Just Do It! Yourself - Andile Khumalo

As a young, successful businessman and Chief Investment Officer of MSG Afrika Investment Holdings, it’s always a privilege to get some insight into what makes Andile Khumalo tick. A topic of discussion that has been prevalent at Grolsch Swingtop Circle gatherings this year is that entrepreneurs must possess passion, inspiration and innovation to truly succeed, and not get into business simply with the goal of making heaps of cash. In his latest blog post, Swingtop Circle member Andile expands on this idea and gives us further insight…
Because of my busy weeks, whenever I come across an interesting headline on my Twitter timeline, I favourite it and read it later. Last week I saw a headline that read “Can Entrepreneurs Be Made” by Anthony K. Tjan (@AnthonyTjan) in the Harvard Business Review (@HarvardBiz).
The article discusses the big question of whether entrepreneurs are born or made. Do they carry a genetic formula that destines them for success or can anyone, with the correct interventions, be an entrepreneur. As you know I have covered this question before, albeit from one Prof Muhammad Yunus’ point of view, in my blog instalment Every Single Human Being Is A Potential Entrepreneur.

But what really caught my eye in Tjan’s article were two points he made at the end of his article. They resonated with me deeply.

“Entrepreneurs start from that place we call Heart, inner passion and desire that is not easily malleable. We are what we feel.”

I am sure you have heard many entrepreneurs say don’t start a business with the sole objective of ‘making money’. Others have gone further to say “Money is not Everything”. Ever noticed how that always sounds better when it’s said by someone who HAS money, yet when you hear it you can’t help but think “Are you out of your mind. Why else would I start a business if my ultimate objective is NOT to make money? That’s why it’s called a business right?! And besides money may not buy you everything, but it certainly buys MOST things”

My view is ‘yes and no’. Let me explain.

Tjan talks about what drives entrepreneurs, or what makes true entrepreneurs in the context of whether they are born or made. Just like ‘anybody can father a child but not all are fathers’, anyone can make money but not all are entrepreneurs.

Just like making a child, making money really isn’t that hard. Buy something for R100, and sell it R120. There! You have made money. That doesn’t make you an entrepreneur, though.

Entrepreneurs take risks for greater reasons than making money. It’s that Heart. That desire to achieve something of greatness. For some greatness is writing and publishing African language books for children and for others it’s inventing the Internet.

So please, don’t choose the life of entrepreneurship if all you want to do is make money. Choose it for more than that. Create something sustainable. Something that changes human behaviours. Something that changes lives. Something that makes the world a better place for you, those you love and your community at large. That, requires “heart, and inner passion”.

However, money is important. Life is a lot easier WITH money than WITHOUT money. An entrepreneur WITHOUT money spells doom for the entrepreneur, the enterprise and those supporting the entrepreneur.

As one veteran entrepreneur once told me many years ago, “Andile, you must make sure your business can feed you my boy. You see if the stomach is empty, all your mental strength is driven by the empty stomach. So effectively, you start thinking with your stomach. And that’s the beginning of the end for you. You see stomachs weren’t made for thinking. We have brains for that. Ok?”.

I remember nodding slowly and hoping that all of this will make sense to me one day. It did.

Make no mistake money is important, in fact its critical. It supports the lifestyle you want to live. It supports those that support you as an entrepreneur and for some, it serves as a scorecard!

So by all means, please make money, make tons of it! But don’t become an entrepreneur just for the money. Find that inner passion and desire, first. You are going to need it.
Read the rest of this article on Andile Khumalo’s blog here: http://www.andilekhumalo.blogspot.com