“Fuelling Up the Entrepreneural Dream”

By Limalenden Longkumer |

Here’s wishing you all readers a very Happy New Year and a prosperous one at that. Now, if wisdom comes with age, like they say, then I hope that better be true. For if wisdom is to clog even as the years go by, then we’d all be like the poor pigs in the sty that we so often see in our neighbourhood. If we as humans lack the creative faculty to imagine, then ours would be no better than the fate of the poor pigs that end up in our plates. But if pigs would imagine, there’d be no pork in the menu. That’s why pigs don’t imagine – so we may have pork.

Technically, imagination is the ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses. It is the products of imagining, a conception, and a mental creation. It can work together with ideas and the key to imagination is to think without any restrictions or barrier such as worries about the ability to carry out the plan due to financial constraints or lack of ‘political support’. (I just remembered a line I once read somewhere I don’t remember. That, thinking is the hardest thing to do on earth, which is why not many people think).

When The Nokinketer told me that the cover story of their next edition would be based on entrepreneurship, I thought to myself, “What if Mokokchung was home to a thousand successful entrepreneurs?” Imagination is more important than knowledge, as Einstein rightly said, and successful entrepreneurs are those who imagine their success before they actually achieve it. I’ve read that once you will start imagining yourself as a successful entrepreneur, then you will not only come up with a lot more entrepreneurial ideas but your imagination will also keep you motivated to do much more hard work.

We must at the same time, however, remember that our imagination is not like some coloured smoke from the genie bottle, but that it is actually an essential set of tools that can lift, launch or transform our careers.

So here’s not to you lazy, insecure, play-it-safe kind of people hunting for a safe, secure and pension benefit covered government job … I swear and whine at why today’s society leaves us with little or no space to treat in the beautiful pursuit of imagining. We’re always told to find a government job so much so that it has gotten entrenched in our minds which suck up our creative mechanisms dry. We’ve been victimized by the circumstances. We are being abused here. Such rigorous social conditioning whereby we’re made to believe that landing a government job is the sole purpose of our very existence… as if it is the stairway to heaven… and they even make us pray like landing a government job is our salvation guaranteed.  

Speaking from the societal perspective, imagination is our gateway to a better world; it is the blueprint for progress that is not shackled by any impediments that often prevent us from forging ahead. When we imagine what might be, we venture out beyond stiff boundaries of mental captivity. Imagination is the foundation for all invention and innovation. Harnessing that power of imagination – the power to “think outside the box”, to think laterally – is the way to go if you want to be solving employment issues, and you want to be solving them in an innovative way.

Our socio-economy will never progress as long as the young are conditioned to think within the box or “strife, compete and excel” to land a government job. I’d even go to the extent of inviting the smarter ones holding government offices to quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs. And all ye government-job-hunting-coward-lazy-zombies, if there was ever a time to start your own enterprise, it’s now.

Nagaland’s economic horizon is darkening, leaving the people without hope of sunshine. But we need to see the light between the clouds. It’s no surprise that unemployed youths choose entrepreneurship over months, or years, of (government) job-search misery. If there are no jobs, why not create your own? But then again, just like Mark Zuckerberg and the Google guys, we’re going to need some imagination and creativity.And perseverance, of course. Closer home, BendangnükshiLongkümer, Moasangba Jamir, TsüktiLongkümer, WabangMollier and their ilk don’t really look like they need pension ‘security’. Being a successful entrepreneur is no felony after all.

In the course of my journey as an entrepreneur, I’ve realized that there are three principal causes that act as deterrents to one’s dreams – fear of failure, lack of opportunities and laziness. If you’d agree with me on that, then imagine your solutions.

We are not born millionaires. So, if we want to achieve something, we will have to do something special by creating our own opportunities. Like a muscle, our ability to imagine will atrophy if not exercised.

Therefore, entrepreneurship is not for everyone; it is but for a few smart, intelligent and courageous people who can think out of the box. Entrepreneurship is lucrative… I mean, pork in pongsenis delicious! Thank you, pigs.