By Daniel Levy, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Flow
In the business world, nothing stays the same for long. This makes an entrepreneurial mindset not just helpful, but essential. So what does it take? How can eager entrepreneurs tackle the complexities of the modern market and come out stronger?
Having walked this path myself, I know the road to success is rocky and rarely straightforward. But I’ve found it's this unpredictability that best hones the skills and fuels ambition. Here are five learnings that have shaped my experience and continue to drive my leadership at Flow into new territories.
Luck, they say, favours the prepared mind. In my experience, luck is just the spark – grit is the fuel that keeps the fire burning. Back in 2007, when my business partners and I built and founded Popimedia (the first and only Facebook Marketing Partner in Africa, which was acquired in 2015 by global communications group Publicis), we were fortunate to identify a gap in the local advertising market at the right time. But it wasn't just luck that made us Africa’s largest AdTech and performance marketing company. It was our insistent pushing of boundaries, even when the odds were stacked against us. More than once, we had to fly abroad unannounced to meet the social media giant, demonstrate what we had built, and convince them we could meet their needs in order to earn their support.
Truth is, South Africa simply doesn’t have the venture capital and angel investor scene you’d find in Silicon Valley, for example. So most homegrown entrepreneurs can’t just ride on a good idea and hope to sell it – they have to create a viable, well-performing business model. That often means identifying a big problem that needs solving,long hours, hard work, and funding it all yourself. True entrepreneurship is about the long game, and hoping for a lucky break that leads to sustained success.