Connecting with New Partners in Tanzania

Hi everyone- We're back. We've been working hard through our challenges to connect with partners in Tanzania. We're heading back to Dar es Salaam next week!

We're happy to say that we've connected with some passionate and enthusiastic young leaders from the University of Dar es Salaam. We're looking forward to working with them to define the most effective 'game storming' (we'll discuss this topic more in the near future) workshops to bring about a change in skills-attitudes-behaviors. We link those three words on purpose because we believe, in the absence of a new entrepreneurial mindset, skill-building will be of limited impact in improving young people's ability to turn ideas into actions.

We'll be back with the next post soon to share the happenings of our trip to Dar. Until then, here's a short video clip that we hope clearly illustrates our approach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LKgErscO6c.

Learning on the road

We are heading to Dar es Salaam in two days to meet with various groups, the most important of which is the youth network. We're excited to be working along side our local partner TAYEN (Tanzania Youth Environmental Network) to find ways to unlock entrepreneurship among young people. 

We're looking forward to getting their feedback on what processes we should use to build entrepreneurial skills and change young people’s mindset – to truly view problems through the lens of opportunities. Our aim is to connect young people directly to their peers, successful local entrepreneurs and business leaders, from within Tanzania and beyond its borders.

We heed a key lesson learned globally – from Silicon Valley to Bangalore – that innovation and entrepreneurship can only thrive when there is a successful local entrepreneurial community. This network will provide two invaluable elements that can help convert ideas to economic value: ‘action peer learning’ and hands-on mentorship. We are seeking to build an entrepreneurial network that matters – one that reflects young people's needs and conditions. Here's a snap shot:

Applying the Old to the New

I came across two very useful books recently: Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People  (I wish I’d read it when I was 20 or even earlier!) and Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup. One is relatively old and the other one is brand new. While the Carnegie’s book was published in 1936 and Ries’ book was recently published, they are both rooted in old concepts.

How to Win Friends and Influence People has had a remarkable shelf life and remains one of the best selling ‘people management’ book of all time. What makes it effective is Carnegie’s ability to clearly articulate key communication/interaction skills, mixed with stories how people apply them in real life settings. 

The same thing can be said for Ries’ book, in which he describes how the scientific method (diagram from sciencebuddies.org) can be applied to the ‘startup’ universe, mixed with real life stories of active believers and users. He defines a startup as “an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”

As we look at the basic steps of the scientific method (whose development goes back at least two millennia), it makes a sense why it would be a good tool to manage a business with so much uncertainty. It is easy to see when we replace the last step, “Report Results” with customer discovery and development – the heart of all successful businesses. The power of iteration – a key component of the scientific method – takes on additional significance as the pressure to find new buyers for any products/services has be to weighed against, quite often, limited resources.

As I reflect on our own work at iVotech, it strikes me how lucky we are to enter the ‘startup’ world at this point. There is a wealth of information and insights from which we can draw. How successful we can be might depend on a simple equation: Process + Product.

Process is something that we can control. Carnegie’s insights about how we communicate and interact with others fit this description perfectly. This process solely depends on ourselves and no one else.

Product (or outcome), on the other hand, has external influences beyond our control. But here, the good old scientific method or Ries’ Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop will go a long way toward managing the uncertainty.

Entrepreneurial spirit

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." – Albert Einstein

Everywhere we turn, economic crises seem to pop up all over the world.  A lot of written words have been dedicated to how best to get out of this predicament. A common theme seems to be: all countries need to adopt an entrepreneurial spirit (or mindset) toward solving their current problems and plan for long term economic prosperity.

While the term entrepreneurship is relatively new, it is certain that many human beings have long approached life with an entrepreneurial spirit, probably going back eons, not years. I suspect that most people intuitively know what it means to have an entrepreneurial spirit. A simple way to think about it is a person’s ability to solve problems with the world as it is. In other words, they are the quintessential 'glass half-full' people.

The entrepreneurial spirit, of course, can exist anywhere. The only difference between countries is how wide spread. And it is not just the developed countries leading the way. As countries like Singapore, South Korea, Brazil, etc. climb up the ladder of innovation and entrepreneurship – and passed many western countries in the process – they serve to inspire developing countries to take the same path – knowing that the long road has its rewards.

As I think about our work in Tanzania, the lesson we need to heed is clear: it is critical that we transform the way people think before equipping them with specific skills. The challenge for us is to continually seek feedback from our customers – the young people of Tanzania – and make sure that the appetite for our work is real and robust.

While there is much debate about whether it is possible to teach someone to be an entrepreneur, the consensus is anyone can learn how to be entrepreneurial. We share the view that, at the end of the day, it is always about people making connections. We have no doubt that engaging local entrepreneurs to share their stories will be the catalyst for transforming half-empty to half-full.

We will evaluate our findings from our recent trip to Dar es Salaam in the days to come and map out our next step. We are excited and undaunted by the hard work ahead and look forward to sharing more with you in the near future. Stay tuned! Cheers, Dat

INAUGURATION OF ANXIETY – THE GOOD KIND

“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it in himself.” Galileo

By the words of this wisest of men, it has taken me a long time to discover what I truly love to do.

Somehow, a postdoctoral research/academic path in chemistry zig zaged to science/health policy, then almost ten years of international development work – first in public health and for the past year, back to science and technology, plus something new, entrepreneurship. Whether it is simply the randomness of life or something else, this path has brought me to where I am now: starting a nonprofit to help young people advance their lives through entrepreneurship.

With this step comes the inauguration of anxiety – enough to keep me awake some nights. Certain expected questions have swirled around my head during these sleepless nights. What do I know about starting a nonprofit? Will I be able to mobilize enough resources to turn ideas into reality? And of course, the all-important “putting bread on the table” question: wouldn’t it be easier to get a job with a steady paycheck?

As I’m writing, I do not have answers for the questions above. But slowly one thing has become clearer: I like this anxiety – it is a good kind of anxiety. While I still wrestle with the same questions, the word anxiety has slowly traded place with another: passion. This is what pushed me to take this step with iVotech.

Passion aside, a universal rule of thumb for success is choosing quality people. In this regard, I believe I have done well. More than a source for ideas, I have a thoughtful partner who is an extraordinary listener. In ten plus years of professional work in government and with various international NGOs, I can count on one hand the number of people whom I’d consider good listeners.

I’ll end this post with a short update on where we are with iVotech. We have drafted our business model and continue to get feedback from a diverse groups of people in Tanzania, including a local NGO. From the U.S. side, we've also received invaluable feedback from people deep-rooted in the private sector business community. We’ll take our ideas on the road to Dar es Salaam in two weeks to engage a number of potential partners and donors, both in the public and private sector.

We look forward to sharing stories and inspiration with you in the months to come./. Cheers, Dat