money. Many of us would have given up if that was the case. We get out of bed because despite the financial challenges, we believe in the possibility. Sometimes we get rewarded with money, sometimes it’s not there. There is never a constant but we keep moving. We understand that there is no instant gratification. Joe is after the money. That’s his purpose, vision and agenda. We all want to make money in the business, but we understand that the cost of that dream is learning to live and deal with financial uncertainty. The beauty about it is that you stopped being defined by money.
In this same forum I spoke to people who were in the early stages of their businesses as well as those whose companies were a hundred times bigger. You still find that you have something in common. Entrepreneurs solve problems. Instead of simply importing furniture from China, an entrepreneur might have decided to look at why people want to import furniture in the first place. My sister Wanjiru, a fellow entrepreneur summed this up by stating entrepreneurs put authenticity and value creation on the table. You are after solutions that not only work for you, but play a part in correcting a bigger wrong. You don’t just do transactions; you are more interested in building relationships. Some of these relationships have been there for years, even decades. We don’t just want to have employees we want to create culture and great working environments for people.
So what would a conversation with Joe as an entrepreneur look like? For starters he would have also been interested in what I do. My lack of Chinese connections should not have turned him away. Entrepreneurs learn from anybody; we know people are usually a connection away from the person you need to meet who has an interesting way of looking at your problem. Since we don’t take a short term view of things, we do not dismiss conversation. We would have talked about why he decided to pursue that line of business. An exchange of stories of challenges faced, fears, markets and general pleasure. A conversation with someone who actually gets you. Knowing that you are not alone in your craziness. Maybe the current Joe just hasn’t found IT. Sometimes you can start as a hustle but you find yourself pulled in a certain direction and you then discover the entrepreneur in you. As Michael Gerber in his book, the E-myth, stated; ‘Do the things that entrepreneurs do so that entrepreneurship can find you”.
The next intake of the Centonomy Entrepreneur Program starts on 28th May. Registration is currently ongoing through this link https://centonomy.com/about/the-centonomy-entrepreneur-2/ or call 0700801112
Waceke runs programs on Entrepreneurship and Personal Finance Management. Registration is currently open and ongoing through our website centonomy.com For more information get in touch with her through waceken@centonomy.com /Facebook-Waceke Nduati /Tweet @cekenduati