Anehunu Gwatidzo is a young creative who has worked with Tamy Moyo, Chengeto Brown and on The Story Of Nehanda movie, among many others. Being a musician at his core has managed to build a good rapport with the arts industry. His skills vary from singing, composing, and orchestrating.
What happens in most scenarios is a start-up will compare itself to a business that could make close to 1 000 dollars a month. In a few ways, this is good because it can push them to do better. Albeit, it can handicap them because they will be overwhelmed by a certain level of success which would have been accumulated over time.
I spoke to Anehunu and here are the four key jewels that he shared with us to share with you.
Lesson 1
Focus on your business journey. Figure out how you can improve your customer’s experience, figure out what your customers enjoy, figure out how you can improve your product, figure out how to diversify what you are delivering to the customers.
It wouldn’t be advisable to compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter ten. It is important to learn from people’s success and failures but when the comparisons begin to demotivate you and hinder your growth, one has to be mindful.
” Educate yourself before you get into your industry “
Anehunu spoke about how he began his journey entering into the music industry, getting unfair treatment because he didn’t understand how the structures worked. Also, he became his manager and did a lot of research on issues such as royalties, copyrights, and intellectual properties.
Lesson Two
A lot of people make emotional decisions in business. They are impulsive in their choices due to the circumstances that they are in. At times this will push people forward but in most cases, it doesn’t work in their favour because they overlook all the important information and focus on making it. This isn’t a bad thing but if possible try to learn as much as you can. If possible try to associate with like-minded people or more experienced people to learn as much as possible about all the nitty-gritty of the industry.
When we spoke about how the music industry could improve as well as the artists, Anehunu suggested that the mindsets should be refocused from focusing on all that is wrong but instead focus on what is right even if there are few. He also underscored the need to have “more advocates for creatives”.
“We also need to come together as creatives and educate each other to push forward,” he said.
Lesson Three
Instead of thinking you can run a business on your own and carry the weight of fifty people on your shoulders, just reach out to people. As the old says “together each achieves more”. It is normal to experience some sort of business rivalry but if you can stop focusing on competing and focus on what you can learn from each individual or business. There’s always something to learn.
Our mindset is everything business if we decide to overlook everything and everyone that could assist with the business growth. That mindset will slow the business down. Having an open mind and seeing beyond when things go wrong is a handy tool that will help one overcome obstacles that are standing in their way.
Lesson Four
Having a balance and mastering your skills is important, but being of service is equally as important. What tends to happen is there are extremely gifted and talented people who focus solely on the craft which limits them. Take time out to expand yourself.
