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08.01.2019 Feature Article

The Psycho-Social and Spiritual Miracle of Entrepreneurship

The Psycho-Social and Spiritual Miracle of Entrepreneurship
08.01.2019 LISTEN

Many people across the globe, including most of the employable youth in Africa have for some time been faced with a menace of unemployment which has considerably affected their standard of living and dampened their hopes of a better future.

This reality is proven by various reports from very reputable national and international organisations that officially deal with comprehensive data regarding employment statistics.

In 2018, Statistics South Africa, in their Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS Q2-2018), said that the country’s unemployment rate had increased by 0.5% to 27.2% compared to the first quarter of 2018 and later on in the third quarter said that the rate had increased by 0.3% to 27.5%.

In the same vein, while presenting their survey findings, The International Labour Organisation’s World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2018 survey, stated that unemployment and decent work deficits were to remain high in 2018.

However, regardless of these gloomy findings, it is important to understand that the problem of unemployment can still be solved through entrepreneurship training, development and promotion initiatives when spearheaded by government, academic and civic organisations.

This is because when entrepreneurship drives are properly undertaken, they can immediately and in the long run turn job seekers into self-sustained job creators who can help to subsequently turn around local, regional and international economic fortunes.

As such, in this regard, it is important for all and sundry to firstly understand what is it that it means to be an entrepreneur so that the subject can be tackled from an informed mind.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus, an entrepreneur is one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.

Based on this definition, we can see that one of the main reasons behind the problem of unemployment is that the world, especially poor and developing countries are in short supply of people who fall within the above mentioned definition of an entrepreneur.

Many communities are filled with people who either lack the skills to be gainfully employed or with skilled people who lack the opportunity to be gainfully employed and yet the same people lack the drive and insight to pursue entrepreneurship on their own.

The above situation unfortunately and inevitably succumbs people to the dangers of unemployment such as stress, poor health and strained relationships with loved ones.

This situation can however be turned around when people’s mind-set is transformed towards entrepreneurship even from an early age.

People must be made to believe and understand that they have what it takes to either individually or collectively seek to solve community problems at a profitable fee through organising, managing and assuming the related business risks than to wait and do the same for someone else merely in exchange for a salary.

Every individual has unlimited needs and wants that needs to be addressed and as such, a basic source of income that comes from being entrepreneurial helps in dealing with some needs which may be more pressing and thus leaving the less urgent for another time.

Such an ability to at least conveniently solve some of your life problems through income helps people build confidence and reduce stress in the same way it can also give you hope. This therefore ensures that your psychological wellbeing is enhanced.

On the spiritual side, the mind, heart and soul operates better when you believe that the universe is collaborating with you for your good.

It is therefore up to the individual to realise that he/she is the one that needs to trigger the universe to collaborate with him/her by standing on the feet of one’s entrepreneurial conscience and solve problems at a fee.

The poor health aspect of unemployment comes from the fact that without a meaningful source of income, access to a balanced diet becomes a mere distance dream and when this lack of a balanced diet is coupled with stress it means that a person’s healthy is likely to quickly deteriorate.

More so, unemployment induced poverty makes it difficult to create quality time with both family and friends since the financial enabling means will be absent. For example, it is difficult to practically show love to a sick child when you can’t afford medication.

Financial wellness helps individuals express their affection either through making it possible for them to visit their parents and friends, to attend family functions, to buy gifts for their cherished ones and also to buy products and services that keeps them entertained and mentally refreshed.

The psycho-social and spiritual miracle element of entrepreneurship therefore comes from its ability to holistically enhance the physiological wellbeing of people, whether as individuals or groups by capacitating them to eat well, think well and interact well if rightly informed.

Entrepreneurship training enhances your interpersonal skills since it helps you to consider people as stakeholders who are critical to your personal and corporate wellbeing than mere individuals who are just living their own lives.

Such an understanding therefore enables you to engage people with an open mind, tolerating diversity and celebrating commonality. These interpersonal skills thus becomes the social fabric that warms communities across the times.

It is therefore important for individuals and organisations, especially academic training institutions and economic empowerment organisations to engage in, advocate for and promote entrepreneurship in an attempt to solve unemployment and improve livelihoods.

Brian Kazungu is a freelance journalist and opinion leader.

Email: ka [email protected] , Twitter; @BKazungu

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