There’s Something In You That The World Needs

Whilst fear has been ascribed as one of the barriers to business entry, another more subtle barrier is lack of self-assurance and self-belief.

The conviction may be there about a business, but the would-be CEO is waiting for certain and most definitive resources – whether that is finances, an investor, or even an office – before they put their talent to us. The self-assurance that even if I trip on this journey ( and even if I fall as I trip, not once, not twice and not even three times, I will seek to move to the next chapter of my professional and business life by attempting this opportunity) is lacking.

I am convinced that there is something in each and every one of us that the world needs. Our lives are not without purpose and our gifting and talents are also not without purpose. The purpose and the giftings serve to give us joy along the sometimes hardy road of business enterprise. The gifting, and the joy of working and using that gifting and passion, makes it easier for us, if not necessarily trouble-free, to stay along the path and secure your business dreams.

But if we do not service this purpose and the gifting, we short change not only ourselves, but the world at large. The entrepreneurial journey is not for everyone, and certainly not for the faint-hearted. However, if you are convicted of a business idea, but allow fear and paralysis to prevent you from moving it ahead into execution, this short changes you (for you will always wonder, ‘what if’) and also the potential beneficiaries and clients who would have enjoyed the service or product for which you would have been the CEO.

Almost two decades ago whilst on business travel to conflict ridden Sierra Leone, I had an experience that led to a social business enterprise idea. I was based in the capital, Freetown, during my stay and although civil war and the troubles were then predominantly in the provinces, Freetown housed a lot of internally displaced, walking wounded people. The anguish and the despair on the faces and in the war wounds of the beggars and unemployed that you saw day in and day out was tangible.

Looking out of my office window in Bathurst Street one day, tearful of the scene of able bodied yet unemployed men and women, as well as physically challenged men and women loitering around the street, the thought of came, and it was this – establish a Counseling and Vocational Training Centre in the capital city, and call it RESTORE. Restore unto people. Restore capability, restore hope, restore fortunes that had remained latent. The thought and the business name all came to me instantly and magically. I worked with the idea, developed a mini strategic plan and even shared it with a close friend. But that was as far as my execution went, and I did nothing with the plan.

10 years later, after many years of toeing and froing across the continent with my work, including Sierra Leone itself, I again returned to Freetown on a totally different project to experience an unbelievable moment. On the way to the hotel one evening as I and my team members left the project office and drove back to our hotel, on one of the main roads that we passed I saw a business signage that read, RESTORE -Counseling and Vocational Training Centre.

It was all very simple and all very painful. Someone else had been handed the assignment that I failed to execute. I was humbled. My lack of self-assurance of the dream had led to this, and I was humbled.

I don’t even think it was that I was afraid to execute at that time, I simply just thought myself unworthy of the idea and the dream – despite the fact that during those formative years in my career I worked with a lot of international development organizations and had a tremendous network of development practitioners whose support I could fall on. Yet all I could think of was mu unworthiness, my unsuitability for the work at hand?

But I am grateful that even as I thought I wasn’t worthy, someone else in that city was obedient to the same call. I am grateful that they took on an assignment that was also handed to them and they felt themselves worthy, perhaps even mandated, to execute an idea that was to restore hope and economic sustenance unto many.

Our lives are not without purpose and much of what appears as merely a transactional, commercial business idea may be that which will transform and benefit the lives of many. Our convictions of honour should drive us into action – but thank goodness that even if they do not, somebody else may be asked to deliver to that call. And yet that can be painful. I often wonder if the current RESTORE is being run how I documented to run it? I wonder how RESTORE is funded and if it is well funded. On my happy days I imagine they are well resourced. On the not-so-happy days I deem myself unworthy to wonder and ask such questions because of my lack of action.

There’s something in you that the world needs. Make it pop like pink champagne.