Strategies for Youth of the 21st Century

STRATEGIES

For Young Entrepreneurs in the 21st Century.

 

 

 

 

 

By

Bethel Chisom Anthony

 

 

 

Life Events can make or mar your youth and forever change the trajectory of your life. Sometimes, these occurrences may be caused by your own acts or by the actions of others (such as the government, your partner, your parents, your extended family, a stranger, etc.), but this does not always matter who is to blame. If we don't make swift and dramatic changes to our course, both in the long run and short term, we will be responsible for destroying our or, even worse, negatively affecting the generations that follow. This book was written at a time when it is now clear that one must actively use their life experience, individuality, positive examples, and sheer determination to carve out a brighter future for themselves and their children, and perhaps even reach the pinnacle of their potential;

This book explains how youth in the twenty-first century can successfully navigate the myriad of perplexities and distractions that come with daily life and develop personally and professionally by strategically putting simple actions into practice while maintaining a mindset of profound self-awareness and understanding of their life's journey. This book exposes secrets and highlights a valid compendium of truths that are firmly important to today’s world and beg for patronage while promising glorious returns almost in the same breath. Life has a series of Events, how you engage with them, experience them, observe them, participate and learn from the lessons and blessings presented by these events will determine how much success you encounter in steering your life in the right direction. As You journey through this book, a personal commitment page is set before you, to help you make a choice; to help you reflect and write down a personal commitment that will mark the beginning of renewed efforts to take your life back.

As you become older you begin to see the difference between what matters from all the distractions; that is (in part) if you don’t allow yourself to be dependent on the lie told to you by your fears, your emotions, the economy, your culture/society, your parents or your education (or the lack of it). Welcome Aboard.

MANAGE YOUR ATTENTION

This is the most coveted resource on planet earth today. Your attention informs the value you place on anything. Almost Everything we see today needs and is calling your attention to remain relevant to you, because the more attention you give, the more relevance it gains on you. We live in an age of hyper distractions; everything is fighting for our attention; remember it costs time, energy and most often money to devote or give attention to anything or anyone;

Think about it, you walk into a store and you see kinds of essential products on the shelve starring back at you, you will almost always notice the design of the packaging; this act of noticing is the attention the producers or manufacturers are hoping for; if you delegate this task of sourcing for materials for your products or services as an entrepreneur, you have saved time and energy (attention) that you could focus on other things that are profitable or instrumental to your overall goals.

If you do business, you have to think about how you will get and retain the attention of people (your target consumer); the attention of everyone (because everyone is somehow related to your target consumer). Attention is vital to the survival of any project or idea or solution in the incubator, before entering the marketplace, in the market and also in the hand of the customer; it doesn’t matter who you are, what ideas you have, the solutions you made; you need people’s attention to sell to them.

To get their attention you have to apply effort with a laser-focused strategy designed to form or contribute to an action plan that you have to execute and repeat (marketing).

So, A fundamental question remains, is your product or solution or idea worth anyone’s attention? We know that attention can be translated to real money; The attention our business and brand demand and get can inform the culture our brand influences and help create a genuine desire for more of what our brands can offer and provide; if what we do can get and keep the attention of a person, it can win the

attention of people, and a lot more people and that in itself is a success. For some of us, we don’t even give our projects, solutions and ideas the right amount of attention, but we expect people in our lives to provide this attention gap for our ambitions; it does not work like that. If you are a young entrepreneur, then you must be able to manage your attention like a Boss. It’s wonderful how the attention I give to something so selfish and personal to me but also fashioned to benefit a lot more people can and will need more attention from me to be perfected and can (as a matter of fact) draw, attract and retain the attention of so many people for a very long time.

Your Attention is vital, everyone knows. Right now, businesses & innovation teams are working to invent new ways to get your attention and keep it, because if they get your attention, then half the job is done. Then there is the problem of retaining attention; for businesses (almost all of them these days), retaining attention has become a priority and or their achilleas heels, a game changer for them, a deciding factor for their continued existence or expansion and of course it should.

All eCommerce websites are following this principle in user design or making of the user interface to get and keep the attention of the visitor or stranger; we are in the age of consumerism, and the competition for attention is stiff, so much so that if you are not asking for attention, then you are only giving your attention to things and people who control or have things to sell to you.

Your Attention is a vital resource, should be sacred, guard it. Our attention is so important; must be guided and restricted if we want to achieve the zenith of our potential. Time is very limited; our physical energy by association with our time becomes very limited as well. Since life is full of uncertainty, we have to be smart about how we devote or give our attention away. The Ten Thousandth hour rule expertly illustrates this truth; the more time (attention) you give to anything; you become very good at it; You become a master of it.

Today we have a situation where; as we age, some of us are still trying to find our life’s path; still trying so many things to see which one clicks and will give us a longing and conviction to devote our attention; while it is very noble to make sure you are happy doing what you love after trying so hard and so much to time to figure it out; it is, however, disadvantageous to you, your family, and dependents on the short and long run; because now you have used a substantial amount of time and attention to try other things that you are not currently doing; even though there are numerous hacks and strategies you can implore to find out where you fit in the universe, what your potential is and focus all your energies and attention from an early start.

There is nothing so wonderful as starting early in life as a youth and an entrepreneur to focus your attention on things that matter to you personally and professionally; things that are aligned to your Life’s path and overall vision; Things that will put you in the trajectory of greatness. Understanding that your attention is greatly important, should be hoarded, must be restricted, should be expensive; should be cherished and cultivated by you, for you; Managing your attention is so vital to staying up in life (in the context of Career, Marriage, Business, Politics etc..) examine how wealthy people have Personal assistants, managers, staffs etc.… the main summary of their essential duties is to manage the attention of their boss indirectly, having in mind that their Boss must at all cost personally focus on things that matter to him/her, his/her family, health, upward & continued success, legacy and the list goes on. The Job to manage your attention is your responsibility. You can choose to delegate it or not; But the consequences of not managing your attention may cost you your life’s work, your happiness and the fulfilment of your potential to the zenith where it should be or be headed. How are you Managing your Attention?

 

KEY TAKE AWAY

Life is and can be very swift; You can’t dwell in the wilderness searching for meaning and for a path that holds meaning and fulfilment for you; you have to as a matter of urgency seek the help of a mentor to help you figure out your life’s path and move almost immediately towards destiny as soon as possible; Time is Limited, so you have to focus your attention on what you are building, you cannot afford to be distracted; the right road is long and filled with perilous thorns that may cut even deeper than anticipated; Time is Limited; As a Young entrepreneur, you must understand that your body has a clock and it’s continuously ticking; so now that you are healthy and agile? It’s the perfect time to focus your attention on your life’s work, on what you are building or your business, entrepreneurial journey, career, ministry and or project.

As a Young entrepreneur of this 21st century, Your idea, solution, service, products, or merchandize must naturally attract attention because it solves fundamental problems the world is having or don’t know its having; whatever you are doing, ensure it can attract attention; because attention triggers patronage with a 90%

success rate; if what you do is amazing enough, it will catch the attention of the right people; if you communicate it enough, it will also keep their attention and this is how you win, even on a global scale.

PERSONAL COMMITMENT / ACTION PLAN

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GOALS

What is your goal in Life? as a teenager heading towards youth, my father would always throw this question at me during rebuke or just to express sheer disappointment in my naughty behavior; This question can be overlooked or ignored, but it’s valid. I believe that you have to attain a good level of self-awareness to understand why a goal is something you must have some of and strive daily to meet.

To succeed as a 21st-century Young entrepreneur personally and professionally, you must strategically create smart goals. So, my question to you right now is What is your Life’s Goal? What is that overarching milestone you hope to attain in life; what is that goal that will be an expression of your potential when achieved? One must have a goal; who doesn’t? who wouldn’t? You should; if you are young and an entrepreneur, having a Smart Goal is an excellent strategy to win and win well in this life. Winning is important because this ensures your children and the next generation get to live well as well and fulfil their potential.

 

Direction is better than Speed. Good knowledge of where you are going, and why the destination is important; is necessary to give your mind, time, energy and resources some focus and direction. Where are you going? there are no two ways about it, if you don’t have a destination of where you are going in mind, you will end up anywhere; in fact, where you are is perfect. Some people run in circles and by the time they realize they are stuck in the same place they were 10-15years ago; they slide into regret, slow and dangerous depression and everything associated with that dark place. Some people are just going, wandering, deceiving themselves that the journey in itself is glorious and all there is; meanwhile they should have a master goal for their lives that defines the objective of the journey; they deceive themselves because they seem to think that their journey is inspiring to people and will cause a great advancement in people’s lives today and generations to come. This book is for

Young Entrepreneurs who hope to effect phenomenal positive changes in the lives of people sharing life with them, living around them and the world at large. If you find yourself in this category then, you must have a goal, a master goal; this is one of the most profound strategies you will get to recruit to become better and best versions of yourself. Again, understanding how to get a goal is your responsibility.

Giving yourself a goal is your responsibility. A long time ago, I had a mentor who told me in response to my question “please sir, can you recommend a goal for me”

he said quickly “ Bethel I can’t create or give you a goal; because I don’t live with you, you are not a kid; I can’t and no one can force you to pursue your goals” and also “you have to set goals for yourself and understand that, your success in achieving those goals depends on the level and quality of attention (translated to time, energy, intellect, resources etc.) you give to your goals. I can’t say if I felt disappointed or powerless at the time; but those words stuck with me to date most importantly they first made me curious to begin imagining what my life could be, thus helping me conclude what will make me extremely happy; what goals will be an expression of my potential. I crafted a major goal for myself after that session; earlier in life; yes, I did;

 

A goal can be dynamic; a goal can be the leading goal for other goals; as a young entrepreneur, when you successfully craft a real goal; you begin to realize that there are tangible milestones that must be reached, and achieved before getting to the goal.

These are goals that form the bedrock and foundation that help the master goal makes sense. A house consists of the Foundation, Building & Roof. The goal is to build or create a House that meets all the demands and requirements of a house (at least) and maybe inspire others to build their houses, but to achieve this; a foundation has to be the focus initially; the foundation becomes the first goal, the goal that precedes some other goals before reaching the main goal. You will begin to see that the skills, natural resources, artistry and engineering finesse needed to start and finish a

foundation may just be needed for the foundation alone; but attention is needed and will also be paid for to complete the first goal of building a formidable foundation.

 

Goals must have a time frame, this is what makes them smart; you don’t want to make a goal without a timeline; such goals do not invoke urgency, cannot be shared with others who might help without being seen as a semi-joke; as they won’t be considered serious; goals without a timeline can easily be forgotten or traded or perceived as mediocrity; A goal with a clock on it; makes it smart; demand urgency around it; inspire you to leave your comfort zone and grow rapidly to the person you need to become to achieve the goal, the successes you need to achieve. So, craft a major goal with a clock around it; as you study and continuously study that goal you will begin to feel the innate need to craft new short-term and long terms goals that are instrumental to accomplishing the major goal. So, an example of a goal is “I want to celebrate my 40th birthday as a certified/licensed Surgeon” to accomplish this goal, you must have cardinal short-term and or long-term goals like scoring high in major exams leading up to the licensing exams; Raising funds to attend the right schools etc. A major goal may span a lifetime; To accomplish a major Life goal there are numerous short-term and long-term goals to cross off one’s list; these cardinal short and long-term goals are important, it also helps to build confidence which is a required fuel to continue pushing in the face of trials and hardship towards the major goals. Short and Long term goals must also share the characteristics of the major goal (such as Specificity, Measurement, Attainability, Realism & Timing). My dear, its important to have goals, if you don’t have and push your goals, you will age, you will become unhappy, and you will be stuck because you now spend your life grudgingly helping to achieve someone else’s goals to avoid illegality or being a nuisance to society. Get Goals, get Long term and short-term goals. Get Busy.

 

KEY TAKE AWAY

Goals are important things to have; it’s easy to forget the importance of goals, so much that care is not given to crafting one. Goals provide a vehicle for our actions to thrive and create something meaningful; most times; people’s goals are the driving factor behind our diligent actions and effort. It’s a tragedy to work all your life to see other people’s goals come to fruition without having the liberty to dream, create goals and pursue them. As Young Entrepreneurs of the 21st century, it is important to create goals for ourselves; goals that will keep our attention busy.

As an individual, you have to set personal goals for yourself; As an entrepreneur, you have to set goals for your business, brand and or company; you have to work on those goals, with the maximum attention available. You must understand that goal setting for you and your business has to be SMART to make sense; i.e Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Time-Bound; You must also understand that Goals may collapse; goals can change; goals can be rigid and flexible, but goals are needed and we must write them down; remember them and use them to accomplish greatness.

PERSONAL COMMITMENT / MY GOALS

I will

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MANAGING COST

Everything has a cost. There is a popular saying that even in Freetown, nothing is free. For us to breathe, continuously we have to give carbon – dioxide, you know this is the price we pay for oxygen. We cannot refuse to pay this price. They say the best things in life are free, they did not mention that it came about at a cost. The freedom that most of us enjoy came at a cost, someone sometime paid for this freedom; it does not matter who put up the price or the deciding factors that make up the price, the bottom line is that there is a price that was paid. I strongly believe that everything of Value is a function of managing various costs or the opportunity cost of an alternative; So, when we receive anything for free, we must understand that there was cost considered and a decision reached to make that thing available to us. Understanding this concept of the cost will help us be self-aware and aware of people around us, and be grateful for every little thing they do for us.

 

I used to protest the price of movies until I became a content creator, I was shocked at the astronomical effort required to shoot a video clip and also edit and publish it; it became clear to me that Businesses need to understand all their costs so that they price their products and services accordingly so as not to make an abundant mistake, consequently crashing their business. After years of doing business, I have learnt both in theory and in practice (experience and observation) that nothing is free, if you are not paying for the product, you are the product. It’s either you are paying with your time, attention, energy or money or with something for anything you want.

Everything comes at a cost; even social media is not free. I told a client this, he gave me a sudden look, I could sense doubt and confusion in his glance, I smiled because he genuinely did not know that (like many others) Social Media is not free. Social Media has evolved from a social networking site to a Personal and Public business Branding & Marketing outlet, A community for influencers & communities sharing

and selling ideas, agendas, and solutions through storytelling every second and lots more; than just a social networking site. Facebook is currently investing and encouraging certain types of businesses or vendors i.e content creators to produce more content for free so that you can buy with your attention. Like we said earlier your attention is way more valuable than some of us are willing to admit Nothing is Free, everything has a cost. If you understand this concept, this truth; you will have won a substantial victory in your youthful life. As a youthful entrepreneur of the 21st Century, you must understand your cost; all your cost at all times, so that you can make informed decisions. Decisions form the bedrock or foundation of actions that we take; when an action is taken by an individual we can easily deduce if adequate thinking was employed before the decision and the action itself was taken.

 

Time is a resource that seems to be in abundance, but it’s not really; there are unfortunately other resources at our disposal, whose efficiency and effectiveness are tied to our time; that is our energy, the sharpness of our brain power and memory; the health of our blood cells, organs etc. so if we use our time alongside our energy, intellect, health etc. to engage in activities that are not productive or do not add value to us in the long or short term, personally and professionally, we would have definitely lost that time which was a very valuable asset; As Youth, we may not be able to consider or fathom the enormous consequence of the lost time until later in life; when we wish that we had invested our time in more profitable things.

There is a price for greatness; there is a price we must pay to achieve or attain/actualize our goals; This price is the cost that life is presenting to us, we must meet this demand, and we must pay. On the other hand, we must manage our resources to develop our products and solution of value by cutting down costs as young Entrepreneurs.

 

Again, as a Young Entrepreneur in the 21st century, your life is a project and you are the project director. Your Time, Energy, Brain Power, Health, Money, family, friends and foes are the unique resources given to you to build your life into purpose and achieve greatness in your endeavor. The consequence of not managing these resources adequately may cost you your Life’s purpose; it may cost others who God has destined to be blessed or lifted through you to be delayed or stagnated.

Again, as a Young Entrepreneur of the 21st Century, you must have a project or series of projects (businesses) that will impact the world positively; this project can be a solution, an idea, an agenda etc.… but this project becomes solely your responsibility; for you to be profitable you must learn to reduce your cost (the resources you need to develop/design and or present the solution or idea to the world).

 

The cost of a Solution or an idea is the total of all the resources combined or expended in developing and or making that idea or solution into something of value.

Value is the reward for Money. Money is an expression of value; money can be used to trade anything; a life of lack, poverty, bad health you name it. To produce/make an idea, one must manage the resources needed and or acquired which is usually limited in quantity per time. If one does not learn and employ innovative ways to manage these resources? one will not be profitable in developing and selling the solution he/she has for the world. In Business school and marketing masterclasses, there is inevitably a continuous argument that every entrepreneur must do their feasibility studies and surveys intermittently because these exercises help the entrepreneur understand what the cost of its business survivability and progress will be per time. What is your Cost?

 

 

KEY TAKE AWAY

Every Project has a cost. Every opportunity we have to make something worthwhile; is a chance for us to manage resources available to us, within our reach efficiently.

We know that resources are scarce; so, we have to make do with what we have, wherever we are, with what we can while we can. Time is a typical example of scarce resources; As a Youth, your major life Goal or Long term goals are your projects it is however left to you to manage the resources available to you, and manage the cost of seeing that project come to reality without wasting all your resources on petty things or distractions; Sometimes, we don’t know how much resources will need to expend to accomplish our project;

Because of this uncertainty about Life, we must learn to manage our resources and overall cost. As a Business Owner, entrepreneur and manager; surveys and planning should be habitual and natural for you; because you must always consider what is obtainable in the market; you must try to understand and evaluate options and alternatives to see which is the best quality so that you can be able to effectively cut down on cost without compromising the quality and objective of your solution, ideas, agenda, product and or service. Understanding and managing costs will also help you to grow your business efficiently.

PERSONAL COMMITMENT / MY GOALS

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RELATIONSHIPS

Friends and Family make up our Support system. For Family, we do not or cannot choose who they are; we cannot pre-determine the role our family will play in our lives; while the natural family is eternal, the nature and quality of our relationships in our family becomes our burden and responsibility throughout our lives. However, we get to choose our friends, people we want to share life with, people we long to trust, people we have decided to overlook their shortcomings and help them achieve success in their endeavors and also enlist their support and trust that they’ll give freely without condemnation and condescension. Friendship is an important part of our lives; sadly, some people have decided to go through life without friends, some are constantly confronted with the idea that they may never experience true friendship, and some others will reap what they sow as they have been very bad friends and they suffer while at peace to a certain degree. Ironical right?

 

Everyone needs a friend, more so a young entrepreneur in this 21st century; there is the saying; if you want to know your true friend start a business the impact of a physical and present friend in our lives is arguably one of the most profound therapies one could hope for while navigating the torturous adventure of life in its earnest. Most young people have friends on social media who may be present but also virtual; Life has presented you with an opportunity to make your bed, to hack the system for your advantage; to pick your poison or blessing; by choosing who your friends are. So, some major and important questions like Who is your friend?

Do you have friends or do you have a friend? For some young entrepreneurs, these are very stressful questions; but it is a necessary question or truth worthy of hasty confrontation; Let’s be very honest with ourselves we need friends; everyone needs a friend. Especially the Young Entrepreneur who has decided that they don’t need any friend in their lives because of some history of lack of genuine friendship or

betrayal from supposed friends; Yes, you can live without a friend; but the rather difficult question is can you thrive in career, business, ministry or educational pursuit without a friend? the answers to these above questions can be debated and are largely depending on the worldview of different persons. Another popular saying postulates that retaining wealth has so much to do with your circle of friends; But the truth remains, everyone needs a friend. So, choosing a friend for life or at the different stages of our lives is a strategy we can’t afford to overlook or downplay. A friend represents a pillar of your support system or the support system in the absence of family. Life is brutal and torturous at best; A friend can and will ensure that you sometimes forget the pressure and the torture for snap seconds or minutes or days; yes, and this too is important for our mental wellbeing; remember that our mental health is a great resource we ought to manage well as a 21st-century entrepreneur.

 

A friend is someone interested (without any selfish motive) in your personal and professional development; a friend demonstrates this interest through their actions (whether in your presence or not, with your knowledge or not, at your request or not); A friend is someone who loves you unconditionally and also have decided to be in your life and work out a lifelong relationship with you with written, unwritten, spoken and unspoken rules guiding the friendship and forging it into something formidable. So, choosing a friend, a good friend is a herculean task because one must significantly conquer the self-awareness battle to know what kind of friendship is important and can help transport them to the version of themselves they hope to attain. The quality of friendship we have or groom can impact our inspiration and determination in our pursuit of greatness. As a young entrepreneur, your friends must be able to inspire you to do more, be focused, and avoid and minimize distraction, while being the necessary distraction needed to maintain a healthy mental state or work-play balance; your friend should enable you not to disable you.

As Life happens, people begin to change, people begin to desire different things; as people attain higher levels of self-awareness, they may sometimes shift their attention, resources, energy and time from their friendships; As a young entrepreneur it’s important to learn how to evaluate and review your friendships and other relationships; so that you can understand to the full extent of their usefulness to your goal and life’s purpose. A significant part of reviewing your friends and relationships is checking to see if you have been a good friend; if there are ways you can be a better friend, also see if you have been adding value to your friend because it’s not ok to receive Love and warmth with grace and not give same Love to a friend. Every friend is entitled to Love from their friend or friends. Moving on from a friendship that is not enabling you to be a better version of yourself is a critical step in your self-awareness journey.

 

As Business Owners, Young entrepreneurs must understand that networking, initiating and starting relationships for their business success is beyond critical for the continued success of their enterprise. Business friendships, Partnerships and customer relationships are essential and pivotal to a business’s continued growth and expansion. One major characteristic of the 21st-century marketplace is the multitude of similar solutions, ideas, products and services that are either similar in function or just an alternative, each trying at best to provide a better and superior argument for the consumer to choose by choosing them. So, Partnerships with significant and similar business interests can tremendously transform the outlook and growth of a business or project. Creating a relationship with customers can ensure continued patronage, Word of mouth marketing and referrals, and useful and constructive feedback.

A good friend is a disguised mentor and or a coach because they actively and consciously work to bring out the best in you; they invest in your personal and professional development constantly urging you to discipline yourself and put in the

work. Again, it takes a special level of self-awareness to agree with oneself that finding and engaging a mentor is critical to their personal, professional, business, career and leadership journey.