ENTERPRISE54 – She is the Executive Chairman and CEO of Ebony Life TV, Africa’s first Global Black Entertainment and Lifestyle Network; and she is making us proud! Listed among Forbes 2015 Africa’s most successful women, Mosunmola Abudu – more popularly known as Mo Abudu ‘s entrepreneurial story lends credence to the fact that once she can think it, then you can be sure she can and will do it!

Despite being accomplished in various fields of endeavor, she maintains that nothing perhaps has given her ‘the most fulfilment as the prospect of exploiting the media as a tool to affect global perceptions about Africa.’

Forbes recently did a Q&A with this daring and unfolding media mogul and she said quite a lot. Here are striking points she shared and lessons gleaned from the interview which are worthy of any entrepreneur’s attention.

• My job at ExxonMobil gave me an invaluable understanding of corporate structure and business discipline, which would eventually prove very useful in my future business endeavours.
• With no TV experience whatsoever, I had approached DStv back then with the Moments with Mo proposal. I did not get a positive response from DStv. I had taken about 5 pilots of my talk show to them back then and they were all rejected but eventually, one was accepted.
• It is crucially important to understand the business of the media. You have to be very passionate about what you do and at the same time, be a business manager, which includes having a solid business plan.
• It’s not just about the passion to sell your story, if you want it to generate money, there’s got to be something bankable in it.
  Sometimes, you may not have all the expertise required to make what you dream of in terms of profitability, you then have to find someone that is business savvy enough to show you how the business angle works
• Media is one of those businesses that take off very slowly, so you know that borrowing money at a high interest rate to run the media business is not the way to go
• One needs to be armed with information in order to successfully navigate any venture. Information is your compass. If you know better, you will do better.
• Before deciding to enter into any venture, one must, to the best of their ability have explored possibilities for growth, foreseen challenges, made projections, thought exhaustively through every inch and breadth of the venture and researched what other people have done to succeed and where they failed.
• Anyone who wishes to be an entrepreneur must know that bright ideas are great, however, they are not even half of the work; execution is everything.
• Yes, as the saying goes, ‘there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come’, but when that time comes, you must be prepared to bleed sweat, tears and blood to bring your ideas to life.
• For women, never ever see your gender as a handicap. Never think yourself inferior. Be ready to do twice the work for half the usual reward. When the door isn’t opened, kick down the door. Take the regular harassment and other obstacles women face in stride. In fact, be prepared for them. Be prepared to be told off, to be told you are not good enough, to go unrewarded for even doing the same work your male counterpart has done.
• Work with your passion, let it consume and drive you. Do not be distracted. On down days, it will keep you going.
• Also, surround yourself with like minds. In fact, you should exhaustively curate those who will go along with you on your journey. I can’t say that enough.