Wednesday, 22 January 2020

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS IN OUR DNA

Is everyone entrepreneurial? Is it in our DNA? Could you become Great?

Greatness is about doing something important and adding significant value in different spheres of life. The desire to create and add value can be found in many people, a reason why many believe everyone is entrepreneurial. According to Reid Hoffman the founder of LinkedIn “all humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA”.


Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, personal development author and motivation speaker like, Steve Jobs, believes, if you can, it is best to do your own thing and possibly start a business or risk living an unplanned life. Rohn voices, ‘If you don’t design your life, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much’.

Essentially, enterprising behavior is about taking responsibility for achievements hence the reason entrepreneurship transcends sectors; innovative entrepreneurial people can be found everywhere in different countries, in private, public and nonprofit sectors, within sciences, social sciences, arts, sports and even politics etc.

Therefore, what you believe in and work towards will ultimately become your reality, so push yourself and attain your dreams. These high achievers in this blog did and became great, I bet you could come up with more examples...


The current number one America’s Jeff Bezos leads Amazon and other businesses, Mr Bezos become popular in business by selling books online. Bill Gates worth age 19 by 1975 started Microsoft the worlds biggest software company, with Paul Allen with a goal to get computers into every home. Sir James Dyson a British inventor and industrial designer invented the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner and founded the Dyson company. Aliko Dangote from Nigeria West Africa is the richest black person in the world and Africa’s richest man. This CEO of the Dangote Group is building the largest refinery in the world and operates in cement, sugar, flour, fertilizer and so on. Jack Ma (Ma Yun) a Chinese Businessperson from humble beginnings but a big dreamer founded Alibaba in 1999 in his apartment to create a highly successful e-commerce business that earned him Time Magazine’s 2014 Personality of the Year after Alibaba listed and pulled off, the biggest IPO (initial public offering) in the world; Wall Street’s largest historical debut.



Marie Sklodowska-Curie (1867-1934) a polish and naturalised French chemist and physicist operated in the 1800’s when mostly men were scientists, she persisted and pioneered in radioactivity research to eventually became the first women to win a Nobel Prize and subsequently the only person (male or female) to win two Noble Prizes in multiple sciences Physics and Chemistry.

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was labeled stupid by bad teachers, which led to initial homeschooling by his mother. He later failed at some jobs but through resilience eventually succeeded as a serial entrepreneur and one of Americas acclaimed inventors with over 1400 patents including the light bulb, Edison started about 14 companies, such as, notably the multinational General Electric (GE). British physicist and chemist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1882-1914) invented the first incandescent light bulb independent of Edison, then both scientists later merged and formed a company Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company selling electric lamps. Granville T. Woods (1856-1910) considered one of the greatest Native American/African American inventors, pioneer mechanical and electrical engineer largely self-educated became a prolific inventor and cut down train collisions and accidents, he owned over 50 patents including the electric motorcar for street railways, steam boiler furnace, elevator signalling and the multiplex telegraph. Ahmed Yazami a Moroccan French scientist invented the granite anode used in lithium ion batteries found in most of our mobile devices e.g. phones, ipad, computers.

Globalization, interconnectivity, the growth of businesses, trading online, having a web-based storefront, social media, business and personal branding was aided by British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee (1955) who enabled the “World Wide Web” in 1989 making it possible for people in different parts of the world to share and distribute information.


Christopher Gardner pursing financial independence overcame homelessness through courage, entrepreneurialism and founded his brokerage firm a story that inspired the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” played by Will Smith.


President Muhammadu Buhari contested up to five times before being elected as a civilian President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) won and lost many elections to subsequently become the 16th President of the United States. President Barack Obama become the first African American and 44th President of the United States, and said the best way to achieve your true potential was to pursue a goal that appeared bigger than yourself. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia made history as the 24th and first female president of an African country. 


There are too many athletes in every country to mention. Karl Maynard was born without limbs but became a competitive wrestler, an author, and an inspiration to many. He advised, ‘There’s an ultimate plan for your life and there should be no excuses, you will get there as long as you don’t let obstacles stop YOU”. Muhammed Ali overcame and pursued his dreams to become the greatest boxer.


It’s your choice, make the decision today to achieve your definition of greatness, plan and commit to becoming the positive change you wish to see in your career, work toward your plan, add value and success will embrace YOU!


Enrol today and build 21st Century Skills




2. How to Start Your Own Business: Entrepreneurship Career Edition 2 (Entrepreneurship Career Startup Edition Book 1)

3. Mu Koyi Sana’a (Hausa Entrepreneurship Book)

4. The Entrepreneurs Tool kit. The African Business Roundtable (ABR). 

5. A Practical Guide: How to Start and Grow Your Own Business

6. Effective Ways to Know, Manage or Motivate your Team to Attain High Profitability.


DOCTORATE THESIS

7.  Beeka, B. H (2015) Entrepreneurship as a Viable Career Choice for Nigerian Youth. Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University Doctor of Philosophy Thesis. 

JOURNALS 


SHEFFIELD DOCTORAL CONFERENCE: WON BEST PAPER 

10. Beeka, B. (2011) Entrepreneurship as a career choice: Opportunity recognition model from an emerging economy. In Lee, B and Palmer, N.J (Eds) Sheffield Doctoral Conference Proceedings, pp. 19-36. Sheffield: The University of Sheffield Management School Research Office. 

#LEAD #ECC #Career #Employability #Intrapreneurship #Entrepreneurship #DrBeekaAcademy

    

ENTREPRENEURSHIP CAREER TRIGGERS

It is human desire to work in the best places, earn large sums of money, live a happy life, probably slay dragons, win and ride into the sunset to experience unconditional and everlasting love. Few ever wish to experience unemployment or underemployment with its accompanying loss of control over one’s life however many do. Those not employed are considered jobless. Unemployment refers to any situation whereby a person willing and able to work cannot find a job or create their own business and by extension their own employment. Underemployment refers to any condition where a person is overqualified for their current job, while employment can be defined as having paid work or being engaged in an occupation or career.

Business or trading represents employment and is one of the oldest activities in the world. Every working human and company is actively engaged in buying and selling; consultants and employees (workers) sell their time (including employability skills, talents, and knowledge) to employers (companies) who in this context are the buyers (consumers). The foundation of exchange within society is captured within the discipline of economics which conveys the process of demand (buying, consuming) and supply (selling, trading, entrepreneurship); everyone engages in commercial activities as traders (sellers), consumers (buyers), or both.
The field of economics also establishes that entrepreneurship is an employment choice (decision). This employment career choice is empowered through opportunity creation, recognition, and development. Thus, much of entrepreneurship is about opportunity, and “opportunity” refers to consistently perceiving, conceptualising, creating and recognising business prospects, market needs, wants, demand, and responding appropriately through exploiting/developing/selling/delivering solutions, supplying better, creative, innovative, cost-effective or efficient products or services to address customer demands, wants and needs.


Furthermore, your entrepreneurship career is your employment choice. How is this decision made? It is said, many people are either pushed or pulled into the entrepreneurial career. That, push or pull factors are powerful triggers for the entrepreneurial career. 

A trigger refers to a situation or event that inspires something to happen. First, necessity-push trigger relates to the situation where people are activated to start businesses due to lack of career advancement or unemployment. This implies unemployment, underemployment or less work opportunities in offices or regions influences people to decide to start their own business, creating their own entrepreneurship career. 

Secondly, opportunity-pull trigger refers people wanting to become their own bosses, so they create a product/service or recognise market needs and dynamically pursue business opportunities. This entails deciding to take advantage of business opportunities to start a business or invest in becoming an entrepreneur. In this book series, the terms self-employed and business owner would refer to entrepreneurship, although there are slight differences. For instance, a ‘self-employed’ person often works alone, is a solo-preneur or a one-person business; and being the core of the commerce this entrepreneur works daily in their business. However, the ‘business owner’ does not operate solo but has employees or partners, and runs an automated and delegated business that maintains operations regardless of if the business owner is directly involved in daily operations.  However, whether self-employed or, a business owner, entrepreneurs serve and change the world.


2. How to Start Your Own Business: Entrepreneurship Career Edition 2 (Entrepreneurship Career Startup Edition Book 1)

3. Mu Koyi Sana’a (Hausa Entrepreneurship Book)

4. The Entrepreneurs Tool kit. The African Business Roundtable (ABR). 

5. A Practical Guide: How to Start and Grow Your Own Business

6. Effective Ways to Know, Manage or Motivate your Team to Attain High Profitability.


DOCTORATE THESIS

7.  Beeka, B. H (2015) Entrepreneurship as a Viable Career Choice for Nigerian Youth. Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University Doctor of Philosophy Thesis. 


JOURNALS 


SHEFFIELD DOCTORAL CONFERENCE: WON BEST PAPER 

10. Beeka, B. (2011) Entrepreneurship as a career choice: Opportunity recognition model from an emerging economy. In Lee, B and Palmer, N.J (Eds) Sheffield Doctoral Conference Proceedings, pp. 19-36. Sheffield: The University of Sheffield Management School Research Office. 


#LEAD #ECC #Career #Employability #Intrapreneurship #Entrepreneurship #DrBeekaAcademy

Monday, 6 January 2020

ENTREPRENEURSHIP & CAREER LEGACY

The keys to a successful entrepreneurial career in the 21st century is discovering your purpose, leading yourself, becoming the  CEO of your life, having multiple streams of income, saving, investing, and controlling factors of production while operating in the primary, secondary or tertiary  economy; understanding industry value chains, land, labour, finance, technology automation and leadership. Many companies today were started by entrepreneur (s) who made the entrepreneurship career choice and along inspirational enterprising career journeys built legacies. 

ENTREPRENEURSHIP CAREER SELECTION AND BUSINESS SUCCESS

“Entrepreneurship is a mind-set and an employment choice, enabled by the ability to consistently identify and co-ordinate scarce resources to develop opportunity” (Dr Beem Beeka)


Anita Roddick founder of the Body Shop suggests when trying to choose a business ask yourself these 3 questions

1.     What makes me mad?
2.     What am I good at?
3.     What separates me from the pack?

Steve Mariotti founder and former president of the global nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) says to succeed:

  1. Satisfy a consumer need
  2. Buy low, sell high
  3. Keep good records
Always think out of the box and put yourself in the customers shoes to solve their problem and provide solutions. Don’t get wrapped up in your product or service. Your focus is to sell what people want to buy. This means you need to present your product or service in such a way that consumers find irresistible.


ENTREPRENEURSHIP CAREER LEGACY & COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
If you can leave an entrepreneurial legacy. Shannon L Alder says "Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others by the stories they share about you" and Jim Rohn advises "All good men and women must take responsibility to create legacies that will take the next generation to a level we could only imagine (Jim Rohn). 


Ladies, gentlemen and companies to gain competitive advantage, stay in business for years and leave a legacy, your brand, product or service has to meet any of these criteria:

1.     Faster
2.     Cheaper/less expensive
3.     Simpler/easier
4.     More efficient
5.     Aesthetically prettier/beautiful (package, brand)
6.     More secure (guarantees)
7.     More features
8.     More value 
9.     Better design
10.  Better service/excellent customer service
11.  Better advertising or endorsement
12.  More available (geographical spread)
13. Consistently innovate










2. How to Start Your Own Business: Entrepreneurship Career Edition 2 (Entrepreneurship Career Startup Edition Book 1)

3. Mu Koyi Sana’a (Hausa Entrepreneurship Book)

4. The Entrepreneurs Tool kit. The African Business Roundtable (ABR). 

5. A Practical Guide: How to Start and Grow Your Own Business

6. Effective Ways to Know, Manage or Motivate your Team to Attain High Profitability.


DOCTORATE THESIS

7.  Beeka, B. H (2015) Entrepreneurship as a Viable Career Choice for Nigerian Youth. Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University Doctor of Philosophy Thesis. 


JOURNALS 


SHEFFIELD DOCTORAL CONFERENCE: WON BEST PAPER 

10. Beeka, B. (2011) Entrepreneurship as a career choice: Opportunity recognition model from an emerging economy. In Lee, B and Palmer, N.J (Eds) Sheffield Doctoral Conference Proceedings, pp. 19-36. Sheffield: The University of Sheffield Management School Research Office. 


#LEAD #ECC #Career #Employability #Intrapreneurship #Entrepreneurship #DrBeekaAcademy
“Allow your passion to become your purpose, and it will one day become your profession” (Unknown)

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