January 8, 2020January 8, 2020 afripreneur

THE PLACE OF SKILL IN BUSINESS

Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Marketing

Yesterday, I watched a TV documentary on basketball superstar, Michael Jordan. He amazed me with his sublime skills, swift movement on the ball, and the accuracy with which his shots entered into the net.

Indeed, we all point with pride to Michael Jordan as being a great basketball superstar, yet how many stop to consider what made him great?It is important to understand that much of Michael’s greatness came from the place of honing his skill. He developed and acquired his skills through training. Michael differed from other average players by training an average of eight hours every day and practising shooting 1,000 shots during such training sessions.

Unsurprisingly, he became (and he is still) a celebrated superstar and on the front pages of magazines, newspapers and on the screens of television networks.In reading the biography of the great legendary bestselling author Napoleon Hill, I discovered that in Hill’s quest to become a great writer, he devoted himself to writing thousands of words every day in sharpening his skill. As you may know, his classic,Think and Grow Rich is an all-time best-seller in its field, having sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and set the standard for today’s motivational thinking.

It is a true assertion that to every trade there is a required skill and the quality of one’s skill is what determines the quality of one’s output.In my conversation with most young people, they tell me what they need to enter into business is capital. Most of these friends moved heaven and earth to get the capital to invest but in the process failed and went bankrupt. Their problem was that they became overnight businessmen or women without education and experience.I have come to realize that you do not only need capital to do business but you also need to acquire business skills. Running a successful business requires skills; yes,you need the necessary skills in order to succeed.

To a large extent, many people fail to run successful businesses due to lack of business skills.Successful business leaders have business skills that made them who they are.They developed their expertise through training and personal development. These distinguished personalities invested heavily in themselves by taking advantage of seminars to build capacity, listening to tapes and acquiring relevant information from books, blogs and from other relevant materials and sources.

One lesson we can all learn from Michael Jordan, Napoleon Hill and other successful business leaders is that skill acquisition remains a vital necessity in the realms of running successful businesses. In that regard, young people must endeavor to equip themselves with requisite and concrete business skills before doing business.

Moreover, they must seek and strive to build and augment their acquired expertise and determination to push the boundaries of human progress, if they are to add their names to the scrolls of honoured and household business people who have left their abiding and indelible influences in the area of business accomplishment and achievement for which generations unborn will reflect on their fragrant success with boundless respect and endearing admiration.

By Charles Anyomi.
President, Africa Entrepreneur Conference