In recent times there have been massive songs about entrepreneurship in Africa most especially in Nigeria. It's now become a new pop culture of some sort. The word "entrepreneur" comes with a certain grandiose and an aura of some coolness to it. Most people are even advised to go into entrepreneurship without any capital, the most motivational statement is "don't think, just do".

Unlike the rest of the world where there are lots of venture capitalists firms and angel investors, Africa has entrepreneurship or startup competitions. Most of this competitions comes with a grand prize of between 5000 to 400000 dollars. A prime example is the Tony elumelu foundation entrepreneurship awards. African entrepreneurs are advised to take advantage of this competitions, win them and use the monies to start their businesses. There are hardly any angel investors in this continent except you are opportuned to be born with a silver spoon. A lot of rich African men don't invest in any businesses and the few venture capital firms around are owned by white people and most won't even want to see you except you have some serious connections or a lot of media coverage.

It's even appalling that some of this competitions have as much as 100000 applicants and only 10 will make it to the finals. In most cases, 70 percent of the finalists are from well connected homes or have some fancy degrees from posh schools. A recent case is the venture clash application which was organised by the United States in Nigeria. The winning startup CEO has an MBA from Colombia and has more than 10 years in insurance and is one of the big shots in corporate Nigeria. Now tell me, how a 20 year old can compete against people of such pedigree.

The bottomline is that entrepreneurship isn't cool. It's brutal if you have no funding or capital let's be realistic you can start a business without money but at a certain point you need money to grow that business. Bank loans in this part of the world come with an interest rate of 30 percent. Venture capitalists wont even give you the time of the day and angel investors are almost non existent here. The so called entrepreneurship competitions that are meant to provide hope are even rigged against you from the get go. If you have a job and you are seriously thinking or entrepreneurship or starting a business have enough money to cover your living costs and business operational costs as the journey of entrepreneurship is a very brutal, lonely, depressing and unforgiving one

Cc
Lalasticala
Mynd44

True talk op. Presently going through same. I am just grateful to God that I didn't resign from work at the onset. Salary is the one paying my bills now, and also funding my new biz little by little. It's not been easy, but the main thing is that I'm taking steps, and some customers are showing belief in our products.
For the competitions, we have no choice but to keep giving it a shot, because they say "you miss 100% of the shots you fail to take". I have learned that a young entrepreneur is like a job seeker, or an upcoming artiste, searching for opportunities. You just have to be a moving force, always giving stuffs you believe in, a try. You might meet a life changing opportunity, just one day. And that could be the end. Mum always asked us, as children who would be reluctant to go out, hawking, because of poor sales the previous day, that "when sales come, will it call out on you, from home that you should come?" The answer is NO! Just a quote on patience, consistency and perseverance from her is all I have for fellow young entrepreneurs.

QuitNotice:
True talk op. Presently going through same. I am just grateful to God that I didn't resign from work at the onset. Salary is the one paying my bills now, and also funding my new biz little by little. It's not been easy, but the main thing is that I'm taking steps, and some customers are showing belief in our products.
For the competitions, we have no choice but to keep giving it a shot, because they say "you miss 100% of the shots you fail to take". I have learned that a young entrepreneur is like a job seeker, or an upcoming artiste, searching for opportunities. You just have to be a moving force, always giving stuffs you believe in, a try. You might meet a life changing opportunity, just one day. And that could be the end. Mum always asked us, as children who would be reluctant to go out, hawking, because of poor sales the previous day, that "when sales come, will it call out on you, from home that you should come?" The answer is NO! Just a quote on patience, consistency and perseverance from her is all I have for fellow young entrepreneurs.

Persistence pays off eventually but I want aspiring entrepreneurs to be realistic. Many see stories of some Nigerian companies raising millions of dollars and see all this competitions and think everything is on merit. They should know what they are getting into. The African entrepreneurship awards had 4600 applicants this year and at most a 100 will make it past stage one only 30 will make it to the finals. That's a 0.65 percent acceptance rate. Most of this competitions like the venture clash are not even done merit. It's most times based on who you know. That's why so many startups with no viable way of making any profit win this things and still end up failing with all the money.

There's always something to take away from some of these competitions...Sometimes Good, Sometimes bad..