01/07/2026
Something I learnt very early in my life about the (real) life of an entrepreneur
__The key to success is often the ability to adapt and upskill yourself... again and again!
When I was growing up in Zambia, we had a close family friend who had a great job at a mining company. He was very successful and enjoyed all the perks of being a senior manager at a prestigious international company.
Our own lives as entrepreneurs seemed scrappy compared to his family's; they had real holidays and even travelled abroad.
Then one day he passed by our house and told us he was going into business. His idea was brilliant, and being an experienced executive, he set about rolling it out with methodical efficiency.
There was one challenge he faced as the business grew: some of his employees were dishonest and stole from him. He could not get on top of this problem, and it distressed him almost to depression. His visits to our house became almost like therapy sessions.
One day he came to see us and shouted from the gate, "I have sold everything and I'm going to find myself a good job again. I don't need this stress, no matter how much they pay me!"
That whole saga distressed me a lot, and for quite some time I just wanted to go to university, get into a good profession, and avoid the hassle and stress of running a business. For a while, it seemed that was what I was destined to do.
But something my mother said to me at the time stayed with me: "I don't really find what I do stressful, but I would be really stressed working in one of these big companies, or even the government!"
This seemed strange to me at first. Why was she never stressed about the lack of job security?
The answer is simple. She had trained herself, rather like an athlete who plays soccer every day trains different muscles to one who plays basketball.
Being an entrepreneur requires you to train a different set of muscles to someone in professional employment, or even politics. These different paths have different cadence and even different rewards. If you are planning to move from one to the other, it's important to understand this.
If that guy had stuck it out a few more years, he might have taken the pain and developed those different muscles.
If you are now working as a professional and planning to launch a business as an entrepreneur, have the humility to appreciate that there's more to it than simply having a great idea. It requires skills you will have to acquire that you would not learn from working in a business owned by someone else.
Identifying those skills, and equipping yourself with them, may save you a lot of heartache and improve your chances of success, especially when you face complex challenges that put your mindset to the test.
If you know what I'm talking about, share your own experience in the comments. What skills do you think I am talking about? Others may learn from it. You may also want to share your thoughts in Afterthought 2.
Image credit: Andrew Gudkov, Okavango Delta, Botswana.
*Adapted sub-title quote from Anthony Brandt
