Billionaire Tomorrow
True or false?
“I would say to anyone who wants to start a business. You cannot just have passion.” Ever heard the saying ‘If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life’? For most, this seems to be a dream, but is it even true?
David Buckham is the founder of Monocle Solutions; he is also the highly respected author of The End of Money. He is not a regular entrepreneur, his distinctive journey shares insights into false entrepreneurial narratives such as the one above.
“I actually did not want to become an entrepreneur.”
Buckham is a highly intelligent individual with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a master’s degree in Literature from the University of Cape Town. His understanding of complex mathematics and English Literature is an equation few could explain.
“I originally wanted to work for an investment bank.”
Unfortunately, he was never hired by any investment bank, forcing him into a sales job leading to a business focused on selling products and services to financial institutions.
“I got to a point where I was almost 30 years old, and I had gone backward in my career.”
His salesman position is where the first myth of entrepreneurship is debunked; that making sale is difficult.
“Sales is easy when you like to communicate, and if you are knowledgeable about the product.”
Sales did not present a promising long-term prospect, so a different path needed to be forged.
“We experienced one month where there were no sales.”
At his lowest point, Buckham needed to alter the trajectory of his life.
If necessary, an entrepreneur must adapt, change, and find a problem they are positioned to solve.
Buckham found this problem in the complex heart of the global banking industry.
Some of the challenges facing global banks are complex regulation (differing across borders), complex market risk due to trading in different currencies with multiple derivatives. Tied into all these challenges is non-linear mathematics.
Few people can comprehend these factors, even fewer can solve the problems tangled in-between them.
Buckham’s new service came in the form of implementing viable working systems to calculate and aggregate risk and determine potential impact.
“The change was mainly because people were not interested in what I was selling.”
He successfully pivoted his product offering, but a proficient product is not sufficient to earn banking clients. He now faced a new threat, the closedness of the international banking society.
“To get a meeting with a banker is very tough.”
Here Buckham fulfills the well-known truth, the only way to create a successful business is through hard work.
He spent countless weeks without rest, searching for a breakthrough. By leveraging his experience in sales, he used the contacts with whom he had gained trust to find banking clients.
Monocle Solutions now operates in three countries, South Africa, England, and Holland, with over 250 employees.
Yet, a summary of the facts of Buckham’s story fails to reveal what occurs behind the scenes, where Buckham breaks more myths about the entrepreneur’s journey.
“I would say to anyone who wants to start a business. You cannot just have passion.”
Often entrepreneurs are fed the lie that passion is sufficient when creating and leading a start-up.
“People sell the idea you can be successful if you’re passionate- I do not think this is a viable idea.”
Passion is not sufficient because passion is not unique, countless numbers of people are passionate about limitless topics. Passion is not sufficient to differentiate one from the competition.
“A person needs to have significant skill and knowledge. After this, they must be very hard working.”
To attain this significant skill and knowledge, their multiple sources. In our modern age, it is easier than ever to grow skills. YouTube, online libraries, and free podcasts are just a few mediums where thousands of intelligent individuals share their talents with the world.
Once an entrepreneur obtains this knowledge and skills, a competitive edge may be built into their future business.
“There needs to be a basic gap, an entrepreneur must have an advantage.”
How did Buckham develop his edge? To end our conversation Buckham shares a piece of advice a prior lecture shared with him.
“You should always be reading!”
Image Ref: https://businesstech.co.za/
