Entrepreneurship And The Diaspora
© ilhanx
As part of my weekly series Unlearn Investing on Clubhouse, this week we explored entrepreneurship not only in western countries but back home as well. This included a range of countries within our group, from Nigeria, Kenya, to Somalia and Tanzania. One of the pressing matters concerning conducting business from those countries was the uncertainty or hoops one must jump through for an operation to work. Here are some of my thoughts from that discussion.
Though it comes with a variety of challenges, we must not be caught up waiting for a country to be 100% secure in order to make investments and business goals come to fruition. The biggest risk for those in the diaspora is to wait and see. This wastes time and ultimately adds to the opportunity cost.
However, some stability and trust are needed for ideas to flourish as well as to build long-term business growth. That’s where governments come in. Though corruption plagues a tremendous number of nations, including the United States, certain countries fall prey to an insidious amount of corruption. It’s disheartening and time-consuming navigating these age-old problems for young entrepreneurs. Perhaps the solution, for now, is to take the steps needed for your business to move forward.
As part of our Unlearning discussion, we all emphasized the need for entrepreneurs in the diaspora to be ethical and conscious of the roles they play. The goal should be to improve lives, disrupt markets, but not exploit.
Somalia, for example, needs jobs. Create jobs and employ folks that might otherwise be at the mercy of money sent from the diaspora. Jobs are the single factor that we all agreed upon that has the most potential to change lives as well as create profitable businesses.
I believe investing is crucial now more than ever. We are in a time where we have an opportunity to invest in our native countries. Though it comes with challenges, we are more than able to make a dent in making improvements. It makes me proud that many of us went from refugees to now facing unique opportunities to create stability, however small it might seem.
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