A new year gives us an opportunity to reflect on the past and take note of our learning points.
As I carried out my reflections, here are the four most important life and business lessons I noted down:
1. Whatever you need to do, especially with regards to your life goal and purpose – START NOW.
I realized that there will never be a perfect time to get things done, and as they say ‘time waits for no one’. See how fast 2017 ran, I still vividly remember how I shouted ‘happy new year’ in church on the 1st of January 2017.
I learned that you don’t have to wait for everything to be ready or for you to have it all figured out before taking your step (this doesn’t take away the place of proper planning though).
In 2017, I started an organization called Clever generation. I have always been passionate about wealth creation, SMEs, and the empowerment of young people but I didn’t think that the time was right for me to start up something because of the high pressured nature of my current job.
So I told myself that I will start up the organization once I get a less demanding job. My spirit was not going to have any of my excuses and didn’t give me peace until I started the organization in August.
As at now, the organization provides educative and engaging content via its social media accounts. We currently have an estimate of about 3,000 followers on all our social media accounts (this was achieved in just 4 months). So despite the demands of my job, I have been able to make out time to manage the organization.
[bctt tweet=”When you start, things will start to fall into place” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”]
2. The human capacity is limitless.
One of the best lessons I learned in 2017 is that you can exert yourself to do what you have to do regardless of how you feel.
My classic example: It’s past close of business, my boss just finished reviewing a document, and says to me ‘we need to get this to the client first thing tomorrow morning’. Leaving me with no choice but to update the document with his review notes overnight.
Well, I worked till 2.30 a.m. the next day, and still had to resume at work at 8.00 a.m.
Then I thought to myself – why do we make these sacrifices for our bosses and employers, and not do same for ourselves?. I have tons of articles written in my head that I haven’t been able to write them down because I keep telling myself that I don’t have the time.
[bctt tweet=”Never forget, no one deserves your best other than yourself” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”]
3. Mindset! Mindset!! Mindset!!!
Life is a game of the mind, only the mentally, psychologically, and spiritually prepared wins.
Your world is a reflection of what is on the inside; its garbage in – garbage out. Whatever you accept, believe, and tell yourself is what life produces for you.
So if your mindset is one of the most important determinants of your success, it means that you need to invest in educating and training your mind.
4. Idea generation and idea execution require a different set of skills.
The fact that a person can generate a brilliant idea doesn’t mean s/he can execute it. Learn to identify the skill set of your team members, and align their roles to their skill set as close as possible. Don’t be quick to assign tasks to people because of what they say or based on your perception of them.
Some years back, I met someone who had a business proposition and was looking for a business partner who will invest financially in the business. I thought the business was good and agreed to become his partner. For more than 2 years, I was investing financially but the business never made significant progress.
He kept emphasizing the capital-intensive nature of the business. So I got someone to invest in the business with the promise that we will pay back the capital and a percentage interest after a set period of time.
I wasn’t very involved in the management of the business because of the demanding nature of my job, I relied on his report. When it was time to pay back our investor, the capital wasn’t available, let alone the interest. He told me that it was because our customers were not paying on time.
I knew there was a problem when he couldn’t tell exactly how much the business was expecting from the customers owing. I got angry and insisted he produced a record of the revenue, expenses, and profit for the period. That’s when I realized how disorganized my business partner was, he had no management skill and just spent the money as the demand arose.
He had to borrow some of the money that was used in paying back our investor as I refused to support financially. That’s when it dawned on me that my business partner is a visionary but not a business manager.
I either had to manage the business myself or we hire a business manager. Also, I learned that it is not enough to have a good business idea, you also need to ensure that your team has the required skill set to execute the idea.
[bctt tweet=”‘Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.’ – Thomas Edison” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”]
Got any life or business lessons to share with us? Share your experience with us here.