I am Arua Khamis, a young African female entrepreneur And today i want to talk to you about entrepreneurship. I would also like to know,Are you an entrepreneur already in the industry? A starter or may be even you are an “afraid to be entrepreneur”? Don’t worry I hope today you will learn something.

With the world’s biggest population of youth, Africa has a 40% population of youth between age of 15 and 24 of which a big number is not in school and many dropping out of elementary education is a sad story to tell with all the riches and opportunities in Africa.

This doesn’t mean that African youth are worthless because to be honest with you, many of them have dreams and goals but all covered in darkness,Most of them seeking employment without careers (man power) and with a big number of graduates from college who are still unemployed due to the “no work experience” factor. Well just as knowledge is power, you from the other side of the world reading this,go and tell those who didn’t get a chance to read this about the reality that is out here.If you have a dream and you believe in your  dream, it’s yours and nobody else’s and it is your duty to protect it.

My question is apart from giving all those excuses that life is hard, no jobs, no capital, what have you done to make your dream come true? What have you tried time and again falling and waking up again and again ?? All this comes down to how you prime your mindset…..

You might tell me you have no money but what do you do with that one cent when you get to buy credit for data plan (internet) You Go to WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and keep complaining to your friends how hard life is and other times simply browsing finding out gossip about celebrities who broke up with who, who did not dress up well for that red carpet, who did not do her make up well,… All that and then you want to complain?

Be honest with yourself how many times have you bought data plan (internet) out of that one cent you claim to be poor with and went on to Google to search how successful people got there?

How many times have you got that cent and made a research about your dream or Made a research on your project? How many times?  And then you want to complain? How many times have you gone to a public library and grabbed that book that talks about that dream you have or that project you want to work on ?

You might be giving me excuses like I don’t have a library in my home town,… How many times you have walked on foot miles to reach that library or how many times have you approached anyone in the field you are into and tried to figure out how they got there or may be even get advice from them? How many nights have you gone sleepless thinking of your dream and waking up and doing something about it

For your information I spared my sleep out of a busy life to let you this because I care about you and that tight save you from a trap or even open your eyes for life.

See am not saying all this because am not on social media or that I don’t have time to relax in my life.I do but I don’t put mediocrity above my dream. Life is tough and nobody has it easy, no body has all the answers and to be honest with you when I started I didn’t have any idea about how it’s gonna work or anything .All I had was a deep feeling in my heart that this is what I want then I took the first step.

Along the way I fell so many times and I keep falling. I was afraid of hearing a no, I was afraid of uncertainty, I was afraid of being laughed at by my friends. I was afraid of almost everything but above all I wanted it so bad ……. And that made me take action and along the way I learnt a lot. See I was once just like you Complaining about everything and doing nothing.

Sometimes it was even hard to get out of my bed just because laying down in a sleep felt so good rather than facing the harsh reality but for how long are you going to sleep and hide? You will sleep the whole day but when you wake up life will have doubled it’s troubles and the more you sleep the more it doubles.

Am not saying this maybe because I own a Ferrari or a tower No. I am still on my way but what am sure about is that am far way from everyone who isn’t trying because the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and that step is to decide.See when you give you get more…… I couldn’t wait to own a tower to come back and open your eyes and show you what you have to do …..

Am here to tell you that if you want anything in life you have to go for it
But one thing is that you have to prime your mindset to believe in your dream even when your best friend, brother, sister, teacher, coach, girlfriend or wife or husband or anyone you love doesn’t believe in it.

It is your dream not their dream. It is your responsibility to protect it. You have to be persistent, determined and unstoppable. You have to stop running away from pain because without pain you couldn’t grow or get transformed. See life isn’t happening to you, life is happening for you. You might not understand it now but when you look back someday you will see that your problems were your stepping stones. Am not going to promise you that everything is going to work out right when you go into it but just as you would take a road (route) to your home on an evening,You have to keep walking until you see your home, if you feel tired rest but remember if you rest for too long the night will cover up before you get home.

When you meet stones along your road to your home put them aside and keep moving until you see your home , if you see a hole jump, a river learn to swim,a bridge walk over it but whatever the case go for your dream.

Hey you out there who wants to be a successful entrepreneur,You are on the right truck and I want to remind you that the biggest assets you have are your mind and time. Don’t act like you are going to own that forever, you won’t live forever so stop taking all that for granted. How much did you pay to own today? So start using every opportunity that comes your way and grow on a daily basis! How bad you want success will be proved by how bad you work on it every single day crying behind closed doors, sweating, bleeding blood,etc

When you are already in pain don’t quit until you get a reward for it What you have to know is that capital is there but as it is,There is no money hunging on a tree waiting for you,You have to earn it. So many people in the world are out there willing to give you money but they want to know if you are worth it.

There organisations looking for people with innovation, social impact, the foreign policy, profit searching organisations,government interventions, etc.

The question is what if that opportunity came along Would it find you ready? Take time to think about that And don’t forget to catch up with me on www.ndangira.net to learn more about entrepreneurship.

Arua Khamis

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