Mastering entrepreneurship

By Jonah Nyoni | Nov. 23, 2024

Award-winning enterpreneur Ardy Roberto

IN this article, I (JN) interviewed Ardy Roberto (AR) recently in Mexico during the LittWorld Conference organised by Media Associates International.

Roberto is an award-winning entrepreneur, best-selling author and sought-after inspirational speaker.

He is a pioneer AngelPreneur Mentor for GoNegosyo and speaks on the Success Mindsets of Entrepreneurs.

Roberto was one of the top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year in 2006 and was voted Most Inspiring Entrepreneur by Microsoft and Entrepreneur Magazine.

He co-founded the international award-winning learning events company, Salt and Light Ventures Inc, and Inspire Leadership Consultancy.

Roberto has won international awards for producing the Tom Peters Live in Manila seminar (Cannes France Finalist and Ad Congress Araw Gold Award), the John Maxwell Leadership Summit — Manila (Anvil Awardee), and Francis Kong’s Achievers and Leaders Seminar (Gold Quill).

He has authored award-winning and number one best-selling books, including The Heart of Healing, Ang Pera na Hindi Bitin, Real Men are POGI, and his latest national bestseller, The Happy Entrepreneur.

Below are some of the excerpts from the interview:

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Mastering entrepreneurship

JN: You wrote a book on entrepreneurship. What is it all about?

AR: It’s all about entrepreneurship and how to manage and know your emotions. The first lesson is on self-mastery.

That’s the first step in being an entrepreneur. So before you master the business, you need to master yourself: self-discipline, knowing what you’re good at and doing what you’re not good at.

Strengths are your weaknesses. So guard your mind because it’s the wellspring of your heart and thoughts. Thoughts actually determine your future. That’s what Solomon said.

This is also called metacognition or mind mapping. You have to think about what you’re thinking.

So what am I thinking about? You need to guard your thoughts. See what you have been thinking about.

Then if you see a pattern of negativity, you see what you need to stop.

You need to change the channel. You could change the channel of your mind or your thoughts by examining what you listen to, what you read, and what influences you.

Then you need to change those things. Who are the people I’m surrounding myself with? I need to seek a different crowd and get more positive, like-minded people.

JN: There’s an emphasis that, as an entrepreneur, failing is inevitable. But how do we fail effectively?

AR: At times, it’s all about semantics, and as such, the first thing we should do is redefine failure.

You don’t really fail, but you must see it as a stepping stone. It’s not just failure; it’s a learning moment. When you frame it that way, you can rise again.

You don’t take it personally. It’s not your identity. You don’t say, “I’m a failure.” So next, what’s the next step?

Step 1: Don’t make failure your identity. That’s what you call failing forward. Step 2: You can also shortcut your success by learning from the failures of others. That’s where we see the importance of mentoring and finding a teacher.

Remember, you don’t have to fail at the things they have already failed in, for instance, the programme we started in the Philippines called Go Negosyo.

With Go Negosyo, we say, as a manager for business, you surround yourself with good company: people who have succeeded and those who have failed.

In that way, you don’t have to go through the pains of failing they experienced. You don’t have to fail three times out of four.

Maybe, maybe once, and that’s understandable. So, that’s called self-leadership. You need to lead yourself before you lead a team.

JN: So is it a must that a leader must have an entrepreneurial mindset all the time? Or can a leader lead without being an entrepreneur?

AR: I think a leader doesn’t have to be an entrepreneur, but he needs to be entrepreneurial in thinking.

An entrepreneur is someone who solves problems and adds value to the community by solving a specific problem.

For example, a friend of mine went to a university and couldn’t find a reliable laundromat.

Delivering his laundry took 48 hours or more. The service providers were very slow, and he wasn’t satisfied.

I said to him: “I wish I could find a reliable laundromat.”

He said: “Maybe I should do that.”

It turned out that once he started, he solved the problems of many students. He saw the problem and created value out of it.

I have an entrepreneur friend who saw that the toilets in Manila were very dirty. He kept complaining about it, and many people complained as well. So, he found a company that cleans toilets and uses less water when flushing.

He brought that technology in, made a lot of money, and became the president of the World Toilet Association.

Yes, he became the president, and he got all the malls as his clients, saving them a ton of money because water is very expensive.

He saved a lot of water, salt and sanitation. He called himself the toilet king, and he made money out of things as simple as that.

I have another friend who addressed the housing problem in the Philippines. There’s a shortage of housing because of the high cost of construction materials.

So what he did, he went to MIT on a scholarship and brought home a technology where you can build houses using water bottles — empty one-litre soda bottles.

He built schoolhouses with that. He also made solar lighting out of the bottles and recently got a US$1 million grant from Dubai as a social entrepreneur.

He called me one day because, at that time, I was a member of his board, and said: “You have to come over because we’re about to receive US$1 million, and we only have US$65 in the bank.”

Wow. So that mindset of solving problems and adding value to society and the community is something that a leader must have all the time.

A leader is a problem solver, wanting to add value to his people. He looks at the person and sees potential. He looks at the person and sees more than just failure; he sees the future.

JN: How do I improve my brain power and cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset?

AR: Well, I come from a Christian perspective. I’ve tried many things and read many books such as Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and other classics from authors such as John Maxwell and Stephen R Covey, but you know, the greatest source that I always go back to is Romans, Chapter 12 in the Bible: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

So the question is, how do you renew your mind? It says do not be conformed to the patterns of the world.

So what then should I conform to as a leader, entrepreneur, or business person? You go through the word of God.

The word of God says, think of these things: “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

When I failed big time, I lost all my money, and that’s what God used for me to become a Christian. I failed at a big concert promotion.

I lost all my money, and God used that to break my ego.

The word ego, by the way, stands for edging God out. It’s when you feel you don’t need God in the execution of your entrepreneurial endeavours.

You need to say, “I’m gonna live my life, not by myself, but I’m gonna trust God.”

So at that moment, I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I learned about God’s plan for me, and I started applying the Bible in my life and business.

At that moment, my business turned around because my mindset changed.

I changed the way I handled money and the way I related to people.

Before that mental transformation, I would use people, manipulate people, lie to people, and even deceive some of my investors.

So, when I became a Christian, I stopped all these things through the Bible. That’s how I transformed and renewed my mind. I applied the biblical principles.

JN: What are three books you would recommend to leaders?

AR: The first book that comes to mind, which helped me a lot, is called The Winning Attitude by John C Maxwell.

It realigned my attitude and helped me not only to have a positive attitude but a winning attitude.

The second book is The E-Myth by Michael E Gerber. The E-Myth is short for the entrepreneur myth, and I realised from his book that I was not an entrepreneur, but self-employed.

There is a difference between an entrepreneur and being self-employed.

Being self-employed is where you work in your business, and basically, the business will not work without you.

If you leave the business, it doesn’t work or make money.

An example is a doctor who has a clinic or a person who bakes all the bread.

Gerber says a real entrepreneur is someone who builds a team and succession plan.

Peter Drucker, an Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author (now late), once said: “There’s no success without succession.”

So a real entrepreneur makes the business automated and manualised so that even when they are absent or leave, the business continues.

The business doesn’t own you. Instead, you own the business.

The final book is the Bible. I love the Bible.

Proverbs has so much wisdom about relationships with people, practical advice, handling money, and not getting into debt.

The Bible says, if you get into debt, you become a slave to the lender. Solomon in Ecclesiastes teaches us to diversify.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. You never know what kind of disaster will come. That’s what the Bible says. I have thousands of books in my library.