“I don’t like being comfortable, that is one of my mantras.” -Ife Oyedele
You may think you need to have this perfect system or a great story in place before you can begin your journey as an entrepreneur. But that’s not true. Starting a business is more about seizing the opportunity and just seeing what’s on the other side.
Fact: you will have challenges no matter what you do in life, but you have to use those challenges as stepping stones, which will lead you to success.
Staying focused, being flexible, having a support system, and listening to the wise words from our guest will keep you encouraged and motivated to dream BIG.
In this episode, we talked to Ife Oyedele, co-founder of Kobo360, which is a digital Nigerian logistics company that powers trade and commerce across Africa, Middle East and other frontier markets. This company is doing phenomenal which is indicative of the $30M+ they’ve been able to raise and the rapid rate they’re growing.
Here are some of his tips from episode 19 of My Dream Big Club’s podcast:
1. You will only learn how to swim, by jumping in
You either learn through the journey, or you never take that first step and end up regretting it. Part of that is simply getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. “I don’t like being comfortable,” Ife told us. “That is one of my mantras.” Taking risks is all about following through on your curiosity. You can always go back to the safety of your comfort zone, but you’ll never know what’s on the other side until you jump right in and see. Whatever we’re doing, we should be life learners. It’s about being able to take these experiences and learn from them. Regardless of whether or not you fail, you’ll learn something.
2. Support is Key
The reason we started My Big Dream Club was to build a community of support. Entrepreneurship can be a very lonely process. When Ife took the leap, moving from America back to Nigeria, he knew it was a risk. He gave up a stable income when the U.S. dollar was much stronger than the Nigerian Naira, but he needed to know if he could do it. He admitted that immediately after the move, he went through a bout of depression. He reminded himself that he was standing on the shoulders of giants. All of the lessons he had learned from people before him, those he knew personally and those he did not, encouraged him that success was possible. But it was really his support system that gave him the final push to get started. In the end, it’s up to you, but having a support system to encourage you will be instrumental in your success.
3. Be focused, be flexible
When the gears really start rolling on our ideas, it’s hard to pump the breaks. When it comes to crafting our dreams, Ife cautions us to be patient, stay focused, and be flexible. You might have found a problem that you can solve for your market and realized that you could build 7 or 8 products to solve it, but Ife tells us to take it one product at a time. Focus on the immediate problem and find one solution. This approach allows you to remain flexible. If it’s not working, don’t wallow in the product, but move on to the next thing. If it’s working, then take your time to make a solid foundation to build up that product until it’s stable enough for you to change your focus to the next thing. Keep the big picture in mind, Amazon always knew it wanted to become a central source for everything, but they started small with books and honed their process. So should you.
Stay focused. Be flexible. Dream Big.
Click here to listen to MyDBC Podcast Episode 19 and catch up on other episodes.
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