Nigerian entrepreneur and business mogul, Sim Shagaya, took to his Twitter timeline to advise entrepreneurs on how to be brave about their ideas.
According to the former CEO of Konga, often times, inventors and entrepreneurs are concerned that their ideas will be perceived as lacking originality because someone else somewhere developed a similar idea.
But in the words of Shagaya, entrepreneurs do not have to feel that way because there is always room for their own ideas.
Inventors/entrepreneurs are often to concerned that their ideas will be perceived as lacking originality because someone else somewhere developed a similar idea. But they need not feel that way. Thread ->
— sim shagaya (@SimShagaya) May 3, 2019
Below are his reasons why there is always room for ideas:
“To be sure, taking an idea from a different region and transplanting and localizing it constitutes genuine bonafide innovation. But what I’m referring to here is something more profound. It is often the case that two or more people will come up with the same idea/realization.
“These inventors may be in very difficult locations but curiously, they hit upon the invention remarkably close to each from a timing point of view. Sometimes within days or months of each other. The notion that “I thought of it first” is often nonsensical.
“The concept of ‘multiple discoveries’ has been widely studied.
“Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz developed calculus almost simultaneously and separately. Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace developed the theory of natural selection almost simultaneously. The same holds true for such ‘inventions’ as electricity and the telephone.
“Even the discovery of alcohol and its pleasantly intoxicating effects was discovered by several civilizations across the world almost simultaneously.
“There’s a simple reason for this: inventors build on the discoveries of those who have come before them which make up the components needed to enable the new invention. When a civilization has learned to tame wild grains, it’s only a matter of time till it masters fermentation.
“This phenomenon is speeding up. Digital technology is leading to a proliferation of components and tools. So an entrepreneur sits there and sees a proliferation of smartphones, mobile payments, faster broadband to enable widespread video consumption and a broken education system.
“He immediately thinks “online education”. But he can be sure he’s not the only that sees it. Of the group of folks that see this opportunity, only a subset will put in the toil and harness the resources to birth it. And even then, there will be multiple inventors emergent.
“And this is where lightning fast execution, enormous sacrifice, hard work and other such things come into play.”
Sim Shagaya recently started a learning platform called uLesson. uLesson provides access to learning contents and tests to its users.
