Five books for youth enterpreneurship
Although, I tell myself, I am not a businesswoman, as I have no nose for business etc. etc. I ended up as a brand coach, a pitch expert, a customer service consultant and an ideas merchant when it comes to marketing, sales and turn over. I have also been involved in marketing two of my […]
Although, I tell myself, I am not a businesswoman, as I have no nose for business etc. etc. I ended up as a brand coach, a pitch expert, a customer service consultant and an ideas merchant when it comes to marketing, sales and turn over. I have also been involved in marketing two of my own books and that of several others to great acclaim. So, am I a businesswoman or not? Therein lies part of the confusion of young entrepreneurs.
In today’s clime, everyone selling three shoes, doing random buying and selling, selling airline tickets or pharmaceuticals, having a half-baked salon is a CEO. The definition of CEO around the world and especially in Nigeria is fairly fuzzy. From Dangote to your recently graduated auto-mechanic intern, everyone is a CEO. In addition to all of this pressure, young people are in a hurry to enter the leadership space without deep thought or mentorship. When you add this to the international pressure of incubators, leadership courses, entrepreneurship drive in every field and “suddenly rich” young people then the die is cast for all manners of mangled entrepreneurs confused from the on-set.
With all of this information and encouragement thrown at many young persons, we recently started a life coaching session at ‘The Eugenia Abu Media centre’ to interrogate young entrepreneurs on life. Beyond leadership, team spirit, entrepreneurship, hard work and fund raising, it is incredible that no one is teaching life aka confusion, depression, internal funk, lack of self-esteem, managing doubts and managing relationships, all of which can ultimately impact success. Young people are looking for persons to talk to about what is going on in their lives and everyone is talking about team spirit and leadership. Our first edition was a runaway success. With that in mind, I decided to share some books on youth entrepreneurship that can speak to some of those issues and more.
1. A paperboy’s fable, the 11 principles of success. By Deep Patel. This is the story of a paperboy who learns the way of entrepreneurship from scratch thereby providing the reader with a step by step guide to these core principles. T.Y Chandler is a 16-year-old working to earn money before he leaves for college. The author like the protagonist in the book also conquered his fears of doubt and fear of strangers and wrote the book at the same age with the protagonist. The book also interviews top level entrepreneurs weaving their fear of the unknown into a highly recommended book for young entrepreneurs.
2. Start with Why, how great leaders inspire everyone to take action by Simon Sinek is a truly compelling book about how to go about building your entrepreneurship resume. Some of the more profound questions addressed in this book include, why are some people and organisations more influential and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from God and employers? Among successful people why are a few people able to repeat success over and over again? The author who has the third most popular Ted Talk with 28 million viewers explains that Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs have very little in common but they all started with why. HE CONCLUDES THAT MOST PERSONS WILL NOT BUY INTO A PRODUCT UNTIL THEY UNDERSTAND THE WHY. Therefore, as an entrepreneur start by asking all the relevant questions like why do you want to be an entrepreneur, do you have what it takes and why should customers patronise you. A most intriguing and beguiling book.
3. Youth entrepreneurship and Africa’s sustainable industrialization edited by Kafudzara Farai, Nagao Masafumi and Mutsiya Emmanuel. This publication by the United Nations University investigates the prospect of Africa’s industrialization, with an emphasis on youth entrepreneurship and the mechanisms in place to support industrial and corporate entrepreneurship. It dwells on the state of Africa’s industrialisation and the near non-existent entrepreneurial stock while pointing at the direction of youth entrepreneurship to rescue the continent. There are however caveats, that they must be mentored, highly educated, professional and highly motivated. They discuss in part the growing of this “Cheetah generation” who would need to set up new business models and practices. An incredible resource for entrepreneurs, policy makers and academics.
4. Delivering Happiness, a path to profit, passion and purpose by Tony Hsieh. Multiple entrepreneur rising to become CEO of a highly profitable company Zappos. This book is about creating happiness in the workplace and how it can make a difference. It’s about how to enable satisfied customers and a valued workforce and how combined, this can provide the pathway to profits and success. It talks about how to start a business and sustain it by making customer service the essence of the company and growing personal and professional lives of staff. This is about using happiness as a framework for achieving profit, passion and purpose. It’s an intriguing book and again speaks to humanity, self-esteem and life. Every young entrepreneur needs to understand that. happiness is critical to success where pressure and copycat syndrome so prevalent among their generation can only lead to despair and depression. Do what you enjoy and then make money from it. You do not have to be like everyone else.
5. Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Here the author Angela Duckworth argues that it’s not intelligence that makes for success but a blend of passion and perseverance. She takes the reader through several scenarios including the west point military academy to make her point. She also explains that no one on a team should feel that other people are more intelligent than them as we all bring something to the table. This is an excellent book for all those who struggle with the feeling that they are not as intelligent or as talented as their collaborators. A true blessing of a book.