THINKING BEYOND THE BOX WITH GABBY Okonji

 

GABBY Okonji

THE MIND OF AN ENTREPRENUER

 

EVERY ENTREPRENUER NEEDS A MENTOR.

Many years ago after graduation from the university, I decided I wanted to work for myself and I had several business ideas I wanted to start but didn’t have the financial and material resources   to kick start it, so due to pressure from all every dimension of my life family,friends, classmate moving ahead and all now forced me into getting a job that was below what I would naturally have appraise myself for, eventually I settled into the job, working dedicatedly as though it were my business then suddenly after awhile the reality begins to done on you especially if you are achieving set organizational goals that RESPONSIBILITY BEGETS RESPONSIBILITY AND NOT RELAXATION as we would ordinarily believe. The more task you achieve the more responsibility rest on you. DON’T EVER THINK IT BECOMES MORE EASIER JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE MOVED FROM  FROM  SUBORDINATE TO SUPERVISIOR  rather the job becomes more demanding as  your manger who would previously have called your surpervisior for information and meeting would now be calling you even when you are not supposed to work like weekends or holidays. You find yourself closing later then your official closing hour to get a report ready and put things in place all for just a stipend increase from my previous pay and am answering a big name SUPERVISOR. Don’t get it wrong, work experience, coordination,control and documentations couldn’t best learned then in practically scenario.

However  after 2years, I had grow from just STOCK SUPERVISOR to holding HEAD MARKETING/ P.A to Vice chairman/MD and overseeing  5branches in Nigeria and over 100 staff with salary still well below $300 0r 50,000.00k naira and my office jumped naturally from 7am-11pm as opposed to 8.30am -5pm.

Late one day the big questions came, IS  THIS THE BIG DREAM? IS THIS HOW I INTEND TO GO ABOUT IT? IS IT WHAT I WANT OR WHAT PEOPLE WANT FOR ME?HOW DO I EFFECT THE CHANGE?  AND  ONE BIG ANSWER CAME AS MUCH AS I LOVED AND RESPECTED  MY BOSS I DIDN’T BELIEVE HE WAS A LEADER TO FOLLOW BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOUR MENTOR SHOULD BE SOMEONE WHO MEETS ALL YOUR NEEDS ( SPIRITUAL,EMOTIONAL,FINANCIAL,PHYSICAL,SOCIAL AND ALL) until that day when I said to myself, the amount of TIME,ENERGY,RESOURCE,DEDICATION you spent if thrown into your own business would have yielded great reward.hence I made up my mind to make my boss my business mentor so I  approached my boss and booked for some time with him, asking him to mentor me on becoming a successful entrepreneur and today many years I still call him for advise and support which he gladly offers.

As difficult as it to spell the word ENTERPRENUER, so also is it becoming an entrepreneur because it brings with it the burning desire or addiction for leaping head first into the uncertainity and the unkown.Infact in my many interactions with life-long entrepreneurs I discovered their  love for new challenges,and they mostly live their lives in a constant growing phase. In researching further, I penciled one major secret as to how these entrepreneurs achieve success and keep at it which i am about to share with you is entrepreneurs turn to is a mentor. Asking for advice and bouncing ideas off of others is essential to the success of an entrepreneur's journey. 

Recently, I attended book launch and read the inspiring of  life of  Chief (Dr) Chidi Anyaegbu Executive chairman of CHISCO TRANSPORT  GROUP (One Nigeria’s leading Transport and FOUR CONSECTIVE TIMES WINNER OF MERCEDEZ BENZ CUSTOMER AWARD.)in it Chief Cosmos Maduka CEO Cosharis (Motors) Group another BMW BEST CUSTOMER AWARD WINNER stated that while they were both apprentices working for their bosses shop by shop.”OUR RELATIONSHIP IS THAT OF MUTUAL RESPECT.WE WALUE WHAT WE HAVE IN COMMON:HARDWORK,ENTHUSIASM AND ZEAL FOR SUCCESS.WE ALL COME FROM A POOR BACKGROUND”.    

For me I would say I have being very blessed to have a variety of mentors over the years, and I can't imagine standing where I am if it wasn't for them. Despite all the challenges of starting and running a business, the biggest constant in my life is those mentors, and their advice, I may add here  it's important that you have different mentors for every area of your life that needs mentoring, as I have. These are the few types of mentors I have being able to carve out for myself and I believe you can benefit from it as the visionary or business owner even beyond to your personal life because  your business is an artificial human.

 WHO IS A MENTOR ?

WHO DO YOU MAKE YOUR MENTOR OR HOW DO CHOOSE YOUR MENTOR  ?           

1. I usually say DON’T GO TO WHERE YOU ARE TOLERATED GO TO WHERE YOU ARE CELEBRATED. Your number mentor should be someone (friend, family,colleague,spiritual leader,) who knows you from before your business started. no voice matters more than the one that knew you before you had a startup. They knew you when all this was just a dream, or when you didn't even know what a startup was. They can speak to your roots and ground you when you get lost in the startup haze.

For instance, the Chisco and Cosharis story these guys use to have their bath early by 4am. Before the dawn of the day. it would be a no hold barred between this two. These people would  you  how impressed they are but still remind you when to slow down and when to retrace your steps live the life I want, doing what I love. No entrepreneur should lose sight of that.

2. MAKE YOUR COMPETITOR OR YOUR ENEMY YOUR MENTOR

FEEDBACKS is one of the best ways to be able to address and justify very challenging question that posed by either an investor, prospecting customer or co-founders, team members, the press or others. It helps if you are good at talking to just about anyone especially your critics both the constructive and destructive critics. Fine tune your ability to take feedback and get good at turning it into positive results. There is no quicker way to do this than to push forward with a relationship that isn't particularly enjoyable or easy at first.

 3. PICKING A MENTOR WHO IS AT PAR WITH YOU

Having regular meetings with people who are in your similar phase of growth can lead to valuable relationships. I have a group like this even online(THINKING BEYOND THE BOX on facebook)you could like the page to join or Blackberry Group Pin 2a99d9dd, WHAT’S APP and mobile groups  and we push each other and question each other's decisions. We have been there when things fell through and when our big days happened. There is a confidence that can come with camaraderie like this. We understand what each of us is going through.

4. MAKE MENTORS OUT OF OTHERS IN DIFFERENT CARREERS FROM YOURS.

Seek out mentors who are mostly unlike yourself. Sometimes I sit with farmers or artisans and craftsmen understudying them. Afterwards I ask these questions  Do I know much about any of that? Not really. Do I know more now than I did before I met with them? Ofcourse yes .

Interactions like this has motivated me to take up new interest in farming especially in swallow rooted crops and it's humbling to see just how much you don't know. Life-long learning is critical to success in business, and particularly to those who have bought into sectors established on creativity.

5. A PERSON WHO IDENTIFIES THE ENTREPRENURIAL ABILITIES IN YOU EVEN BEFORE YOU KNOW.

For me this is the most important area of choosing a mentor because the mentor would be one who already knows you as entrepreneur and not in any other way. He or she is most often converse, create opportunities and references on your behalf,  the one to say "you got this and that " and "this is what you do and can do" , even when you are uncertain yourself or abilities. For such individual, impossible is not an option let alone imaging you ever taking the safe option or quitting. He or she would never tell you it's OK if you haven't given something your best effort, and will sing your praise at  every your accomplishments.

6. BE YOUR OWN MENTOR.

     After selecting from the above list of who should be my mentor and how I wanted to them be

I discovered some few areas of my life, business and relationship still needed mentoring and I looked around and no one else could fill in the void, I decided it was time for me to mentor myself  in the area of personal commitment, focus and accountability to myself first then to the business.  

7.PREPARE TO BE A MENTOR OR PREPARE FOR YOUR PROTÉGÉ

 I feel this relevant for an Entrepreneur to consider because most business success stories did not anticipate that in the near future, people (protégés) would want to understudy them and so resource materials, pictures, details that would aided in communicating would not be readily available. sometimes delaying and even making the mentor not look as impressive as he  suppose to be in the eyes of his protégé. However preparing to be a mentor helps you run and organize your business or life effectively.

 If you are not sure how to go about it or your business needs advisory on how to increase profitability or management contact me: call or send text  +2348075358763,07063685486,08185262926 email.: hazielconsulting@yahoo.com or gabbytila2g@yahoo.com

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