How I met Theodore Roosevelt in 2017

Entrepreneurship is anything but a cozy ride, and like I have learnt in recent times from Peter Thiel, it is a journey from zero to one. At a glance, this sounds awkward but you tend to appreciate his perspective more when you realize and accept that most of us at starting point are nowhere close to zero.

This journey however is amazingly rewarding and fulfilling in many ways, ways you can hardly explain without being overly poetic. Thus, the speech below by Theodore Roosevelt, which is apparently popular among divergent thinkers, espouses my intentions better so here goes:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

What I draw from this is that greatness is available and in abundant supply, but some are within a touching distance and some need a rocket as powerful as the Saturn V to reach it. Whatever situation you find yourself, you have to be ready to make sacrifices that are proportionate to how far you are from your dreams. To do this, you’ve got to strive to override your cognitive inertia because research has shown that the human mind is limited in its ability to connect dots into the future. Your mind will never plunge you into something it doesn’t know — overcome that!

Like Rapelang Rabana, Chief Digital Officer of BCX preaches, the next step in this journey is to develop an authentic connection with your environment and with its problems and available resources. It means that your capacity for innovation is not limited to the things you studied in school. The data you gather from the aforementioned connection provides your mind with a wealth of information and the chance to apply the knowledge acquired in school to a million more scenarios. This is a major catalyst for developing relevant and sustainable solutions.

Last but not least, sustaining a venture should hinge on creating shared value, creating sustainable income channels, and creating profits with and for customers. A socially responsible organization will involuntarily prioritize purpose over profits, networks over hierarchies and empowering over controlling.

As we enter a new year, let us use our unique perspective of Africa to propel our pursuit of meaningful and contextually relevant innovation that will solve the continent’s problems that we have lived. Men and women who are bold to enter this arena will forever be remembered.

Happy Holidays!

Kojo Nkrumah Quainoo,

Sikasem Africa

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