Not so long ago I wrote a post related to an article about Africa’s real purchasing power. My point of view at the time was that just like in the case of Eastern Europe where I live, there are big misconceptions about entrepreneurship, doing business and life overall. Now, I’ve got 1 new article to review and an interesting Video that shows how blindfolded we can be sometimes.
Article
Josh Ruxin talks in an article called Fashion, Rwanda and the Power of Social Entrepreneurship about KEZA (www.keza.com) a fashion business born in Rwanda which sells jewelry all over Europe and in the US. As Josh says “When you think about fashion, do you think about Africa?” Probably not, but that’s what makes entrepreneurship such a powerfull reality shapper. With the right mindset and determination you can sell sand in the desert.
You know most people wanting to start a business procrastinate believing that they don’t have a chance because the market is bad, they don’t have investment money or they don’t want to risk. You can go ahead and read this article on how to Go From Procrastinator to Entrepreneur but no matter how you put it, Keza is a true story of entrepreneurship as a force to make things happen.
As Josh says, it’s not easy, but the achievements make all the difference: “KEZA first had to get over some large hurdles, including training their manufacturing cooperatives in design, quality control, product consistency, and accounting. In the end, KEZA helped the cooperatives get on their feet and connected them to an international market for their products. KEZA has a team of international fashion experts that assist in product design and development and, more importantly, KEZA continues to train poor Rwandan women in business development and growth. This helps them to generate salaries of $200-$300 per month with full benefits. This is a massive boon to people who are used to earning about $17 per month during the best of times.”
Video
Yesterday I had one of my friends from South Africa sending me over some videos. So in the video below, we have Professor Hans Rosling from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden talking with facts and numbers about how wrong is our perception about Western/Developing World
So what if we are simply dead wrong? We are working all our life towards the Western “happiness” but what if hapiness is elsewhere or has a different format?
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