At this point I should also point out that I am not an avid consumer of other people’s blogs, I don’t follow any one person in particular on Twitter or other social media, so my format and style won’t follow any typical conventions or norms. I will try to be as honest as I can and attempt to update my site on a regular basis, however, I am also for all intents and purposes a high school dropout, (autodidactic opsimath?), so don’t expect any literary master pieces or overly polished musings.

So…. as the title suggest, "A new Adventure has begun" and it is called ilipa Ventures which is my personal investment company for projects which inspire me. In my semi-regular blogs, I will document my progress, the opportunities and the challenges, as well as all the unbridled excitement and drama of life as an entrepreneur. (along with an assortment of Random Photos).

 
Now I know most entrepreneurial blogs, books and a bevy of successful individuals will tell you the secret to success is to focus, focus, focus…and then focus some more and this is certainly good advice and for a lot of people has proven invaluable wisdom… However, there are certain individuals like Richard Branson, Brad Sugars and myself (that was a little presumptuous) who actually thrive when embarking on a multitude of opportunities simultaneously.

To put this in perspective the Jaime of 20 years ago, was pretty much the same as I am now, although 20 years ago I struggled considerably at different times because I attempted to control everything myself, to micro-manage every aspect of the business; to try to make every decision personally, ….what IT products we bought, what our logos looked like, all the control systems we used, the staff we hired and so on.
 
No doubt I learnt a lot of valuable lessons during that time, however, the secret if you can call it that, to managing multiple, ambitious projects, is to master the art of delegation and to truly empower people to make constructive contributions, which in turn enables you (as Michel Gerber so eloquently puts it)

“to work on the business, not in the business.”

Whilst the typical reposte from the founder of any business is usually something along the lines of...

 
"by the time I teach them how I could have done it myself"
 
This is when it is important to accept and understand that in order to grow your business, you have to be prepared to "let go" and to allow your team to learn, to make mistakes and to trust in them.

I can remember reading an interview with Warren Buffet many years ago, where he answered an interviewers question regarding the single best piece of advice he could give to a budding entrepreneur and he replied without hesitation, something along the lines of ...

“no matter how many times you get burnt, betrayed or screwed over…never, ever stop trusting people”.
 
 
(Or words to that effect)

To put that in context, the fear of trusting people, or empowering people will inevitably prevent you from achieving your ultimate business potential, it will stifle your growth, limit your capacity and make it impossible to expand and explore additional avenues. The moment you let hubris, arrogance or fear dictate your actions, then in my opinion, you cease to be an entrepreneur.

As Brad Sugars likes to say..

 
“always surround yourself with people smarter than you”.

So by identifying, grooming, training and then empowering people within your organisation and trusting them to drive the business forward, we can actually achieve the focus and dedication required to build that business from within.

 This in turn leaves you free to contemplate strategies for leveraging, building and expanding your business and to work on other ideas or opportunities which may be complimentary to your business or accelerate your business growth.

Ok, thanks for reading…you can follow me on all the usual social media outlets so subscribe, follow, bookmark or whatever.

My next Blog will be about what makes someone a genuine entrepreneur in my opinion.. so until then Take care…

 Jaime