A recipe for Failure- Lack of Discipline.

Business requires discipline. One of the most important things to be disciplined about is your business expectations. There is a big difference between ambitions, high expectations and greed.Now English is not our first language, so let the dictionary help me first make the distinction for you. Greed is different from ambition. Ambition is a focused commitment to achieve a certain goal.

For example, I can make it my ambition to make my business the most profitable business in Africa. I am focused and I am committed- I work hard, I toil day and night, I do research to find out what I can do to make my business better. I constantly look to find out what my competition is doing and work to be better, I find out what my clients want and try to serve them better- all in the effort to make my business profitable.

Greed is different. Greed is an overwhelming desire for something. It often lacks focus, for example, if I am greedy about money, I don’t care how I get it. Today I will be working at a job, tomorrow if someone tells me that I can make more money in business I will go into business. If that business doesn’t give me results quickly enough, my mind will start roaming because all I want is money, NOW! Actually no, what I want is money yesterday!

Greed lacks discipline. Greed is an “I can’t wait” syndrome. People who are greedy will try anything. They will sell fake drugs, they will cheat clients, they will forge documents, because all they want is MONEY. And that’s why they don’t succeed in business, because business is not about greed, business is about ambition and discipline.

In the couple of years I have spent advising people on what to do with their lives- careers, jobs- business I have met many people who set out in business thinking that they will make loads of money, and usually, if they succeed, that ends up being true. However, most of the times, businesses take long to actually succeed and many people give up in frustration or get bankrupt.

I am sure each one of you knows at least one person who started a small business and as soon as it started making just a little bit of money, they started drinking and buying drinks for everyone, the wife started buying expensive dresses and the children were taken to private schools- that is indiscipline. It is the “I just can’t wait” syndrome.

We all know what happens, soon the free cash in the business flows less and less, the business makes less and less, soon it closes and they start another one.

Let me give the example of my friend Jean. That’s his real name by the way. I had only just become an expatriate when he announced he was officially a millionaire- in local currency of course. I didn’t mind enjoying the free drinks he threw around, but I couldn’t help wonder how long it would last. As it turns out, I really didn’t wait very long.

You see Jean was one of those people with a good business instinct. He had gone into Rwanda in the immediate aftermath of the genocide and done quite good business in the construction industry. One or two contracts had landed him the equivalent of about 100,000 USD, pretty good for an African who had only a diploma certificate.

With that money he had been able to buy his family a bit of land, a residential house in the city, not to mention start a small cybercafé for his wife to run on the side.

Jean’s business was a partnership. He was good with people, and his partner had the right papers. You see, to do construction work you have to have certain certifications -especially if you do survey work, which is what Jean did.

Jean didn’t have the papers, but he knew how to get clients, his partner had the papers, but was poor at getting clients. For many years they had shared business costs fifty fifty and profits too. But Rwanda changed that. There was so much money! And Jean had gotten the clients all by himself!

Jean felt he was now ready to move out on his own. He would hire young guys with the papers, they would do the work, he would pay them, and keep the rest. So out of the door the partner went.

At first it seemed to work, but clients quickly realised that the expert in the group was no longer there and they were being referred to young, straight out of college youngsters. They didn’t like it. Jean’s partner (not being entirely stupid) began his own business, and soon managed to get all the old clients to join him. You should have heard Jean’s anger in the bar. How dare he steal my clients! He would fume.

Jean’s just didn’t have the papers to back up his work, and didn’t want to go back to college to get them – remember what I said about some Africans thinking that education after a certain age is demeaning- Jean is one of those. Inevitably, the number of clients was too low to sustain an office. He closed down.As luck would have it, Jean’s wife was still running a cyber cafe and- it was doing very well thank you. With one business closed, Jean felt it was time to expand his wife’s business, but he really didn’t have any ideas. But his brother was doing something very similar business and was about to cut a deal with a company which would provide cheap telephone services for clients to call abroad- a real money maker! Now Jean felt that he had more business experience and could offer the provider a better return for his investment, and so, without his brother’s knowledge, he went, spoke to the provider and got the deal himself!

For about a year the business made good returns- and the relationship with his brother soured. But Jean was okay with that. He was soon back in the bars, saying how well he was doing. But heavy spending and business also don’t go well together, and the service he was offering was soon offered by a dozen others at cut throat rates.

The returns on that business grew gradually lower. As I speak, Jean and his wife are not working. He has sold his car, and the last time I spoke to him he told me he is waiting for the “right kind of business” because nowadays there is no money to be made in “normal” businesses.

But there is no “right business” waiting for him. What he lacks is discipline and focus, he was callous and greedy, and those things simply don’t go well with business.

If this describes the way you operate your business, take it from me, the success won’t last. One thing you will make in plenty though- enemies. There will be no shortage of that.

Business tip for the day:

If you are wondering how you can make money in a cut throat environment without resorting to dirty tactics the response is simple- compete only with yourself. Find ways to improve your business, its efficiency, your client satisfaction and your financial discipline, compete with yourself on how to make each of these things better each financial year, you will be surprised to find yourself way ahead of the pack. The best way to win, is not to compete with others (because then you compete at the level they choose). Compete with yourself, so you are constantly getting better.