The word "hustle" in business circles is often used to describe an aggressive use of borderline methods to gain additional business or money. In an emerging and healing market like Zimbabwe, "hustle" is an accurate thesis of most people attending meetings, seizing opportunities, and making a killing in the market. Coffee shops are seen as the most convenient places to discuss deals by dignified personas all hungry and intrigued with what each opportunity holds.
However, there is need to be cautious of the people you do business with.
The saying, "Don't go hunting with someone who's never shot a bear" is an interesting phrase that illustrates what I am talking about.
Basically, it means that if you go after an opportunity with someone who's never really accomplished anything before, he or she may take the shot themselves if they get the opportunity.
Part of this hustle and opportunistic mindset is being propagated by the numerous opportunities in this emerging economy.
Part of it is a culture that sometimes sacrifice moral and relational capital. I met a man this week who has built and run his retail business over the past 50 years.
Everyday for the past 50 years he has woken up, opened up his shop and created a personal business experience for loyal clients.
What struck me the most as he related the story was the sense of contentment that he had.
Contentment! His business has helped him educate his children right through university.
He has since helped his children to start their own companies, buy their own houses while he has travelled the world and at a time when most are thinking of retiring, he continues to work.
These were goals he set out to achieve and he managed to achieve them.
This "contentment" state of being somehow rivals the "hustle" mentality, which often seeks to spin every opportunity and eat as many "Opportunity Apple Pies" as possible.
Sure, perhaps this retailer could have developed a chain of stores and franchised out his experience.
He could have skyrocketed his prices as he had the opportunity to do so and also bought other businesses that he never had an interest or passion for in the first place.
Instead he chose to do what he loves and at the end of 50 years he is satisfied with what he has achieved and content with his inner being.
He has enough to meet his needs and is not going out of his way to milk his customers rather he fondly tells of regular clients who come in and discuss their families and diverse lives with him like old friends.
This man has an incredibly high value tagged onto his relationship capital.
Satisfaction and contentment are words that perhaps seem alien and elusive in our hectic societies.
Money, cars, impacted lives, legacy for the kids, social change . . . What is enough for you? Where do you stop hustling? Where do you start feeling content?
Comparing prices between Zimbabwe and South Africa probably gives you an insight into some people's train of thought.
The 40-inch HD screen radiating sleekness in my sister's UK lounge got me imagining what it would like in the empty space in my home.
So I went shopping here in Zimbabwe. The cheapest equivalent was three times the price she paid on Amazon.co.uk, and considerably more than twice the retail price in South Africa.
In one shop it was cheaper to fly to the UK and bring one back (never mind the saving if I went on the cheaper flight to South Africa).
Duty, transport and overheads aside -what is a reasonable mark-up? This is comparing retail prices mind you - not the warehouse or factory prices that the goods are procured at (well at least they should be - if you are buying for resale from a retail store and if this is not the case you should probably re-examine your source).
In the Zurich Axioms: Investment Secrets of the Swiss Bankers, Max Gunther outlines that you need to decide on what you want as a return before you invest, and when you reach that level you pull out.
No staying in to get an extra quick buck. No seeing if the upswing will continue.
If you set 10 percent as a target when you reach 10 percent you liquidate and reinvest in new targets.
Now this needs to be applied in the scope of all the axioms if you want to make his system work, the principle helps you avoid the emotional responses of greed that may land you, and others in trouble later.
It has to do with deciding what you want and what you are content with. If you never reach a place of contentment, with your financial goals, you will sacrifice your relational and moral capital banks.
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