Strive Masiyiwa has been on a mission to connect Africans for over two decades. From his beginnings in Zimbabwe, when he built a telecommunications company, Econet Wireless, despite great adversity. Many multibillion-dollar corporations have emerged out of that mission. Some of the key businesses that he established with partners included Econet Wireless International, Econet Global, Mascom Wireless Botswana, Econet Wireless Nigeria (now Airtel Nigeria), Econet Satellite Services, Lesotho Telecom, Econet Wireless Burundi, Rwanda Telecom, Econet Wireless South Africa, Solarway, and Transaction Processing Systems (TPS). His most recent adventure is connecting Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt through a single network running on land.
You can’t build a business or ministry that serves a thousand people unless you have a mission statement that has the potential to do so. When your business or career goals are motivated by a desire for food, security, and some level of status. Your desire to succeed fades and complacency sets in when those issues are resolved. The difference between a poor person and Strive Masiyiwa is not their education, networks and available financial resources. The fundamental difference is the mission that shapes their day-to-day work. Your mission will motivate you to pursue an education and build relationships. Your mission will attract capital and all necessary resources.
A single mission statement can birth two hundred and forty billion-dollar companies. Strive Masiyiwa’s mission to connect the entire African continent has led him to establish a new group of companies under the Liquid Telecoms umbrella. With subsidiaries in nearly every African country. The good thing about ideas (and mission statements) is that they can be expanded upon by thinking about them and meditating on them. You get new ideas, personalized and suited to your own talents. As a result, if you think about Strive Masiyiwa’s mission, you might not end up building a direct land-based communication link like he did. You will enter a new dimension.
