Accra, May 06, - 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.
GNA.
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