Born with the gift of the gab, Warren found himself selling from a young age and into his years pre entrepreneurship. He explains how in any sales role you are inevitably exposed to a lot of people, feedback, ideas, and gaps, you often find yourself saying ‘there's got to be a better way to do this’. Knowing he cannot possibly be in a position to always do something about it, he shares his ideas and thoughts with those who are a better fit to ACTUALLY do something about it.
Warren goes further to explain to us how ideas are often rife in the mind of an entrepreneur, but the potential of an idea lies in the research we do before we pursue and back it with time, money, effort and emotional attachment. He has realised many times how an idea is not always uniquely yours and is often already in play by someone else. Even when it IS a fresh idea, he says, be mindful of its real merits.
“Don't waste your time flogging a dead horse. Sometimes you have to look at yourself in the mirror, be frank with yourself, and make that very hard decision to be honest and walk away. If it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck, it's probably a duck. This applies to ideas and people. Get rid of any toxic person be it a business partner or even a client or you run the risk of being brought down with them."
At the onset, we are often single handedly doing everything to run our business but over time Warren advises to “Hire the best person you can and then let them do what you hired them to do.” Often we cannot break the habit of doing everything and sabotage ourselves from allowing hired expertise to help our business flourish in key areas while we step away from execution into a more strategic visionary role. An additional benefit is that we also somewhat alleviate entrepreneurial loneliness when we surround ourselves with experts that can help (we cannot possibly be good at everything!), where all are contributing to the shared vision and belief and together experiencing the ups and downs in the journey.
Warren attaches an enormous amount of value to the freedom entrepreneurship brings. Not being told what to wear, when or how to work, to spend time with family and friends at one’s own discretion, and to ultimately dictate one’s own life. “I value the personal choice of what I want, when I want it.” To achieve this, he relies on following a well structured regiment to his days, dedicating and allocating time to work, family, and self in a well designed schedule. This way, nothing has to give and all have a place when we master the ability to switch off as we transition from one thing to the next. To keep himself sane he avoids stress with a strong mindset that all potentially worrisome situations are actually all about choice,
“You either do something about it or you forget about it. Freaking out is not an option because that doesn't solve anything”.
He describes the key character traits of an entrepreneur as one who rather owns things over being a victim. Changing strategy to get to your dream doesn't mean giving up. To him the words “creative entrepreneur” are mutually exclusive as “to be an entrepreneur you need to be creative. Being creative in how you think around your current constraints. “Try selling corporate travel in the states after 911! (true story!), you get used to a lot of ‘NO’s’! A thick skin is much needed in one’s entrepreneurial journey. How DOES Warren find inspiration to keep going? Cycling and fly fishing. Say what? Yes, he explains how he can do these activities alone or with others so an experience he can amend to what he needs at that point in time. He gets to take in nature and step out of his world for a moment.
While his daughter thinks her dad “builds apps” he is actually the founder of a platform business connecting Healthcare Professionals with consumers and affiliated advertisers. While we forgive our family and friends for not knowing what we do, Warren highlights the greater issue that many times even our customers may not quite know or understand fully the business they are engaging with.
“You ARE the best salesman for your business, no one will sell it better than you. You have to sell it to yourself, to your internal people in the business who cannot do their job if they haven't bought into the business, the product, and into you, AND then you have to sell it into the marketplace.”
What vision is Warren selling? “The largest, most connected and engaged healthcare network in the African continent.” We believe with his strong will and motivational spirit, he has what it takes to get there. THIS is what creative entrepreneurship is all about, unwavering tenacity. We support you all the way Warren and are eagerly watching from the sidelines.
“Solving niche challenges Founders face”.
Illustrator: Lisa Williams (Instagram: @artist_llw)