Austin Okere, Founder and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, the Ausso Leadership Academy (ALA), has charged entrepreneurs and business professional to ensure that their business visions are driven and sustained by the “3 Powers of success” (3Ws).
These, he said are; Way power (speaking to Aptitude), Will power (speaking to Attitude) and Wait power (speaking to patience).
He made this known while speaking with the delegates of the Global Shapers Community, Lagos Hub (an initiative of the World Economic Forum) at a Meet the Leader (MTL) Session hosted at the ALA Entrepreneurs’ Hub in Lagos.
According to him, “The 3Ws are the secrets that will keep every entrepreneur going”. He added that “These principles that I have called the 3Ws have been my guiding mantra through my over 25 years of running one of Africa’s largest technology companies, CWG Plc.”
He explained the 3Ws thus:
“These three powers include the Way power, which is the competence you possess to run your business. As a business leader, you must constantly learn, unlearn and re-learn. This is how you will glean the critical knowledge you need to run to run the enterprise”.
“Many people typically start a business, create solutions then go about looking for the problems. And when people don’t find buyers, they become disappointed. You first ought to be finding out peoples’ problems and pain points and then proceed to create solutions that ameliorate the pain. Following from there, you go and acquire the appropriate competencies to solve these problems.”
The Will power, according to Mr Okere is “the resolve to keep going when everyone is saying you should give up. Without commitment, you will not start, and without consistency, you will not complete”.
“Sometimes people close to you will advise you to dump your venture and seek a proper job. But, what should keep you going at such times is your passion. It is the passion of a footballer that makes him complain when he is benched, despite the fact that he will still receive his pay at the end of the day. Your will power makes you go the extra mile, while your passion makes you persist in your venture while waiting for payday.” He explained.
“Most businesses fail because the proprietors abandon them as soon as they face challenges because it is not yielding as much as they want or quickly enough. After you have put so much effort into your business, you need to patiently wait for the benefits that will accrue from it.”
This is the essence of the third power; the Wait power, which takes you eventually to the light at the end of a dark tunnel.” He concluded.
Speaking on how entrepreneurs and business professionals can leverage mentoring and learning to improve their capacity to maximize results, Mr Okere asked them to explore the opportunities that the ALA affords.
According to him, he had set up the Ausso Leadership Academy to provide an opportunity for young entrepreneurs and business leaders to get the opportunity to learn from Champions who have walked the path ahead and can point out the pitfalls to avoid.
“My intention is to provide the coming generation with the platform to get the sort of mentoring and business support that I would have wished someone gave me when I was setting out”, he added.
Mr Okere pointed that ALA, which will be celebrating her 2nd anniversary in April 2020, has impacted over 2,000 business leaders and entrepreneurs through direct mentoring sessions leveraging over 200 champions of business, and helped over a dozen companies craft growth enabling strategies through her Bespoke Corporate Impact series. ALA had also impacted over 60,000 people indirectly through her BusinessInsightsWithAO series, through which over 100 Social Capital and Knowledge videos have been shared on her social media platforms.
At the end of the session, the group presented Mr Okere an Honourary Award for his role in building Nigerian entrepreneurs. In his acceptance response, Mr Okere reiterated his belief that “a candle losses nothing by lighting other candles”.
The Global Shapers Community is a network of Hubs developed and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievements, and their drive to make a contribution to their communities. The Global Shapers Community is an initiative of the World Economic Forum.
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