PERSPECTIVE
The Open Trade Secret That Is Hidden
By Joseph Lunani
No great achievement is made alone . You need People . Hellen Keller sums it as “ Alone we can do so little , together we can do so much ”. As an entrepreneur this should be the motivation , to always create room for those aligned to your cause . Those that can help carry the business burdens as you trod along in the different phases of the business cycle .
The product can be great , the process flawless but you need people and its only people that can grow businesses into greatness . You need knowledge specific people ; devoted and loyal people ; but more so teachable , simple and believing people .
Noah got a vision command to build the Ark . A vessel never built before , of atrocious design and gigantic measurements . Without paperwork or a drawing , he excitedly shared this with his wife then his children . I can imagine the wows and nodding of the wife and kids as he retold to them of his God commanded vision . He perhaps called on his neighbors and friends and shared the same . They could have listened keenly then laughed it off .
Maybe his best friend came by his house later that day in the evening and offered advice as he confirmed that Noah was not mad . His friend may have suggested that he documents his vision and tries to pitch with the ship manufacturers and bankers of those days . Here I can picture him translating his vision into a design proposal with detailed layout plans .
He may have made a power point on stone tablets and went round pitching . The more he pitched the louder people laughed . And in mockery they may have feigned courtesy and suggested the next group as those that may be interested .
After days of presentations , mockery and increasing rejections , he may have retired to his home . Tired , dejected and doubtful of his own sanity . The wife may have nursed him back to his jovial self . As the simple play and jokes of the children rejuvenated his spirit . Right there he had
The product can be great , the process flawless but you need people and its only people that can grow businesses into greatness . You need knowledge specific people ; devoted and loyal people ; but more so teachable , simple and believing people . his team and this may have sprung to his naked eyes in a flash .
I imagine Noah calling his household into a meeting and once again impressed his vision to them . This time with the many tablets he had made , the vision was clearer . They then could have encouraged him and put together a Gannt chart showing their critical path . Maybe they did a prototype and from their input Noah learnt their strengths and weaknesses .
Most certainly he congratulated , encouraged , coached and prayed for them . Noah then assigned roles to each one of them and rallied in the supplies required . Some suppliers may have been mean to him , increasing prices so as to discourage him and milk more profits from him . Other suppliers perhaps were sorry for him and gave him huge discounts because of the project ’ s economies of scale .
Business can be likened to Noah ’ s story . Our ideas sometimes are bizarre and tend to disrupt the norm . Some ideas are too simplistic that they seem plausible and wanting . Other ideas that improve on existing ones sometimes meet the question ; “ if the other is working , why replace it ?” or “ why do you want to reinvent the wheel ?”. Such examples of ideas are often laughed at and we may get discouraged . Yet there will always be a few people who readily buy into our ideas and are ready to journey with us .
Instagram ’ s story is as refreshing as it can get . Kevin Systrom had an idea , a bizarre idea - an improvement that would cut across platforms . Before it was renamed to
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