We fear it, we do not even like hearing about it! Failure is a word nobody likes to be associated with. Sometimes, despite our efforts and how committed we are, things don’t go as we planned and we get nothing but disappointments. Many successful people have seen huge failures before ever accomplishing their dreams. Let see a few people who have succeeded despite their repetitive failures, and what took them where they are today.
Cosmas Maduka
Cosmas Maduka is a businessman and founder of Coscharis Group. Born into a rather poor family, he dropped out from school and began an entrepreneurial journey at only 6 years old by selling beans cake (Akara). At 17, he formally ventured into business as an automobile apprentice, but got sacked by the same uncle who engaged him. Later, he co founded CosDave with his friend (named Dave) which failed sooner than expected, and Coscharis Motors was created afterwards. The real breakthrough happened for the company when it was listed amongst the 10 motors companies the government gave import licence. Today the group has a net worth of $500 million with several subsidiaries and is leading distributor for many luxurious brands like Range Rover, Ford Jaguar and finally the sole distributor for BMW in Nigeria.
Hellen Dausen
Not many beauty queens can brag about leaving the industry for entrepreneurship. Hellen Dausen was indeed the 2010 miss universe Tanzania. When she became entrepreneur, she started off with a small activity of soap making plants in her parents backyard. After investing in this and running it for a short while, the regulations authority asked her to stop it. In fact after investigation they deemed her activities were not meeting the standards and thus obliged her to close. But Dausen is more persistent than that. She went back and built her own handmade natural bath and body care brand named Nuya’s Essence. A few weeks after she founded Nuya’s Essence:, she called back the authorities for another inspection. This time she made sure the brand was flawless.
Joel Macharia
Joel Macharia is a Kenyan businessman and founder of Abacus Financial Services(2). He has always been passionate with finance since he was a child. “I remember selling and trading my lunch for cash and sweets when I was 8(3). He started managing people’s money while at high school. So he ran banking technology projects when he was 22, and eventually taught finance at 23. But in 2008 his business collapsed following the 2007 violent elections in Kenya. The stock market dropped and his clients retrieved their money. This left him indebted and forced him to take a job as product designer. Afterwards he went back investing in personal finance planning, built PesaTalk in 2012. This business collapsed in its turn due to a disagreement with venture capitalists. Macharia went back at it again two years later in 2014 and founded Abacus which ended up being so successful that it grew to over 3000 investors. Let’s face it, it is actually failure that allows us to gather so much experience through our challenges and projects. No matter how hard it is to actually live it, failure is not bad in itself as long as we keep a positive attitude about it. So next time you feel down or intimidated by the thought of failure, just remember these people who failed before making it big. By Mahmoud Diop LO Sources: (2) http://abacusfinance.com/ (3) Forbes.com