By Emma Okonji
The founder and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, the Ausso Leadership Academy (ALA), Mr. Austin Okere, has charged entrepreneurs and business professional to ensure that their business visions are driven and sustained by the “3 Powers of success” (3Ws).
He listed the 3Ws Skills to include: Way Power, which has to do with speaking to aptitude; Will Power which has to do with speaking to attitude and Wait Power, which has to do with speaking to patience.
He made this known while speaking recently with the delegates of the Global Shapers Community, Lagos Hub, an initiative of the World Economic Forum at a Meet the Leader Session hosted at the ALA Entrepreneurs’ Hub in Lagos.
According to him, “The 3Ws are the secrets that will keep every entrepreneur going”. He added that “These principles that I have called the 3Ws have been my guiding mantra through my over 25 years of running one of Africa’s largest technology companies, CWG Plc.
“These three powers include the Way Power, which is the competence you possess to run your business. As a business leader you must constantly learn, unlearn and re-learn. This is how you will glean the critical knowledge you need to run to run the enterprise.”
“Many people typically start a business, create solutions then go about looking for the problems. And when people don’t find buyers, they become disappointed. You first ought to be finding out peoples’ problems and pain points and then proceed to create solutions that ameliorate the pain. Following from there, you go and acquire the appropriate competences to solve these problems.”
The Will Power, according to Okere, is “the resolve to keep going when everyone is saying you should give up. Without commitment you will not start, and without consistency you will not complete”.
“Sometimes people close to you will advise you to dump your venture and seek a proper job. But, what should keep you going at such times is your passion. It is the passion of a footballer that makes him complain when he is benched, despite the fact that he will still receive his pay at the end of the day. Your will power makes you go the extra mile, while your passion makes you persist in your venture while waiting for pay day,” he further explained.
“Most businesses fail because the proprietors abandon them as soon as they face challenges, because it is not yielding as much as they want or quickly enough. After you have put so much effort into your business, you need to patiently wait for the benefits that will accrue from it.
This is the essence of the third power; the Wait Power, which takes you eventually to the light at the end of a dark tunnel,” Okere added.
Speaking on how entrepreneurs and business professionals can leverage mentoring and learning to improve their capacity to maximize results, Okere explored the opportunities that the ALA affords.
According to him, he had set up the Ausso Leadership Academy to provide an opportunity for young entrepreneurs and business leaders to get the opportunity to learn from champions who have walked the path ahead and can point out the pitfalls to avoid.
