Please, kindly take your time to click any of the links above. The best way to get result from the video is click the play button; allow it to start playing then click the pause button. After a while, you will see the stream signal; allow it to stream till the end then you can click the play button again. This allows you to watch this 17.35 minutes talk without any interruption.
This video is a must-watch for entrepreneurs, especially the ones from Africa.
The video is a talk from Franco Sacchi, an Italian documentary film maker, who highlighted the pluses of Nollywood. For my readers in Norway, who do not have a faint idea about Nollywood, you will really need to watch the video above or you may read about it by clicking HERE. From the video above, I was able to highlight 3 important elements Africans should consider before going entrepreneurial in any venture:
Appreciation: In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you must appreciate your talent. You must discover and appreciate your strength and leverage on it to give you a competitive edge. It is also important that when you appreciate yourself, others are likely to appreciate you. Though there is a high percentage of Nigerians that do not appreciate Nollywood (or feign not to appreciate it), the strong demand for it in Africa is amazing. It asserts the old saying that; a prophet is not honored in his own country. If you do not appreciate your resources and your talents, a smart capitalist would appreciate it for you by paying you peanuts to utilize it. South African DSTV pays Nigerian producers 700 US Dollars to own the rights to air their films and make hundreds of millions of US Dollars from it.
Uniqueness: In life, if you are not unique, you will neither be celebrated nor will you make impact on your generation. It is important to be remarkable in order to succeed as an entrepreneur. Remarkable does not mean the best product/service; it only means the product/service that people talk about. Nollywood is sure not the best in terms of quality but it is highly spoken about even by those that claim to despise it. I have a personal experience about the remark ability of a product; JOBFinder Manual is a book of 900 pages. Youths complain that the book was too big for their reading consumption but I am amazed how the same youths that criticize the book buy it. In fact, I am shocked that with little advert cost, I am able to make such revenue in 5 months from Nigerians that people say do not read books. It is all about remarkable!
Low Budget: I have heard so many Nigerians complain of lack of capital; you really do not need huge capital to start your business. For more on how to use the capital you have, to start small, read my interview with an Indian entrepreneur or read my articles on Small Money. In the talk above, you can imagine the shock on everyone’s face when they said the budget to make a 180 minutes film (mostly divided into two parts) for ten thousand US Dollars. The funny part is that it is produced in a week. Whenever I am advising entrepreneurs, I tell them that it is not the product/service that matters, it is the mix that makes the product/service successful. The product/service must have the right price and must be sold at the right place and must be promoted to the right audience. Nollywood practitioners were able to understand this mix very well, thus their success.
