 Greetings and welcome to today's program broadcasting live for audiences around the world from the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. My name is Dante Desparte and I'm the founder and CEO of Risk Cooperative, a specialized strategy, risk and capital management firm. I would like to extend a special welcome to our live viewing group from the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia. Today, we will have an interactive conversation and take your questions on entrepreneurship and the concept of failing forward. Please sign in and ask your questions in the chat space below the video player, or ask your questions on Twitter using the hashtag EntrepAfrica, E-N-T-R-E-P, Africa. Joining us remotely from Boston today is Saran Kaba-Jones, founder and CEO of Face Africa, a community development organization working to build and strengthen water sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in remote communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. Born in Liberia, Saran's organization has raised over 500,000 for their projects from organizations like JPMorgan Chase, Coca-Cola, Chevron and more. So we'll turn to Saran now. I always say that on the road to success, failures are the guardrails that ensure you remain on track. Saran, you have built an impressive social enterprise. Tell us about your experiences and how you failed forward. Thank you, Dante. Good morning, everyone from Boston. My name is Saran Kaba-Jones, and I am the founder and CEO of Face Africa. It's really an organization born from the Liberia company. I came to Liberia when I was 12 years old, when I was in the country with you. And when I realized the war and the conflict of a lot of distance from the country, it left quite a potential impact on me. So I decided on this conflict. I was working with the Liberian people in Liberia. So in 2018, Africa was born, and since then, I've been part of the Access to Plenty of Water and I've been part of the nation for 25,000 years. And I will say that in the 18th century, when I launched, my experience is ongoing and have included successes, but also failures. I've lost a lot of lead in Africa, a lot of lead in failure, because I think the more you think about it, the more you learn from it. I want to go to the top five, like I said, that at least more than nine percent of my career, I've lost only 26 times. I've been trusted to be a winning shot here. I've failed over and over again in my career, and that is why I've failed. And so this is what I'm holding to share with you. The more you think, the more opportunities you have to succeed. That's a great opening remarks, Saran. Thank you. So let's turn to an online question that we just received from Arnold Afolayan, who writes, how can failing forward help one in business? And how does one know that one is failing forward? Do you want to take that first question? Well, I think how do you know what you're failing for? Again, I think the more you fail, it's true that you're experienced in your learning. Now, I'll give you an example of my first time thinking about it. I heard about the needs of young people in Liberia and also in Africa. But then I came to realize that unique and unique aspects of education was the lack of water in school and at the community level. And that children were not playing up in schools. And this was severely hampered. And that a lot of people, because these schools were getting sick from illnesses by unseen people. And so I thought at the time that I was thinking about saying the wrong way when you graduate, you had more issues that needed to be done. And so we took a step back. And it was that our initial effort to provide education opportunity was not the best effort, but really the funding we're going to be able to show that children were helping. So Arnold, just to answer the question as well, I always think of failure for businesses and entrepreneurs as the scientific method. That if you start with a hypothesis that your business has an opportunity, the first failure, in a way, is your first opportunity to see evidence that you're on the right track. And so I wouldn't look at any failure in businesses, anything other than the scientific method. So we have another great question here. What are the key traits of a successful entrepreneur? How does an entrepreneur stay mentally strong and positive in the face of failure? And I think for me the key trait is fortitude. Entrepreneurship has never ever been easy. And the quality of the people that you will see leading projects around the world is that they're eternally optimistic. They don't look at failure as an obstacle. They see the pursuit of their business as something that their business or vision or social enterprise like Saran has built is something that is part of their DNA. They simply will not allow the business to fail because they believe the vision is what they're pursuing. So some failures are so great. How do you recover from them? Saran, do you have any lessons learned so far in building face Africa? I have many of those examples and I think I go through that experience at least once a month and I've been doing this for nine years. And like I always say to young entrepreneurs who are interested in starting an organization or a business, there are going to be many challenges and there are going to be many of those days where you feel like throwing in the towel because things are simply not going the way you expect them to. And I've experienced many of those days. But I think especially for those who are running social enterprises that are not entirely motivated by money or financial gains, I think ultimately when you're passionate about impacting lives and when you're passionate about making a difference in your community and improving the livelihood of your fellow community members, you realize that there's so much dependent on you that you simply cannot give up. You realize that it takes a village to impact lives and improve the living conditions of people. And at the end of the day, you simply cannot give up. You have to keep going. Exactly. So another great question we've received was, was there a time you almost gave up? What was the biggest lesson you learned? And I'll take a chance at answering that. I think as you say, Suran, every day there's probably a moment in time in the life of an entrepreneur where you feel like you're ready to call it and fold the cards, so to speak. In my case, I was building a large project across Sub-Saharan Africa to help improve humanitarian fleet management. And one year after another, one month after another, we just continued encountering all kinds of obstacles. And part of the challenge was that we weren't paying too much attention originally to what the market actually wanted. So in a laboratory or in the safe space of your business and in, you know, Excel and PowerPoint and building a business plan, it's very easy to make things look successful. I think failure and going to market and not being afraid of the consequences is the one way you get real feedback and allows you to reposition the business and, you know, figure out what exactly it takes to make it successful. So if you had a chance to start your business over again, what would you do differently? Any lessons learned if you can rewind the clock nine years back? Absolutely. I think for many entrepreneurs, the issue of funding and capital is one of the number one, you know, challenges that they face. And that has been no different for us. Fundraising continues to remain a challenge for face Africa and it's something that we struggle with every day. So I think it is important to, one, before you start anything, really understand the need for capital, not just to start your organization, but in terms of sustaining it. And I think when we went in, when I started this organization, I was very passionate and idealistic and I thought I could just continue to sustain it just based on the passion and enthusiasm that I had. But I soon came to realize that it takes a lot more than that to sustain a business. And so I think really opening up your network and identifying really innovative and creative ways to fundraise is extremely important and that's something I would have definitely done differently. That's right. And you bring up a good point, which is the notion that on the finance and banking side, investors in early stage companies and entrepreneurs, they really want to see bruises. They want to see bumps and bruises and a track record, which you'll only gain from having no fear of failure. So another good question we're getting right now is in thinking about innovation, how do you contain the negative impacts of failing and how do you do damage control? So damage control in a way is my business today. We focus on risk management and when there's a smoking crater where your business one stood. And ultimately I think containing bad news and not sharing it with the market or the public or your colleagues doesn't make the bad news any better. In fact, it makes it worse. And so if your prospect or your project has failed, I would come out with it right away and indicate that for whatever reason that first attempt didn't quite make it. The second attempt, however, will be better based on the lessons learned so far. Dante, I completely agree. I think being open and honest, not just with yourself, but also with your target audience, with your potential funders and even list of funders or donors is extremely important. And I mean, even for me and face Africa, we're at the moment going through an extremely challenging period in terms of cash flow. And so we've had to take a step back and reassess our financial position, our financial standing. And it was really insightful for us to realize that we've been running a half a million dollar organization on a 50,000 dollar a year budget. And that's been happening for the last three or four years. And so we've been bootstrapping our way to sustainability, which in of itself is not sustainable. So now we're in the process of having this conversation with our supporters, with our funders to say to them, we need you to invest in face Africa as an institution so that we can be sustainable and so that we can be around long enough to continue to invest in these projects that are impacting lives. It sounds like your donors, Saran, could learn a lesson or two about managing a lean enterprise from you. So that's great to hear. So let's turn now to our live audience in Lusaka for two questions. Simon you know from Kittway? The first question that I have from the experience... Simon, could you speak up a bit so we could hear you better? Simon you know from Kittway. The question I have is from the experience working in Africa. What do the two speakers see as a major challenges to start growing a business in Africa? That's a great question. So what are the major challenges of growing a business in Africa? I think the first is access to capital. I mean, one of, as Saran rightly pointed out, access to capital is very complex in Sub-Saharan Africa. But I should point out that it's very complex everywhere. In the United States, for example, 90 percent of early-stage companies don't succeed in getting capital. And we also know that many more may not succeed when they launch their business. And this is why today's program is really focusing on attitudes and the cultural attitudes towards failure. But access to capital is difficult across Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly because I think investors are using the wrong yardstick. They're asking for entrepreneurs to be able to provide an exit strategy. They're asking for entrepreneurs to define a road to profitability within a five-year timeframe. And frankly, a lot of these businesses need a much longer investment horizon. They're totally viable. But access to capital, I would say, is number one. Outside of that, I think it's a matter of overcoming some of the cultural inhibitions that would create a broader culture of entrepreneurship. But from having been to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi and working extensively with entrepreneurs across Africa, I would say the biggest advantage is the attitudes are increasingly changing. And more and more and more entrepreneurs are really looking at entrepreneurship as a pathway for success. Yes, I definitely agree. Thank you for that question. I think doing business in Africa definitely has a lot of challenges. But at the same time, there are also endless opportunities. And I think while there are challenges, I think that the key is really to think outside the box and find innovative ways to deal with those challenges and obstacles. Obviously, the issue of financing and capital is the number one issue. And getting your business to the next stage, growing a business is never easy. However, I think growing your startup, when you're thinking about that, it's important to not limit yourself and get creative. So in addition to traditional bank loans, for example, there are many potential sources of funding that you can explore, such as crowdfunding, business incubators, business competitions, and potential grants. So I think definitely think outside the box. Other challenges that I can think of from my experience include things like underdeveloped infrastructure, for example, and not having enough market data to be able to target your products effectively. And more importantly, the issue of talent and making sure that you hire the right talent. So I think there needs to be much work done to invest in capacity building so that you have a wider pool of talent to recruit from and get the best people to help you grow and expand your business. All great points, Siran. Thank you. So let's turn back to Zambia and see if we have a few more questions. Hi, Danta. Sir, can you get me? Hi. Hello. My name is Paul. Can you get me? Yes. You've talked about the challenges being capital and finance. We also talked about talent attribution and also the market. If I just restrict you to talent attribution, what are some of the proposed solutions for the problem? Sorry, Paul, just to make sure I got the question correctly, you were asking what were the best solutions to overcoming some of these challenges? Especially in terms of talent acquisition. That's a great question. That is a great question. And I don't think that's a problem that can be solved by, you know, just, you know, entrepreneurs. I think this is where the government definitely plays a role because there is no doubt that there's a shortage of skilled professionals. And sometimes that's mainly due to, you know, low education levels. And of course, there's the issue of a brain drain of highly educated workers who leave African countries in search of better opportunities or better paying jobs overseas. So I think this is where the government plays a role as far as creating an environment that will, you know, encourage, you know, talent to stay in the country so that small to medium sized businesses have a larger pool to pick from. But I think from, you know, from an entrepreneurship, from an entrepreneur's standpoint, I think we ourselves as business owners, we have a role to play as well. And we can ourselves invest in, you know, capacity building, capacity building internally and make sure that we, you know, invest in, you know, training in education and then building the capacity of our, you know, from our own communities so that we can deal with this issue of retaining local talent. Absolutely. And I would say that in addition to these approaches, that a lot of the diaspora are actually coming home, so to speak, right? That programs like Tony Alumelu's entrepreneurship program, in their first year, they had participants from 51 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and they were also able to bring people back, so to speak. And so in one case, an entrepreneur that I'm working closely with from Central African Republic, Gabino, who's building a solar energy platform across Sub-Saharan Africa, I know him from Washington, D.C., but on the launch of the entrepreneurship program through Tony Alumelu, he's coming back to the continent and reconnecting. And there's a lot of informal ways of transferring the skills of entrepreneurship, whether it's apprenticeship programs and sort of, you know, working closely in the vast incubator scene across the continent that's continuing to blossom. I think there's many ways of connecting the dots and addressing the talent shortage that may exist. So let's go back to Lusaka and get one more question. Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? Hello, how are you? Good, how are you? All right, my question is, what factors should motivate an entrepreneur to achieve their business dreams despite past mistakes, failures, or challenges? Well, I think... You get that. Yeah, we got that. So what factors should motivate an entrepreneur despite past mistakes, business failures, and challenges, right? Well, I think, you know, ultimately, you have to build a business you want to run and not one you want to fund, which is something I always say to entrepreneurs. A lot of times, people are trying to merely emulate what they think of as successful entrepreneurs and not necessarily think about building businesses they want to manage. I mean, ultimately, entrepreneurship, for the ones that are very successful at it, they're not only afraid of...they have no fear of failure, but I think they also say to themselves, this is something I'm passionate about, and this is something I want to run. I see myself doing this despite the odds, despite the fact that I have a talent gap, despite the fact that I have little access to capital and that the market hasn't yet figured out what I'm doing. So if you often talk about the notion of Steve Jobs was famous for saying, the market doesn't know what it wants until you show them. And I think that type of attitude in an entrepreneur is an almost defiant attitude to failure, right? And you need that. I think that's the core ingredient. Everything else, it's difficult everywhere, but I think once you have that defiance and optimism, I think entrepreneurs everywhere around the world can succeed. So let's turn then to...and thank you, Lusaka, for the great questions. So we'll turn and get some online questions coming in from our chat room. We know we have participants from around the world. So when is it time to just cut your losses and move on to another direction? Saran? That's an interesting question for me because these are all questions that I personally am facing right now. So this is a great exercise for me as well. And I think what I appreciate about being a social entrepreneur is that I'm always learning and I don't quite have it figured out. For me, I think you come to a point when you have to take a step back and do a complete assessment of where you started from, where you are currently, and where you want to be in the future, whether it's three, five, ten years from now. And I think that's a good way to determine, once you've done a comprehensive assessment of your entire journey, that's a good way to determine whether you're on the right path or whether it's time to realign your goals and your mission and re-strategize. And I think for every entrepreneur or for every business person, that's different. There's no fixed timeline when it comes to that. So we're going through that exercise right now where again because of cash flow problems and the issue of retaining our staff and talent, we have now had to do a complete reassessment of our organization to kind of re-strategize and realign ourselves. And sometimes you can come back and after you've done this assessment and say, you know what, I think it's time to actually throw in the towel because this is simply not working out and it's time to go and do something else. But that requires you taking, you know, conducting an internal exercise and assessment, whether it's a financial assessment or an internal human resource assessment. I think that's an exercise that's really important to do at some point in your journey. Completely agree, completely agree. So what is your greatest fear as an entrepreneur and how do you manage fear? Well, for me personally, you know, we all need to have a safe place. Sort of whether it's the notion of Zen or something that will sort of allow you to ride the waves of whatever uncertainties impacting you or your project. So, you know, for me it's a matter of remembering above all else when things get dark that we did what we're doing with the company or that I became an entrepreneur for a bigger purpose. And that is often very helpful when things look dire or when you're facing any types of challenges. You know, one of my friends who's an entrepreneur, whenever he's facing long challenges or tough, tough times, he goes on very long bike rides. And all of a sudden realizes when coming back that there is, that it's all fine and that tomorrow comes and the next day and the next day and the next day and then somehow they get over it. How about you, Saran, how do you overcome fear? I think building a really strong support network of people and friends and supporters and well wishes who are not only there to, you know, provide sort of financial support, but also to provide moral and psychological support. I think that's extremely important because, you know, there are many dark days and nights as an entrepreneur and there are many days that you, you know, you face challenges that are so, you know, insurmountable that you want to quit. But I think for me, I'm sustained, one, knowing that my contribution to society and the work that I'm doing is meaningful and valuable. I'm also sustained knowing that the struggle is, you know, it's in the work I'm doing is in service of something much bigger than me. So it's not about me. But then I have a huge community of supporters who, you know, encourage me and motivate me to keep going. So I think that's extremely important. And if I didn't have that, I don't think I would have survived as long as I had. Yeah, absolutely. So what is the best way to achieve long-term success as an entrepreneur? That's a very, that's a great question. I think the answer very simply is attitude, that for all the reasons we've heard so far and for what Saran has shared about her experiences, I think attitude is the key to success. And it's not only about entrepreneurship. I think attitude in a corporate environment and large companies and large organizations is often the determinant between success or failure. And think of it like, you know, adaptability to change. If you have, you're too rigid and you don't adapt to change very successfully, you're the one that gets broken and you build no robustness in your response. And so long-term, serial entrepreneurs and repeat entrepreneurs and the people that you, you know, want to emulate have ultimately gone through thousands and thousands of failures. And it's not that they're not smart or intelligent or that they don't know how to move the market. It's purely the notion that they don't give up and they learn from each mistake and pick themselves up again. I think for me, I would say sort of long-term planning and having that foresight to be able to plan well ahead into the future. Again, a lot of us, you know, start out as entrepreneurs because we're passionate or we're, you know, we're financially, you know, motivated. But I think without proper planning, your chances of success are extremely, extremely low. So I think really trying to map out, you know, where you want to be and every step of the way, making sure that every decision that you make for your business as an entrepreneur is sort of getting you closer and closer to that goal is one of the sure way to succeed as an entrepreneur. No doubt. No doubt. So what are your tips for entrepreneurs starting out? I think the first one is to never forget that you're ultimately trying to build in some form or function, whether it's a social enterprise or a for profit. It's a business and that, you know, you should balance how bold and how, you know, imaginary your vision is with the reality of I would like this thing to succeed in the Roman calendar in the real world in the real market and therefore it's very important for entrepreneurs to balance out, you know, I want to eradicate poverty with but I need to start here and getting those small proofs and that's where I was referring backwards to the scientific method. The first idea of an early stage entrepreneur is the hypothesis. The first experiment is something small and so therefore those small progressive steps towards innovation is the way you would achieve your breakthrough innovation. It's, if you tried to leap right straight to the end state, you would, you might fall because you haven't built the foundation underneath you yet. So, for me, it's about really being anchored in the real world and having that sort of sense of pragmatism in the same spirit of being bold. So, Saran, what about you? What tips would you give entrepreneurs starting out? I would say definitely be open to taking risk and be flexible because you will, you know, go through periods where things will not go exactly the way you planned and you should be willing to adapt and be flexible and, you know, surround yourself with good people. I think, for me, our success has been largely due to the people that have, you know, that have worked with face Africa over the last eight, nine years. So, surround yourself with people, you know, that you not only like but that you also respect and that share your vision. So, my first tip would be to take risks, be flexible and be willing to adapt but also choose the right people to surround yourself with. I cannot agree more. No substitute for great people. So, let's turn back to our viewing group in Lusaka and get a few questions from them. Hello, can you hear me? Perfectly. Yes, we can. Okay, I've got two questions with me. This one says, what tools or resources can be used for collaboration among young individuals with similar ideas? And the second question in thinking about my question, how do, how can you contain the negative impact of planning? So, just to make sure we caught the questions correctly, the first one related to what tools or resources are available for innovation. Was that right? That can be used for collaboration. For collaboration, okay. And the second question, sorry? The second question, in thinking about innovation, how can you contain the negative impact of the business? Okay. Well, for collaboration, I think this is one example. Entrepreneurs in my experience are among the most transparent sharing people I've ever met. And as you'll know from just working with entrepreneurs is that they're always selling, they're always describing their business, their latest upset, their latest success and failure. And so I think the spirit of collaboration that is alive and well in entrepreneurs and in the entrepreneurial community around the world is great. And there's very few sectors of the economy where you can walk up to someone who might one day be your competitor and have them help you through a business plan or through a challenge or make connections with networks and prospective investors. And so I think the entrepreneurial community is among the most collaborative out there. The concept of incubators, hubs, you know, special investment zones that cities around the world are developing to build tech clusters and pharmaceutical clusters and even agricultural projects. A lot of the way entrepreneurs succeed is by surrounding themselves with good people and sharing a lot of information. And I imagine in Lusaka Zambia there are also a number of resources that might be available in the country and through international programs to effectively transfer information and build skills. On the innovation question, I think the, you know, there too, it's an open playbook. I think people who believe that I should keep my secret in the laboratory and when people come to me looking for help with investments and they're afraid of talking about their investment or their innovation and they want us to sign non- disclosure agreements and things like that, the market decides if your product is disruptive, not the entrepreneur. And so I think even on the subject of innovation there's almost an open playbook available to entrepreneurs around the world on how things should be done, you know, what processes and what steps you should follow in building your business and your innovation. So I think innovation and collaboration are two themes that hold the entrepreneurial community together around the world. Yeah, I couldn't agree more, Dante. I'll just touch on the topic of collaboration because I think you covered both very well. I think for entrepreneurs, understanding but also embracing the need to collaborate is so important. And in my experience, the strongest entrepreneurs embrace collaboration as a way to really get diverse views on how to run their business. So if you're an entrepreneur and especially if you're just starting out, collaboration isn't just important. It's almost as important as your business itself. And finding a way to make collaboration a part of your planning and incorporating it into your mindset will make you a better entrepreneur and will make your business better. I think for us, for Face Africa, we've been at our most effective when we've collaborated with other agencies, whether it's government agencies or other organizations that are also doing similar work, but that may have, you know, better capacity than we do, access to more resources than we do, access to funding. So pooling ideas and resources together to submit a proposal for a grant, for example, that makes your grant proposal stronger because you're collaborating and partnering with institutions that have more experience, more access, you know, more staff that you may not have access to, made us a stronger organization. So I think it needs to be a part of not only your planning, but a part of your business model. I cannot agree more. That's a great point, Siran. Thank you. So what or who inspired you to become an entrepreneur? This is a question from one of our online viewers. Siran, I'll let you take that one first. I think my journey really was born out of the need that I saw. So I wouldn't say it was specifically, you know, an individual or a leader or anyone in particular. I, you know, I fled my country when I was eight years old. I went back 20 years later and I realized that I had access to, you know, so many resources and opportunities that I could in turn use to create something that would impact people's lives who otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to, you know, to have access to something as basic as clean water and toilets. So I was inspired really by the need to take the opportunities and the access that I had as a result of my living overseas and turning that into opportunities for people on the ground. That's great. That's great. And authenticity I think is one of the key traits of great entrepreneurs. So how do you go about finding a mentor and is it important to have a mentor who has failed forward? You know, in my view, mentorship is one of the most important qualities in life, whether you're an entrepreneur or you're in business or you're in politics. I think invariably you could either surround yourself by a group of people going back to the conversation about collaboration and through the wisdom of the crowd, so to speak, you'll get great insights. But finding a mentor I think is very important and I don't think you would find one who hasn't failed forward. I think all of us and frankly all of you watching and everyone around the world at some stage or another has to lift themselves up out of failure. And mentors who can guide you through that process are invaluable. And I think in entrepreneurship, more specifically I would get involved even if it's only, if you're only toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur, I would get involved very early in networking and going to entrepreneurial clubs and putting yourself out there. You can't get a chance at serendipity or whatever life has to offer you if you're afraid of taking a step out. Saran, what about you? Have you found any key mentors in the course of Building Face Africa? Oh, absolutely. And I think the most powerful weapon an entrepreneur can have is a mentor, especially one who has failed many times and has failed forward. And I make it a duty actually to mentor a lot of young people who are thinking about starting businesses or organizations because I understand the value that having a mentor added to my experience and my journey. I think you can have a great idea. You can have access to all of the capital in the world, but if you don't have a good mentor that can help you think through your business idea or suggest ways to scale up your business and really provide the experience. I think that's what a mentor offers most is the experience and to help you sort of limit your failures as much as possible. So that's certainly something I would advise every aspiring entrepreneur to not only think about but to seek out because in the long term it will benefit you tremendously. You're absolutely right. So on that same subject, I always say money has a price and often there's a curse for early stage entrepreneurs where they get money and they have to pay it back right away or there's an investment requirement with it. But advice is priceless at times and often what people need more so than raising $500,000 or a lot of money is guidance and the advice of impartial mentors who understand them and understand their goals. So what are the most... Sorry, go ahead. Now I was just going to say just to try to at least tackle the question directly. How do you go about finding a good mentor or a mentor in general? I think they're all around us. They're successful business people in our communities who would love the idea to actually mentor a young person who's just starting out. So I think look within your own community, seek out people who share your values, who share your vision, who have done it, who have been successful at doing it and just approach them and ask them. You would be really surprised in how willing people are willing to open up themselves and provide the kind of mentorship that I think are really critical for young entrepreneurs starting out. That's a great point. And maybe the first assignment from today's conversation is overcome the fear of asking the biggest people you could think of to be your mentor and you may very well be surprised by the outcome. So another great question we're getting from an online viewer is what are the most common mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make? And I think the most common one is really failure to execute, to understand the operational reality. You cannot pursue the dream on the other side of a very long valley unless you have built the first stages of that bridge. And those couple of stages really require a sensitivity towards the operation, towards the daily grind. And entrepreneurs that are not also able to wear a general manager's hat in my opinion end up having quite a few problems building their businesses. So you need to be both the visionary and the manager. And it's on the managing part that I think many early stage entrepreneurs fail. But then if they pick themselves up and dust off the failure isn't terminal. So Ron, what about you? What do you think? I think sometimes being cheap, and I'll explain what I mean by that, I think it's really important to invest in people, to invest in marketing and to invest in the tools and resources that will increase the chances of success. And a lot of times I think starting out we try to, you know, to try to be too lean or we try to hold on to too much of our finances. But in order to make money it takes money. And that's a lesson that I'm learning and that we learned the hard way where we're now going and doing things backwards and now looking to invest in people and invest in marketing to sort of, you know, solidify and really build up the foundation of our institution. So I think, you know, it's important for us to recognize that we need to invest in the tools and the human capacity that can help our business grow. Great. Good points. Thank you. So let's turn back to Zambia and we'll get two final questions from them. Hello. My name is Kennedy. My question is, if you were to give three reasons why young Africans should go into business, what would those reasons be? That's a great question. So three reasons why young Africans should go to entrepreneurship. Well, I think the first is it's completely liberating. Who in the world would not want to be their own master? And in that spirit also be able to create opportunities for others around them. I think entrepreneurship, as much as it's very risky, it's also very risky. So that would be number one. Number two, where else in the world do you get to not fire yourself for failing multiple times before you, you know, so it's the eternal job in one respect. Would be number two. And I think number three, it's a foundation, the foundation of entrepreneurship is built on ideals and values that are universal. They transcend countries, culture, gender. And when entrepreneurs are at their best, the vision and what they're trying to achieve overcomes current obstacles and current realities. And so I think there is no better vision for young people in Sub-Saharan Africa and frankly young people all over the world to take their own lives and their own opportunities in their hands and do something with it. That's a really great question. And I hope after this program I would have convinced you to either start a business or continue to pursue the business that you're already involved in. But I think it comes down to, you know, tackling one of Africa's biggest problems, the problem of unemployment. In Liberia, for example, the unemployment rate is at 85%. And a majority of that is young people. So I think one by starting businesses and by becoming entrepreneurs, you're directly tackling the issue of unemployment, which as we know is linked to so many other development issues like violence, etc. Two, in the process of starting businesses, you're creating jobs. So not only for yourself, but also for, you know, millions, tens of millions of young people in your community and in your country. And of course, it gives you the financial independence and freedom to basically become your own boss. And I think there's no bigger sort of satisfaction than that when you can be your own boss and you don't have to answer to anyone. But at the same time you're creating employment for your fellow community members and hereby in essence, what it comes down to it for me is that, you know, we're giving Africa the opportunity to take charge of its own developmental agenda because now people are in a position to, you know, to send their kids to schools. So you're indirectly tackling the issue of education. You're tackling the issue of health because now parents can afford to send their children to clinics and hospitals. So I think there is no question, this is the way forward. Aid and charity has not worked as much as I am in the business of aid. I don't think it's a long-term sustainable solution to Africa's problems. I think entrepreneurship and getting young people to start businesses and to engage with, you know, the private sector is the way forward for Africa. Yeah, thank you, Siran. Thank you. I always say that after the sun, Africa's most abundant resource is its people and entrepreneurship is the way to activate them. So let's turn to Zambia for one final question. Hello. Hello. Hello. My name is Vincent Timo and my question to you is with regards to finance. Financing is undoubtedly one of the challenges for upcoming entrepreneurs like me. What are some of the valuable tips for raising capital? That's a great question, Vincent. Thank you. So I think the first one is to remember that the market is also your source of capital as much as investors and banks and traditional sources, right? So if you have products that you could offer or services that you could offer even to a small segment of the market, that's a very sort of easy, accessible way of getting capital. The other thing that I'm advising a lot of entrepreneurs is that, you know, across sub-Saharan Africa, the continent is one of the fastest recipients of foreign investment from companies. And to Siran's point, the narrative in Africa is changing from one about aid and development to one about long-term market investments for large companies. Business entrepreneurs can partner with those large firms and become a part of their supply chains, become a part of that ecosystem to support larger investors operating in Lusaka and in different cities around Africa. On the banking side and on how do you get traditional capital, I would argue that you have to have one story, one business plan, one set of investment material that you've prepared, and then you share it everywhere all the time, and that you have to spread your risk and spread your effort to start seeing some traction and then learning from that type of feedback what you need to adjust in your thinking and your planning to make your project interesting to investors. Yes, trust me, the issue of capital is one that we continue to struggle with but I think I said earlier it's important to not limit yourself to sort of traditional bank loans or investors. I think there are many potential sources of funding that we're now starting to see and you have to get creative, you have to get innovative. Crowdfunding is an option, business incubators like the Tonya Lumilu program, business competitions, but also partnering with local stakeholders, whether it's government, businesses, or even community groups to build credibility and build demand for your product. One other thing I would say is that networking is a really great way to think about raising capital because it puts you in a position to meet the right people who can help you fundraise. So it's important to expand your horizon, expand your network and move beyond sort of your immediate circle of friends and community and just build a wider global network and you can do that with the internet, with social media. It is possible to use that to your advantage, to use technology to your advantage and explore the many different options that are out there. That's a great question. I'm sorry, great comments, Seran, thank you. So we'll take one final question from an online viewer. What has been the most satisfying moment as an entrepreneur? Your most satisfying moment as an entrepreneur, Seran? I think it's really about results and seeing the impact that we're having on people's lives based on the work that we're doing. Our goal is to tackle the water and sanitation issue across Sub-Saharan Africa which affects 350 million people. That's a huge number and I think the more people that we can reach with access to safe drinking water the more satisfying our work is and so just seeing the results and seeing the impact that we continue to have on communities and the fact that we're providing not only better health for men, women and children but also opportunities for children to grow healthy and go to school, opportunities for women to spend more time engaging in more economically productive activities instead of walking long distances to fetch water. In Africa alone women spend 40 billion hours every single year walking for water. In terms of the economic impact that this issue has on the continent it's huge. We're looking at it from a multi-dimensional approach as far as how we're impacting people's lives and I think for us that's extremely satisfying. That's great. Thank you. It looks like we're just about out of time so I would like to thank everyone who participated today, our online viewers and our group in Lusaka for their great questions as well as Saran for sharing her experiences and insights with us about failing forward. Saran do you have any final thoughts you would like to share with our viewers today? I think for me I would say I'm extremely optimistic about the future of Africa. I think Africa is rising despite all of the challenges and hurdles that we still have to overcome but I think we need to harness the potential of young entrepreneurs and really maximize the opportunities for them to transform the continent and I think entrepreneurship is the way. Indeed. A new story is being told around the world and I think entrepreneurs are the key actor. So a big thank you to you and to everyone who participated. Good morning, good afternoon and good night. Thank you Dante. Thank you.