Growth Mindset

A growth mind-set, that which allows us to grow and see opportunities everywhere is pivotal to our success. As a people we are meant to grow, desire to learn and not remain stagnant. We mainly grow according to our desire and exposure. One of the reasons why my business could not grow at the rate I anticipated was because of me, I was not growing, and I became a hindrance to the growth of my business. Sometimes it was due to personal and emotional attachments to my organization that affected the growth. When my mental capacity grew, my business began to grow.

I remember one day when a business mentor was trying to highlight some truths and wisdom to me, and I could not properly perceive the message. The mentor was speaking from a good place of heart and meant well but I was emotional about the business, and I failed to grasp the lessons. It took me time to understand and implement those lessons. My mind wasn’t ready and open to appreciate the wisdom at that time.?

As I became more exposed and enlightened, I realized that my mentor was right, and it was unfortunate that I had to take a long road to grasping it. The mind must continuously be renewed and be open to learning new things. The business environment is not stagnant but versatile and one must always be pragmatic to remain relevant.?

There is often that notion that you write the vision down and make it plain, the interesting thing for me is that after you map out your vision, you must then work backwards and do things that will feed into your end goal i.e.: your vision. The vision remains something to be achieved within given timelines. Success is no accident. It is planned hard work and smart work, perseverance, sacrifice and most of all, love, and passion for what you are doing or learning to do.

When you align purpose, vision and growth mind-sets in your entrepreneurial journey, and factor in “The Power of Yet”, it leaves room for continuous personal growth and in turn business growth.? ‘Yet’ puts a fixed mind-set statement into a growth mind-set context of learning over time. Yet is a little word with potentially big powers of motivation. This is the power of “not yet according” to Carol S. Dweck. Not yet gives confidence, different perspective and a bigger picture and empowers the mind-set. The mind-set will direct the habit and attitude.?? If you don’t have it figured out yet, keep at it. One day it will come together.

Entrepreneurs embrace challenges and their problem-solving technique eventually grows. They cannot get stuck. The process of going through different challenges, dealing with them, and overcoming them builds some sort of capacity through the stretching and confronting the challenges.? In my case, whenever I face a challenge, I sit down, reflect on it, and unpack it. Eventually I work out a solution to that challenge, by chance the tenacity to face obstacles also grows. Once you overcome a challenge, you become a master over it.? After years of being stretched and facing different challenges, you grow and mature enough to face obstacles, big and small. It then becomes more like a training and equipping of some sort. You become a victor not a victim after overcoming.

Entrepreneurs see efforts as paths to mastery, learn from criticism, find lessons and inspiration in the success of others and as a result, they achieve ever-higher levels of achievement for themselves.? The mind-set must be empowered continuously and sees more opportunities in every situation. The mind is a powerful tool, fill it with positive thoughts and your life will flourish. What you think, you shall become.?

A growth mind-set means you believe your skills are not static, and you can evolve, learn, and grow. It gives you a path into the future and can be an upward learning curve if tapped into. With guidance and an open mind, people will continue their learning trajectories and grow in every circumstance. As human beings, we always must develop and improve ourselves. Learning is a continuous cycle. We become more relevant and needed when we are holistically empowered.?

One would wonder where I am going with this! Well, I believe that we are called to something or some sort of purpose that we must run and win in our lifetime and for some it is easy to identify and resonate with it and for some, it is not. Imagine if we all knew our purposes in our lifetime, the impact and relevance we would bring.? If you are already living your purpose, that is good and if not, ‘yet’ is motivation enough to begin pursuing your purpose. Purpose leaves you fulfilled and complete as alluded to earlier, loneliness is the absence of purpose. If you find yourself lonely, you are not busy and utilizing your time well. I encourage you to become productively busy. Redeem and account for your time.

My conviction and belief system has been my anchor over the years. I know that I can do all things and that all things are possible. I am fully convinced that the 'violent’ shall take it by force in this world. The race is not for the slow but for PUSHERS, people who are willing to defy the odds and are able to stand up to their convictions at all costs. Become an accomplished against all odds. Forget all the reasons why it won’t work and believe one reason why it will.?

Once one identifies with their purpose, it begins to push them to see the great seed manifesting that is deposited in each one of us. That great seed must be identified and harnessed and developed for fruition.

It is amazing how things that frustrate us the most can ultimately become breakthroughs for us if we allow ourselves to see the lessons beyond the frustration. Have you ever realized that some of the greatest breakthroughs are derived from places of deepest frustration and when they were able to dig deep within and process it, they were able to birth something not only for themselves but something that positively transformed many in the process. I believe human beings have the power to overcome almost anything. The fact that it bothers something inside you, makes you the solution giver to that thing. It shows that you know better than what you are seeing or experiencing and can therefore improve it, act on it and you will be amazed at how you can transform yourself and many others around you.

One of my favorite stories is that of Grameen Bank, which illustrates how analysis of unmet needs can lead to a promising new idea. It illustrates how we as a people must understand that we are part of the change we want to see, that our daily efforts and sacrifices can ultimately add on to some greater impact we desire to see and experience. There is definitely a bigger need for thorough needs analysis that empowers an entrepreneur or social entrepreneur with evidence to implement solutions to community ills.

?It is important for entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs to understand markets gaps and community needs so that all efforts are integrated. Needs analysis normally helps in identifying required knowledge and community gaps, it helps to prepare and identify areas that need prioritizing and the urgent needs that must be addressed.? I remember one time I took a solution to a community because I felt that was what the community needed. Instead that exercise, as much as it trained me in every sense to put it together, became futile.

The needs analysis then matches the community gaps or needs because they are tailor made for that particular problem.?? Few would deny the need to address poverty in the desperately poor rural villages of Bangladesh and other impoverished communities. In his search for ideas that might respond to this need, economics professor Muhammed Yunus and his students spent significant time in these villages. They found that many women generated income for their families by operating small businesses, but these women could not get credit on affordable terms to develop and expand their operations, limiting their income potential.

This is so relatable to me on so many levels as it’s difficult to secure funding without collateral and most women do not have collateral. I have had some projects put on standby due to lack of funding. At the same time, I am confident that I can repay a loan if I secure one. To most funders, your word is not enough. They consider viability of the business and collateral; hence many projects or businesses are stagnating because of that even though they have the potential to scale-up and do better.

?Thus, while investigating the broad need to reduce poverty, Yunus through the Grameen Bank, identified a more specific need for access to affordable credit, especially for women. Based on his analysis and understanding of this need, he generated the idea to create a bank that would serve this market, using an innovative approach of peer-group lending.

Though many traditionalists in Bangladesh objected to his focus on the economic empowerment of women, Yunus had confidence that he would be able to persuade a sufficient number of others, both in and out of Bangladesh, that he was responding to a legitimate need. It is important to pursue legitimate needs that need addressing, it saves time, resources and one from frustrations.

Thus, a promising and ultimately very successful idea was born out of researching an unmet need. While it is important to ground new venture ideas in a plausible diagnosis of social needs, there is a danger of over-emphasizing the negative. Yunus pursued a genuine and legitimate need; he pursued his conviction to solving a societal problem of economic empowerment for women.

Some argue that the social sector concentrates too much on needs and that better ideas emerge out of a focus on assets. North-western University’s John McKnight worries that emphasizing needs can lead us to see people and communities as “deficient.” He contrasts the concept of a ‘neighborhood needs map’ that focuses on problems such as unemployment, gangs, illiteracy, crime, child abuse, and homelessness with a ‘neighborhood assets map,’ that replaces the above problems with local businesses, community groups, schools, police departments, health centers, available real estate, and more.

Balance of both worlds of pursuing the needs and the assets is an ideal solution. The two ultimately feeds into each other. Social enterprises are on the frontline of communities: meeting basic needs, connecting people to resources, advocating for policy change, and providing programs government and the private sector cannot accomplish.

?The latter presents the community in a new light and may inspire creative new ideas that would not be visible if social entrepreneurs looked at needs alone. For instance, in researching the Bangladeshi villages, Yunus and his students found assets, such as the entrepreneurial spirit of village women, which helped them generate the core idea behind Grameen Bank.

While the idea generation process should not be constrained by the resources readily available, understanding the tangible and intangible assets in a community can lead to the development of promising ideas. Though both McKnight and Yunus are primarily concerned with neighborhood or village development, the concept of asset mapping can be applied more broadly to fields of activity, communities of practice, and even to specific organizations.

For instance, Community Wealth Ventures (CWV) is a consulting firm that specializes in helping non-profits find new sources of earned income. CWV encourages organizations “to think about their assets in a new way - as valuable commodities that can be leveraged to create wealth.”

Challenges or frustrations or societal ills become a training ground that fuels individuals to confront community ills and has a propensity to greatness if thoroughly analyzed and dealt with. One must not perceive challenges from a victim mentality but as a victor. When you go through a challenge and overcome, you become a master over it.? Yunus addressed the challenges the community faced, and a bank was formed.? It is the hard days, the times that challenge you to your very core, that determine who you are and in turn improves the communities we live in.? In the instance of Yunus, going through the challenge of lack of support for women’s small businesses in India led to a formation of a bank through thorough research and community engagement.

Your perception over a matter becomes justified and authenticated after overcoming a challenge. The many challenges our communities face are opportunities waiting to be exploited by citizens and ultimately becoming solutions and revenue streams. I challenge us to be intentional in solving problems in our communities.

Purpose will push you even when they are no profits being realized. Once there is a deep conviction and a clearly defined need, purpose amplifies and gives direction. Purpose is something deeper that adds to fulfilment and is not necessarily satisfied by money but lives being improved. The beauty with purpose is that once one starts to pursue it, it attracts resources towards itself. Things begin to align. I always encourage myself and other people that, the most important thing in life is to just begin rather than contemplating on it.

As you begin to pursue, some energy is building towards your purpose and that decision. As you feel it, begin to work around it. Most times you will realize many are mistakes but that is how you begin to perfect them and have a tried and tested model that can begin to develop and sustain itself.

Your purpose is also tied to someone else and that begins to form a chain and sequence that builds a huge force of greatness. We all feed into each other; our efforts don’t grow in isolation.? Collaborations and strategic synergies are now the new competition. Our purposes feed into each other. If you do not do your part, something will be amiss in this puzzle that could potentially feed into the next person’s purpose. So, when you arise to who you are called to become against all odds, you become an answered prayer for someone, a bouncing board for others to arise to theirs and before we know it, we have this amazing testimony of joined efforts that culminate into something substantive.

For instance, Yunus was relevant and that brought meaningful change to impoverished communities he was working with. He needed researchers to assist him to empower women. All efforts combined to bring about a positive change to the community. Our breakthroughs bring about ripples of opportunities for us and communities around us. We begin to light each other’s candles and grow from it.

We carry inside of us a seed of greatness; we can triumph over any obstacle and succeed. It is in our nature to overcome. Be determined and purposed to transform yourself and your community regardless of difficulties. We are all a part of a master plan.?? You begin to encourage yourself that you will arise and shine, that what was heading towards bad has a way of turning into good. It eventually turns out for good in due time.

Be full of conviction and nurture the right thoughts as you embark on the journey of purpose and impacting yourself and communities. Let your heart be sure and resolute that you will win. We remain the people we are waiting for to bring about the change we want to see.

I am trying to encourage everyone that their part matters, especially in these uncertain times we find ourselves in. You arising to your purpose plays such an important part to the puzzle we face in our lifetime. Do not doubt it, trust the process and be lead, obey, and remember that we all await our manifestation.

Do that which resonates with your spirit and heart. There is that thing that burns within you which yearns to come out and be released. That thing that leaves you anxious and feeling empty because it has not been done and rightly met. That very thing that keeps you passionate and alive. Dare to step up, step out and pursue it.

Your background cannot disqualify you, neither should your age, race, color, financial status, or anything for that matter. Throughout history either in the Bible or stories of people we know, or some we have encountered, great people come from the strangest of backgrounds and have sailed through all sorts of storms to make it. The storms or challenges shape the character in individuals. There is a solution to every challenge we face, one just must look deep and within, process it and come out victorious.

In every challenge lies a purpose, once you overcome it, a purpose is birthed. So, when we encounter challenges, we know it is a chance to be promoted to something greater and more meaningful. A challenge you face is a set-up for greatness.? Human beings are created most amazingly, they can overcome anything. What frustrates you, will develop you if you tap into it. Use grace to help you overcome any challenge. No matter how big a challenge is, someone somewhere has also gone through it and has overcome.?