The Buffalo Hunter (Part 1)
Strive Masiyiwa
Image Attribution: Strive Masiyiwa Social Media (Facebook // LinkedIn)
__A blast from the past, some of you will remember
There is a story told about a professional hunter who had a friend who always wanted to go with him on one of his hunts. So one day he said to his friend, "I have a permit to go into the Zambezi Valley and hunt for a buffalo. Would you like to come with me?"
The friend was ecstatic at the opportunity.
"When do we go?" he asked.
"In about six months time, but before then I have to train you about hunting".
For the next six months, the two men met every day, and they discussed and planned for the trip. The hunter's friend was surprised by how meticulous the hunter was about everything.
He taught him about the bush, and how to survive in it. He taught him everything about buffaloes.
“You must respect the buffalo,” he said, “because it's a very intelligent animal, and it is also extremely dangerous".
He gave him lots of books to read, about hunting and buffaloes.
During that time, the friend also trained every day at the shooting range. He understood by then the different types of guns used to hunt buffalo. He also had to do fitness training, which surprised him.
"You can die out there if you are not fit," his friend explained.
He was totally astounded by what he was learning about hunting.
"Until now, I thought all you do is just go out and shoot, but now I know there is more to this than meets the eye!" he exclaimed.
When the day came, the two men set out into the wild bush of the Zambezi Valley, one of the most beautiful places on the earth. It is also inhospitably hot, and the terrain is tough.
They'd been tracking one single animal for 5 days, and the hunter's friend was totally exhausted. He watched as his friend patiently made meticulous plans every single day. The hunter seemed to take forever, from the point of view of his friend.
Sometimes they would walk, and sometimes they would sit for hours. The hunter was always looking around, scanning the bushes, not even (it appeared) always paying attention to the surrounding areas more than the buffalo.
"Why can't he just shoot and we go home!?"
He was getting tired of this, as they walked almost 50 miles a day. He was also hungry most of the time, as they only ate rations of dried meat and fruit.
The hunter looked at the animal through his gun sight over and over every day, but wouldn’t take a shot. Sometimes they appeared so close, but he still did not do anything.
It was the fifth day: The animal was in sight again, but the hunter was going through his routine again. The friend sat in the bushes, when suddenly a rabbit appeared in front of him and he thought to himself, "At least if I shoot this rabbit, we can have meat tonight. I'm tired of dry rations."
He pulled out his gun and fired once. The rabbit disappeared, as he had missed anyway, but so did the buffalo, and with it, the entire herd.
The hunter looked at him in total horror and disbelief!
Then he shouted, "Run, or you die!" as he took off.
They almost got stampeded by an entire herd that seemed to appear from nowhere. Also, suddenly there were lions everywhere that he had not seen before! But for the skills of the hunter, who led them both to safety, they could have died.
The buffalo was gone. The hunt was over.
They had to return home, empty-handed.
There are at least 5 business lessons I want you to extract from this story.
Your turn: List 5x simple (one line) responses, if you are interested. No essays.
For those of you who did this homework back in April 2016 when I first posted this article, I look forward to your lessons learned since then.
By the way, I don't approve of hunting. So remember, this is a business story. Don't write me stories about animals!
Key Business Lessons
Success in business requires extensive preparation and training, just as the hunter spent six months meticulously preparing his friend with knowledge, skills, and physical conditioning before the actual hunt. Leaders must invest significant time in developing their capabilities and understanding their market environment before making critical moves, rather than assuming they can simply "go out and execute" without proper groundwork.
Patience and timing are crucial for achieving optimal outcomes in business ventures. The experienced hunter repeatedly had opportunities to take a shot but waited for the perfect moment, understanding that premature action could ruin the entire endeavor. Business leaders must resist the pressure to act quickly when conditions aren't ideal, even when stakeholders are eager for immediate results.
Undisciplined actions by team members can destroy carefully planned strategies and put the entire organization at risk. When the friend impulsively shot at the rabbit, he not only ruined their specific objective but also created dangerous consequences they hadn't anticipated. One person's lack of discipline or failure to follow established protocols can unravel months of preparation and threaten the survival of the entire business venture.
Afterthoughts
"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus". - Alexander Graham Bell
"One of the main challenges in developing and scaling a solution is understanding the 'pain points' and creating value for different stakeholders.
If the solutions address a deep pain point, there will always be someone willing to pay for it. Monetizing your solution is crucial to guarantee its growth in the long run. That takes time, and sometimes you'll need to adapt or pivot your idea. The advice I would give to a global change-maker is to be resilient and persistent. But also be ready for many other challenges during the journey..."
Quoted from an article my team found from a few years ago featuring lessons learned shared by young entrepreneurs from around the world... but unfortunately none from Africa.
What other lessons would you share?https://www.weforum.org/.../davos23-10-lessons-on.../
Several weeks ago now as promised, I shared a comprehensive list of online AI learning resources curated especially for the #JuniorClass to get started #SkillingUp in AI, if you haven't already done so.
Last week, Google DeepMind just published its "secret sauce" AI Research Foundations curriculum on its Google Skills platform. For those of you in the #SeniorClass who are #Serious, #VerySerious, about doing AI research, learning to build your own small language models, designing and training neural networks, etc., this one is for you.
If not now, when? These incredible courses won't be free forever.
https://www.skills.google/collections/deepmind
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