ESTABLISHING COOPERATIVES Whilst reading the book CAPITALIST NIGGER, one of the most important things I learned was about the Indian community business success which can be credited to their success in using the model of COOPERATIVES. According to Onyeani, when the Indians get to America from their homeland, they are taken in by relatives who provide them with jobs in Indian owned business…live in the same cramped quarters until they have pooled their resources together to buy another business…brilliant!!! Is this something blacks do? Nope! The model of cooperatives was also adopted by some African States and going down the memory lane, most of those that I vividly remember collapsed and the question perhaps is why? I can speculate…our inherent nature of selfishness and greed got the better of us. I concur with Onyeani that black Africans go into business not to serve the customers but to look down upon their fellow blacks who ostensibly are also invaluable customers. I have often wondered…why is it that the Chinese community who travelled across the seas, leaving behind their loved ones, to Africa successful in small and medium enterprises across the country where we fail as locals? What is more remarkable about the Chinese is that they will open up shops in the remotest areas of the country…where we do not see business potential they see a lot of potential customers. When this happens, rather than learn from them how they approach business to make them so successful, our true nature (of jealousy and playing the blame game) instantly kicks in_we then ‘cry foul’ to the government accusing the Chinese of taking our business opportunities…Cheehe! When I was at NUL I remember very well our economics class lecturer explaining to us how the Chinese lagged behind in technology to the Americans AND to catch up, they sent spies to work in the American soil and in the process steal technological ideas…send them back home. I don’t know if he was exaggerating here, he explained to us how the Chinese would dismantle a tractor and rebuild it just to master how it was build and then improve on its design and performance…I mean! That’s absolute brilliance. Surprisingly, Onyeani is reiterating my lecturer’s story, about the Chinese wisdom, in his book. From this lesson I was inspired to learn a few things about a car engine…when I was in my early twenties I more than once took out and dismantled a car carburettor and other parts, clean them up and put them back together. With this little knowledge I don’t take my car to a mechanic for servicing…I do it myself. The Chinese invasion is not only happening in Africa…it is all over the world. I was watching Boston Legal recently, an episode whereby the firm was being taken over by a Chinese rival…one of the board members (Denny Crane) in the firm was very unhappy about the Chinese take over of American businesses…Well! that’s capitalism in operation isn’t it? honestly speaking; you have to admire the Chinese wisdom. Whilst we blacks are busy rapping and break dancing…the Asians are fighting for a stake in controlling the world’s riches. When making a comparison between the Chinese and blacks, this is what Onyeani had to say and this will surely sound familiar to many of us; “Barely three weeks after he (black) closes store and abandons whatever he was unable to sell, a Chinese, Korean or an Arab moves into the same exact spot. Before you can say Jack Daniels, we (blacks) are flocking to the store and before you know it, the owner is thriving, taking our money and reinvesting it in his own Community.” Blacks can learn a lot from the Asians on how to fight back and defeat Western Global economic invasion…also claim a stake. This can only happen if our mindset changes…embrace the wisdom of our adversaries by teaming up together and fighting as one unit (form cooperatives). Someone might ask…if you are so smart_which I am clearly not and never claimed to be, what’s your success story to share? Here is mine; After getting my first degree, my ambition was to be self-employed and there are three initiatives I will talk about AND then you can judge me if you want to; Strive … (Econet Boss) success story illuminates how and why I failed WHERE he succeeded; a good lesson for young blacks with business ambitions to make it through the harsh and unfavourable Africa environment, good enough to kill the drive and spirit of many young black business prospects. The first initiative: I attempted was to start a Screen Printing Business: to print T-shirts and other garments, a business project that the Chinese are thriving in in this very country. The first thing I did was to acquire the needed skill and so I worked part-time at Phuthadikobo Museum (Mochudi – Botswana) during my break-time when I was a student at NUL…my task was to print garments AND to do so I had to master the use of a machine that could print 4 different colours on a clothe in 1 minute time-frame. With this skill I approached BEDCO with a business proposal…it was approved and costed. It was to cost about M30,000 to start the project (This was more than 15 years ago). BEDCO submitted my proposal to Lesotho Bank for further evaluation and financing…when feedback came from Std Bank, the M30,000 required to successfully start the business, was cut to half M15,000 and clearly derailing the project. It doesn’t require one to be a rocket scientist to understand what happened to the rest of the money…that is how the project and many other feasible projects failed and perhaps continue to fail in this country. I thank my Boss (Former PS Mokotjo – Ministry of Trade and Industry) at the time who was impressed by the initiative and supportive to grant me unpaid leave to kick-start my project…that never materialised though. My second initiative: I came-up (invented) with a security device that was meant to be used to save lives. By nature the project could not be feasible in an environment like ours( Lesotho)…it needed a much bigger economy with 100 times the infrastructure that we have. In Africa a project such as that one could (at that time) only be feasible in South Africa…So! I was in a dilemma_where should I go with this kind of business opportunity? Are there people to be trusted in this country…to help me realise my dream? These were the questions that haunted me. I therefore decided first to get patent rights…secure my idea/invention, I therefore confronted the Ministry of Law and Constitutional Affairs (Registrar General ‘s Office) for help. I was told that the body that assesses and grants patents rights is based in Zimbabwe…my spirit dampened there and there_I had earlier visited that country and experienced corruption at its peak. I was not surprised when feedback came from Zimbabwe claiming that someone in America came up with the same idea and so my idea was not original…damn! This also happened more than ten years ago. My third initiative: I saw what I thought was a business opportunity in the Ministry of Communications (LTV)…the tv Station was a great disappointment to many of its clients and I thought I saw what the Gap was to the Station’s success. I submitted to LTV Management a project proposal along with selling to them the idea of privatising their programs…my argument at the time, being that there is talent in abundance in the country that LTV can use to improve the quality of its programs. One of the currently high ranking officials (a junior officer at the time) also an ex-colleague at NUL…was honest enough to confess to me, heart-broken that I should not expect a positive feedback because to succeed you must have the right connections (family and political)…Management is likely to see the initiative as enriching a fellow Mosotho (black) and not look at the project professionally as a way out for Ltv to improve the quality of its programs. Guess What! A decade down the line…Mr. Ntsie got a contract with LTV to do exactly what I proposed to do. Bana beso…there is sooo much business potential in this country: What is missing is a conducive environment to support it. There is hope to succeed even in this unbearable conditions though…just follow Strive’ Lessons to share his extra-ordinary experience to success_becoming a Billionaire . Ke kamoo ke libonang ka teng…through my binoculars
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 20:29:17 +0000
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