swimming and the entrepreneur nexus

Took him swimming today, the more I tried to prevent him from submerging the more he went under. Finally, I let things run their course, he had the occasional unwarranted gulp and all of a sudden he found it to be in his interest to stay afloat. His instinct took over, started to use his hands and feet, and no more gulps for the afternoon. What mattered was for him to know I was there for him and for me to keep shouting words of encouragement, suddenly he was the master and we were learning together. All, I had to do now was instruct and build his confidence; all he needed, was to know I was there. Lesson, being, you have to know the sensation of drowning in order to overcome it. You have to be willing to fail to learn, but you have to learn from your failures. Whatever you decide to do, experience is the best teacher. Most important lesson is in all that we do it goes a long way to achieving results to know you have support you can trust. If we can apply the same approach to building entrepreneurs across the continent (Africa), we can address the huge challenge of poverty. Our success should not be measured by how many people enter the pool, but how many, actually learn to swim. Focus should be more about enabling mistakes to be done with full confidence that support will be there. Time will enable success; however, positive reinforcement is a catalyst, to attaining it, one in great need throughout Africa. Be a change agent for a better Africa. Let us not monopolise what little insights we have, let us instead, be incubators for tomorrow’s giants.