Are there any business
lessons we can learn from Conjestina’s boxing life?
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Conjestina won the hearts of many Kenyans after boxing her
way into the international arenas back in 2010. She became the first African
woman to win an international boxing title. Companies like Tuzo Milk went on to
endorsed her. Moreover, she became a national star after appearing on several
adverts including the recent “Back to School”
advert by Tuskys Supermarket Chain.
Recent study shows that most small business people don’t take “hard punches” for long. That’s
why, according to the Economic Survey of 2006, three out of five small businesses get knocked-out in the
first few months of establishment.
Just like Conjestina, small business owners too must learn to
endure “hard punches” in order to achieve business success. In business, jabs
won’t literary land on your nose or ear. Painful jabs like stiff competition, technological change, and lack of funds for business expansion among others will. Here are
the business lessons that we can
learn from her…
1. Failure is Part of the Game
The Economic Survey of 2006 states
that three out of five businesses fails but doesn’t state the number of
businesses that learn from failure and move on. It isn’t the number of times
you fall but the number of times you wake up and move on that count.
Through failure, Conjestina became a
better and stronger boxer and went on to win the International Boxing Title.
Small businesses people must learn
that business failure is part of business cycle. If a certain process or
product fails, the owner should find out what happened. He or she should learn
from the mistake and come up with ways to mitigate failure in future.
What most business owners do is
repeat the same mistake again and again expecting different results. That’s
what Einstein calls insanity.
2. Competition is tight
In boxing, there is always someone
stronger than you. According to me, some of the opponents Conjestina battled were
stronger and faster than her. That’s why she lost some matches.
However, she won most of the matches because
she took the competition head-on. Through battling she became more experienced,
quicker, and stronger.
Likewise, small business people must know that big and established businesses
are waiting to box them. However, they
shouldn’t shun boxing them back. It’s through battling them that they’ll learn
ways of eliminating competition, for instance targeting a certain market niche.
If they don’t take competition head-on, they’ll never learn, achieve business
profits, and probably become quicker and stronger.
3. No Risk, No Reward
One of the major challenges facing
most small business people is the fear of risk taking. The negative “what ifs” hinder most small business
people from opening a store, for instance, they have always dreamt of.
What if I don’t sell anything by end month? What if I don’t get loyal
customers? What if operational costs get out of hand? What if I lose all my
money? What if I make heavy losses? What if I don’t get good employees?
The “what if I get a broken nose?” didn’t stand between Conjestina and
the International Title. Instead, she sought professional coaching to learn how
to take hard punches, jabs, and ways of counter-attacking her opponents.
Likewise, don’t let “what if I lose all my money?” stand
between you and business success. Attending business seminars/forums and acquiring
management knowledge from business experts are some of the ways of learning how
to take “hard punches” and “painful jabs”.
I hope that the above business lessons from boxing sport will propel you to become
a better and wiser small business person.
PS: Kindly help me
improve this article by pointing any typos. In addition, you can suggest more points
that I should incorporate in this article by simply leaving your comments
below.
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