By
Winston Muleba Jr.
I have come to realize that most of us Zambian youths have the courage
to take calculated risks, to face the unknown if necessary, to be free from
anxiety and hesitation in difficulties and to be able to withstand the
pressures of life with inner balance and peace of mind with faith in oneself
and hope for tomorrow. Most youths have goals, plans and dream wonderful dreams
about their future. But all this comes to naught, if do not have vision and
passion to carry the plans forward. The reality of life is that, prosperity is
not something which one can inherit, but something which one can create out of
their own consciousness, through efforts, determination and will to succeed
against odds. This basically addresses the fact that a person may inherit great
riches but he may remain poor in his outlook and attitude. Frankly, it doesn't
really matter "who" has the vision as long as someone is willing to
stick their neck out and declare the vision.
A visionary youth is someone who can make sense out of the wealth of
ideas, and weave together a plan for implementation that will make a difference
in the world. Steve Jobs, for example, probably got millions of ideas from his
friends, but he was able to focus on a few of these into initiatives that show
real innovation. Similarly, as much as we admire clarity of entrepreneurial
vision, it seems important to recognize that in most cases, such a vision
doesn’t emerge fully-formed one day from the entrepreneur’s head, but rather,
evolves over a period of time, following a period of exploration and poking
around.
Passion basically being an intense emotion that compels action. When
we feel passionate about our vision for the future it provides us with an
unequaled source of energy. It enables us to survive setbacks and to persevere
in the face of challenges and uncertainties. In passion we know ourselves to be
fully alive and are profoundly grateful for it. Passion is communicated through
clarity, intensity, commitment and authenticity, regardless of style.
Your success, your achievements, your
happiness, your goals, your friendships come from you not from your
circumstances, unless you want to give up your control to extrinsic factors and
place more emphasis on the world that exists outside you rather than the world
that exists within you. If you start early with definite aims and goals, you
have better chances of seeing yourself leading a better life than if you start
rather late in life. It does not mean one cannot achieve success later in life. Among other Zambian entrepreneurs, who started with
definite aims and goals are the Likes of Monica Musonda, who passionately
pursued her vision with passion; therefore, aspiring entrepreneurs would do
well to recognize that both passion and vision evolve over time. Monica
Musonda, a Zambian based business woman who was mentored by Aliko Dangote.
Narrates the key things she learned from Aliko Dangote, of which I feel most
youths in Zambia would learn from her experience and probably consider her as a
role model. She had a successful 15 year career in corporate finance. She
worked with one of Africa’s richest men, Aliko Dangote, as director of legal
and corporate affairs at Dangote Group, where she led a project to build a
cement plant in Zambia. Drawing from the experience and lessons acquired from
working with Dangote in Nigeria, Musonda moved back home to Zambia to set up
Java Foods. The firm manufactures the eeZee brand of instant noodles. She
qualified as a lawyer years ago and went on to work as a corporate lawyer,
working in private practice and in-house for 15 years. Her dream was to be a
partner in a pan-African law firm”. She moved to Nigeria to work for Aliko
Dangote in 2008 and everything changed for her. Her experience of working for
Dangote opened her eyes to business, to different opportunities that our African
continent offers and to a new thinking. What inspired her most about Nigeria
was the entrepreneurial spirit – the fact that so many young people were taking
the leap and working for themselves. They were not afraid to risk everything
for what they believe in. One thing that she noticed here in Zambia is that the
economy was still dominated by foreign companies despite the opening up of the
market. So with the encouragement of her mentor and former boss Dangote, she
moved back to Zambia to set up Java Foods with the intention of taking
advantage of the surplus wheat flour and processing it into instant noodles and
pasta.
The serious and most important advice she posed for other
entrepreneurs in Zambia and Africa as whole was to have a vision and passion.
Be courageous, focused, disciplined and lastly, persistence. Furthermore,
Working with a visionary is always hard work. She pointed out that her former
boss never stopped working, which meant they never stopped working. On the flip
side, Dangote emphasized the importance of maintaining humility and focus,
being driven and working hard and not being afraid to take calculated risks.
His motto was “nothing is impossible”. Her future plans are to start
distributing the Southern Africa market with “eeZee Instant Noodles”. As Zambia
is both in COMESA and SADC, her intentions are for Java Foods to distribute
eeZee and other food products in East and Southern Africa. Her goal is for
eeZee to become East and Southern Africa’s leading quick meal option in the
next five years.
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