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Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) needs strong pillars that sustains it. It is within such a revolution that our present is lived and our future is shaped. Among the strong pillars are able, passionate and aggressive human beings who should not only use common sense, but at least go beyond that which is common.
The proponents of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) didn’t go by the book, which is the most common way of doing things.
By the way, the fourth industrial revolution speaks into artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), genetic engineering, quantum computing and many other unimagined philosophies
What is common sense?
The word common sense is derived from a Latin word sensus communis whose Greek equivalence is koine aesthesis. This means ordinary understanding which distinguishes the sane from those insane. Without common sense you are considered a lunatic. In other words, common sense is the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way.
If you understand the makeup of an entrepreneur, you will agree with me that they go beyond common sense. This doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate that rudimentary concept, but their level of comprehending things far surpasses that which is ordinary and common to the majority.
When you see danger, often times an entrepreneur sees a business opportunity. This is purely uncommon to the ordinary thinker. Just the same way the entrepreneur differs from a mere business person, so is their uncommon narrative in terms of their conceptualisation of things.
If you think and perceive like anyone else, you will also become like everyone else. Entrepreneurs are in a class of their own. Their innovative approach to business makes them a unique specie that is noteworthy.
The uncommon in entrepreneurs
Every innovation and ingenuity comes as a result of challenging that which is common. Once you conform to certain spaces, ideas, philosophies, cultures and groupings, you ordinarily behaves and ultimately become like them.
You might read the same concept or advise on marketing with an entrepreneurially oriented someone, the results that comes after implementation are always different. Entrepreneurs are known for always wanting to add their own finger prints on everything. They create a unique value proposition in all that they do.
Entrepreneurs create real value to the spaces they find themselves operating in and beyond. The way they think and act is outstanding.
Their primary focus is on offering unique solutions to the challenges people face while the most common thing is to cry looking up to parents, counsellors, member of parliament and even the national president for your daily bread. If you don’t do it for yourself, no one is going to come and do what you were rightfully supposed to do for yourself.
While others prefer solving current socio economic challenges, entrepreneurs solves both current and emergent challenges. They have eyes that pierce the current state of affairs into the future.
Entrepreneurs understand that the future you want to live in is created today. They are always ahead of time. What common sense tells you to do has also been told to everyone else and the end results are obvious and predicted while on the other end entrepreneurs are unpredictable beings. This is where their uniqueness comes from. They are always creating new solutions in the form of embracing business opportunities.
Migrate to the other
end of common sense
Common sense tells people to see the world as it is and yet we must see it as it should be since what we call current is eventually going to be the past and we transition into a future whose future we haven’t prepared enough for. Does this mean we have to neglect the present for the future? No. We must be very effective in the present for what we do now affects our tomorrow.
This is a wakeup call for those who then choose to be immersed in current without visualising what they will become the next day. We don’t live for today, but for tomorrow also.
What was in the mind of the Wright brothers before they made and flew the first plane in 1903. Could it be called common sense? Common sense could have told them that it is impossible and risky, but they jumped over to the other end of common sense into the uncommon and now we are flying places.
Indians, Capt. Anand J. Bodas in particular, the retired principal of a pilot training facility argued to the contrary at the Indian Science Congress in Mumbai that the world’s first plane was invented by the Hindu sage Maharishi Bharadwaj and had 40 small engines.
May be he just wanted to get the Indians credited for the invention but he spoke strongly into it. This can though be subject to verification and must not be taken as a fact. But the point is clear, entrepreneurs have ka that which is not in an ordinary person.
Imagine the amount of data and information your computers are processing today. How could we have been doing it had it not been the astonishing works of the English mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage who is credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer?
The current socio economic challenges we are facing cannot be solved through common sense, we need to challenge the known into the unknown. Continuing on the current trajectory has made us only to dream about a land flowing with milk and honey. We need to take visible steps as the business community to renew our minds and appreciate that which we already have as resource enough to transform our narrative.
The business that you are running can go international if you choose to innovate around common sense and be a shoulder above the rest.
Conclusion
Common sense makes you common and that is not desirable anymore. You need to become unpredictable and be able to solve challenges that the majority have not seen. Entrepreneurs remain relevant in every sphere they find themselves in because they would have managed to transcend common sense.
Determination
Determined to engage, inspire and transform generations in the areas of entrepreneurship and personal development.
The writer, Dr Kudzanai Vere is an entrepreneur, author of four books, business and personal development, multiple award winning entrepreneurship and business coach. Dr Vere has coached more than 5 000 entrepreneurs globally and continues to impact people in the areas of entrepreneurship, business and personal development. He is the founder & CEO of Kudfort, Transformational Mindset Institute and the Institute of Entrepreneurs Zimbabwe. Contact Dr Kudzanai Vere for transformational entrepreneurship and business coaching and training on [email protected] or +263 719 592232.
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