Visionary – Josh OKELLO

This is the Power of Determination #success #leadership

Posted on May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 by Josh

By Josh Okello

To be determined is to have a relentless pursuit of something you do not have. Nothing can deter you from getting it however long the road is. If it takes crawling, walking, running or flying, you will do it.

Source of Determination

Human beings are naturally born with determination. At an early stage, right after birth, we are endowed with this internal crave called determination to grab things, interpret meaning, create ideas, understand recurring incidences, determination to know people, who is a friend and who is an enemy, who is mom and who is dad. We are born with less fear and a lot of determination. That is why children do things they do. When they cry, they are simply telling us that they are so determined to either get out of pain, get food, they are stressed or they just need to take a nap.

Determination Catalyst

Even though I cannot recall my childhood very well, I can talk in relation to what I see parents do to their children. A colorful object would be placed in front of them slightly past their reach to entice them to move. That is how children learn to be mobile. A curious child would crawl to grab the object, walk towards the object or run towards the object.

What drives you? What makes you move? What increases your determination to achieve something you do not have? What is your determinant? I always associate happiness with success therefore in everything I do, I try to tie it to happiness. I know I cannot please everybody and I cannot make all happy but my goal every single day when I wake up is how am I going to touch another person’s life? How am I going to make someone smile? How am I going to make somebody else successful because success equals happiness and vise-versa. That is my determination every single day I wake up.

We all come up with great ideas, but we lack enough determination to go for them. When drafting an idea to work towards, never go for realistic ideas. All realistic ideas have been achieved therefore go for unrealistic ideas. Build a strong catalyst and let it propel you to what you define as success. Let nothing stop you from going for your dreams not even your weaknesses.

Joshua Okello is a B.A graduate in Business Administration, International Development and Philosophy. He is also the author of the book Strategies of Entrepreneurial Leadership He has exceptional skills in organizing, coordinating projects and capacity building initiatives with key emphasis on livelihood programs; microfinance through savings and credit led models; business development services and entrepreneurial leadership. He is also the founder and Executive Director of Succeed Africa Relief Organization, a Canadian Christian Organization geared towards giving hope and transformation in lives of the chronically poor in Africa.

How to Succeed Infinitely

Posted on January 25, 2015January 25, 2015 by Josh

By Joshua.

There are infinite amount of wealth to be gained in this world just as there are infinite amount of success one can get. Of all the words a true leader should be obsessed with, is infinity.

It is also wise to understand that to get to infinity, it requires infinite amount of work. To win infinite success requires infinite resilience and to gain infinite wealth requires infinite plan.

It is also wise to mention that the fact that you are going for infinite wealth does not mean that you can comfortably be greedy. To be self-centered displays your lack of ethics, so never even think of being one.

The fact that you are going for infinite wealth does not mean that you stop being good. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). We have to be careful on how we use the infinite power and wealth that we get. Now to get on the road of infinity success one ought to:

Have Succinct Mind

To be a winner, you must have the mindset of a winner and to get to infinite success one must have the infinite mindset. You should remember that dreams are just but illusions of mind. They are beautiful pictures painted in our thoughts and hanged on the wall called memory. We can always see them from a distance but we can never reach them. We can admire the beauty and grandeur they possess but those are only food for our minds.

They satisfy our inner feelings and psychological accomplishments yet they do not have any meaning.

Be a Worker Bee

There are so many types of bees; the queen, the special males whose work is mating with the queen then they die, there are the guards who protect the hive but of all these my favorite are the worker bee.

Worker bees believe that everything is possible. They understand that team work is important but synergy can only be reached when each member of the team does his part. They can go miles and miles to look for water, travel for distance to collect nectar and also offer security when needed. They understand that nothing can be achieved without hard work. They believe that they can make infinite honey and that is what they think and do every day.

Even though they work extremely hard, they also have to ensure quality of the final product is good. Of all manufactures on earth, bees have the greatest quality control department and that can be found on the taste of the honey we get. They never recall their products. They are made once and for all and it is guaranteed to meet the standards.

Get Some Rest

To take a break does not mean you have lost focus. It means that you are ready to re-energize and get back at it. All work without play made Jack a dull boy. Work hard, play hard and win big. Understand the infinity rule and play it safe. Rest but never get too comfortable while resting. You might lose the vision of infinity.

What it Takes to Succeed

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Josh

By Josh Okello

World has got no gray zone. Phenomena always come in two. This is what I call the duo existence principle. It states that there is always an opposing side or object to everything that exits. Therefore there can be only good and bad, right or wrong, and one cannot be both all in at the same time.

Duo existence principle exists in corporate world as well. One is either a leader or a follower but cannot be both all at the same time. It is important that these two classes be familiar with the roles they play in a community otherwise there will be chaos.

For a harmonized operation and smooth running of everything we do, leaders must be obedient to their roles and so are followers. It is the leaders actions that determines what his or her followers are going to do. Take a scenario where there is civil disobedience. People protest because they are not satisfied with the actions of their leaders.

Since there are only two sides of life, one is either a failure or successful. Politics have tried to harmonize things out by introducing middle class which highly falls on a gray scale. They are neither too poor to be paupers nor too rich to be successful. Just as there are sinners and righteous people, so is success and failure.
Even though there is no limits of success, men and women should always try to go past and beyond their goals. To stop from achieving more after your breakthrough is the easiest way to get buck to failure especially if you still have the potentials to go an extra mile.

Scales of Success and Failure

One can either fail to infinity or succeed to infinity. It depends on your mind set. This does not mean greed or laziness. There are more things that the world still needs to improve on, too much to be done to give success a limit.

What it takes to succeed or fail

Failure is the only thing that does not require work. You just need to sit, do nothing and fail. Now there are also some people who try but get it wrong. Those according to me are not failures, they are people who miss the target but put at least some effort.

I have failed so many times in life. I failed a course in university; I have started businesses that have failed terribly. I have failed in a number of employment opportunities I had. It is all about fail! Fail! Fail! But what makes one successful is when you realize that failing is part of the equation to success. Success comes with hard work, resilience and staying true to your goals.

Intentionality

If you are not living intentionally to succeed, then you are living intentionally to fail. The intentionality builds resilience which most people always ignore. It does not matter what ideas you generate. You can be the smartest man or woman with intelligent quotient greater than Einstein, but if you are not implementing your thoughts, then you are the most useless person to ever wonder the surface of the earth. In every thought you build, you must act on it. If you are not ready to fail, you are not ready to learn.

Uncertainties & Risks

Posted on April 6, 2014April 17, 2014 by Josh

By Okello Okello

Often times people talk of risks as the only fear to getting to entrepreneurship but do they really mean risks? What are risks? Is there anything else other than risks that can raise an entrepreneurs adrenaline. As an entrepreneur, if an action does not cause you to take a deep breath before you do it then it might not be risky enough and that means that it is not as important.

It is also good to understand that there is no perfect risk out there. There is a lot of uncertainty with decisions we make since we mortals can only operate in a linear time scale unless we are supreme beings. Therefore, people are always not scared of risks but the uncertainties that come with entrepreneurial decisions you make. What are uncertainties?

Uncertainty refers to outcomes not contemplated during the decision-making process while on the other hand risks refers to outcomes that have been contemplated, and are quantified as probabilities. The fact that risks are premeditated makes them expected in a way but uncertainties are those happenings that are not thought of and those are the most dangerous ones.

Duo-contemplation is about how to react in such occurrences of uncertainties. An entrepreneur needs to have clear thoughts when things do not go as planned. It can be drenching to operate in such a situation. Uncertainties can also include unexpected positive results or unexpected successes.

Uncertainties can be as a result of , Workers skills not matching the required standards of performance, low productivity due to low employee moral, or the general mishaps in assumptions in the forecast sessions. Entrepreneurs should then give more weight to non-financial and qualitative factors than financial data. This is not to say that financial data are less important, but seeing past financial data can help give a second come back after uncertain occurrences.

Duo-contemplation matrix covers recovery from both risks and uncertainties and it heavily relies on the leaders ability to absorb market shocks and make wise decisions after a fall. For duo-contemplation to happen successfully, a leader should be ready for drastic changes. Employees should also be in a position to take the change with minimal and if possible no resistance however before these changes happen, an entrepreneur or a leader should consider;

Emotional Effects

How are the changes going to affect the entire team that an entrepreneur is working with? Are they comfortable trying new things? If they are not, how can we transform their fears into a cash flow generating ideas. That is the reason why business gurus do well. Dismantling failure, uncertainties and fears that come with it forms a strong base of success. As an entrepreneur, you do not want to be at the mercies of your emotions. Use your emotion to defeat itself. Change your emotions into happiness and enjoy the outcome no matter what it is. Sharing this attitude with your employees build confidence and a strong belief in the organization after drastic changes have happened. It is also important to know that when making changes, they should not be hard to adopt.

Psychological Effects

Let us take mind as the function of feeling, awareness and motivation. Anything that interferes with your state of mind negatively is what you do not want as entrepreneur. This is not easy as it may sound especially after a failure. The idea of duo-contemplation is to have a strong and stable state of mind to help you fight all the emotional effects that might come with a failure. Human mind is the most versatile organ in a body and can be trained to respond positively to any action.

As devastating a failure can be, human mind never run out of tentative solutions to the main problems in other words, there is no big challenge that human mind cannot handle. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13). I wish every entrepreneur would read a bible as it boosts one’s faith when it comes to trying risky things. Based on this bible verse, you can meet challenges of different kinds but God has promised that you will not be over come by temptations, therefore do not let your challenges affect your state of mind.

Why the Change

Entrepreneurs should not just propose a change because they feel like it is good to implement one. When going for a change, plan and always remember to maintain your core values intact. Always have a positive and a better reason than before of why you think a change is important. A change can be too big that it becomes insignificant. That is when a change is leading to a permanent failure. Based on keen observation of British Motor Works (BMW) X series, Starting from X3 to X6 there has been very slight changes on every stage, either on chassis shape, gearbox setting, interior space, engine size etc. The changes are always minimal, direct and less complex. They are identifiable changes that does not need extra work to learn or adopt especially on a consumers perspective. The fact that you can also order a custom design BMW makes it even better so the changes suit your preference. The point, always have a reason why you are introducing a change and let it be easy to adopt.

How “The Art of Execution”

Doing the same thing all the time, tremendous repeat or repeated abuse as one of my friends describes it is unhealthy. It is said that change is as good as a rest therefore change should be constant and always in motion. That is when you change the change. So how should people execute the art of change? Implementing the art of change can be hectic yet it can also be simplified through these key points.

The vision: It is important to lay out the vision, what exactly is changing and how is it going to change. The vision gives a broader picture of what the team will work towards. This vision should be clear, short and precise. By making the change vision clear, short and precise, you are simplifying it for your team to easy adopt it therefore there is a higher chances that they will buy into it.
Specialization: You want to match the tasks with skills required to accomplish them. Through specialization and division of labour, you are already simplifying the change making it easy to adopt. Clarity with each individual on how important their tasks and roles are to the vision of change helps develop a team synergy. Duo-contemplation work best if you match your team with what they can do best. It is all about maximizing the output from your team.
Follow-up: Great leaders go to their employees to inquire if they are meeting any challenges. Try it, it works. You do not have to implement a change to do this. Just ask how you can help them meet their goals, make fun and create a lively work environment. How many entrepreneurs like to crack jokes with their juniors? You want to create an environment where your team enjoys your presence and the work they do. It is also important that you make them know that you are in control, a manager, a director, and the boss if you like calling your self that.

Span it Takes to Change

How drastic are your changes? Are they changes that need 10 years to adopt? Since you are working with start-ups and growing businesses, a change should not take your team more than three months to adopt. It should be that simple. Design a change that impress, a change that every body wants to flock to. If you find it difficult to come up with one especially after failure then look at the reason why you failed or what you want to improve on and just tweak it a little bit.

Let us look at this example, you are a fruit vendor who sells a lot of bananas every week. In one week due to bad weather your sales went down and you are left with a lot of inventories that are perishable. Since You want to maximize your cash flows and revenues, you can decide to have a banana cup cake business along side your grocery to take care of the left over fruits. This is an example of a change that does not require a long span of time to adopt. It is easy, almost obvious and can still generate some income to support the business.

Realistic Goals

If you are a start up, you do not want to tell your employees or yourself that you are going to generate 1 billion in the first week of your business launch. Not that it is impossible, but setting realistic goals is always good. Start small then grow big. You do not want to risk a lot of your resources in a start up therefore losing it all is not good. Be economical, take it one step at a time and sent achievable goals with a reasonable time limit. Most entrepreneurs are big dreamers, I am saying this out of experience. This can make it extremely difficult for your employees to match your expectations because you always want your books to read 100 million revenue in your first year. Give your employees enough time and realistic goals that they can attain. It is better you give them short term and easy to achieve goals that will grow your business than giving them big, dreams that they cannot achieve making you close your business in the first few weeks it starts.

Planed Plans

When a King wants to concur another kingdom, he meets with his military heads to plan and strategist the attack patterns. This is something that has existed through the ages. Planning. You do not want to attack a giant with bear hands. Think of a story in the bible; Joshua 18. Joshua is sending out three representative to go and survey they land, they were to write a detailed plan on what they saw, and how to get in the land they were promised. He is also laying strategy on how to divide the land, who settles on the south, who goes to the North and who remains in the East.

Key lesson is, plan your movement. Plan your action. plan and again plan the plan. It is really hard to win without a plan. That is why most politicians work with a campaign team. These are people who meet everyday to lay strategies depending on the location of campaign. Having been in African Politics as a strategist to a member of parliament, I can say that strategists do more than what you see politicians say on screens or on a political rally.

After the speech, then we analyze the clips word by word, gesture by gesture, information by information then we do a quick meeting every day to update the potential candidate on what he did well in and what he missed. We also monitor his dressing cord and match it with the tribe or a particular group of people he is going to address. All these are planning and if well executed, they can result into a big success.

Uncertainty, Risks and Fear works like three horns of a triangle. Once you dismantle one side the whole structure collapses.

Entrepreneur Taxonomy

Posted on March 4, 2014March 6, 2014 by Josh

By Okello Okello

Taxonomy is the science of elucidating groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared facets and rendering nomenclature to those groups. In this post, I am going to classify entrepreneurs as a special group of species homo-sapiens-sapiens. This is not to say that entrepreneurs are of different species from any other human being but they hold distinctive characteristics that set them apart from all else.

Some have called them weirdo’s, they are always in their own world, they like to cause chaos, they can be authoritative, and never give up. Entrepreneurs like to go against the currents and are great risk takers. They have faith in their efforts but plan before they leap. Strategy is always their main tool, they slip but never fall even if they fail in a particular area, they understand that failure is part of success, but some of the unusual traits that most entrepreneurs share in common include;

1. Status Quo

Entrepreneurs delete these two words in their dictionary. They always go against currents and nothing can stop them from going for their vision. Once they set up their minds in achieving something, they will go for it even if there are tough barriers of entry. The ability to start a business is by itself against so many statistical facts. It is also good to point out that entrepreneurs who are value driven tend to perform better than the profit driven. Since there are no definitive features to qualify these people as specie of their own, this qualifies everybody to be a potential entrepreneur only that some differ at the degree of resilience and persistence.

2. Tenacity

This is the ability to grip something firmly for so long before you let go. Entrepreneurs can hold an idea for so long before they let it slip off their hands. Mostly they are never worried of time it takes before they see their dreams come true. Tenacity drives them in tough economic times and since they understand the sinusoidal market behavior, they can predict light at the end of the tunnel.

3. Self-Belief.

As the name suggest, to be an entrepreneur you must have self confidence and believe in your self before anybody else believes in you. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” (unknown). Most entrepreneurs believe in themselves and their potentials. After all, it is never wrong to try, if you are trying the right thing. “It is only when you hitch yourself to something greater than you that you realize your true potentials” (Barack Obama).

4. Duo-Contemplation

Duo-contemplation is a word that I coined after being in strategic management for over two years. It is the ability to match two contrasting ideas in preparation to any unforeseen occurrences. Most entrepreneurs do not have this mentality and the single line of thought makes it very hard for organizations to bounce back in the market in case of any contradicting happenings. Successful entrepreneurs never take one side of thought and ride with it, they look at all facades and calculate a tentative solution for both. This elevates their management skills at all times.

4. Design a Master Piece.

Leonardo daVinci is crowned for his master piece Monalisa, Michelangelo contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, also rival of Italian Leonardo da Vinci is known for his master piece Pieta. In recent years, Martin Luther King junior was known for his phrase “I have a Dream,” Barack Obama was propelled to presidency of the United States of America by a simple phrase “Yes We Can.” These are master pieces that were crafted by the artists themselves. Successful entrepreneurs develop master pieces, things that make them standout and unique. These are also ideas that later down in history are considered to have revolutionized an age. As an entrepreneur develop your own master piece.

Entrepreneurs are few in numbers, though through technological advancements and a paradigm shift that has happened in the work force globally, there has been a rise in the number of people who start their own businesses. Question to you; Are you falling under the classification of entrepreneurs? Yes You Can!

Please if you find this blog informative, share it on your social media, comment, follow, favorite and let other people learn from it too. That is the spirit of entrepreneurship. We are here to support each other. No one knows everything that is why we share, exchange and learn from one another. God bless you.

The Business Falcons

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Josh

By Okello Okello

Falcons are a species of birds commonly referred to as Hawks. Hawks are characterized by sharp talons, large, curved bill and muscular legs. They use their sharp bill to bite and tear the pray and this makes them the best hunting birds ever known. Most entrepreneurs involuntarily act like falcons hence the title “Business Falcons.” So in what ways are entrepreneurs like falcons?

1. Vision.

Falcons have excellent eye sight, they can see up to 8 times further than human eyes sight. This helps with accuracy when sporting a pray. They can identify the difference between a rock and a mouse when they are over 100 feet in the sky. Visionary leaders also see opportunities that lie miles away from them. That is what drives them to take an action to either bring change or start something new. As an entrepreneur, always know what you are going for. Never pick stones when there is bread to go for. Be a falcon and reach for the best by zooming in and out your target pray.

2. Spot Different Colors.

Falcons have the ability to spot different colors. This is to give them a precise judgement and accuracy when identifying the pray. For right judgement of colors, hawks must then have an apriori information on different colors of pray they are going for. The ability to distinguish what an entrepreneur sees as a potential investment is a critical feature that all business leaders should have at all times. Entrepreneurs do not just see opportunities, they see opportunities that can benefit them. Like hawks, business leaders should be in a position to tell where there is a greater potential of returns on all their investment. Always go for colorful and lively places where you can get better profits and therefore strategize before you take a leap.

3. Swiftness

After a hawk has calculated the distance and time it takes to catch the pray, they can travel at a speed of 150 miles per hour through the air to their target. This swiftness reduces reaction time of the pray and creates a shocking impact when they land making their pray dazed and confused. Once a business leader has seen an opportunity, it is upon them to act swiftly and take advantage of it before anybody else find it. This is not to say that they should not allow competition, what I mean is once you have your competitive edge then always develop it to be ahead of everybody. Act swiftly and keep your rivals a daze at all times.

4. Be a Diurnal Leader.

Falcons are always proactive during day time. Even though most entrepreneurs work late, it is advisable to work during day time and have enough rest during night time. It is healthy and makes your brain work better and smarter. Avoid long nights as they reduce your productivity. So stop filling that coffee cup late in the evening and have a restful evening. Catch up with family and friends, relax and take notes.

5. Be opportunistic Feeder.

What this means is that falcons can feed on anything they come across, from frogs, squirrels, insects to rats. They try to expand their tastes on what they feed on. Entrepreneurs should also not narrow their views to only one line of product or service. Be adventurous, try new things. Mostly the first ideas never work and that is why it is good to try more than one idea. statistically, increasing your idea samples expands your probability of nailing the only one that will work. Come with ideas after the other and keep improving them until you get the one that works.

As an entrepreneur and a Not-for-Profit Organization director, I have tried more than 8 businesses from farming to music production, and only three of those that I started have worked. I am still hopeful and adventurous and work like a business falcon. If one never works, then I am certain that there is one out there that will work. If you are a start up, then my advise at this stage is to use as less capital as possible because you are still on trial and error stage. You do not want to lose a lot on your first attempts unless you are certain that you are going to gain it back.

Always remember to play like a falcon.

Please if you found this blog helpful, share it on your social media, follow, favorite and let other people learn from it too. That is the spirit of entrepreneurship. We are here to support each other. No one knows everything that is why we share, exchange and learn from one another. God bless you.