Leap of Faith: Why most people are scared to start a business

Firstly apologies to all my readers. Like in business, life has ups and downs and I have been truly occupied with many things over the past year but I will be posting more content regularly. Expect one to two articles every month. Thank you and enjoy!

                                                                                   

Starting a business can be a daunting task. Picture it as a blank canvas or a plain sheet of paper which you know has to be filled but the question is with what. The unfortunate reality about starting a business is that it is not like buying a colouring book which already has pictures drawn for you and all you have to do is fill it out with crayons. Very little skill is required to do this that is why anyone can fill a colouring book but very few people can draw on a blank canvas. This same very primary school principle also applies in business.

Generally speaking, 1 in every 10 people who start a business will succeed. So this means that you're already starting with a handicap. Now the question is "how?" Lots of people have great ideas but putting those ideas forward and bringing it to life is entirely a different story. Now I am no self-help business guru, nor do I have the answers (sorry Kanye 😅) but I can share with you the things I have learnt and continue to learn with each passing year and experience. Here are a few reasons people do not start businesses:

1. FEAR!

This is probably the biggest drawback that most people have when it comes to starting a business or investing: FEAR. The fear of failure is an abhorrent, evil and despicable thing when it comes to starting a business. Let me show you why:

I am positive three quarters of you reading this article can all ride a bicycle. It's something you can probably do with your eyes closed. You see any bicycle on the street and regardless where it comes from or who owns it you can hop on and take off at a moment's notice. Do you know why? It is because you were taught to overcome the FEAR of falling over. When we all start learning to ride a bicycle, usually there are training wheels attached then at a certain point the people teaching us take those training wheels off. It is at that moment that you start your journey towards riding a bicycle. We all know that you will fall in the beginning and even you yourself might know this. However once you get the balance right and the hang of it, slowly it comes to you and all of a sudden you're zooming past people on the road. Next thing you can balance with one hand on the steering. A couple of months later you're doing tricks on bicycles like never before.

Why have I used this bicycle analogy? It is very simple. Starting a business is like learning to ride a bicycle. You will start but anticipate that you will fall. There is that old cliché that goes "it is not how you fall but how you get back up". As cringy as it sounds, this is exactly what I am talking about when it comes to starting a business. LEARN TO FAIL. It is tough to hear but you need to know that it will happen. This is why we become entrepreneurs and business people so that we solve those problems that many deem unsolvable. The one thing that holds you back? Holds most of us back? FEAR! Learn to let go of your fear, over time you will get better and operating your business will become synonymous with riding a bicycle.

2. INFORMATION OR LACK THEREOF

When I was younger, my parents always told me that if something was not clear in school that I ask the teacher for clarification. We all know how it looks when you ask your teacher a question in class particularly at a young age, you look like a teacher's pet. However over time you realise that asking questions is important to enhance your understanding of certain issues pertaining to whatever it is you are learning and it is not as awkward as it once was.

Unfortunately, most people do not use this same principle when they are about to start a business. They do not do the simplest of simple things which is to ASK. A three-letter word could be the difference between a successful business and a failed attempt. ASK! My favourite author Robert Kiyosaki once stated in his book 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' that he always sought information from someone in the field he was venturing into or experts like accountants and lawyers to get an insight on certain things relating to his businesses. This is all part of information gathering and helps you, as an entrepreneur, to have all the data needed as you make business decisions. Again the FEAR of ASKING is an enemy of progress. So learn to ask.

I will just chime in to say that you will be shocked how successful people are like a godsend of free information. So do not be afraid to approach someone especially in your industry or sector because they could give you free information which could be valuable in the long run.

3. OUTSIDE NOISE (AVOID AT ALL COSTS)

"I think that's not a good idea", "I think there is something better you could be doing", "If that was me, I would not have done that." 

I am quoting the things people will tell you every time you bring up a business idea. I swear if I had a nickel for every time someone said this to me I would have been a very wealthy man.

In my personal experience, I have always relished the opportunity to prove to myself that I am an achiever. A lot of people lack that self assurance and conviction in their decisions. Have I lost money before? Plenty of times! I cannot even count the times on my one hand. Am I discouraged? No! Do you know why? Because after all is said and done I take one look in the mirror and say this is what I am going to do and that is final. Lots of people do the reverse. They get everything together and then listen to other people. I do not understand why they do this. 

Ask yourself a couple of questions before you approach someone; did they do the dirty work? Did they raise the capital with you? Have they ever conducted a business? Did they think of your idea?

YOU will find that the answer to most of these questions is no. So why are YOU seeking their blessing to proceed to do something that YOU thought about?

Do not listen to the outside noise. I repeat stay away from outside noise.

CONCLUSION

My apologies for another age old adage but "Rome was not built in a day". Let go of the fear of failure and learn to ride the bicycle of entrepreneurship with all of its ups and downs. The great Leonardo Da Vinci never really finished most of his paintings because as much as he sought perfection, he never found it however the Mona Lisa remains one of the best paintings if not the best painting ever created. Open that blank canvas, start drawing up your trail of entrepreneurship because you never know where it might take you.

Where do I start from?: Learning to fail

FAILURE?

 

Think about that word for just one second. What does failure mean to you? Let us explore a couple of meanings from recognised dictionaries below:

 

According to the Collins Dictionary, failure is a lack of success in doing or achieving something, especially in relation to a particular activity.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, failure is the fact of someone or something not succeeding.

According to the Merriam-Webster  Dictionary, failure is an omission of occurrence or performance or the lack of success.

The common denominator in all of these definitions is success. We as human beings are driven by success and programmed in a way that success is the only way in which we perceive ourselves to have actually made something of ourselves. Anything in the opposite direction is deemed failure. We are confined by stereotypes and societal expectations that we forget to look at ourselves and actually ask ourselves what is success?

I have highlighted this term called success because we may actually not understand what the term means. Naturally when you are born and have parents that want the best for you, they feed you, they groom you in cultural values, they make sure they educate you, they send you to college and they expect or hope rather that you get a nice paying job, get married, have kids, build a home and repeat what your parents did for their grandchildren. Anything other than this is what is deemed failure. But is it really?

I have a problem with this traditional structure deemed success. I think our view on success is selfish and it is about competition. Your parent wants to be able to tell your friends parent that "Oh, you know what Crystabel just got a new job for UNDP. How is your son doing?" You know what this is? This is someone pitting their success through their children's achievements against another's. Is this really what the term success feels like?

Ok let me give it to you in another way, when in school they usually rank us on the basis of the results we attain and if you are at the bottom of the ranking you are deemed a failure. I attained my secondary education at Kalibu Academy, they even went as far as ranking our separate classes in order of "ranking" or rate of "success" for instance Form 4A (Smart), Form 4B (Above average) and so on and so forth. I was once promoted to the "A" class and that term I was 4th from bottom but my average grades were 67%. My parents scolded me. Can you imagine that? The same average in a "B" class would have ranked me in the top 10 at the very least. But from that would you consider my grade as a failure? The schools and parents have hoodwinked us to think that we have to be on a certain rank or pedestal to call it success.  

What is your definition of success? Mine is happiness. If you are happy with whatever it is you are doing then I consider that success. It does not matter whether you are a billionaire or just a regular tour guide, if you love what you do and get fulfillment from doing whatever it is that you do then consider yourself successful because there are rich people that are miserable trust me.

So let us kind of circle back to the matter at hand which is where does one start from in business and learning to fail. When I say learning to fail what does that mean? More often than not people who want to undertake a business activity would have an idea of what it would look like, how it would run and the money they would make. Borrowing a leaf from the previous blog post and following the 5 P's I am sure we would all agree that by the time you start a business you are well prepared after assessing the risks and opportunities involved. However, the one thing that people do not account for is failure. Obviously from those definitions you have read earlier failing means to not succeed. In business it means to make a loss, to not turn a profit, to not break even, I am sure you get the point. 

If I invested MK 200,000 in a business and I only sell things worth MK 150,000 only it means you have made a MK 50,000 loss. There could be many factors that lead to this eventuality. It could be that you did not market your products well, it could be that the market just did not like your product or you may have incurred certain costs that you did not anticipate. That is the risk of doing business. You win some and you lose some. That is the game. Most people will look at this scenario and tell themselves or be told by other people that they have failed. But I would tell you that you have not failed but rather you have learnt how to fail.

I know this will take some time for you to understand what I mean but bare with me. There is this popular saying that goes "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". If you made a mistake by setting a price of MK 10,000 per product whereas your competitors were selling the same product at MK 7,500 then obviously consumers will go for the cheaper option. This means you misread the market and whatever you initially thought would work did not and that led to your failure. However I am a glass half full kind of guy, I would take the lesson from this. To me it is either I was too greedy and was looking to exploit the market by overcharging or wherever I get my products from is expensive or there must be a way in which I can cut some unnecessary costs that led me to fix a higher price than my competitor. Do you know what I have just done right there? I have learned to fail. I was fooled once and I'll be damned if I would be fooled again. I will come back better, sharper and with a spring in my step to turn a profit next time around. And that my friends is what differenciates a bad businessperson from a great businessperson. 

A bad businessperson will accept failure whereas a good businessperson will not accept failure. A bad businessperson will listen to people who are not undertaking their business activity or any business for that matter whereas a good businessperson will not listen to detractors who know nothing about their business. A bad businessman will accept that success has eluded them by quitting whereas a good businessperson will successfully fail and learn from failure.

People always ask me this question, "how would you suggest I start a business?" My response is always "Do you know how to fail?" Some people think I am being crazy. Some people are dumbfounded and think I am a self help guru or whatever. Then there are others that ask me "What do you mean? Explain please." I immediately can tell that the latter is willing to learn how to fail and I anticipate that they will make it in business. Sometimes you can learn from a failed business and quit but recharge your batteries and redirect your energy into another business venture. The difference is that they would have learnt how to fail and they will become fearless and take the LEAP OF FAITH.

So first rule in becoming a successful businessperson: LEARN HOW TO FAIL!   

 

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance: 5 P's

 "We out here rotating under the 5 P's, Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance, y'know what I'm talkin' bout' " - GLC, Poe Mans Dreams (His Vice) by Kendrick Lamar in 2011.

That is the first time I heard this saying/phrase was in 2011. At the time I do not think I fully understood what it meant but I knew it was going to become one of the principles I would carry for a lifetime. But what does it all mean? The phrase says it all but I will try and break it down word for word. I might end up sounding like that annoying primary school teacher that constantly repeats something you know but I have come to realise that as we grow older we tend to complicate things for ourselves which can be simply explained.

Proper

How does one properly do something? As a child you are taught how to do most of the basic things you do on a day-to-day basis. How to brush your teeth, how to tie your shoelaces, how to cross a road, how to act in front of grown ups, how to open a can, 'how to', 'how to', 'how to'! I think you get what I am driving at here. Often these are hereditary traits, passed on from generation to generation. More often than not how you hold a knife and fork is the same way your grandparent will do the same.

So in this context we are talking about how to prepare to make money. An entrepreneur is an individual that manages to bring the factors of production together (land, labour and capital). But they have to prepare. How will I get the land, who's selling it, which area, etc. Who will work for me, how many hours will they work, what will their responsibility be?, etc. How do I get the resources to start up my business, where will the money come from, who can I seek help from?, etc. Properly get ready to answer all these questions. And the best preparation comes from the mind. Prepare mentally, prepare physically and emotionally. How you do things will help you prepare!

Preparation

Prepare! Your journey into any business venture, investment or even a savings plan requires preparation. Layout a well thought out plan. Now that you have thought it out it is time to put it down on a paper. In traditional education they want you to give answers to specific questions and nothing outside of that. In business there are no specific answers. The sooner you realise that the better. Hence why I implore you to write down every single aspect of the business you are about to get into and leave no stone unturned. And even when you do that, you still will not know everything but by that time you would have probably covered at least 80% of each and everything that you are going to go through. You would have prepared your startup capital, you would have prepared your well thought out plan, you would have prepared your target market, you would have prepared for all costs to be incurred, Prepare!

Prevents

Ever heard the saying "prevention is better than cure?" I am sure you are well read and have probably heard this or come across this once or twice. We are currently living in a COVID world and there has never been a time when prevention has been so important. The same way you wear a mask to prevent yourself from contracting COVID-19 is the same way you need to properly prepare yourself to prevent yourself from the risks of conducting business. More often than not people fail in business not because they did not have the resources or the plan but because they were not properly prepared. The life of a businessman is like an oscillation; goes up and down and up and down. You have to prepare yourself for those realities. And what does this prevent? It prevents depression, it prevents unnecessary decision making, it prevents taking bad loans, it prevents you from giving up! Let me emphasise it again; "prevention is better than cure!"

Poor Performance

I have decided to combine the last two P's because they go hand in hand. At the end of the day we invest or get into business to make profit. No one gets into the game to make losses. Hence Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. In this case we are talking about business performance. How is your business performing? Are you reaching your targeted sales? Are you able to supply on time? Are you able to maintain existing business relationships and create new ones? Are you able to make payroll without hurting the business? Are you able to turn a profit? These are all questions that can be answered by your simple income statement which I spoke about in an earlier post. Is your income increasing? If yes then you are performing well, if not then you need to revisit your initial plan and assess your current operations to find the main root of the problem. Profit equals positive performance. Loss equals poor performance. Hence Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!

 

SIDE NOTE: ADAPTABILITY

I know that as you get this far you are probably saying I am crazy and you have heard this a million times and it has never worked for me so why must it work now? I hear you and I understand you, I was you. I always asked myself the same question believe me. But I once asked myself this one question, how did those billionaires do it if they came from dirt poor? Were they privileged? Nope, most of them were not. Then how? The ability to adapt is key to success at anything in life and not just in business. Learn how to think on your feet. Procrastination is the enemy of success. Teach yourself how to adapt to situations and always remember that there are two sides to a coin. For every Ying, there is a Yang. Every debit has a credit. Everything that is black has an opposing white colour. I think you get where I am coming from. Learn to adapt and this is something you cannot learn in a classroom, it is a self taught trait.

Risk and Opportunity: A love story that knows no limits

WHY DO WE DO THE THINGS WE DO?.......

It's another Monday and we have a new topic on our hands. Have you ever asked yourself why people do certain things? Even the things we do on a daily basis, why do we do them? Why do you brush your teeth? Why do you take a bath? Why do we have three meals a day? These are basic things that we were taught from childhood, but why where we taught these disciplines/habits? For starters you have to brush your teeth to keep them clean, bath to keep your body clean and eat to have energy or to grow. So basically what I'm getting at here is that there is a reason that is closely associated with why we do the things we do; even the simple things!

RISK VS. REWARD: FATAL ATTRACTION.......

Risk. When you hear that word, what does it mean to you? When we were younger our parents often told us not to go outside the gate, to avoid strangers and other rules to ensure our safety. I mean now that you are older you can do whatever you want to do because you are more knowledgeable of the world and how it works and will not knowingly put yourself in danger. However back then your parents would enforce this upon you. Why? Well they were trying to prevent the chance of you getting hit by a car on the road, getting lost on the road, avoid getting kidnapped, etc. As you grow older you naturally understand the way in which these things happen. 

But lets not get ahead of ourselves here, what am I trying to say? Your parents want the best for you and they will eventually let you be your own person and let you make your own decisions. At the time we may have been too young to understand why they did what they did to avoid the chance of something bad happening to you before you can make a right decision for yourself with better judgement. The chance of something happening to you is what we call risk.

I have used the parent-child analogy because it is easier to relate that to risk. A lot of times I will hear people tell themselves or tell me that "oh that sounds like a good idea but it is too risky for me." Granted, I accept that because that tells me that this person probably is knowledgeable enough to see that they are uncertain of the outcome of an action and would rather avoid it all together. Regardless, I am sure that most of us still take certain risks no matter how small they are because we want to achieve something. Why? Because there is a reward that awaits your action. Basically where there is risk, there is reward (something you've heard many times before).

When you learn to ride a bike, there is always the risk that you might fall. But on the flip side, you eventually learn to ride a bicycle for a lifetime! In the previous blog post, I delved into the topic of assets and liabilities a lot. Learning to buy assets or own assets is a process similar to riding a bike, there are always risks associated with investment/investing in assets. Whether you are starting a small scale business where you buy and sell certain products, or it's small scale farming; there is always going to be a risk attached to that. You could lose all the money you invested, you could get robbed, you could be doing it the wrong way and never earn what it was you initially put down. On the flip side, if you stay the course and work on getting better at whatever it is you decide to invest in, slowly but surely you will get better at it, you will improve and you will not worry about the risk of failing because you know that you will get there. Just like the way you would eventually learn to ride your bike!

A lot of people associate business people with the phrase "risk-taker". I do not necessarily agree with that. I mean of course all business people assume a certain level of risk in running and operating a business. However successful business people and investors make "calculated risks". The difference between your average Joe and an investor/business person is that they will take a risk to start up a business after properly assessing all possible risks to be taken up and rewards to be gained. They will assess the risks very thoroughly and already start to plan on how to mitigate that risk beforehand so as to reduce the chance of surprise and force a correct reaction. That is what we call a calculated risk. These are risks that could occur but the damage can be limited with certain pre-planned actions. 

For instance, a trader won a contract to supply MK 300,000 worth of cloth to a company over a one month period. They start business with only MK 200,000 worth of clothing meaning that they know that they do not have the additional capital to fulfill this particular order. They are at a risk of losing the contract if they do not fulfill their order. So knowing this beforehand they would probably draw up an agreement to supply the goods in two phases; MK 150,000 over the first two weeks and MK 150,000 over the remaining two weeks. This would give them ample time to source more cash/capital to fulfill the order. Whether they lend the money or request part payment from the company on each delivery. This is a simple demonstration of a trader who found an opportunity and took a risk to turn a profit which is their reward.

More often than not we hear the phrase that goes "the higher the risk, the higher the return". This is true, but I would say "the higher the calculated risk, the higher the return". 

OPPORTUNITY: THE FULL CIRCLE.......

We live in a world that is a plethora of opportunities. It is a digital age. Gone are those days when you had to go physically to a marketplace to conduct trade of any kind. Gone are the days when telemarketing was the order of the day. What is my point? In 2020, you actually do not need to own a building or rent a shop to conduct business. You can do it from home. Or you can do it the traditional way because there is no harm in it either to go office to office, market to market to earn money. The world is full of opportunities. We just decide to turn a blind eye. 

I have friends that I probably always tell them the same thing over and over again. I repeatedly tell them that, "You can do anything nowadays if you apply yourself." The only limitation is yourself. You are probably a customer of several businesses, business people and you are probably not always satisfied with the services you are offered. Well then why don't you show them how to do it better? Daunting huh? Not really. I am just pointing out to you that there are opportunities everywhere even when the economy looks bad. 

I like to focus on "niche" business models because they fill in those gaps that big businesses fail to since they do not have a personal touch. Also in a niche, you can easily outmaneuver competitors that are doing the same thing on a small scale. Opportunity breeds opportunity and it is up to us to take it when it arises. You should know that every time you decide to turn away from an opportunity because you are scared of the risk of losing out, someone else is there to swoop in and utilise that same opportunity you left. Are you sure you want to live a life with regret? Take that opportunity friend, you may fall but you will learn.

VERDICT.......

With every opportunity that arises, there is a risk that is attached to it but the reward for successfully planning and executing a task is priceless. It makes the process sweeter. At the beginning of this post I explored the reasons for WHY we do what we do. So to conclude this post I want you guys to ask yourself WHY Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college to start a company. Ask yourself WHY that person you want to be like is wealthy. I believe that there is a reason for everything we do in life and a purpose too. So before you begin your journey in the accumulation of assets, ask yourself WHY you want to become more financially secure. When you do, look for opportunities, assess the risk and make a calculated decision to pursue whatever it is you find and think about the reward. The process makes it all sweeter.

Asset vs. Liability

Asset vs. Liability

In the 21st Century, the use of the words "Asset" and "Liability" have been ever present among numerous individuals, businessmen and corporations. In this blog we will explore what these terms are and what we think they are. I will try to reverse-engineer the way we understand what assets and liabilities mean to us. Enjoy!

An asset is basically a useful or valuable thing, person, or quality according to an Oxford dictionary meaning. Assets could range from a printer in an office, to hiring an experienced shop clerk to run your boutique or even a personal quality such as typing at a high speed. These are all assets because they add value or are useful in your everyday life whether it is work or business or anything else. 

In accounting, an asset is any thing or resource that is owned by a company which has future economic value that can be measured and expressed in monetary terms. i.e. dollars, kwachas, euros, etc. Examples include cash, inventory/stock, supplies, buildings, equipment and many others. 

Now this all sounds good and actually agree that an asset basically means anything of value. We live in a world now where we consider things like land and houses as very valuable assets as they should be. They cost a lot of money to own and are considered the best assets one can own. But are they really assets to you? 

Picture this: Imagine buying your first piece of land for say MK 700,000 on the outskirts of your township. The excitement you would feel is that you have bought an asset. Your first one maybe. However if in 5 years from the day you bought it the land is not developed in any way and say you sell it for roughly MK 1,300,000 we would say that you made a MK 600,000 profit, almost 86%. Crazy right? Well I wouldn't be so sure of that. 

In a developing country like Malawi, we are currently in an economic downturn and the value of our Kwacha is sliding by the day. With inflation rising, the money you get from that sale of the land would probably purchase land of exactly the same size or smaller by that time. Does that mean that land was valuable? If anything it does not differ from opening a fixed deposit account at a bank to pay you interest only with the hassle of physically visiting the site or finding a buyer. The value of your "asset" would have changed on paper but in reality, it is just the same piece of land you started with.

Sticking to the piece of land, during those 5 years you would probably have to hire someone to look after your piece of land to ensure that it is being kept safely. That is money you will have to part with every month or so and money you will pay from your own pocket even though you consider that land your asset, it does not put any money in your pocket until you eventually decide to sell the land but until then it will continue to take money out of your pockets and could prove to be an expensive choice. Anything that takes away money from your pocket is what I would call a liability.

In accounting, liabailities are obligations of a company or organization; or they are amounts owed to lenders and suppliers. Liabilities often have the word "payable" in the account title. For instance, if you borrow money from a friend then you are "liable" to pay them back.

Now you may be asking yourself why I decided to take you into some sort of accounting class. Some of you reading this will be telling yourself that "hey, I already know this so what makes this blog post so special?" Let me be clear, this is not a lecture of any sort but more of an eye opener to view things we know differently. You will notice that I have highlighted certain keywords during this whole blog, here are the most important words/phrases I want you to remember: asset, liabilities and "your pocket". Simply put assets put money in your pocket whereas liabilities take money out of your pocket. I used the piece of land because I am sure our friends, family and colleagues will tell you that it is truly the biggest property or asset one can own and I do not disagree, I just think that you deserve to know whether it puts money in your pocket or takes money away from your pocket. 

Look at everything you own or want to own and ask yourself one question: do these things put money into my pocket or not? If all you own is the cellphone you are reading this blog from, ask yourself is my phone an asset? Does it put money into my pocket? 8 out of every 10 people have phones and think they are assets because they have re-sale value but they do not realise that it is a liability to them. Why? Well probably because of the 12 hours we are glued to them on a daily basis, we use 10 of those on "non-income generating activities". i.e. selfies, double taps on Instagram, candy crush, Twitter MW, WhatsApp chain messages, the list is endless. We all have our vices and we can not always use our phones for productive things but I am sure that a couple of you going through those examples are cursing at this post saying, "hey who does this guy think he is?" lol. 

I get your anger and frustration and I like it because that means we are getting somewhere. Let me tell you this, I have met people who have never double tapped an Instagram photo in their life that make 5 times your salary in a week with one app on their phone: "the dialler." Trust me, I am also in awe of them and that makes me start to ask myself the question that goes "how do I do that too?" The answer is simple: invest in assets, buy assets and put money back into your pocket. Avoid liabilities because they takeaway money from your pocket. It is a mantra, a doctrine, a code, a choice and a path one chooses to truly become free from the world and live a life without fear. I did not say it is easy and I did not say you will succeed. You will have to fail a couple of times because everything in life comes at a cost. For every Ying there is a Yang but stay the course and you shall prevail. It is not rocket science but it is an art. The art of getting unchained from the myth that it is hard to make money or I can not become financially stable to becoming a shrewd individual who owns assets that can help them afford the lifestyle they choose to lead!

I will leave you with a diagram excerpt from a book from my favourite author Robert Kiyosaki that you can ponder on. I encourage you to try and list your own assets and liabilities to see where you stand and what it means for you. So forget what you were taught, forget what you know and try to do this using the principles I explained. Should be a treat!

Why Money?

Why Money

Money. What is it? There are plenty definitions of it so I will pull out three:

According to Investopedia.com, Money is an economic unit that functions as a generally recognized medium of exchange for transactional purposes in an economy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says money is something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment. The Collins dictionary simply puts it this way that money is the coins or bank notes that you use to buy things, or the sum that you have in a bank account.

The common theme centered around these definitions is that money is basically a means of exchange of value. In the early days of commerce, barter trade was the order of the day where individuals would exchange goods or services directly for other goods or services. Basically there had to be an agreement between the participants involved to ascertain that the value of one good or a couple of goods was equivalent to that of another. For instance, if my friend Amy has an iPhone 11 then I would propose that we make an exchange and I offer her two iPhone 7s and a Galaxy Tab A3. If she agrees to these terms then the exchange is then executed and everyone would have been satisfied as the value is not lost. This was phased out with the introduction of coins to represent value which eventually led to the paper notes we see today.

Now enough of that history lesson, let us go back to the issue at hand: Why Money? People have different views on the subject of money. Many will tell you that money is good and I agree. I mean it is probably as valuable as oil and gold in itself. The food we eat, cosmetics we use, gas we buy all need to be purchased using money. So if money is so good, why is it vilified by others? You hear quotes like "money is the root of all evil" or "too much money is bad for you" and plenty other things. As much as there are traces of truth in those statements but the same can be said of many other good things. The problem is that we forget that money really is just a medium of exchange and the lack of it in the 21st century is pretty dangerous.

A lot of people do not understand the concept of money and this has led to bankruptcy, divorce, broken marriages, torn families, war and many other bad things. If people understood how it works then with proper planning and preparation, then a lot of us would not complain as much or we would be in a better financial position.

"To earn a living" basically means finding a way to earn money. It could be through work, through business or other means. Being an adult, you cannot escape from the reality that is to earn money to survive. Therefore to conclude this opening blog post I will say that money is the most important commodity in everyday life so we must learn to understand it, tame it and get ahead of it.