When four years ago I decided to quit my job and venture into
launching my own business Rise Media, it seems almost impossible and stupid! Everything
seems to be against and yet with me. One of the biggest lessons of all I learned
during those days is never to undermine small beginnings. Things always end up
falling into places. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
You do not need a big office space, you do not need 30 employees or millions
before you start. Your motivation, your passion and your desire to do what you
strongly believe you are mean to do should be your drive. Live the rest to God,
He will lead you there.
You first before starting, clearly identify who you want to
be or become at the end of the process. Some of the times, we want the things
we want for the wrong reasons. Your desire and motivation should focus on
resolving the need of others. Inspire, motivate, encourage, resolve, help, you
name them... Your dream should be a solution to a problem some where.
I will never forget the illustration my mentor used back in
the day while discussing about my project... she told me: dreams/ projects are
like beautiful balloon flying up in the air, you will need a rope to pull the balloon
toward you. Ropes are your strategies. I have to admit I did not quite understand
it back then.
Let us break it down. Now refer to your dream as a beautiful
balloon up in the sky. How you will make it come true is the rope you will use
to pull it toward yourself. Start by the
smallest things you need to do. There is always a simple first step to make. In
my case, my first step was to come back to Douala. Take a minute to think about
what your first step could be. Learning a new language? A new skill? Going back
to school? Changing town or friends? It could be as simple as that. It is
important to pray for directions at this level.
The next step will be to identify everything you need in
terms of resources. A Car? A house? An office space? A daily running cost. Identify
them all, and get a budget. Do not be afraid of figures. They are just there to
serve as a road map.
Out of what you need, what do you have? List them all. Now
set your priorities aside. Priorities are the things without which u cannot
start. In my case, it was a laptop. Simple as that.
When you know what you want, it is much easier to get
there....
To be continued...
