I don't know what your motivation is for wanting to start a business, but whatever it is, the success of such business depends on you. How do you take feedback? Do you only accept positive feedback? Are you stubborn and persistent? Do you take every feedback from other successful entrepreneurs as gospel?

It's not uncommon for prospective business owners, or even business owners, to ask around for advice. We ask family, friends, colleagues, and at times, those who've excelled in such areas. We are always happy when they tell us what we want to hear - that it is a very wonderful idea. Family, friends, colleagues will always give you that positive feedback. They don't want to hurt our feelings. This in itself is not bad; what is bad is that it does not open our eyes on time to the harsh realities of starting and running a business. I read in one of the monthly editions of INC. magazine how a businessman proposed we went about treating feed back from our "loved ones". He proposed simply asking whoever tells you your business idea is wonderful to commit to buying or subscribing to whatever business you want to start. Once their money is now involved, the real truth starts coming out. Don't ask them if they will buy; ask them to buy now! Let them commit their money! Some people give you positive feedback because they don't want to hurt your feelings, but in reality and unknown to them, they end up hurting your life. If you start and fail at a business, it hurts like hell. It will take greater courage for you to start anything again.

When we expand our circle of advisers to included strangers (through market surveys) or by soliciting for such here on Nairaland, we can get some pretty nasty feedback. Is this bad? NO. I love this kind of feedback because they get you to think more about your business. You shouldn't take the feedback personal, though some people would want you to.....they want to hurt you for whatever reason. Try to analyze and work out all the issues they raised, not for their sake, but for yours. Note that I said TRY because you cannot satisfy every person on earth.

So now that you've got honest opinions about your business, what do the "Big Boys", venture capitalists, investors say? I remember reading in INC or ENTREPRENEUR about a very big and popular Silicon Valley VC who passed on investing in Facebook at the initial stage because he felt it wasn't a worthwhile venture. He thought nobody would use Facebook. In fact, the whole concept made him laugh. I don't think this was the only person that felt Facebook was not going to be successful. I also guess many would've told Mark that. If you were in Mark's shoes, what would you have done after getting such feedback? Fold up or continue minding your business?

In my former life, I would choose to forget the idea and look for something else. However, with what i have experienced so far in the business world, I will always choose minding and pursuing my business irrespective of what anyone says. I take some of the feedback and work it knowing fully well that I cannot satisfied everyone. No matter how successful Facebook and Nairaland are, there are still some people who are not on them, and this does not detract from their value. Someone made this statement (I can't remember who): You'd only know by trying.

For those that watch Dragons Den and/or Shart Tank, you'll notice that there will be some business pitches that one or two Dragons will dismiss as making no business sense, but the other Dragons will fight to fund. What does this tell you? That people are different. What makes sense to one person, may not make sense to the next person. So don't feel bad is someone dismisses your business idea; you have about 6 billion other people to think about. The popular saying "One man's meat is another's poison" comes to mind. There is hardly a business that sells everyone. No car company can sell everyone. No social media can sell everyone. Not everybody would want to come from or live in the USA.

As a businessman (I'm not sexist; I use this term to refer to anyone involved in business, whether male or female), you have to learn not to quit especially once you've started. Always see things to the very end. This does not mean that your business will become successful if you don't quit. It only ensures that you give your all to your business. If you always have it at the back of your mind that if you hit a rough patch , or if you get a bad review/feedback from the "Big Boys" you'll quit, then it would be hard for you to put in your best. Always believe in your business. What we can achieve by just believing will amaze us. So, don't ask whether the idea will work, always ask "what if it does work?" I ran into that advise either on Techcrunch or some other tech blog. I've forgotten who said it, but it's a very good piece of advice. One of my pet project I've refused to give up is SmallPocketBook.com, a directory of Nigerian online businesses (forums, blogs, shopping sites, etc). Someone was asking me the other day why I was still operating the site in spite of low patronage. I told him the concept was wonderful, irrespective of what anyone said, and that it was just a matter of time before it became popular. This should be your spirit too. Never take NO for answer.

At times, we are advised not to go into a particular venture because the market is crowded. If what pushed me into this venture was not because people are making lots of money from this segment, then I normally ignore this advice. I'm not saying I go into business with the hope of not making money. What I'm saying is: would I enjoy playing football at a professional level or do I want to play professional football because Ronaldo and Messi make millions from the game? I try not to put the cart before the horse. The idea comes first, then the analysis of the market/segment. You'll have greater motivation to stick to the business longer compared to if it was only money that was your motivator. The concept itself should keep you captivated. You win in two ways. I don't know how many of you read Techcabal.com? Before Techcabal, you could say we had other tech blogs like Techloy.com, Ogbongeblog, Bits.ng (formerly Otekbits) which is also owned by theguys at Techcabal, etc. To give you more perspective, Techloy has won many awards as one of the best tech blogs in Africa. However, did the Techcabal guys say "we have lots of tech blogs in Nigeria, so let's just forget about setting up another tech blog" Nope. There went ahead and setup one of the best tech blogs in Nigeria. Personally, I think the blog is the best tech blog in Nigeria. Anyone remember Skype, BBM, then Whatsapp, then all the others including WeChat, SnapChat, Viper, etc. They are all successful.

Always remember that some times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them......Steve Jobs. So it is perfectly normal for you to create the market for your product. It is a bit harder though.

Some good quotes to get you going:

1) Do not ask "Will this idea work?" instead ask "What if it does work?"...................forgotten the name of the person who said it
2) You'd only know by trying.................forgotten who said it
3) People don't know what they want until you show it to them.............Steve jobs
4) The way you look at the problem is the problem.........Albert Einstein

Take your destiny in your hands. See you at the top!

Duetime

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