The Adowarim theory

Have you noticed how many entrepreneurs, leaders and successful people often say things like "this is just the beginning", or "we're nowhere near our goal", or, "I'm just getting started"?

Especially when they are being praised for their achievements? You've just written a book that has sold more copies than the Bible, and you say you're just getting started? You've just invented something that has solved a fundamental human problem for all mankind, and you're saying you're nowhere near your goal?

What is it with these people? Are they insatiable? Do they not know when to stop? Are successful people not fulfilled by their accomplishments? Well, I have a theory.

I think successful people are not as motivated by the result of what they do as they are by the process. The best illustration I have to demonstrate this theory is the story of Adowarim Lugu-Zuri. She is the founder and Manager of Wazuri Enterprise, makers of Zuri Coconut products. I first met her at an entrepreneurship event where she was telling the story of how she started a lucrative coconut plantation and distribution business before she turned 20.

Adowarim's business started when she decided to sell pure water to her fellow students on Legon campus, just to make enough extra pocket money to buy her favourite check-check. She tells of how she sold her first pack of pure water and realised she had made GHC2. She was so excited by this. It was only GHC2, but she was as thrilled as someone who had won the lottery.

She talked about how amazing it felt to make profit - to use your energy and activity to create money that was not there before. That simple act of making profit - even though it was only GHC2 - was so fulfilling to Adowarim that she wanted to do it again and again and again.

Her motivation did not come from the achievement of a certain profit goal - it came from the simple act of making profit - no matter how little or how much. Today, she runs the biggest coconut distribution company in Ghana, and she is only 21.

I tell you this story to highlight one simple truth about successful people: their fulfilment comes not from a final accomplishment, but from the daily process of accomplishing. In fact, their love for the act of accomplishing is so great, that the idea of hitting their final goal can sometimes be undesirable. Hitting your ultimate goal means an end to the process. No more reason to make profit on a daily basis, no more reason to continue the process of achieving.

Famed American billionaire, Donald Trump once said, "My yacht or my Ferrari are not the best things about being Donald Trump. The best thing about being Donald Trump is the stuff I do every day, to earn the yacht and the Ferrari.

My friends, what is it that pushes you to succeed? What is that goal that drives you? What is that landmark, or milestone that you are working towards? I am glad you have that target to focus your actions.

But I hope you are just as excited by the process as the result. It is that enthusiasm about the daily tasks and details of your chosen endeavour that will sustain you on days when things are not going well.

When you have gone a whole day without a single customer, it can be difficult to be motivated by dreams of a house in Trasacco Valley, but if you find excitement in the act of talking to customers, and interacting with people, you are more likely to keep pushing through, talking to more and more people until one of them becomes a customer.

Today, I want to encourage you to appreciate the detail of what you do, and not just the result. The smaller tasks that make up your productivity. Do they excite you? Are you motivated by the process of accomplishing?

I hope you are, because you will be spending most of your time doing just that. And then when someone points out your accomplishments, you can proudly say to them, "This is just the beginning.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and I'm excited by the journey, not just the destination.