Keynote: Serial Entrepreneurship — Learning to succeed at the Hult Prize 2019
I felt very honored when Dr. Emeka from the International University of East Africa (Kampala, Uganda) asked me if I could give a keynote at the Hult Prize on the topic of serial entrepreneurship. Of course, I accepted and I was very happy to be able to speak to students from all corners of Africa.
About the Hult Prize
The Hult Prize was established in 2010 by Ahmad Ashkar and Bertil Hult and is an annual, year-long competition that crowd-sources ideas from MBA and college students after challenging them to solve a pressing social issue around topics such as food security, water access, energy, and education. The Hult family — founders of EF Education First — donates USD 1 million in seed capital to help the winning team launch a social enterprise.
The Prize is a partnership between Hult International Business School and the United Nations Foundation. Bill Clinton selects the challenge topic and announces the winner each September; he mentioned it in a 2012 TIME Magazine article about “the top 5 ideas that are changing the world for the better”.
Hult Prize Challenge 2019: Youth unemployment
Here’s what I’ve learned after more than 20+ years as a serial entrepreneur and my habits to success:
Habari, mimi ni Paul,
Hello, my name is Paul,
I believe that the time has come for me to give back to the community some of the things I learned from my experiences. In my past, I founded several companies. I had to give up companies as well. With each and every company I owned, I learned a lot so now I try to make sure that with the new companies I build I try something new. Of course, there were mistakes and failures in the past. Sometimes the team was wrong, sometimes the focus wasn’t clear. It’s often said that one should learn from people around you. In my opinion it is simply not enough as it can never be a substitution for creating your own experiences.
This is exactly what I want to do, I want to support you and I want everyone to have his own experiences.
0️⃣ Success — Define your own Success
- Define your own success story
- Define what makes you happy
- Define why you want to work
Some basic questions:
- Who wants to be an entrepreneur?
- Who wants to be rich?
- Who wants to be successful?
- What is the difference between being successful and being rich?
- Who wants to be happy?
What is your definition of success?
I know some of you would like to say money but that is not enough as there is something better than money.
Hint: When you are inspired by some great purpose, you will stay strong, you will never give up and the work won’t feel like work, it will become your passion.
1️⃣ Network — It is never early enough to start developing a network
Your network is more important than money, your network can help you to achieve your goals. In order to increase your chances and possibilities, it makes sense to gradually build your own network.
- Learn from people you admire
- Find mentors in your network
- Be a mentor in your network
- Learn to communicate with people
- Learn to inspire people
- Foster meaningful relationships
Hint: You can become successful simply by having the right people in your team and around you.
2️⃣ Why — Have a powerful and inspiring “Why”
You need to start with Why! Before you attempt to solve a problem, you need to find out why you are trying to solve exactly that problem and ponder if it’s the right one to solve.
It’s not that important what kind of a problem is in front of you, the important part is Why?
Who does what? Who acts?
What will happen?
When does it happen?
Where does it happen?
How does it happen?
All these questions don’t matter!
“Why” should be the point to start from!
There are many ways to solve all kinds of problems, but Why is more constant.
Hint: The Why doesn’t change so fast, sometimes it exists for a long time. If your company solves the Why and the company is closed and the problem comes back, then the company is indispensable. If the problem never comes again, then the enterprise has solved a problem sustainably which marks a very good concept.
3️⃣ Think backward — think visionary and in a long-term
Find things you like! Find things that make you happy!
Visions and long-term thinking are important for sustainability!
But how to find things you like and what makes you happy?
I’ll share with you a way to find it.
If you really want to know what you want to achieve in the long run (in 10, 20, 30 years), then you should think backward. What does it mean?
Hint: Write a speech you want to remain remembered for, a speech that should be given at your funeral. This exercise helps to think backward.
4️⃣ When it gets hard — stay focused and never, never give up
It always seems impossible until it’s done. They also say “it’s always darkest before the dawn”.
You need to stay tuned and work on your business, in order to achieve it is important that you stay on the way.
Be like a child: When I see children, how often they fall until they learn to walk.
Do they give up? No, never!
Hint: If your Why is inspiring and your vision is sustainable, you will never have to give up, you can simply change the How, just never ever give up!
5️⃣ Start — Think big, start small
It is always good to start small, so you can build a prototype, discover and improve potentials in just a few steps.
Even a company such as Tesla did not build its first electric car by themselves, but took an existing one and only invented the electric motor to build the prototype, to research and constantly improve the product.
Hint: Split your plan into small steps and mark important and critical elements, design a minimum viable product (MVP) and start with it instead of trying to think of all the smallest details.
6️⃣ Improve — Improve things and improve your self
How to improve things? I’ll give you a few things that help me.
First:
I’m gonna tell you a little secret about major companies. They’re methodical about how a cook handles a recipe.
And one of the best-known method sets is TRIZ or TIPS (the theory of inventive problem solving).
One extended Method: Sabotage Method!
Ask yourself: What do you need to do in order to destroy your business?
Answers: sleep longer, lie to customers, etc.
Now you need to ask yourself: What do I have to do right now?
You will see that there are things to improve.
Second:
There are three emotional state zones we’re in. Comfort zone, stretch zone and stress zone.
In the comfort zone: we feel safe and undisturbed, we feel comfortable, nobody disturbs us, we relax.
In the stretch-zone: we feel in a new environment, some things are new for us, we experience something new: new people, new environment, new impressions.
In the stress zone: if we exaggerate and have too much on the shoulders, we feel the stress that blocks any development.
The transitions and sizes of the zones vary from person to person. Here is an important point: we only learn in the stretch zone.
Hint: Use a toolset and leave your comfort zone. Only when you leave your comfort zone you can learn a lot faster and discover things that will help you with everything you do.
6️⃣ Learn to accept — have serenity
There are things you can’t change:
- you can’t change who you are
- you can’t change the past
- you can’t change that we all will die
- you can’t change people
When you want to change people, you need to change yourself.
You need to accept, that there are things you can’t change.
Hint: When you accept this and other things that you can’t change then only you can really learn, and have calmness and serenity in you.
7️⃣ Take action — even when it’s scary
Fear is just a feeling. Nothing else. Only a small feeling, one of a thousand others in our head.
If that little feeling stops you from enjoying your life and making the best of it, then you are weak.
The only thing we should be afraid of is when being old and looking back on our lives and realizing that we haven’t done what we wanted to realize in this life.
Hint: The only thing you should be afraid of is the sentence: “I wish I would…”
8️⃣ Motivate — you will be motivated
Motivation can be achieved very effectively through praise.
In order to grow as a person, it is important to be praised for success. Praise is a strength, praise is stability, praise is motivation, praise is the motor of action, praise is sustainability.
Hint: True praise comes only from the heart, everything else is no praise.
9️⃣ The best investment you can make — is you
Invest in yourself, don’t run to collect money, invest in you, invest in your team, invest in your education.
- Invest in knowledge.
- Investment in travel is an investment in yourself.
- Invest more time in your family — and you’ll understand yourself better.
It is the best investment that you can make. It is the best investment that I made.
Hint: Best investment, it’s always about you and your team!
🔟 Happiness comes from — giving
I believe the importance of sharing is often underestimated. If you’ve become successful, give something back.
Share these pieces of information! give a clap.
Hint: Much more happiness comes from giving than from receiving!
Conclusion
I don’t expect you to agree with me on every point.
- I did not talk about failures, I call them learnings.
- I did not talk about discipline, because when you will have your own set of methods and tools that you use every day in your work, it is your discipline enough.
If my speech inspired you even a bit, then I consider my goal achieved.
It’s been a pleasure talking to you.
Asante sana!
Thank you very much!
TL;DR
Success.
Network.
Dream big.
Start small.
Plan ahead.
Don’t give up.
Think backward.
Stay focused.
Invest in yourself.
Avoid time wasters.
Take calculated risks.
Write down your goals.
Do work that matters to you.
Motivate people around you.
Learn from people you admire.
Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
Take action, even when it’s scary.
Have a powerful and inspiring “why”.
Get up early.
Watch less TV.
Read more books.
Live on less than you make.
Make your health a priority.
Resources
Here are some resources that have shaped this keynote and especially me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ
https://www.amazon.com/TRIZ-Inventive-Research-Academic-Institutions/dp/331985951X
https://www.amazon.com/Start-Why-Leaders-Inspire-Everyone/dp/1591846447
https://www.amazon.com/Deadline-Novel-About-Project-Management/dp/0932633390
https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459
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