By Wilfred Isak April
THERE are many personality traits that helped the most successful entrepreneurs of our time, such as Oupa Frans Indongo and others. However, the question is what traits are central to such kind of success? What kinds of attitudes, characteristics or traits do Namibians have to work on, the traits to cultivate in order to become better entrepreneurs.
I think what most successful entrepreneurs display is the ‘can do’ attitude, which stems from their upbringing, regardless of where they come from in Namibia. Although most of our great-grandparents or grandparents did not attain similar levels of academic accomplishment as ourselves, personally I feel they were, and are, great optimists. No matter how silly it sounds at times, they were always there to encourage us, by simply saying: ‘stay in school’. To break that down into our personal experiences, is that we all know what we are striving for is sometimes impossible, but our elders always say: ‘go ahead’ and ‘don’t give up’. Our parents or grandparents are eternal optimists that is why they were, and are still, willing to raise so many children some of whom are not even their own. This does involve a lot of risks, you may agree.
All these children have to be provided with shelter, clothing and food. When you really sit down and think about this, it should give us a lot of confidence as a nation, and we should never fear to start something new, but be confident and prepared to take on risks and even to fail. For it is only through failure that we are able to succeed tomorrow. How can you develop the personality traits for success in your business or workplace? First try to look beyond today and instinctively plan towards the future. In addition, try to develop a sixth sense, a power of vision that will allow you to predict the business climate in the workplace. In simple terms: ‘If you can envision, you can execute your strategy the best’. Do not forget that this requires a tremendous amount of energy to create something from a vision and to translate it into a strategy. Simple things such as jogging or swimming three times a week can help, even if you work 80 percent of the time. Develop an appetite for reading inspirational materials, including newspapers. Start reading all our local newspapers. Believe that there is always something new to be learned in each paper, even if stories appear similar. What we do not know we can definitely teach ourselves. For example some Namibians are not very confident about numbers or finance. You do not have to be scared, look at numbers as a basic way of doing business. Even if you are not numerically gifted or talented, the point is that if you apply the right strategies, the numbers will follow and not the other way around. Another important quality is trust. Develop a relationship of trust in your enterprise or workplace, since it is human nature to want trust. If people trust you, they will continue to give you resources, because you will be considered trustworthy and therefore worthy of support.
*Dr. Wilfred Isak April holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship and is currently a lecturer in the Department of Management Sciences at the University of Namibia (Unam).