ENT 101
Developing an entrepreneurial
mindset
C. Chris Ofonyelu
Department of Economics, AAUA
May 7, 2015.
“When you determine what you want,
you have made the most important
decision of your life. You have to
know what you want in order to
attain it.”
Douglas Lurton
Preamble
In the recent study by the Federal Ministry of
Education, it was found that:
53% of Graduates in Nigeria are currently
unemployed;
30% of Graduates are underemployed
3% are running a business (self employed)
69% of the Graduates give “there is no job” as
their major reasons for being unemployed.
In the Western world:
 90% of them aspire for self-fulfillment, selfaccomplishment, self-achievement and selfreliance.
 Unemployment has become a reality in
Nigeria and is a world problem
 Entrepreneurship is a vision to solving this
malaise
 Being an entrepreneur implies identifying
opportunity related to needs satisfaction and
converting the need to economic value
 In effect, such activities must contribute
positively to the society
• In general, successful entrepreneur have a
positive image about themselves and have a
‘can-do’ spirit.
• The associated characteristics traits of
successful entrepreneurs includes goal
orientation, self confidence, ambition, delay
of gratification, hard work, acceptance of
responsibility, versatile and technical
competence.
• In Rick Warren Purpose-Driven Life, these
traits were summarized as SHAPE, meaning:
S – Spiritual gifting – your supernatural gifts
H – Heart – what you have passion for
A – Ability – what you can do better than other
people
 P – Personality – extrovert or introvert, intuitive or
factual, feeling or judging, etc.
 E – Experience – something from your background,
family, education, culture, etc.
“The simple man adapts himself to the world;
the entrepreneur adopts the world to
himself.”
Life will not give you what you deserve but
what you ask for. Thus, you have to demand
for it
The place does not make you but you make
the place.
The tone in these quotes derive from the
mindset.
• In this, where the ordinary person perceives a
problem, the entrepreneur sees an opportunity to
add value and make profit.
The mindset of an entrepreneur can be seen in the
following short stories.
Two sales men were sent to a very remote and backward
country to sell shoes. On getting there, each saw the
inhabitants walking around on bare feet. For the two
salesmen, it was different reactions. For one, “there is no
market for shoes here, because the people walk around on
bare feet”. But for the other, there is an unlimited demand
because everyone in the country needs a pair of shoes”. What
is inherent in this story is that the second salesman has the
SHAPE of an entrepreneur but this is lacking in the first.
Kola Ibitolu and Tope Akiolu were both graduates of University
of Ibadan from Economics and Sociology Departments
respectively. Both happen attended a job interview around
the popular bank street of Lagos. Having waited four hours for
in the huge crowd invited for the eleven openings of the bank,
they became tired, and were hungry. So Kola went out for
food but Tope remained in order not to miss the interview in
case it becomes his turn so soon. In the course of searching
for a nearby restaurant, Kola discovered the closest was over
500 meters away from the mainland. So, while eating at the
restaurant, an idea came to him of the hurdles the workers
around would have been passing through every day to take
their lunch. Motivated by the need, he never returned to the
interview and went to procure an open van which he turned
to a mobile restaurant. That action was his hit. Today, he has
three of such outlets and Tope though did the interview but
was not still not employed till date.
o Another equally interesting story goes like this:
While enjoying a vacation in Florida, Dr. Hauck wondered
about the sand on the beaches where he sat. At night he took
a mineral light out to explore and saw an interesting
fluorescence. He decided to ship samples off to a lab and
discovered it contained important elements for atomic use.
He used his connections in Washington D.C. to get permission
to mine the sands along the east coast of Florida which
provided him with hafnium, a metallic element which is used
for control rods, the safety valves for nuclear reactors. Others
sat on the sand too, but they just didn't ask themselves any
questions!
- culled from Bamiro (2014)
• It is the perception of opportunity by
entrepreneur that has led to one of the
traditional definitions of the entrepreneur as
creative and innovative.
• It is commonly thought that the
entrepreneur’s creativity leads him to
breaking new grounds by doing new things or
to discovering an innovative way of doing
what other people are already doing.
Some Facts
In Nigeria, the majority of (young) entrepreneurs source
their start-up finance from family and friends
E.g. Dangote started with a N200,000 loan from his uncle
(Sanusi Abdulkadir) at age 21 in 1978.
Folu Ayeni started with personal saving of N15000 in
1997 by the wife to start the tantalizer business
The ability to secure finance depend on the viability of the
intended business and how creditors are convinced to
want to share in the risk of the venture
The list of wet blanket ideas from Bamiro
(2014) will captivate us:
• Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try
and find oil? You’re crazy.”
Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his
project to drill for oil in 1959.
• “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to
be seriously considered as a means of
communication. The device is inherently of no
value to us.”
Western Union internal memo, 1876.
• “The wireless music box has no imaginable
commercial value. Who would pay for a message
sent to nobody in particular?”
David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his
urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920’s.
• “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in
order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be
feasible”.
A Yale University management professor in response to
Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight
delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal
Express Corp.
• “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
• “We don’t like their sound and Guitar Music is on way
out”.
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles,1962.
• “Heavier than air flying machines are impossible”.
Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
• “If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The
literature was full of examples that you can’t do this”.
Spencer Silva on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M
“post-it” Notepads.
• “Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and
reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum
against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled
out in high schools.”
1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard’s
revolutionary rocket work.
• “You want to have consistent an uniform muscle development
across all of your muscles? It can’t be done. It’s just a fact of life. You
just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an
unalterable condition of weight training.”
Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the unsolvable problem by
inventing Nautilus.
• “I think there’s a world market for about five computers.”
Thomas J Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM.
• “The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in
explosives.”
Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project. [And,
of course, the bombs more than went off!]
• “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.”
Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole
Superieure de Guerre.
• “Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future
scientific advances.”
Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and the
father of television.
• “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US office of patents,
1899.
• A major lesson from the first story is that the
second salesman saw the opportunity the first
never saw.
• A successful entrepreneur has a clear and
communicable vision of the opportunity he
wants to create or exploit.
• When the two salesmen got to the field, the
mindset of the first saw disappointment while
the second saw opportunity.
• In the second story, Kola saw the opportunity
and pursued it but Tope was held to a no risk
venture. No risk, no venture, no success.
In AAUA, I look forward to a time, when students
with interest in transport would walk up to the
Vice Chancellor to sign a 10-year contract to
manage the transport system of the University:
 Acquire good spacious buses to fleet the campus
in the short term and save students from the
stress of long waiting and queuing time losses.
 These rooks around the university have limited
our landmass, and constitute a structural
constraint to our expansion. Thus, we need
innovation to unbound this limitation
I look forward to the time when students after
undergoing this course would walk up to the
Vice Chancellor with ideas on how to level
these rocks, and transform the chippings to
inestimable wealth.
The rocks have wealth content – minerals
components of economic values
I look forward to when this campus would take
charge of her markets – in pure water, baking,
graduation gowns, servicing of vehicles,
printing press, etc, in a PP arrangement
• The novelty with which Ekiti State Governor,
Ayo Fayose possessed the minds (votes) of the
electorates to delivery the majority votes to
him in 2015 general election is still very green.
This feat could not have been without from a
talented ‘political innovator’
• This same innovations have moved the likes of
Pastors Adeboye, Kumuyi, Olukoya, Bishop
Oyedepo, and Fr. Mbaka to swelling the ranks
of Christianity in Nigeria and sustaining
spiritual exploits against the occult alters of
darkness in the country.
What is Entrepreneurial mindset ?
 A specific state of mind which orientates human
conduct towards entrepreneurial activities and
outcomes
 A mindset that draws individual to seeing
opportunities in disappointments; and innovation
and/or new value creation in the existing status quo
 The mind set that is unsatisfied with the existing
equilibrium and seeks to destroy it and impose a
higher one, that is more beneficial/profitable to all
The mind set that is creative, innovative and
value enhancing is the referred to here.
- It is the passion within that fans the flame
of entrepreneurship to limelight.
The succeeding table highlight the activity
level of entrepreneurial motivations in
Nigeria.
Primarily, most entrepreneurial set up are
motivated by the need to improve
opportunity and/or out of necessity.
In the developed worlds, about 10% of the
population chooses to become entrepreneurs
rather than seek employment (Karnani (2007)).
 Bianchi (2007) suggests that in economically
developed countries people tend to become
entrepreneurs by choice, while in the poor
economies people start businesses out of
necessity, owing to the lack of employment
opportunities.
The implication is that with economic
development the share of entrepreneurs in the
economically active population is likely to
decrease as those who were forced to run small
businesses find better jobs.
Why an entrepreneurship Mindset?
Life does not give you what you deserve but
what you ask for; having an entrepreneurial
mindset enables you to take much from life.
The simple man adapts himself to the world; the
man of value adapts the world to himself. All of the
world progress depends on the man of value.
- the man of value here is the entrepreneur, and
it is the mindset that thermostats the world
around him.
What are the benefits of acquiring
entrepreneurial mindset?
 The entrepreneurship in an enterprise is in the ability of
the initiator to nurture it into survival and long term
existence by adapting to new innovations and
developments.
 The key benefit of entrepreneurial mindset to new
entrants is on proper focusing
 While passion may lead you to start your own business,
it is your commitment that will keep you going and
allow you to persevere through the difficult times
ahead.
These two case studies would suffice:
The case of a local entrepreneur
Christian Ofonyelu, a local manufacturer of breadbuns/chinchin/pie. Began in Ikare in 1994 with less
than N20,000. Total, duplicated in Anambra and
River states, with assets deep in million over a tenyear span and presently employs has a staff strength
of over 200 workers across the states
The case of a state entrepreneur
Innoson Chukwuma, from a local auto/motorcycle
spare part seller, to a manufacturer of motorcycle
and vehicle in Nnewi, Anambra state.
Business failure is not shameful, but provides rich
lessons for entrepreneur
This list of 15 Nigerian entrepreneurs that never
finished school would be helpful in seeing the
heights attained by these entrepreneurs become
they had the right mindset.
Late Alhaji Alhassan Dantata – Kolanut trader. He
was the wealthiest man in West Africa during his
time. He started the Dantata dynasty and his
descendants are some of the richest people in
Nigeria (Dangote / Dantata family).
Olorogun Michael Ibru – founder of the Ibru
Organization and head of one of the richest family in
Nigeria.
Orji Uzor Kalu – billionaire founder of Slok
Group. He was rusticated from university for
his participation in a student protest. Though
he was later granted Amnesty by the school
authority, he rejected it and chose to become
an entrepreneur.
High Chief Olu Benson Lulu Briggs – silent
billionaire founder of Moni Pulo.
Femi Otedola – Chairman of Forte Oil,
SeaForce, etc (largest diesel importer in
Nigeria, also owns the largest fleet of ships)
Rasaq Okoya – founder of Eleganza Group.
Did not attend university
Cosmos Maduka – founder of Coscharis
Group (sole distributor of BMW vehicles in
West Africa), dropped out of elementary
school
Cletus Madubugwu Ibeto – founder of the
Ibeto Group (Petrochemicals, Cement
manufacturing)
Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma – Founder of
Innoson Group, manufacturers of IVM motors
and Innoson Plastics
Sir Tony Ezenna – CEO of Orange Drugs,
Inherited a patent shop from his father and
grew it into a conglomerate.
Vincent Obianodo – founder, The Young Shall
Grow Motors (the largest transport company
in Nigeria), RockView Hotels.
Emmanuel Isichei Ugochukwo Ojei – Nuel
Ojei Holdings LTD (Sole distributor of Mazda,
Nuel Autos, Emo Oil). Did not attend university
Ladi Delano – CEO of Bakrie Delano, (a
$1billion investment firm). Did not attend high
institution
Bode Akindele – (Modandola Group). Did not
attend high institution.
Michael Collins Ifeanyi Enebeli Ajereh (aka
Don Jazzy) – famous music producer and cofounder of defunct Mo’Hits Records. Now CEO
of Marvin Records. Dropped out of Ambrose
Ali University Ekpoma after his first year.
Mrs Folorunsho Alakija – (Famfa Oil) – Richest
woman in Africa, did not attend university.
Concluding Remarks
• Developing an entrepreneurial mind set
begins with
. Learning how to create ideas and figuring out how
to communicate our idea.
.
Weber (1930) and Schumpeter (1974) have
observed that entrepreneurship are more
appreciated during economic depression than in
booms.
 The future wealth of Nigeria will rest in the hands of
men who possess the entrepreneurial mindset.
Thank you!
Question and Answers