From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2021. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL’s in these archive episodes are still relevant.
John-Paul is a business transformation specialist who helps entrepreneurs start, grow, and turnaround businesses in Africa. In 2018, LinkedIn recognized him as a Top Voice on startups and entrepreneurship.
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Resources
The Smallstarter Business Podcast – Tune in to John-Paul’s unique weekly podcasts for practical tips, advice, and insights that’ll improve your chances of starting, growing, or turning around your business.
101 Ways to Make Money In Africa – Get your FREE e-book download now!
3 Value Bombs
1) Africa is one of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world.
2) Most successful businesses in Africa are working on the margin side. Africa is enormous in volume, too. You can use both to maximize your profit.
3) Doing what you love to do will not get you to success. Along the way, you have to do something you do not like, too.
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Thrivetime Show: Is now your time? Clay Clark’s business coaching has helped over 2,000 entrepreneurs to dramatically increase profitability! Schedule your free consultation today at ThrivetimeShow.com!
HelloFresh: America’s #1 Meal Kit! See for yourself: visit HelloFresh.com/50eof and use code 50eof for 50% off plus free shipping!
Show Notes
**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.
Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: Africa: Emerging Opportunities and Exciting Business Lessons with John-Paul Iwuoha
[1:12] – John-Paul shares something interesting about himself that most people do not know.
- He learned about the term ambidextrous when he was ten years old.
[6:35] – Why do you need to keep Africa on your radar?
- Being an entrepreneur means that you can live in the now and also prepare for the future.
- Currently, Africa has the youngest population of people globally. 60% of the people in the continent are under the age of 25.
- Africa is one of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world.
[12:15] – What are the most exciting business opportunities on the continent now and in the future?
- Africa has the potential to produce superfoods.
- Fonio, Quinoa, Moringa
- Africa is the next food basket of the world.
- The Solar Revolution in Africa is fast-growing.
[18:41] – A timeout to thank our sponsors!
- HubSpot: The HubSpot Sales Hub supercharges your sales process so you can find, track, and close deals all in one powerful, easy-to-use platform. Make the switch to HubSpot Sales Hub at HubSpot.com/sales.
- HelloFresh: America’s #1 Meal Kit! See for yourself: visit HelloFresh.com/50eof and use code 50eof for 50% off plus free shipping!
- Thrivetime Show: Is now your time? Clay Clark’s business coaching has helped over 2,000 entrepreneurs to dramatically increase profitability! Schedule your free consultation today at ThrivetimeShow.com!
[21:01] – What are the biggest mistakes that people make when trying to do business in Africa?
- Most successful businesses in Africa are working on the margin side. Africa is enormous in volume, too. You can use both to maximize your profit.
- Solar, Financial Services, Urban logistics, Education…
- Most people think that they can copy and paste what works in the West or Asia to Africa.
- African entrepreneurs are practicing frugal innovation – they progress with limited resources. They run on 2G technology.
- Look beyond the Safari and see what is going on when you visit Africa.
- One key to your business’s success is knowing your market. You cannot understand it from a distance; you have to come and feel the pulse.
[25:12] – What are the essential lessons you have learned while working with entrepreneurs in Africa?
- There is a lot required to successfully transition from idea to running an actual business.
- Doing what you love to do will not get you to success. Along the way, you have to do something you do not like, too
- You will be required to get out of your comfort zone to expand.
[27:26] – John-Paul’s podcast and his philosophy in business.
- The Smallstarter Business Podcast – Tune in to John-Paul’s unique weekly podcasts for practical tips, advice, and insights that’ll improve your chances of starting, growing, or turning around your business.
- It is essential to start small. If you want to beat the odds, you have to take little steps.
- Look at history; all businesses start small.
[29:32] – John-Paul’s call to action for Fire Nation.
- 101 Ways to Make Money In Africa – Get your FREE e-book download now!
[33:54] – Thank you to our Sponsors!
- HubSpot: The HubSpot Sales Hub supercharges your sales process so you can find, track, and close deals all in one powerful, easy-to-use platform. Make the switch to HubSpot Sales Hub at HubSpot.com/sales.
- Thrivetime Show: Is now your time? Clay Clark’s business coaching has helped over 2,000 entrepreneurs to dramatically increase profitability! Schedule your free consultation today at ThrivetimeShow.com!
- HelloFresh: America’s #1 Meal Kit! See for yourself: visit HelloFresh.com/50eof and use code 50eof for 50% off plus free shipping!
Transcript
0 (2s):
Boom, shake the room, fire nation, JLD here with an audio master class on Africa, emerging opportunities and exciting business lessons to drop these value bombs. I have brought John Paul Iwuoha on the mic. He is a business transformation specialist who helps entrepreneurs start grow and turnaround businesses in Africa in 2018. LinkedIn recognized him as a top voice on startups and entrepreneurship and financial. We were talking about why, why you need to keep Africa on your radar. The most interesting business opportunities in Africa right now, and in the near term future, the biggest mistakes people make when they try to do business in Africa and so much more.
0 (45s):
When we get back from thanking our sponsors, grow your business with online courses, by jumping into Thinkific five day course challenge. Today over five days, you'll hear from inspiring speakers, including myself who will walk you through the whole process. So you'll know exactly where you're headed. Sign up for this free challenge today at thinkific.com/fire that's T H I N K I F I C.com/fire. Flippa is the world's leading marketplace to buy and sell digital real estate, including websites, e-commerce stores, SAS, businesses, apps, and other online businesses get access to a free instant valuation plus insights on how to improve scalability for your business at flippa.com/fire.
0 (1m 29s):
John Paul say what's up to fire nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don't know
1 (1m 37s):
What's up fire nation almost on fire. Not literally. I'm pretty excited to be here. It's been, it's been seven years since the very first time I listened to entrepreneur on fire and I've never really missed it. And I'm really excited to be here. One thing I, I have about me that most people don't know is I think this started at 10 years old and that was the first time I came across the term ambidextrous. I got to find out that it's used to describe the ability to use both hands, the ability to use both hands the right and the left hand. And it took me down a rabbit hole all these years because interest in the I'm sure most people don't know, maybe just about 10% of the population is left-handed.
1 (2m 22s):
And there are very many exciting, interesting people who are left on the books. What actually struck me was the way left-handed people have been treated over overtime. I'm naturally right-handed, you know, and I thought it would be cool to be able to use both hands because I was writing a book on this of things I should be able to do by a certain age to be an interesting person. And I thought it would be nice to be able to use the two hands, but then it got me down this rabbit hole. And I started to discover a couple of things. For example, in medieval times, people who are left-handed were arrested on sometimes burn for the state because they were accused of devil worship and things like that. The Romans taught us the art of the handshake, but one of the things the Romans taught us the ancient Roman stuff, as well as the art of wearing the wedding ring on the left hand.
1 (3m 9s):
But then the reason behind it is that the, the wedding ring is supposed to ward off the evil powers that are more or less top to come through, you know, the left hand, you know, things like that. Several interesting before example in the US, the very first left hand that president James Garfield was able to write with both hands. He could write Greek Greek with his right hand and Latin with his left in 1992, we had something very interesting, all the presidential runners from the democratic party, the Republican and the independence ProsperOats all of them were let's come. Wow, that was George Bush, Sr. and Bill Clinton and Ross' parents, all of them were left-handed. And then we had the, we had three consecutive us presidents were left-handed Joe Ronald Reagan.
1 (3m 51s):
We had Bush Sr., And we had Bill Clinton. And now of course, Obama is, is left-handed so very interesting thing. So I learned the art. I started with brushing my teeth with my left hand and foil. I caused a lot of damage, you know, in the first few weeks, but then I continued and continued for about two to three years and I must start that. And then I moved on to right things with my left hand. And, you know, since then, you know, I got my daughter, I was hoping I would have it. I will have a child who's left-handed I missed it with my first child, but then the second one turned out to be left-handed and I see left-handed people are very cool people. And if you look at what they've achieved, most celebrities, Brad Pitt's Angelina Jolie.
1 (4m 31s):
Keannu Reeves that I can go on and on Julia Roberts, many of them, Hugh Jackman, many of them are left-handed. And if you really look at it, they're just 10% of the population. But then when you get to the Heights of achievements from the highest office in the land to more or less the creme de LA creme of, of celebrity status and all that they dominated, but these guys are just 10% of the population. And I think it's important in this age of diversity, where we tend to look at diversity through the lens of race, through the lens of religion and tribe and all that. It's important to remember that people who are left-handed are discriminated, even in society, today's even too subtle. For example, in, in product design, golf clubs, cup holders in cars at the checkout counters, most of those things are designed for right-handed people.
1 (5m 18s):
And it's important to realize that we have this segment of our population, who we don't really factor factor in. So for me, the left-hand right now, somebody who can now use both hands represents rebellion, represents creativity, represents uniqueness and represents being special. So that's one thing I know most people don't know, but something I rebel in that I'm now ambidextrous, I'll be able to use both hands.
2 (5m 42s):
Well, this is fascinating stuff and fire nation, I'm sure from my little introduction with the title, which is Africa, emerging opportunities in citing business lessons, you did not expect that little rant by John Paul, but he's a very interesting guy. In fact, I get over 400 pitches every single month for the eight spots of entrepreneurs on fire. So it's quite difficult to get through my team and then even get to me and then to, you know, to go through the process and they actually get selected. And his email was that special that it made it through all of these processes got to me. And then of course, now we're speaking here today. So of course he was selected and actually going to have my team go ahead and post that email because it's really cool to show you what can happen when you go above and beyond and get really personal and, and share some really cool things about yourself.
2 (6m 36s):
So we'll post it on the show notes page. If you want to see John Paul in action and how he ended up getting on entrepreneurs on fire after listening for seven years, to almost every single episode, you're gonna have to go over to the show notes page and check that out. Now we are talking about Africa and I want to know a John Paul, why, why do we need to keep Africa on our radar?
1 (7m 0s):
Very interesting question. So one, one thing that keeps me loyal to entrepreneurs on fire is the quality of stories and experiences of entrepreneurs. Who've made it. That's one big reason why I listen. And I'm also sure that's why many people listen to the show. But interesting thing is what being an entrepreneur means that you're able to live in the now and also prepare for the future. So it's almost impossible to think about the future and not think about Africa. And here's why when you look at the population of the world, Africa currently has the youngest population of people right now, 60% of people on the continent are below the age of 25. So this is more or less looking at China before China became China of today, China, more or less the second biggest economy in the world, the factory of the world and all of that.
1 (7m 47s):
So you can imagine that people who saw China before China became China, actually the ones who got in on the, on the meat of the game. So that's exactly what Africa represents now. But more importantly, there've been events in the past couple of years that have put Africa in the centerpiece. The very most, the most recent one, which is very interesting. It's Covid now all this time, most companies are built their supply chains around China and Southeast Asia, but then when COVID hits, it was obvious that supply chains were very vulnerable. And if you're going to diversify your supply chain, it's impossible not to look at Africa. If you're looking at affordable labor, if you're looking at the proximity of the continent to either North America or Europe, and what are the means, most countries on the continent either speak English or French, and these are more or less global languages.
1 (8m 36s):
If you're going to penetrate any of the big markets. And it's really now happening, because what the Chinese are doing is the Chinese market is starting to specialize in advanced high-tech stuff are most of those low cost production that brought business, the whole offshore in from America. We're not beginning to see going to places, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and other countries in Southeast Asia. But then you, you cannot forgo a population of 1.3 billion people, which is what Africa presents and what we're now seeing is where we see some companies set up operations within the African continent, places like Rwanda, Ethopia, Ghana Senegal.
1 (9m 16s):
And what they're doing is they are preparing, these guys are digging in for the future. And one interesting thing that's happened in the last four years in America is the pivots on Africa. So in America, when you think about Africa, the image that comes to mind is charity and philanthropy, African needs help and help and help. So the approach of the Americans all this time, and even Europe has been to help Africa give Africa aid, give them all of that. What the Chinese are doing is they're coming with more or less trade and business and things. That's what Africa needs really because you, you, you have this population of very young people, enterprising people. I think people mentioned that's 60% of the world's all uncultivated arable land is in Africa.
1 (9m 59s):
So in most parts of the world, we've maxed out the land space. Yes, we're doing, we're using technology. And other means to increase the yield on the land. But when we're talking about Virgin space, Spurgeon land, arable land, most of it is still in Africa, still not cultivated. And we're looking at a global population that is set to double, but at least by the time we reach out to 2050, or more, according to, to the UN, if we do not keep pace with global, with population growth, with the amount of food workers producing, then the world is going to be faced with serious threats of hunger. So these are just a few examples of why Africa needs to be on your reader. Yeah. So if you're thinking about now, it's great. But if you're thinking about the future, you need to remember that even before COVID hits five of the top, the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world were in Africa.
1 (10m 48s):
These are not really things we see in the mainstream media. Why I'm happy. Things are changing is that the approach of the Chinese in Africa do controversial is a bit different. This guy's coming here, boots on the ground. And they're dealing with the markets. The previous relationship with Africa has been to deal with Africa's governments, give African governments money for an eight, and they would develop Africa. And for 50 years what happened instead, it's helped to enhance corruption, a sense of entitlement and dependency. So most of the problems never get solved because that's free money, free money flowing in from Europe. We money flowing in from North America. So what people like us exist to do is to show that the people we should we'll be voting for where our money is, the entrepreneurs, they are the ones who have the incentive and the motivation to really solve Africa's problems.
1 (11m 36s):
And guess what? Global money starting to comment. I'm sure many of the men of our listeners on, on entrepreneurs or fire new Stripe is a big global player in, in payments. Stripe just acquired an African company, a Nigerian company for $200 million. That's a major exits. And it stories like this that are starting to prove that Africa is not a charity case. Africa is an opportunity. The problems are trying to solve through aid, actually need to be solved through entrepreneurship. And in the process, we create more jobs, create more wealth and create a bigger and happier world. John,
2 (12m 11s):
Let's talk about what you see as the most interesting opportunities that exist right now. I mean, you talked about a lot of opportunities. I love how you really are hammering home. The fact that entrepreneurship is what is going to turn Africa around and really bring that continent into the, you know, as we move forward into 2021 and beyond, but specifically what are the one or two most interesting and fascinating opportunities in the business world that you're seeing right now?
1 (12m 40s):
The first interesting one is food. More or less. I touched about it earlier in terms of Africa's potential to produce food, because right now we're looking for the next food basket of the world. And one interesting thing that Africa offers is the area of what we now know as superfoods. So for example, there's a grain that's grown in West Africa. It's a green coat for new. Now this green is so rich in cultural significance. For example, when the tombs of Asians in gym shelves are more or less open or ex excavated amongst other materials like honey and things like that for new, for new F O N I O is one of the greens that, that the ancient Egyptians actually puts in the pyramids, in the burial chambers of their dead pharaohs.
1 (13m 28s):
That's to tell you how important it was back then, this is like one of the longest growth. One of the greens that's been grown the longest in history almost 5,000 years. Now, the reason why for new is important is when you look at the American markets and the European market, more or less developed world, and you see how important health and wellness is this whole thing about eating organic food, gluten-free food and things like that. You now start to see that a full, like full new is actually super food, but in Africa is grown by poor people in Africa is eaten by poor people. There. I start to see what America has done with green cereal, like quinoa, which is more or less a breakfast cereal before quinoa became like a blockbuster cereal in America.
1 (14m 12s):
It had the same profile as for new in South America. So what we're beginning to see is, for example, there's a celebrity chef in New York. His name is Pierre Thiam, he's now taken fonio is packaged. It's not just in its physical format, but in the narrative that's used to sell it. And last year, I think it was early this year. He got the national distribution across the United States in whole foods, you know, to distribute this kind of food. And for new, just one, I know many of our listeners may be familiar with moringa, which is another super food. It grows in the wild in Africa. We really take you for granted over here, but then we've seen entrepreneurs in here and we package it into something that's selling, you know, like a lots, because it resonates, it resonates with the health and wellness movements, the big trend going on in the U S
2 (15m 2s):
Huge right now. So many people are really passionate about the super foods and, you know, the quality of foods are putting in their mouth. And that's why I love how you talked about how, you know, we're looking for the next food basket of the world. So that's really fascinating. So John Paul, one more thing before we move on
1 (15m 19s):
One more opportunity to be solar. It will be impossible to talk about opportunities in Africa without talking about solar. For those people who don't know more than 50% of the population still doesn't have access to the grid. And guess what a lot of the money that Africa has been receiving over the last five decades as foreign aid has been to more or less provide this infrastructure. The problem is if you look at electricity through the conventional lens where you need to have some kind of national grid that everybody has to then connect to is going to be almost impossible to get all parts of Africa connected because they're very remote areas, rural areas and things like that. So the solar revolution that's going on in Africa right now is like, if it's like a square peg in a square hole, because people don't need to connect to the rate to the, to the grid, which is very expensive, just having a solar panel on your roof, we're not beginning to see important changes.
1 (16m 13s):
People can stay a week for longer. Kids can do their homework into the nights. Small businesses can stay open and sell more. And it's been grooming like glow like gangbusters. So the interesting thing about solar here is that most parts of Africa sits in the equator. So we don't lack for sunlight. We have like 300 plus days of free God-given sunlight every year. You see? And then we, we, we don't need to keep digging up all these debt reviews and things like that. Even though optical, now many parts of the continent still don't have that. So these are local solutions to local problems. And I'm hoping later on in the interview, I'm going to throw some light because Africa really doesn't work as a cut and paste or copy and paste because there are some nuances to working on the ground because you have to tailor the solution to the problem on the ground, which is what I think this whole policy of foreign aid and things like that have been getting wrong.
1 (17m 7s):
But the entrepreneurs on the Brown gets it, entrepreneurs get it because they know there's an incentive to solving a problem. And if you don't solve the problem, the way the market wants the market, won't give you their money. So those are exactly the foot soldiers we need on the Brown suit to make the change. And it's not just Africans. We're seeing all sorts of people from around the world, particularly the us, Canada and Europe come here to solve interesting and frustrating problems.
2 (17m 32s):
Fascinating. Like I personally love this solar revolution that's going on because it just makes so much, gosh, darn sense. Fire nation. I mean, you know, instead of like stringing wires, like across mountains and valleys and having the damage, that's going to happen to that and digging up these dirty fuels that John Paul is talking about. I, why are we not just slapping a solar panel on somebody's roof and allowing them the natural sun to power what they need? I mean, it's fantastic. I can tell you about 12 months ago, I actually went solar in my house here. I have 41 panels and I have three Tesla Powerwalls in my garage. So I'm essentially off grid. And it's just a great feeling that like right now, as I'm talking to you, John Paul, my entire house, everything that I do is powered by the Puerto Rican sun.
2 (18m 16s):
And, you know, we, we also are quite close to the equator. We get a lot of sunny days per year. So it's very ideal. Why not use this natural wonder that we have? So fire nation, we have so much more viable stuff coming up. When we get back from thinking our space,
0 (18m 30s):
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0 (19m 19s):
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0 (20m 0s):
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2 (20m 41s):
Stakes that people make when trying to do business in Africa. I mean, you just gotta be, you know, nervous and a little trepidatious when you don't know what you're doing, which is why it's great. And we have people like yourself coming on, who have experience, who have knowledge that can share with us what to avoid the biggest mistakes that people are making so that we can learn from them
1 (21m 1s):
Mistakes. I think the very first one would be of course, Africa suffers from the impression problem. And it's important to understand where this is coming from. If you don't see Africa as a poor place, you don't have the incentive to more or less give donations and charity. So I think there's an industry that benefits from that perception. So the very first thing I need to get out of the way is yes, Africa is poor, but not in the way you think so anybody who's run a business before knows there are two ways to maximize profit. You can maximize profit by your margins, or you can maximize profit by your volumes. So guess what most of these businesses that are doing well in Africa are not working on the margin side because many people on the continent just don't have the money.
1 (21m 42s):
But on the volume side, Africa is huge. This is like another China or another India, because for let's use, for example, pay stack the, the financial services company that was acquired by Stripe for 200 million. All they do is transactions, but then little percentages, 0.1% of a transaction, just, you know, spread it out across the millions of customers. Then you start to see where the money is. So this perception that Africa is poor. Yes, it's correct, but not in the way that you think. And that's because you can still pull the lever of volume. And that is the secret to the success of many of the entrepreneurs we're seeing here from solar to financial services to open logistics, to education, to all sorts.
1 (22m 25s):
So that is one thing to get out of the way. The second common mistake people make is they think since it's a poor continent, since people just don't get it since they are backward, let's go use what we have that works for us in the West or in China or in Asia, and just copy and paste it on the continent. It doesn't really work that way. For example, one of the biggest innovations on the African continent is mobile money. Now that is the ability to use your home, to transfer money and complete transactions. Mobile money is run on USSD, which is 2g technology right now where we're talking about 5g, but that is 2g technology. And Africa has African entrepreneurs. I've done amazing things with 2g technology, which is a legacy technology.
1 (23m 9s):
In fact, that technology was exported to a place like Afghanistan. So during the U S occupation or things like that, where Afghan soldiers had to be paid, it was that same technology that will still use that to make sure that people got their money on time. So here we there's, there's a concept of frugal innovation that's been practiced yet. It doesn't have to be the cutting edge technology or more or less AI or advanced of what's to going to get there. But what Africans are very good at this literally it's entrepreneurs is being able to work with limited resources and achieving, you know, amazing things from that. So that's one of the way, the third way is this, this distance doesn't help.
1 (23m 49s):
If the only lens through which you see Africa is what you see in the news. Then you're basically missing the scripts. So beyond tourism, it's important that when you make, when you pay visits yet, look beyond the Safari and the elephants and the lions and all those things, and really see what's going on because in my own hotness assessment, that is one thing the Chinese are very good at. For example, I'm making this go from legals in Nigeria. If an American comes to Nigeria, there are certain areas, parts of town I expect they're going to stay. And that's of course, many concentrations security and things like that. But when the Chinese come, they go into the hint of that, the hinterland, they actually go to feel the pulse of the environment.
1 (24m 30s):
Yes, there are risks and things like that. But John, I knew, you know, that one of the keys to success in any business is being able to know your markets. And you can know your market from the, from, from the, from a distance or through the news or what you watch on TV. You actually have to come feel the pulse for yourself.
2 (24m 46s):
So John Paul, you've learned a ton of business lessons from listening to entrepreneurs on fire over the seven plus years, you've been listening. I mean the thousands and thousands of guests that you've heard talk about their successful ventures, their struggles, or obstacles or challenges their lessons learned. Now, it's your turn. You're the guests on entrepreneurs on fire. So what are the most important business lessons that you've learned while working with entrepreneurs in Africa?
1 (25m 13s):
The big lesson I've learned, because I work with a lot of people who are trying to start businesses and other ones too, who have already started businesses. One thing I've learned is an idea is very, very far away from a real business. In fact, an idea is very exclusive as to a fantasy or a hallucination than it is a real business, because there's a lot of work that's required to make that transition from idea to business. And there's a mindset side and there's the mechanics of actually running the business. So one thing I tell my clients is it's not just okay for you to fantasize about what you're going to do. You need to be sure that there is a gap in the market. You need to be sure that there are people who are willing to pay for it.
1 (25m 53s):
I am too. You need to go beyond the talk and actually move ahead to do something. So during your introduction, you mentioned something about how my email struck you and things like that. So in the end it didn't cost me money. All it took was for me to, of course, I benefited from being a loyal follower of yours and being a member of the EOFire community. But what it took was sitting down and thinking about the outcome and what I'm trying to achieve. And it's that level of resourcefulness. I really don't see in a lot of people. And there's one thing I have to blame. And that is this whole, this whole thing about just pursue your passion. So passion is necessary for success, but it's not enough because anybody who succeeds has to do somethings, they don't like some things they don't want, but they just have to do them.
1 (26m 39s):
So discipline tastes good when you already have discipline, but before you have, nobody wants to wake up by four o'clock in the morning to go take a run. So if you develop the discipline, you like it. But before you do that, it's going to be difficult. So if there's any lesson I want anybody to take away from here, it will be this doing what you want to do will not get you to success along the way. You have to do some things you don't like to do. You don't want to do for some people, it selves for some people is handling the books and looking at finances for some people is leading people. So some people work really well alone, but they don't. They find it difficult to work with other people. So you need to be able to get out of your comfort zone and expand. If not success is just going to remain an elusive thing on your horizon, that you, you just keep chasing, but you never catch up.
1 (27m 24s):
So John Paul, do you have your own podcast? Yeah, I do. I do. It's called a Smallstarter Business podcast. I forgot to mention John, if you will allow me now, one big lesson I've learned, which is like my philosophy in, in, in business is that it's important to start small. There is a reason every big tree you see starts from a seed. There's a reason why all of us adults started as a baby. And it's a natural law. It's a natural process. If you want to beat the odds, you have to take little steps. So what does, what, what Smallstarter means is that running a business or like any other thing you do, you're going to take hits. But when you start big, you take big risks, except you've already grown the muscle for that.
1 (28m 5s):
If you take big risks, you may get knocked down and it will be difficult for you to stand up again because you've lost a lot. And it's not just a financial losses, your self-confidence and your self image is going to take a big hit. But when you start small, you're taking incremental steps. The interesting thing is that you're going to take hits, but you're going to take hits. You can recover from, so that is the approach. I always encourage my people. It's not exciting. It's not sexy. It's not going to get you on the back of Forbes, but that is the natural projection of things. Most people want to start big. They look at the ExxonMobil's and the Coca-Cola's of this world and the Facebook's, but they don't look at the history. All these businesses started as small businesses. You don't just grow overnight.
1 (28m 44s):
So my, my philosophy is that every big team starts small. Every major multinational corporation was once a small business. And if you, if you're, if you look at entrepreneurship as a journey, rather than some destination or something to tick off your list, then you're more likely to make it. So I always put it out there so that I can screen the people who work for me. So my podcast is a small starter business podcast, and I guess every other team starts from smallstartup.com, www.startup.com.
2 (29m 15s):
I love that. So fire nation, if you want to learn more about what John Paul has to share his passion, his knowledge of of course, Africa, but of course, entrepreneurship in general, then definitely take that call to action. And JP, before we let you go, is there anything else you want to share with the fire nation? Any other way they can connect with you?
1 (29m 32s):
Yes. So yeah, this is my best part. I've gotten so much from you. John got the so much from the community and I've been waiting for this moment to give something back. So all my foremost decade right now, I've been working with a lot of entrepreneurs and one common area. I know people get stuck is in looking, identifying like solid opportunities and then even choosing between opportunities. So a couple of years back, I published a book. I co-authored a book. So my surprise, you know, it's really doing well on Amazon. It's one of the top rated books on doing business in Africa, on the idea identification and opportunity side, it's called 101 ways to make money in Africa. So I don't want to toot my own horn. People can go there and go read the reviews for themselves and, and see for themselves.
1 (30m 15s):
But for the EOFire community, I've been waiting for this moment. I have a hundred free copies, digital copies for download only for members of the entrepreneurial community. You can download it at small startup.com/fire. It's smallstartupcom/fire. So that's exactly where the journey starts. If you, if you've had the wrong impression about Africa or it's been a distant place to you, you don't understand anything about it. This is like a very easy, and risk-free way to get started. Download the book, fill up your mind. If you're like the typical reader, your brain is going to be sparking with a lot of interesting ideas. And then we can, we can take it from there when you make up your mind to take the next step.
1 (30m 56s):
So I thank you very much, John. And I hope in my only two ways, this book is really going to and reach a lot of people in your audience. So the first hundred people who head over to smallstarter.com/fire can download the, the digital copy for free
2 (31m 12s):
All. You have been a pleasure to chat with here today and fire nation. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with JPI and JLD today. So let's keep up that heat. Head over to EOFire.com, just type John J O H N. And the search bar in the show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about here today. Best show notes in the biz. And of course, if you want to read that email that John sent on over, go to the show notes page, cause that'll be there and it's quite a special one. And the strong call to action fire nation is to head over to smallstarter.com/fire, the first a hundred people to do. So we'll get to the copy of his book for free John Paul, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with fire nation today, for that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.
2 (32m 1s):
Hey, fire nation today's value bomb content was brought to you by John and Hey fire nation. My first traditionally published book is hitting the shelves March 23rd of 2021. And I am fired up to say the title is the common path to uncommon success, the common path to uncommon success, your roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment, and pre-orders fire nation are everything for a book success. So if I've given you any value over the years, it would mean the world. I mean the world, if you headed over to my pre-order page in locking your copy or copies, if you pre-order, I have some sweet bonuses and extras for, and your
0 (32m 40s):
Loved ones. So definitely get those bonuses, head over to EOFire.com/success to check out the awesomeness today, I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side, grow your business with online courses by jumping into Thinkific five day course challenge. Today over five days, you'll hear from inspiring speakers, including myself who will walk you through the whole process. So you'll know exactly where you're headed. Sign up for this free challenge today at thinkific.com/fire that's T H I N K I F I C.com/fire. Flippa is the world's leading marketplace to buy and sell digital real estate, including websites, e-commerce stores, SAS, businesses, apps, and other online businesses get access to a free instant valuation plus insights on how to improve sellability for your business at flippa.com/fire.
Killer Resources!
1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
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3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!