All copyright laws apply kindly adhere strictly too them (c) 2016

This is a guide book to assist you save time, energy and avoid (Business) heart break.
Make sure you read in patiently.

NOTE TO THE READER: In war it is always wise to learn from the loser and the winner to have a better grasp of what it entails to go to war. Other writers would want to elude their readers that all wars are won which is a lie. This is teach How to avoid failing/losing and What the next step should be in case you do fail/lose.

I would first take some time to introduce myself the Author.

The Media hype of entrepreneurship started it all, the dream of been my own Boss like Mark of Facebook or Bill of Microsoft. But I was advised not to drop out of university as this is a certificate driven country.
At 18, I started out with a passion for self-sufficiency to not be reliant on my parents for any form of money before I finished school/university or before I became 22 { considering this present educational system in Nigeria one may not know when they will graduate so which ever came first}.
7 years later am broke, in an undefined relationship, still dependent on my parents for food, shelter and am yet to graduate from University as it will be my 2nd Bonus{Extra} semester by this April
So how did it happen like this?
They say the early bird gets the worm right?

That's you. Not every body ends up a failure.

WRONG! LIFE IS NOT A FORMULA
They also say the patient Dog eats the fattest bone.
I performed well on my WAEC with all A’s and 3 B’s hoping that this will get me a good job to save some money as I awaited admission.
Right out of secondary school I tried to get a good paying job like N15k salary and above. All what was offered were cleaner jobs, teaching jobs required I had another degree. The reason they gave was I had no experience nor did I have skill even though I had an impressive WAEC result, there is nothing they can do with it.
Little did I know this statement and the shame/fear of rejections will reshape my thinking for the next 5 years.
I later on got a job as a Bar Man; with a manageable salary and long working hours from 7am to 11pm without weekend breaks.
WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD; THE WORLD WE ARE NEITHER TOLD NOR TAUGHT ABOUT IN SCHOOL.

Am not a failure, just learn from my mistakes so you can avoid them too

fernandoc:
That's you. Not every body ends up a failure.

Following......................

So when admission list came out I resumed school and set out to discover this thing called skill and experience for the next 5 years.



These are the lessons learnt so far and they are similar to the same lessons famous entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Bill gates and others follow.
I will state each with an example.
Failure to avoid by these lessons will seriously hamper your chances of running a successful venture.

(I initially did not follow some of these principles because I didn't know about them, so until several of my ventures continued failing I took a long break to do This research on running a successful start up in this present day)

PART ONE

Start Up Lesson: FOCUS

The most Important of all these lessons is one. Learn to FOCUS. It is easier to acknowledge than is it to practice.

What is FOCUS?
(F)ollows (o)ne (c)ourse (u)ntil (s)uccess. That's Focus!

Reference:
When Bill Gates first met Warren Buffett, their host at dinner, Gates’ mother, asked everyone around the table to identify what they believed was the single most important factor in their success through life. Gates and Buffett gave the same one-word answer: “Focus.” (See more in The Snowball by Alice Schroeder).

But Remeber Life does not have a formula

There is a dark side to focus.

Reference
Kodak was relentlessly focused on a single objective—and it almost killed them. They found themselves caught off guard by the disruptive innovation of digital cameras. Kodak was so focused on optimizing for traditional film capture and processing that they did not see or accept the transformation in their industry.

It may not be what you jack-of-all-trades want to hear but according to Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, focus is the most important factor to success.

Both men agree that relentlessly focusing on one specific passion or problem leads to achievement. And that means pushing aside other ideas and interests until a goal is reached, according to TIME.

Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder writes, "He ruled out paying attention to almost anything but business—art, literature, science, travel, architecture—so that he could focus on his passion."

Steve Jobs knew this too. He took Apple from a company with hundreds of products to one with a simple 10 products when he returned to the company in 1998.

More Reference :

Gates' focus was illustrated in Walter Isaacson's new book The Innovators, as well as Gates' fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen:

One trait that differentiated the two was focus. Allen's mind would flit between many ideas and passions, but Gates was a serial obsessor.

"Where I was curious to study everything in sight, Bill would focus on one task at a time with total discipline," said Allen. "You could see it when he programmed. He would sit with a marker clenched in his mouth, tapping his feet and rocking; impervious to distraction."


Now today even though both Men founded Microsoft one; Bill has been able to Use the tool called focus to Reach unimaginable success in his ventures whereas the other; Allen is relatively unknown.

Conclusion for Part one on FOCUS

"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple "
- Steve Jobs, Apple CEO & cofounder

As a young budding entrepreneur you will or are constantly plagued by numerous ideas especially like in a country like our own Nigeria.

To stick out from the crowd, you need to do something better than everyone else. There's no standard definition of what "better" is though. What gets companies and people into trouble is when they try and do too much, leading to mediocrity.
MEDIOCRITY is the worst enemy of a young entrepreneur who is trying to disrupt an existing company/industry;( like Elon did with Tesla ensuring it was the best car ever made in the auto industry) unless they are starting a new industry then they have enough leg room to evolve from mediocrity (like Bill and Allen did with Microsoft. by building the first software company)

Hooked to this thread. Thanks for the ideas shared so far.

Thank you for your insightful response

Akposb:
Hooked to this thread. Thanks for the ideas shared so far.

Thank you for your supportive response

ariyebaba:
Following......................

How I failed to Acknowledge FOCUS: I did 3 things all in the same timeline.

As I said my first startup, started here on Nairaland, check my history. I sold and marketed cars to people online. I would see a car on the road; discuss with the owner and place an online ad of the car on Nairaland and negotiate with prospective buyers filtering the serious buyers from the jokers. At the same time I had restructured my work as a Barman to work on only weekends while I learnt photography during the week. Problem was i faced some challenges with the Car sales business, and at the first signs of obstacles I naively abandoned this business and started another one shortly after gaining admission.
But what if i remained focus and determined to bridge the gap between a seller in kogi and a buyer in lagos. Sometimes I wonder where I would be if I knew this simple principle of FOCUS 7 years ago

Dear people, Entrepreneurship is a War, its a battle field. A lot of people go into thinking its a music video or something. Then when they do not achieve the results the set for; you begin to hear them blame the federal government,other parastatal, friends and even family members both extended and non extended including that notorious old woman in their grandparents village.
Even I for sometime was one of such persons.

Do not get fooled by academics and government officials that encourage it as a goldmine easy to tap into. If it was such why were they still working in government

Reference:
Elon Musk of Paypal, Tesla and SpaceX is famous for saying
“Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass[/b] and staring into the [b]abyss of death. …So if that sounds appealing…”

Therefore ensure you have the right mindset before embarking on this fascinating journey.

following

Now we have learnt about Focus and the consequences of the absence of it

END OF PART ONE

Am I failure ?, just learn from my mistakes so you can avoid them too

fernandoc:
That's you. Not every body ends up a failure.

Vocabulary for this text:
Failure :He is a lesson learner as he sees failures as nothing but teachers. E.g Thomas Edison and the light bulb

Failure is a person that tried to achieve a desired goal but was stopped because he/she were unable to due to finances or other unforeseen challenges unaware of at the begin of the first try, but continues on the journey undeterred.

E.g Aliko Dangote failed in his 2010 bid to buy arsenal, but as last year he re-strategised and still reiterates his interest in the club and has formed a plan to improve on his bid by investing in the development of an oil refinery.

So do see that Failures are actually the Successful people.

Many people read motivational books about how a successful author made it.
But later they find themselves unable to implement does attributes the author described why?

The answer is ‘‘ Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose’’– Bill Gates

Learn from the people that tried and failed they have a clearer picture of reality.

Gates has argued that success can actually cloud our vision, causing us to become over-confident and unprepared for the new challenges that the future holds.
If more books and media were written and created by failures respectively the success rate of the readers that read such a book will be much higher. For they will be over prepared and cautious of failing rather than underprepared and ignorant to failing at the challenge ahead.