Enterprise lessons from a shepherd boy – 4

The best strategies are not necessarily the most sophisticated. To significantly succeed, understand that ‘popular’ is not synonymous with ‘effective’. If the most successful businesses were run on the mazy and hazy theories of the typical MBA class, the most successful people in enterprise would be eggheads. In 2014, I was at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas to deliver a paper at an academic conference. For the workshop sessions, I joined the group on Entrepreneurship. I listened ad nauseam to many academic presentations with fancy “business” terminologies but NOTHING that I could use as a field entrepreneur! When I asked the question on how all the charts, graphs and terminologies could be applied in the everyday world, none of them was able to give a meaningful answer! Innovation, not sophistication, is what drives sustainable enterprise. David’s weapon was just a sling. Simple, but in the circumstance, it was an innovation that practically broke the limiting box of conventional warfare at the time.

When Goliath saw David approaching him with only a sling and a shepherd’s bag, he felt scandalized. If this ruddy lad was the best that Israel could offer, the battle was a no-contest walkover for the Philistines! Sometimes, in enterprise, it is a good thing for the competitor to underestimate you. The defunct Standard Trust Bank was started by a team of young and adventurous business Turks led by Tony Elumelu. It was not expected to be one of Nigeria’s biggest banks. It didn’t have so many branches. Many people would have thought that in the event of a market squeeze, it would be acquired by any of the behemoths like UBA, Union, First Bank, Intercontinental, etc. But not a few people were shocked to see that when the Central Bank gave the directive that banks should recapitalize, Standard Trust Bank, a seeming underdog, actually bought controlling stake in United Bank for Africa, which even at that time was one of the largest financial institutions in Nigeria! Talk about a Lilliputian swallowing a giant leviathan! Even though it shed the toga of STB and donned the UBA identity because of its brand leverage, the control lever was firmly in the hands of the owners of STB!

Every great enterprise is a product of great imagination brought into realization. The first step towards achieving any imagined goal is to make declarations about it. Words are powerful and carry creative capacity. More than we care to know, our words design and create our reality. They help to give expression to the future we have crafted in pictures in our imagination. Even God could not create the world without words. “Let there be…” was not an expression of a wish. It was a declaration of intent with the background of not taking ‘No’ for an answer! David not only had the mind of killing Goliath, he used words to paint a vivid picture of what he would do with Goliath. In response to Goliath’s threat to feed his flesh to the birds of the air and beasts of the field, he said, “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel“

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As soon as David made the declaration, he ran towards the giant. Our imagination is a potent force in our success journey. But words and purposeful pursuit must follow it for it to become meaningful. It is not just enough to make declarations of the future you desire. Follow the declaration. Pursuit is the real proof of desire. We have seen far too many glib talkers who have the lingo but lack the gusto of pursuit. No one succeeds on the basis of what he said he would do. Success stories are written around actions taken that result in achievement, not wishful thinking. You cannot conquer what you are unwilling to confront. The average person finds it convenient to avoid problems in the delude notion that a problem ignored long would just disappear. The future or later is the favourite pigeon-hole of the mediocre. Mountains don’t become plains because we refuse to climb them. Challenges you refuse to confront today will simply position themselves in your future to haunt you. Saul avoided Goliath. The giant became his albatross. David confronted the same Goliath and made the giant his trophy. Want some remarkable victories? Take on some giants!

In a recent edition of this column which I titled “Mind The Gap”, I made it clear that every armour has a chink. Every Goliath has that open space in his forehead that makes him vulnerable to a discerning foe. No matter how intimidating the competition is, there is always a weak point that it has been too careless to address. That is the weakest link in its chain of operations. It could be a corporate governance issue, the absence of strong leadership, a debt overhang, loosely coordinated processes or something as simple as becoming so big that it begins to take the market and the customer for granted. Whatever it is, look for it. If they ever come after you, aim your own shots at that chink in the armour and dig in your heels.

It is a waste of time committing the direction of your life to those who have no value for your destination. Precious time given to people who refuse see what you see is actually a waste. If they could, they probably would have done it before you. When David’s brothers scolded him for even thinking of confronting Goliath, David simply turned away from them and consulted those who could give him the information that he required. Seeking counsel on the way forward from those who have been defeated by a problem is like asking the man who cannot afford a hundred Naira taxi fare what you need to do to be as rich as Bill Gates!

On a final note, the Source of your inspiration will supply the fuel for your passion and motivation. Motivation is only activated when there is a strong motive. Whatever or whoever inspires your motivation is the one capable of sustaining it. Real champions never joke with their spiritual essence. What motivates great achievers is beyond superficial brain or brawn. It is from a deeper Source. We don’t like to admit it, but it is the God-factor!

Goliath cursed David in the name of his idols thus shifting the realm of battle to the supernatural. Not every battle you fight has a natural source. David understood that right from the onset. He responded to Goliath accordingly, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel”

If a rustic shepherd boy did it, so can you!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!