FOLLOWING the overwhelming feedback from readers on Winston Muleba junior's article on the youth using their hobbies and talents to launch entrepreneurship careers, we will continue with the second part of the contribution this week.

Mr Muleba writes: People have different talents, which I can't afford to list, therefore, to make it clear to my fellow youths, it is important that I pick on five specific talents (Nick Hughes), which without the presence of these five specific talents, it would be very difficult to start and grow a new venture.

 There are many innate people who have their specific talents. For example, some children are not taught any skills such as sport or music but they naturally do act such as playing musical instruments or controlling their skill s when they are young.

Any one did not teach them but they do some admirable action. This means that some children are born with some talents. According to Nick Hughes in his book called 'Now discover your strength', the specific five talents are:

1.              Activator: this is a talent which people have to make things happen by turning thoughts into action. It is a talent that is very beneficial to creative, innovative and productive entrepreneurs.

Activators find ways to simply get things started and make 'things happen, which is synonymous with the definition of a leader. Activators build out the core founding team, establish the general " idea" and strategic direction, line up legal representation, find office space, organise meetings, etc. An activator jumps up and says to his friends "Hey, let 's start a new company!" Some people have a hard time. Breaking from their ruts in life, but not activators. They never fall into ruts because they are always starting something different or recruiting others to join them and their new pursuits.

2.              Adaptability: People with this talent prefer to 'go with the flow'. They tend to be 'now' people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time. Nothing in a start-up ever goes as planned and thus, start-up entrepreneurs must be able to adapt to changing circumstances. Successful entrepreneurs go with the flow of startup culture, where markets change quickly, funding seems both eminent and impossible, eo-entrepreneurs come and go, and products evolve.

Pivoting (i.e. adaptability) is essential to today's start-ups. Smart entrepreneursshould initiate the process not with the "dream company concept" in mind, but rather, with the commitment and pursuit of solving a consumer problem.

3.     Strategic; People with this talent create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues. "Acute pattern recognition, finding alternative ways to succeed, spotting signal and relevance from all the noise, this is strategic thinking".

It's what separates the idea-and-fail group from the execute-and-succeed group. Strategic thinking names the company, defines what makes you unique, finds where in the market to position your product, determines how to best orient the value proposition, discovers how users will find your service, and figures out who will ultimately become a strategic partner.

One example of an entrepreneur who had this talent is Steve Job. He was probably the best strategic thinker we have encountered in recent history.

It's no coincidence that Apple has risen to become the most valuable company in the world; Jobs realized computing was not just about productivity, but that people wanted to be liberated, creative and entertained.

Jobs determined to create a computing and entertainment ecosystem around the entire consumer. How did he recognize this potential? Jobs turned the corner when he decided to make a better portable music player and integrate iTunes into the computing experience. He noticed that consumers wanted a hub, one place to access all their music and entertainment.

After taking the music industry by storm, he made computing mobile with the iPhone and the iPad, again reinventing computing for the post-PC era.

Finally, the advent of the Apple Store opened an entirely new market for millions of entrepreneurs, and has already generated billions of dollars in less than five years. Although he is late, Jobs may not be done transforming our world. Apple TV has the potential to change how we interact with digital content.

Jobs did all this by seeing around corners, observing the how and why of the consumer and using strategic thinking every time he made a decision.

The question I am pausing to my entrepreneurs is, do they all see and understand all angles of their market, and have the ability to spot patterns or counterintuitive trends?

4.     Discipline: People with this talent enjoy routine and structure. Their world is best described by the order they create. Roles and responsibilities can pull an entrepreneur in so many directions that he can feel lost in the chaos. Therefore, establishing routine and structure is essential to moving a business forward.

5.     Focus: People with this tal ent take a direction, follow through, and make the corrections necessary 'to stay on track. They prioritise, and then act.

Imagine you have 100 things to do today, but you only have time to accomplish three. Which ones do you get done? You may have all the talents described above, but if you cannot focus on the right things, you will not succeed. Focus takes your discipline, narrows it down on the essential few things that are important, and makes sure you get them

done. How many people do you know who have said they are starting some new venture only to tell you six months later they just couldn't get going and are already doing something different?

These people might be an activator and even excel in strategic thinking, but if they cannot focus on what is important each day, they will never get to the next level.

Launching a: successful business can be one of the most challenging experiences in one's life.

Don't make it any harder than it needs to be. Focusing on the critically important and dismissing all other distractions will make all the difference, Just ask yourself; which are the most important tasks on which your business depends? Now, focus on those and only those tasks.

 This article has a final part, which would be published in the coming weeks. Next week, the column will discuss the reviewed National

Youth Policy draft.

by Moses Kabaila: moseskabaila@gmail.com