“It is not knowing what to do, it is doing what you know.” —Anthony Robbins

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” —Frederick Douglass

“To survive in business, you must strengthen your business connections and networks. Most importantly, you must pray for a big break. Big breaks are very vital to entrepreneurial survival. I can hardly point to any successful entrepreneur that wasn’t thrust upwards by a big breakthrough. Bill Gates had his big break when he negotiated and signed a deal with IBM, Mike Adenuga had his big break when he received a drilling licence, Oprah Winfrey had hers when she started Harpo Studios Productions and acquired the rights to her shows ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’. Li Ka Shing had his during the riot period as he began buying properties at rock bottom prices.” —Mike Adenuga

Do not recreate the wheel; every time we want to create something new, spend an ample time to see if it has already been created. All your time should not be spent trying to reinvent the wheel. In ideas generation, it is not the way to go, because at the end, ninety per cent of what you are spending all your time and energy doing now, can be done by someone else. Spend your time, energy and resources where it is most valuable. Innovative ideas can be generated from already existing products, services or strategies applying visual skills. Valuable time should be invested in repackaging, re-branding and creatively reintroducing and sustaining the new version, as it replaces the competing product or fill the perceived gap in the market.

The art of making money or improving and positively impacting on resources is the heart of any entrepreneurial endeavour. Surviving, therefore, would require developing the skills and character required to function in this capacity. Any entrepreneur that will survive must first learn to follow his instincts and discover his calling and gifting. Opportunity identification abilities are also paramount, as well as creativity and economic/political mapping capacities. There are skill sets required for effectiveness and survival in entrepreneurship.

Visual thinking is the foundation for being creative and solving some of the most complex problems. The key role of visual thinking in innovation is explained using five visual thinking based skills that every disruptive innovator must master:

Number one is to Observe: Put your phone down and actually pay attention to what’s going on around you. It takes good observation skills of the world around you with fresh emphatic eyes to come up with any new ideas. Always document whatever you observe and review at intervals.

Secondly, once you have a look around, review your journal and ask questions. Questions allow for space in the brain. If you are not curious about something, then there is nowhere for your observations to go. As an innovator, you should ask questions to nail down the problems you are trying to solve.

Association is the third core visual skill and it is to combine and regurgitate ideas to produce new and creative deep insights. Ideas combined results in new insights. Someone said that innovations come from places where half baked ideas can bump up against other half baked ideas and together create something even better. Combining, meditating and regurgitating on observations is a way to cultivate seeds of ideas that are grown to become disruptive innovations.

Experimentation is a visual skill that explains how through visualisation, your ideas are made tangible and concrete. If you cannot draw or visualise your ideas in a simple and plain way, then you haven’t gotten a good grasp of what you are talking about. Sketching your ideas is a way of prototyping that allows you to test out its core essence, in a low risk platform, long before spending more time and resources on it.

The fifth visual skill essential for any disruptive innovator is Networking: Get access to people in diverse universes to expand your opportunities and deepen your areas of expertise. What are some of the big areas missing in your knowledge banks, what are your skills gap for that entrepreneurial practice. Often we end up having a deep network of people like us, instead of a diverse one that will help to expose our limitations and the platform for build-up.

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” —Maria Robinson

“Fitting in is a short-term strategy, Standing out pays off in the long run.” —Seth Godi.

“In the confrontation between the river and the rock, the river always wins... not by strength, but by perseverance.” —Louis Agassiz

The following is also key in surviving as an entrepreneur:

Embracing the system — Get incredibly passionate about your work, you won’t get anywhere if you are not genuinely excited about the work you are involved in. Be excited about that cause.

You have to acknowledge the long hours of work that entrepreneurship demands and accept it. Set expectations with loved ones, to know what to expect.

Take initiative and be ready to work in a challenging environment.

Always fill in the blank space and be fluid as small business’ priorities and projects can change overnight. You have to become flexible and communicate openly and often to avoid confusion and to be sure that the entire team is at the same page and working at the same goal. It’s better to over communicate than let something vital slip off the cracks.

Strive for balance between work, the family and recreation, know when to take a breather; go and recharge your batteries and come back ready to tackle the latest challenges head on with fresh perspectives.

“However difficult life may seem, there’s always something you can do and succeed.” —Stephen Hawking

We shall be ending here to continue in other editions our discussions on entrepreneurial skills and the importance to wealth and job creation, and the impact to overall economic prosperity. Remain blessed.

•Lawrence Nwaodu is a small business expert and enterprise consultant, trained in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with an MBA in Entrepreneurship from The Management School, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, and MSc in Finance and Financial Management Services from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Netherlands. Mr. Nwaodu is the Lead Consultant at IDEAS Exchange Consulting, Lagos. He can be reached via nwaodu.lawrence@hotmail.co.uk (07066375847).

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