Why I started Entrepreleaders School

Welcome to another Entrepreleaders article. This article will address some questions revolving around my upcoming book, think inside the Box, the whole concept of Entrepreleaders House, and why I am driving this movement.  The question we will focus on in today’s article is, “What made me start Entrepreneurial School?”. When I think about that, there are  two main reasons why I have been propelled to start this school. 

First reason

Reflecting on my primary school, high school, undergraduate school, and post-graduate time. One of the things that challenged me, especially when I was doing my undergraduate and started my first business was the contrast between the knowledge and information we were being given and what is applicable. In the real world, that information is good but it’s not the information we need. For example, I was studying business in my undergrad year, and I was leading a business. One of the things I was needing to apply in my business was so far removed from what I was learning at university. I think many people are realizing that universities, high school, and primary school are incredible, it’s good knowledge. A lot of the bulk of it remains theoretical, rather than factual, and rather than knowledge that can be applied right now. It’s still knowledge that needs to be transformed before it can be consumed into the real world. One thing that challenged me at university was how to make the knowledge we have learned applicable in the real world. This created a burning desire in me, given the opportunity one day, to invent a school, I would do things differently. I would make sure that school is incredibly practical, and based on the real needs of the real economy. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to start a business.

On the topic of business, universities do not teach the concept of failure. All business articles out there taught by entrepreneurs highly encourage the concept of failure. Whereas at schools and universities, they teach that failure needs to be avoided as it will be a huge setback.  While in business failure is the only way forward. An entrepreneur or business person is only successful because they learned from their failure. This concept is one of the few practical things I believe are vital to know when starting a business.  Failure can damage someone emotionally, if you are not prepared to realize that failure is part of the journey, I fear it will stop you from moving forward. In universities, this should be taught by individuals that have gone through it and failed across their journey and can talk from wisdom and experience and not from theory. 

Second reason

The second and more concrete reason why I started, the school is a bit more realistic. In 2018, I launched my very first book “Startup the leadership way”. This book highlights the importance of having people help start and launch businesses, you can’t do it by yourself. This book came out as a result of a lot of failures in me learning that I can’t do it by myself. The feedback that I started receiving from readers was very constructive as my being transparent about my failures and providing practical tips for their businesses inspired many to consider entrepreneurship.  Hearing these words sparked something completely new inside of me, the thought that I shouldn’t stay in this box of just myself and the people within my sphere. I need to shoot it across Africa. I am a visionary and I like thinking big. That is why the motto of our entrepreneurial school is Think big start, Small and Lead with impact. During this time, I had the book reviewed by an African Ph.D. who told me I should proliferate this knowledge across Africa, and translate it into as many languages as possible. This knowledge should be accessible to everyone. Those words birthed the idea of starting a school that teaches these values. I started it as a mentorship program where students will be mentored and have classes. Shortly after I launched the school with 20 students who had signed up on the day, and I used a hotel conference room to run the classes. On the first day, two students showed up, and the cost of renting the room was much higher. I needed a minimum of 10 students to afford the room yet these two students gave me such a spark that after three weeks of courses they were convinced that more students needed to hear these stories. I moved from a mentorship program with tuition to starting a school two years later. At this point, instead of having two students, we add a few more from about 20 to 30 students. Today we have reached over 100 students in South Africa. We have the privilege of teaching some of our classes to students in North Africa, in the Maghreb countries. We have had over 300 students impacted in Gabon over the past three years. My hope in starting this school is that this knowledge won’t just stay in my school but be applied in and shared from high schools to universities across the globe. These concepts will help prevent students from needing to spend 4 to 5 years studying in university only to be unemployed with these skills but no experience and direction of how to apply this knowledge in the real world. These are the reasons why I started my school. I hope it has inspired you as much as it inspired me.