Entrepreneurship

Key unit competence: To be able to evaluate own values, skills, strengths and identify areas for development against common characteristics of entrepreneurs.

Imagine that you have just finished your studies and that it is your first day at your new place of work. Think about how you would like to be treated by your new employer.

1. In class, brainstorm the personal values and characteristics that you would like your new employer to have.

2. Create a mind map on the board. In the centre write the word ‘Success’.

3. Then add all the values and characteristics that will help you to be successful in your new place of work.

Personal qualities

Our personal values show our sense of right and wrong. A value can be ‘people should be treated with dignity and respect’. Our values therefore influence our behaviour and attitudes.

Many people have values because of their religion, but there are also many values which are universal – they are the same all around the world.

In this unit, we will discuss different personal qualities.

Developing good manners

Good manners are something that you show every day to make a good impression on others or to feel good about yourself. These are three universal manners.

Friendliness, respect and caring are three qualities that you should always strive for. You should always have regard for another person’s feelings and wishes.

Manners often depend on our culture. Different cultures have their own ideas about what it means to show respect. In some cultures, professional persons are held in high regard.

Other cultures value the experience of older persons.

Lifelong learning

Many values take a lifetime to learn. Here are some of the values that you should always strive to learn:

• Intelligence means to use reason and memory to solve problems. It also means to have self-awareness and that you can learn and communicate with others.

• Prudence means using caution and common sense when making a decision. A prudent person tries to think ahead to the many things that can happen. A prudent person does not spend all his or her money on fashion wear or a new phone, but saves up for an education.

• Commitment means being dedicated to something. This can be a cause or an activity, but you can also be committed to your friends, family, school and country.

Case study activity

Wangari Maathai was an environmental leader in Kenya.Read the case study. Then answer the questions.A commitment to Kenya’s futureWangari Maathai is a good example of a committed person. She was an environmental and political leader in Kenya.

After completing her education abroad, she returned to her family’s land. Here she discovered that it was hard for farmers to grow their crops because of soil erosion (the top layer of fertile soil had washed away). Wangari Maathai therefore founded the Green Belt Movement. This is an environmental organisation that plants trees throughout Kenya.By growing and planting trees, farmers reduced the erosion.

The farm land therefore improved and farmers could grow their crops again. This meant that she reduced rural hunger.She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to sustainable development, democracy and peace.

Questions

1. Who was Wangari Maathai?

2. What was the problem she identified on her family’s land?

3. How did she solve this problem?

4. What does this show about her personal qualities?

Creativity and innovation

To be creative and innovative means to have new ideas and to turn them into something useful. People have used these qualities to make everything that you use in your daily life, from inventing the wheel to the latest computer technology.

Self-reliance

We use self-reliance to reach our goals. A self-reliant person works towards goals without being told to. We say that a self-reliant person takes initiative.An accomplishment is anything that we have completed successfully.

How to become self-reliant

Step 1: Take responsibility for your actions. If you have relied on your parents to wake you up every day so that you are not late for school, it is time to use your own alarm clock. Keep a calendar with important dates such as tests and exams. Work hard at school and apologise when you make a mistake. When you take responsibility you control your own life.

Step 2: Be informed. Read books, ask questions and talk to your parents, your teacher and older persons in your community. They can teach you how to solve problems and grow as a person.

Step 3: Make goals for yourself. Plan your future and set out tasks that will help you reach your goals. Step 4: Make your own decisions.

Activity 2.1

Play the ‘What if ?’ game in class.

In this game, one person selects a situation and asks ‘What if ?’ The rest of the class must come up with creative answers to the situation.For example:

• What if there was no Internet?

• What if electricity had never been invented?

• What if we had no way to tell the time?

• What if cars did not exist?

• What if you had the power to read people’s minds?

• What if all your friends spoke only Chinese?

Moral and ethical values

Loyalty, honesty, dignity and integrity are important values A person with integrity follows his or her moral or ethical beliefs. When you have integrity, you do what you believe is the right thing to do, even if no one is watching you.

Having integrity means that you are true to yourself and would not do anything that demeans or dishonors you.

A person with dignity has self-respect and is worthy of honor and respect. The two case studies that follow are examples of people who are worthy of honor and respect.

Case study activity

Read the case study. Then answer the questions.

A long walk to freedom in South Africa

A good example of a person with a strong sense of loyalty and dignity is former South African president Nelson Mandela.

South Africa followed a discriminating system based on racial segregation (separating people according to their ‘race’). This system was called apartheid. As a young man, Mandela fought this system and as a result was sent to prison. During his time in prison, the South African government tried to negotiate with Mandela and asked him to stop people from protesting against the apartheid system. Mandela refused to do so. He remained loyal to his cause and was therefore only released after serving twenty-seven years in prison.Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994.

Questions

1.Explain what ‘apartheid was.

2. What happened when Mandela fought this system?

3. Why did the government ask him to stop people from protesting?

4. Why did he refuse?

5. What does this show about his value system?

6. Write down one question you would have liked to ask Mandela.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that. ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or disability.’ This means that a healthy person has:

• physical health – can see, hear, walk, jump and perform other activities without problems

• mental and emotional health – feels good emotionally and can reach his or her full potential

• social health – feels a sense of belonging to a community.

1. Discuss how good personal qualities are linked to the health of a person.

2. How do personal qualities influence the personal, social, emotional and economic well-being of a person?

1. Copy the table below and write down your personal strengths and weaknesses.

2. Analyze your personal strengths and weaknesses. How can you change your weaknesses into strengths?

 Personal qualities and entrepreneurship

In business, we sometimes have to deal with moral and ethical problems. Business ethics are the principles that guide the way that a business behaves. Ethics are about choosing to behave in a correct and good way. It is important to make the right decisions as an entrepreneur and develop desirable business ethics. Problems involving business ethics include:

• greed

• lack of loyalty

• selfishness

• lack of consideration for others.

          Which option would you choose to deal with greed and lack of loyalty in a business?

      Which option would you choose to deal with selfishness and lack of consideration in a business?

Read through the scenarios in the photographs on pages 24 and 25.Divide into two groups and role play each scenario.

One group picks the business owner’s first option and the other group the second option. Pretend that it is one year into the future and, in your groups, decide on the outcome of the decision. Put together a play for the class where you show the consequences of the business owners choices.

Entrepreneurial self-assessment

An entrepreneurial self-assessment is a tool to help you to identify your strengths and areas for development. It can also help you to see how to become successful as an entrepreneur.

Do your own entrepreneurial self-assessment by completing the questionnaire. For each question, select the option that is most accurate.

There are no right or wrong answers in the entrepreneurial self-assessment. This tool can help you to identify your strengths and weaknesses. When you selected a low ranking, ask yourself how you can improve this area of your development.

Personal development

One of the most important skills that you need to become a successful entrepreneur is desirable business ethics. A mentor is a person with life experience that can help you with your personal development and teach you life skills.

try to find someone in your community that you feel can inspire, help and assist you with your personal growth.

How to find a mentor

Step 1: Make a list of the people that inspire you. Include family, spiritual and world leaders, sports stars and successful business people.

Step 2: Select a mentor. If you can, contact your chosen mentor and ask if he or she is willing to mentor you. Explain which life skills you need help with. Set goals and develop a plan for how to reach them.

Step 3: Practice the skills that your mentor asks you to work on.Step

4: Say thank you to your mentor. Remember to mention his or her name when you do well. One day, when you are a successful person yourself, set aside time to mentor others.

Networking and personal development

A network is a group of people who help each other. You can think of a spider web where each strand is connected to all the other strands. A network of people is similar to the spider web. Every person in the network interacts with all the other people. You have a network at school where you are connected to all the other learners, your teachers and the principal. These people all influence you. Networking is very important in business.

Case study activity

Read the case study ‘Mentor ship helps create successful fashion brand then answer the questions.

Mentor ship helps create successful fashion brand Michaella Rugwizangoga is creative and loves design. She entered an entrepreneurship competition where mentors helped her to develop her idea. She won the business plan competition and started her fashion collection and the brand Chicissime. Today, her elegant and creative accessories are sold online. She is an active community member that gives back to her community through a range of entrepreneurship networks.

Questions

1. Make a list of desirable personal values, skills and strengths that an entrepreneur should have.

2. Why do you think that Michaella Rugwizangoga needed a mentor to help start her business?

3. Which business ethics do you think the mentor taught her?

Living in the modern world

When your grandparents were young, they probably did not know many people who lived far from their town or village. Then, most people only knew people from their own culture. They spoke just one language and lived their lives in one place.

Today, life is very different. We sometimes call the modern world a ‘global village’. This means that people today seem to be closer to each other. We can travel by bus, car and plane to other parts of Rwanda or even to other countries. We import products to Rwanda and sell our products to other countries. We also communicate with people all around the world through the Internet.

The world today is a global village.

Diversity in running a business

In the past, people learnt a trade and sold their products at a local market. Today, we often compete with the whole world. Some of the clothes that you wear are probably made in another country. When you call a business, you sometimes talk with a person on another continent. Even products that are made in Rwanda are sometimes designed in other countries.This means that we are working with many different people from around the world. To be successful, a business therefore needs people with many different values, skills and strengths. A business that employs diverse people becomes stronger.

Respecting personal choices

In our daily lives and at school, it is important that we respect the personal choices of others. It is also important that your personal choices are respected.

Rwanda developed a new constitution in 2003. A constitution contains the basic laws that all citizens must follow. The new constitution also lists the rights and responsibilities of all Rwandans.Research the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda.

a) As citizens, what are our rights and responsibilities?

b)How does the Constitution of Rwanda protect our personal choices?

You and your class are the new managers of a guest house near Virunga National Park. Guests from all around the world come here to see the mountain gorillas.

The guests have their own values and personal preferences.Discuss, as a class, how you can use the diverse and unique skills of each person in the class to make sure that each guest feels welcome in your guest house.

It takes many different skills to run a successful business.

Copy and cut out the puzzle pieces. Then complete the business puzzle as follows:

1. Divide into groups of five. Discuss your unique skills, values and strengths.

2. Select a puzzle piece that suits you. Use the table below to assist you.

3. Present your puzzle business to the class and explain how your different personalities can create a successful business.