Ambition is key to success

Last year on Facebook, in one of my pieces I said money accounts for less than 15 per cent of what’s needed to grow a business and a few guys asked me to elaborate. Why would people inherit lots of money or property and still die poor if money is the most aspect in doing business?

Why would some people steal billions and billions from either government or others and still die poor when they are no longer able to steal? There are many other factors that will make one who has inherited resources available to them or a poor guy get out of abject poverty into relative wealth or even serious riches.

Below are some factors I have observed and researched about as well over the many years of my life:
Desperation
However much money one has as capital, without being desperate about growth of a business, the money means nothing. You will either lose it or will just stay stagnant. Desperation drives one from being a sweeper to an office messenger to a tour guide to being a fairly respectable businessman.

Time
Time invested properly is worth a fortune and time wasted can be devastating. Yes time invested well can perform miracles. Because we are not desperate enough we waste time and time truly means nothing here. If you want to grow a business, you must respect time and must always reflect on what you have done in a week, a month and in a year.

Determination
A mother who has a baby to feed will not waste time and if she is the only provider for that baby she will be determined to work hard and not waste time due to desperation. And because of that she will carry a basket of bananas to vend on the street due to determination.

Courage
A person with Shs100,000 plus courage has a good future ahead of him and this is because human beings can do incredible stuff no matter what happens if they have courage. Sometimes desperation gives a person incredible courage.

Ambition
A mother with a baby to feed due to desperation vends bananas. After selling a few baskets she develops an ambition which drives her to have a stall along the roadside. She later transforms the stall into a shop and eventually a supermarket. One must be ambitious enough to actually grow a business. Ambition helps one save, invest for both short term and long term.

Faith
Faith is an investment that cannot be matched. Money can’t touch it. Imagine you having Shs1b without faith. You would be poor. You wouldn’t be rich at all. Faith gives you courage to face any storm and it is a great driver in taking risk.

Ingenuity
One must put their brain to work. A lot of people put about a tenth of their brainpower to work which is wrong. Every human being has the potential to come up with the most intriguing things to do and ingenuity itelf is worth a fortunate.

Emotional intelligence
Heart and soul is like the unseen miracle that moves people to make decisions, to act and to respond. Emotional intelligence is not money because it is more valuable.

Personality
One has got to learn to be comfortable. Whether they are riding on a boda boda, eating in Kafunda or riding in the latest Land Cruiser. You need to have plenty of personality. Move with ease, charisma, sophistication and humility.

The writer is an investment expert and ceo at Great Lake Safaris and Uganda Lodges
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