No one is born an entrepreneur, Mr Alex Mould, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has said.
He said people need to adequately prepare themselves for entrepreneurship; and that they need to have the right mind set and to think a lot about what they were doing.
Mr Mould, who is also the Consultant, Milstreet Capital, made these remarks during a panel discussion over the weekend at the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, Accra.
The panel discussion was part of a durbar and colloquium organised by the College of Education, UG, as part of activities marking the 70th anniversary celebration of the university.
The University’s 70th anniversary celebration is on the theme “Celebrating excellence, shaping futures”.
The panel discussion dubbed “Linking Education to Jobs: How ready are students for entrepreneurship”, had other panel members to include; Mrs Jocelene Buckman, Director, UG Career and Consulting Centre; and Mr Philip Dela Zumanu, an Entrepreneur and a Doctoral Candidate, School of Continuing and Distance Education, UG.
Others are Mr Ebenezer Owusu, CEO, Vendyads; and Mrs Emi-Beth Aku Quantson, CEO and Founder, Kawa Moka Limited.
Mr Mould said those who want to succeed as entrepreneurs need to research on what they were doing; declaring that “they should understand that they will fail a number of times”.
He explained that to be successful, entrepreneurs would go through a learning curve, but they have to prepare for it.
“You have to make sure that you are quite versatile not only in the idea that you have, but how you are going to execute the idea,” he said.
“You have to make sure that you get the right people to assist you; to do that you have built up the right team.”
He urged young entrepreneurs to look at investors who were interested in their line of business and young entrepreneurs also needed mentoring in areas that they had lesser strength; stating that “you really need to be committed to the course”.
“Entrepreneurship is about commitment, is about having the right mind-set and is about execution.”
Mr Mould noted that entrepreneurship was also about making a difference.
On his part, Mr Owusu said the universities could do more regarding to how students were prepared for the job market or even to become entrepreneurship.
“It is about time the students took more interest in entrepreneurship rather than just graduating and wanting to get a job in a bank or somewhere,” he said.
“They are not assured of any job, but the best jobs they could get are to use their critical thinking powers to be able to look for problems in the societies and solve them, whiles making profit from them.”
Mr Zumanu said in entrepreneurship commitment to one’s ideas was very critical.
He cautioned young entrepreneurs against sharing of their ideas with people; adding that someone might end up stealing them.
Mrs Buckman noted that time management, decision making and problem solving were critical in entrepreneurship and advised students of the University to patronise the services of her Centre.
Mrs Quantson said entrepreneurs must be innovative in finding solutions to societal problems.
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Source: GNA
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