Every leader, business person, sports person, musician or any person who achieves some level of greatness is not born when they get to the limelight but comes from backgrounds that they never think will be building them towards something. In the bible we hear of the story of a man who had the worst of experiences, sold and chased away by his brothers, became a s lave in a foreign land, falsely accused of rape, put in prison but later becoming a prime minister. The same circumstances would have destroyed someone's spirit and made them victims who would always be seeking mercy from people.
Sovereign Foundations: No experience is wasted in your life. I grew up as the only son to my mother in a polygamous family. As a young and intelligent son, the only to a mother who has been a teacher by profession, I spent a lot of time with my mother and my father coming usually on weekends as he worked in Harare whilst my mother stayed at the school she taught in Murewa. At a young age my parents would make sure that I had the best of clothes and would buy from the best shops on credit. Staying at an Upper top school made the way I dressed so different from my environment.
Teachers and their children would esteem me highly, the way I dressed and the intelligence that I was just born with. I remember at one time when a certain teacher's young son had put on new clothes, ran to his mother and said in our mother tongue, 'Mama, Mama ndachena saTarie', which literally means, 'I am just as smartly dressed as Tarie'. My background just gave me a sense of fashion and style which I never knew would contribute to what would happen later in life.
In your life there are experiences, events or circumstances that you had no control over which you may easily overlook that are seeds to your journey as an entrepreneur or whatever path you may eventually take. Negative or positive they may be but they are seeds to the development and nurturing of entrepreneurship traits and attributes. These are what Robert Clinton in his Leadership Emergency theory call 'sovereign foundations'.
Hitting a brick wall: Ideas born from problems. As nature took its course, I found myself growing more in height than I was in weight hence became relatively taller than average boys of my age. According to British sizes my shoe size was matching my grade from the third grade until the fourth form. It was when I was 13 that the problem began. Every time I bought a trousers to fit my height but I had to compromise on the waist. If it fitted my waist it usually would be shorter so I would get an oversize and take it to a tailor to be adjusted to fit. This persisted for some time until I was 16 when I no longer enjoyed having a waist and shoulder adjustment for what I bought that I began to buy material and have a tailor make clothes for me. As my solution to my problem began to work it caught up with my sense of fashion and style that I began to come up with different designs and tailor made suits to suit that people began to admire my dressing and a designer was born.
I don't know what problems you face everyday. What is your frustration? What is scarce around you that is so difficult to get? What service is not satisfying you? Where do you find the longest queues and what are people queuing for? Take time and think, this could be your opportunity.
Out of the box thinking: As my passion for fashion design began to grow I began to love clothes and thinking about new designs. I would just get in shops that sold clothing materials and fabrics just to look at the kind of materials they had. When you get in a textile shop the assistants come to you and ask you what you want to make and they direct you to where you get the right materials for that. I would respond and tell them that I was just looking around. Instead of looking for suiting material in the suiting material segments I would look for suiting materials where you would get table cloth material or upholstery or other kinds of fabrics. This brought uniqueness to my designs and I would look at other already made suit designs and try them on curtain or upholstery materials and that made the difference.
What I have described above is the essence of creative thinking or out of the box thinking which is just key in entrepreneurship, whereby you try out what no one would have ever thought you would apply to a certain field or scope. I would not think of making a blazer out of the usual and generally accepted blazer materials. I would just walk around a fabric shop and allow the fabrics to tell me what they could make instead of being told by the majority what a fabric could make. One of the greatest keys of stone sculpture is not to think of what you want to make and look for the right stone but to look for a stone and allow the stone to speak to you of what it carries. A key in out of the box thinking is bringing divergent thought and information to what you are focussing on... It is bringing ubsurd, irrelevant, crazy information and try to think how it can apply to what you want to do. Great inventions and ideas are born this way.
Resistance from the environment and the Entrepreneurship Dilemma: When I began to come up with different crazy designs, I could not do the sewing so the man who was doing my tailoring work began to say the designs could not be made. I would leave him with materials and designs to be made but I would find him doing it differently from what I wanted and he would say, 'I did what was possible'.
I left my tailor who had worked with me for about 5 years and began to look for another tailor. I moved from one tailor to another because I didn't want anyone to tell me that something could not be made. It took me about 2 years until I found someone who was willing to take every seeming impossible design with me and we would try it on cheap fabrics until we would discover how it could be done. In the entrepreneurship journey maybe your idea has been rejected and you are about to give up on your dream but don't give up. Thomas Edison tried out 10000 ways before he finally hit gold on the invention of the light bulb.
In entrepreneurship there is what is called the ‘entrepreneurship dilemma’ which comes when you have to balance visionary and creativity attributes that see what others are not seeing and the wisdom and fortitude to know where and when to change the course. The answer to the dilemma according to Jason Nazar is, 'stay attached to your idea or to the problem that you want to solve but be flexible with the solution or means of implementation'. The only time when giving is not an option is if you are to give up.
When it begin to make sense: It is not over yet. After finally getting a man to work with, who was also flexible and innovative who believed in my vision we finally teamed up and No Limits Fashions was born. We finally managed to bring our initiative, creativity and passion to work and now we design clothes for differnt people of all statuses but we have not arrived. Competition arises and whenever good things come on the scene there are people with bigger financial muscle who can implement your ideas faster, but the good thing is, they are not the source of the ideas, creativity is our lifestyle and nature. Entrepreneurship is an interesting venture, you always have to be on your toes to keep with the trends.
Many lost it when they relaxed because it had begun to work. I shared my journey and I thought you may find some pieces to pick and start, revive or carry through and complete your desire that has been in the making from your childhood. It's never too late to pursue your dream and neither is it too early. Rise and pursue your dream.
By: Coach Tarie
Sovereign Foundations: No experience is wasted in your life. I grew up as the only son to my mother in a polygamous family. As a young and intelligent son, the only to a mother who has been a teacher by profession, I spent a lot of time with my mother and my father coming usually on weekends as he worked in Harare whilst my mother stayed at the school she taught in Murewa. At a young age my parents would make sure that I had the best of clothes and would buy from the best shops on credit. Staying at an Upper top school made the way I dressed so different from my environment.
Teachers and their children would esteem me highly, the way I dressed and the intelligence that I was just born with. I remember at one time when a certain teacher's young son had put on new clothes, ran to his mother and said in our mother tongue, 'Mama, Mama ndachena saTarie', which literally means, 'I am just as smartly dressed as Tarie'. My background just gave me a sense of fashion and style which I never knew would contribute to what would happen later in life.
 |
| How I Became A Fashion Designer After I Failed To Find The Right Size. |
Hitting a brick wall: Ideas born from problems. As nature took its course, I found myself growing more in height than I was in weight hence became relatively taller than average boys of my age. According to British sizes my shoe size was matching my grade from the third grade until the fourth form. It was when I was 13 that the problem began. Every time I bought a trousers to fit my height but I had to compromise on the waist. If it fitted my waist it usually would be shorter so I would get an oversize and take it to a tailor to be adjusted to fit. This persisted for some time until I was 16 when I no longer enjoyed having a waist and shoulder adjustment for what I bought that I began to buy material and have a tailor make clothes for me. As my solution to my problem began to work it caught up with my sense of fashion and style that I began to come up with different designs and tailor made suits to suit that people began to admire my dressing and a designer was born.
I don't know what problems you face everyday. What is your frustration? What is scarce around you that is so difficult to get? What service is not satisfying you? Where do you find the longest queues and what are people queuing for? Take time and think, this could be your opportunity.
Out of the box thinking: As my passion for fashion design began to grow I began to love clothes and thinking about new designs. I would just get in shops that sold clothing materials and fabrics just to look at the kind of materials they had. When you get in a textile shop the assistants come to you and ask you what you want to make and they direct you to where you get the right materials for that. I would respond and tell them that I was just looking around. Instead of looking for suiting material in the suiting material segments I would look for suiting materials where you would get table cloth material or upholstery or other kinds of fabrics. This brought uniqueness to my designs and I would look at other already made suit designs and try them on curtain or upholstery materials and that made the difference.
What I have described above is the essence of creative thinking or out of the box thinking which is just key in entrepreneurship, whereby you try out what no one would have ever thought you would apply to a certain field or scope. I would not think of making a blazer out of the usual and generally accepted blazer materials. I would just walk around a fabric shop and allow the fabrics to tell me what they could make instead of being told by the majority what a fabric could make. One of the greatest keys of stone sculpture is not to think of what you want to make and look for the right stone but to look for a stone and allow the stone to speak to you of what it carries. A key in out of the box thinking is bringing divergent thought and information to what you are focussing on... It is bringing ubsurd, irrelevant, crazy information and try to think how it can apply to what you want to do. Great inventions and ideas are born this way.
Resistance from the environment and the Entrepreneurship Dilemma: When I began to come up with different crazy designs, I could not do the sewing so the man who was doing my tailoring work began to say the designs could not be made. I would leave him with materials and designs to be made but I would find him doing it differently from what I wanted and he would say, 'I did what was possible'.
I left my tailor who had worked with me for about 5 years and began to look for another tailor. I moved from one tailor to another because I didn't want anyone to tell me that something could not be made. It took me about 2 years until I found someone who was willing to take every seeming impossible design with me and we would try it on cheap fabrics until we would discover how it could be done. In the entrepreneurship journey maybe your idea has been rejected and you are about to give up on your dream but don't give up. Thomas Edison tried out 10000 ways before he finally hit gold on the invention of the light bulb.
In entrepreneurship there is what is called the ‘entrepreneurship dilemma’ which comes when you have to balance visionary and creativity attributes that see what others are not seeing and the wisdom and fortitude to know where and when to change the course. The answer to the dilemma according to Jason Nazar is, 'stay attached to your idea or to the problem that you want to solve but be flexible with the solution or means of implementation'. The only time when giving is not an option is if you are to give up.
When it begin to make sense: It is not over yet. After finally getting a man to work with, who was also flexible and innovative who believed in my vision we finally teamed up and No Limits Fashions was born. We finally managed to bring our initiative, creativity and passion to work and now we design clothes for differnt people of all statuses but we have not arrived. Competition arises and whenever good things come on the scene there are people with bigger financial muscle who can implement your ideas faster, but the good thing is, they are not the source of the ideas, creativity is our lifestyle and nature. Entrepreneurship is an interesting venture, you always have to be on your toes to keep with the trends.
Many lost it when they relaxed because it had begun to work. I shared my journey and I thought you may find some pieces to pick and start, revive or carry through and complete your desire that has been in the making from your childhood. It's never too late to pursue your dream and neither is it too early. Rise and pursue your dream.
By: Coach Tarie
Welcome To Oudney Patsika's Blog: Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World: In today’s media-driven, distracted culture, your message must be amplified to reach a larger audience.
Contact Us through the Chat with WhatsApp widget below.
