Africa Business Communities

Chioma Nnani: The Courage to Start Again

Happy New Year!

For some, 2015 was a tough one, including for business. I'm not sure I know any business-owners who didn't experience some sort of challenge – from the sole trader to the SME. Even some corporations experienced downturns – evidenced by sackings and redundancies (sorry, reductions in personnel), lower profits, less-than-ecstatic shareholders … it’s a long list.

And now that it's a new year, there's the hope of “This is a new year; it won't be business as usual” vs the fear of “I did all I knew to do last year. It didn't work. What else can I do?”

Yes, there might be things you need to tweak or overhaul about your business model, or your attitude, or something else. But sometimes, the thing you need is courage. Courage to show up. Courage to start again.

I should know.

After losing my business a couple of years ago – a direct result of a malicious but scarily impressive lie told by someone who thought I was too successful for their liking (whatever that means) – it took all I had to start again. Then I upped the ante and started over … in a new country. OK, so technically, Nigeria is not a 'new country'; I just hadn't been back for a while.

Yes, there have been times I've doubted my own sanity.

There have been learning curves and lessons.

Learning curves involving discovering how to translate what I know into products and services for a new market.

Lessons – some of them brutal – in whom to trust. This is a matter for an entirely new series of posts, I promise.

Lessons in the joys of the possibilities of new markets and the realities of new opportunities, created by the internet. Seriously, how did people cope prior to the internet???

There have been debilitating lows.

Times during which I just didn't understand why something that seemed great on paper didn't quite work; times when my heart felt so broken, I couldn't even cry.

There have been highs that would make a kite feel like it was on drugs. Or what I think that might be like … or something like that.

Sometimes, that's all you need – show up and start again.

Frankly, what other choice do you have? Sure, you can sit and wallow, moan and whinge; but what kind of choice is that?

Have a fabulously, successful, ground-breaking, frontier-discovering 2016!

Chioma Nnani is an award-winning author, who also contributes to business, lifestyle and literary publications. One of Africa's most fearless storytellers, she is a two-time UK BEFFTA (Black Entertainment Film Fashion Television and Arts) Award nominee, who consults for businesses, shuttles between Lagos and Abuja, can be reached at @ChiomaNnani and blogs at www.fearlessstoryteller.com

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