Responding, Not Reacting, To Life -Zig Ziglar

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When you respond to life, that’s positive; when you react to life, that’s negative. Example: You get sick and go to the doctor. Chances are good that after an examination, she would give you a prescription with instructions to return in several days.


If, when you walk back in the door, the doctor starts shaking her head and says, “It looks like your body is reacting to the medicine; we’re going to have to change it,” you probably would get a little nervous.

However, if the doctor smiles and says, “You’re looking great! Your body is responding to the medication,” you would feel relieved. Yes, responding to life is good…

A few years ago, there was much turmoil in the U.S. job market. People were losing their jobs through downsizing, mergers, and takeovers. This created some unusual opportunities for many people. For example, the Wall Street Journal reported that in a five-year period, more than 15 million new businesses were created, well over half of them by women. Very few of the women had any marketable skills, and all of them had great financial need.

Most of the new businesses were “trust” businesses, meaning that the women collected the money before they delivered the goods or services. Many, possibly most, of those new businesses would never have been started had not an unfortunate event occurred in the people’s lives. When those events did occur, and needs became obvious, the women chose to respond, and there is little doubt that many of them are better off now than they were before…

The message is clear: If you respond to life instead of react to it, then you’ve got a much better chance of achieving success.

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Why I failed as an entrepreneur –

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Just like most young professionals I wanted something exciting fortunately for me I had a horrible supervisor at my first job out of college so the only option in my head was to start my own business part- time then focus on it full-time once I start making revenue.  So I did my research and realized most Africans were interested in moving back home but couldn’t figure out ways to find a job.  So I decided to launch a career recruitment site – CareerAfrik.  Sounds simple – provide a platform were African professionals in the Diaspora can load their profiles and Companies in Africa can find them, that was the goal. But it wasn’t that easy I made a lot of mistakes on my way to building this collapsed business idea, some of them are listed below –

  • I really didn’t have a business plan  – The idea was all in my head, I had papers all around my room with ways to make this business a success but I never sat down to write out a plan.  So funny how everything sounds right in your head but you have a hard time putting it down in paper.
  • I wanted advice from everyone – To be honest when starting a business you really don’t need everyone’s opinion 90% of the time when you talk to people about your idea they will tell you it is great. They are not lying – all their lives they have wanted to start a business and hearing you talk with passion in your voice, who are they to crush your dreams. In my own opinion talk to people who have had success in launching a business they always have the best advice.
  • No Capital – I wanted to build a technology business on a budget, which was an error. If you believe so much in your business and you need start up funds – raise capital. Obviously you can build a prototype on your budget but don’t make it your final product.

There were other things that added to the collapse of the business however, the three above were the foundation of the others. I did not think of a lot of things when I was trying to launch CareerAfrik but I am so glad I tried and I plan on launching more start ups in the future.

P.S. I have a new job now – loving it so far!!!!!Image