Smart Entrepreneur

Smart Entrepreneur

"We are not asking corporations to do something different from their normal business; we are asking them to do their normal business differently…"

Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, 2 September 2002

Smart Entrepreneur puts on the notice board the benefits resulting from integrated management of environmental, social and economic issues. It tells employees: "You can't manage what you don't measure." It introduces performance indicators that are easy to measure and evaluate.

If it were easy to become a millionaire there'd be more of them. And while there are no set guidelines on how to be a smart entrepreneur, there are certain characteristic qualities that are required to make a success of your business. You may already have these qualities are probably others you may need to develop. In short, you will need to be able to determine your weaknesses and think up ways to eliminate them by becoming stronger in those areas. If you have entrepreneurial skills then you will recognize a genuine opportunity when you come across one.

Being a Smart Entrepreneur, you want to work smarter and not harder to grow your business quickly. You realize that the best resources for entrepreneurs like you are Who You Know and What You Know.

Who You Know: You cannot succeed in business without the help of other people. You need to constantly leverage on:

Other People's Money

Other People's Experience

Other People's Ideas

Other People's Time

Other People's Work

Being smart, you need to constantly build your network to include people who can provide you with the above. It is important to not be selfish while building this network. Do not interact with the short term view of what they can do for you. Keep giving of yourself to them and they will reward you ten times over in return.

What You Know: Knowledge is Power. Your education did not stop when you graduated. You need to adopt a habit of life long learning if you want to stay smart. However, you do not need to know everything; you just need to know what resources for entrepreneurs you can access.

Make a habit of learning something new everyday and you will keep ahead of the competition. Take a look around at your business / friends circle. You will find even more advice and resources for entrepreneurs like you.

I have been Greatly Influenced by This Old Parable:

There was a Saint who had a vision about what it was like in Hell & Heaven.

In Hell he saw a huge table laden with food in the centre. Surrounding the table were starving people who all had very long forks attached to the ends of their arms. They could stab the food, but the forks were too long for them to put the food in their mouths. They were all screaming in frustration as they tried to eat the food that they longed for.

In Heaven, the saint saw the exact same table laden with food & people with the long forks at the ends of their arms. However, here the people were all smiling & enjoying the food. What they were doing was stabbing the food & putting it in EACH Other's mouths!

The moral of the story is that our heaven & hell is right here on earth, how much we want to help others & be helped in return is what makes the difference.