Start your business in Africa via the Diaspora
When I returned home, I thought that I knew everything. I was too far away, I came back home feeling sick, and my depression was making it difficult for me to decide if I should return to Africa or leave America. But I was able to pack my bags and leave.
Now I realize that I don’t know anything.
The fast-paced world is very different from life in Africa.
People change and each second matters. Minutes and seconds can be used to quantify almost everything. It is easy to get used to a schedule. You can predict what you will do tomorrow and what you will have tomorrow.
Culture is also so diverse and constantly changing. This is how I describe my experience of moving across continents. Imagine that you go fishing with your friends. You are relaxed and looking for bait. Then you feel the tug and pull on the line. Your friends are pensive and all that you can see is the big fish fleeing. But you don’t let that stop you from jumping in to catch it. It is obvious that you are covered in oil, but you don’t know it. Although you think you’ve never been away, you’ve been swimming for so many years and have experienced so many complicated things in your head, but you don’t realize it.
Keep these things in mind when you decide to return and start your business venture.
Your plan is useless. To really understand what happens and how it works, you must be present on the ground.
TIPS:
Ask as many questions to as many people as possible, but make sure that you are able to answer all of them. Don’t trust anyone, but at the sametime, don’t harm anyone.
You will need to persevere through many trials. You will experience frustration and pain on a daily basis if you don’t have patience. It is easy to get used to everything happening so quickly that you have to be able to relax and take it all in stride.
Keep in mind that you are looking back with a smile smeared with oil. The people who left you do not get it. They don’t understand your thoughts and are not able to understand why you have changed. It is easy to let your temper run wild.
No matter how hard we try to embrace change, it is something that is difficult to face. In fact, US studies show that changes in profession, death, or moving can cause depression. It’s like starting over. It started where you were born and it will continue to be started when you return.
Do your research on the things you want to undertake.
It is hard work and you will never be able to do it all. Expect to learn new and unexpected lessons about how it works. You can share your feelings with people you trust. Some people change in a matter of months.
It is said that home is where your heart is, and you can call it east or west depending on what business opportunities you get.
Abraham Lincoln’s statement regarding his job couldn’t have been more clear: “I wish so to manage the affairs of the administration that, if at the ending, I have lost all other friends on earth, at least I will have one friend and this friend shall be down within me.”