Many would-be entrepreneurs erroneously think they cannot start and manage a successful business without having enough money to fall back on in the face of challenges.
Samuel Adebiyi, the pioneer director of enterprise promotions at Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in his book “Starting a business without money,” explains that there are many potential businesses that do not see the light of the day in Nigeria because of over-reliance on having enough money before starting.
According to Adebiyi, “Finance, no doubt, is needed to weather the storm of bad times and to consolidate opportunities in good times. Without money, one cannot procure the inputs – men and materials needed for the business operations or comply with many regulatory specifications.
“Be that as it may, the truth must also be told that just like there are many business ideas that could not be birthed for lack of funds, there are many small business initiatives that have been suffocated to death by finance; albeit the conditions associated with the finance.”
Napoleon Hill in his book, “Think and Grow Rich” unveils the importance of having a desire in life when he asked a question thus; how bad do you want it?
Of course, all of us have different goals and dreams for ourselves, but have you ever asked yourself how bad do I want it?
It might seem superfluous at first, but it is only when we really, really want something, that we will do whatever is necessary to achieve it. Therefore, in a hypothesis, overall scheme, desire is the one stage that links thoughts and actions together.
Hill argues that the principle of desire is the first and most important of all that one needs to become successful in life. We all wish to become wealthy but a wish is not enough. We must have a burning desire to attain our goals and realise our dreams. It is critical for one to make the realisation of their dreams an obsession.
It is very expedient one recognises that the burning desire within oneself must be kept motivated. Think of the biggest achievement of your life, the only way you were able to achieve it is to make it an obsession that you live daily, combined with a burning desire inside of you.
Hill gives the famous example of Thomas Edison who failed 10,000 times to invent the electric light bulb. Edison had a burning desire to achieve his invention and it kept him trying again after every failure to achieve his vision.
Desire keeps an ideal person excited and willing to continue with his/her dream, urging him/her to do what it takes to make it a reality. Nothing happens without establishing a deep desire inside of you.
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Like one school of thought opines, “The battle of life is won and lost first in the mind,” and that is where desire comes. Your first quest should be to understand yourself and what you desire to accomplish,
A story was told of Chief Vincent Anaechi Obianodo, the owner of ‘The Young Shall Grow Motors,’ who started life as a vulcanizer and a bus conductor in Kano State.
The young Obianodo spent his early life in his hometown at Umueze village of Neni in Anambra State, and when he discovered that he had nothing to show or rely on, he moved to Kano in search of greener pastures and a better life.
He left his hometown because of the desire or the drive to make a success in life. While in Kano he learned how to fix punctured tyres (vulcanizing) and became perfect at it hence he had a lot of customers queuing up to fix tyres for their bicycles, motorcycles, and vehicles.
In 1972, he had gathered some money to buy his first bus. After acquiring maximum knowledge of how the transportation business works, he then decided to stop working as a bus conductor and acquired a mini-bus to ply Enugu to the Onitsha route.
As his bus business continue to expand, in 1973 he relocated his business operations from Onitsha to Lagos and ventured into a more developed transport business, which he started with two locally built Mercedes Benz 911 buses.
After seven years of operating in Lagos, the number of buses he owned increased from 2 to 40 alongside his transport business. He also engaged in the delivery of goods which also boosted the success of his business.
In 1978, he decided to expand his business further by opening up a new interstate route, plying from Lagos to Onitsha to Owerri. Besides, he bought a Mercedes Benz 0362 luxury bus for this purpose. This expansion gained his business more fame and within six years, his number of buses grew to 150.
Owing to the exponential growth of his business, Obianodo incorporated his business in 1984 so he could fully cover every possible part of Nigeria, as a leading inter-state luxury bus company.
Today, The Young Shall Grow Motors is one of the largest luxury bus companies in Nigeria with more than 500 buses that ply almost every route in Nigeria as well as other West African countries like Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, and the Benin Republic.
Anyone can achieve anything if he or she is not just smart, but also take advantage of opportunities whenever such is presented. According to Thomas Merton, the key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.
Always remember that the road to success is not straight. There are stops and starts, turns, and detours. Anyone who says they have got the exact path to success for you is probably lying. Just desire to be the best you can be!
