Thread by @ronaldnzimora

How To Solve Business Problems
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In your business, you will run into problems. The bigger the vision and goals you have for your business, the bigger the size of problems you get.

How do you solve problems?

With some ingenuity.

Introducing Samuel Zemurray...

One of the most fascinating men I’ve read about is Samuel Zemurray.

Also called “El Amigo.”

Or “Gringo.”

Or “The Banana Man.”

Or simply “Z.”

Samuel Zemurray was a tough, unschooled Russian Jew who immigrated to America in the late 1890’s.

He first set his eyes on his...

first banana in 1893.

And it was a pile of discarded bananas (known as “ripes”) dumped on a dockside in New Orleans. His dalliance with this pile of fruit was to become his future and lead to his fortune.

He first set his eyes on his first banana in 1893.

It was a pile of...

discarded bananas (known as “ripes”) dumped on a dockside in New Orleans. His dilliance with this pile of fruit was to become his future and lead to his fortune.

Zemurray would buy the “ripes” and stockpile them into a train coach; he would then send a telegram...

(what they used for fast communication before telephones were invented) ahead to towns further along the railway letting them know he had bananas for sale and; as the train pulled into each station he would have merchants there waiting for him. He would sell them his bananas...

Thats how Zemurray cut his teeth in the banana business.

From there – via pure hustle – moved up in the world quickly.

By 1899, Zemurray had sold 20,000 bananas.

By 1903, he sold 574,000 bananas.

Within 10 years he was importing more than a million bananas a year into the USA

And soon enough the problems started.

In 1917, deep in the jungles of South America, between Guatemala and Honduras (one of the few places on Earth bananas can be grown) there was a rising conflict between little ol’ Sam Zemurray and the giant “octopus” of a company called...

United Fruit (think Google of the early 20th Century but evil indeed).

Each desperately wanted to acquire the same five thousand acres of land to grow bananas for importation into the United States of America.

But there was an issue at the heart of the conflict.

Which was:

Two different people claimed to have the "C of O" documents and ownership of the land.

Therefore, neither Sam Zemurray nor United Fruit Company were able to ascertain who was the rightful owner of the land to buy it from.

That was the problem they both faced.

What did they do?

They both, however, went about finding a solution in different ways.

United Fruit drawing upon its vast resources and wealth, dispatched a team of high-powered lawyers to search every file in the land deed records – you know, in order to find out who the rightful owner was.

Money, expertise, and resources were of no object to United Fruit.

Sam Zemurray had no such luxury of resources.

His way of solving the problem was entirely different. And as it turns out, so much more effective.

He simply bought the land from both of the supposed land owners.

Pass! Shot! Issagoal! Zemurray scores!

While United Fruit were figuring out the “right” thing to do. Zemurray just got the job done.

Are you stunned by his solution?

Now that you know what it is, it seemed like the commonsense thing to have done, right?

Another example...

He was told he wasn’t allowed to build a bridge (to transport his bananas) over a stretch of the Utila River (because Honduran Govt officials had been bribed by United Fruit to prevent the upstart Zemurray from competing against them).

So what did Zemurray do?

I'll tell you.

He out-thought them again.

This time he had built a pier from one bank of the river.

And then he had another pier built from the adjacent side of the river; and left a small gap where the ends of both piers “met” in the middle of the Utila.

Here's what they then did next.

When Zemurray wanted to get his bananas transported across the Utila River, his workers would lay down a temporary pontoon (flattish boat: see image) to connect the two adjoining piers — thus making a “temporary bridge” which (technically) wasn’t a bridge at all.

Classic!

You see, sometimes in business, the proper thing to do, is not the best solution at all. Because in business time is money and resources are scarce. If you delay, you lose out in ways that can affect you badly.

Another thing I have learnt in business is, many times, it's not...

the person with the most money,resources or is the biggest size that wins.

Many times, the quickest thinker,the fastest mover and the nimble will beat the crap out of giants.

This is because giants are slow to act,and are too big and comfortable to move.

So let me ask you...

How Are You Finding Solutions To The Challenges That Face You In Business?

The reason I have very little patience with people who get into business these days is they think they have problems but they don't.

I started selling online in 2003, and back then, there were...

no cybercafes anywhere outside Lagos. In Lagos, they were very few of them.

Most banks did not have have online/internet banking yet, branches were so few and far in between, and you had to queue for hours before you were attended to.

There were NO CARDS, debit or credit...

There were no ATMs. And of course, no local payment processors, like PayStack, etc.

There was no WordPress, no Facebook, no Instagram, no Twitter, no YouTube. Google was a new company around 2 years old. Amazon sold only books.

One hour of browsing in a cybercafe was =N=350.

In today's naira, it'd be around =N=1,000 or more. To build a website, we used Micosoft Frontpage. Ever heard of it?

Phone calls cost =N=50 a minute. Text messages were =N=20 each! The cheapest Smartphone was a Nokia Communicator and it cost like =N=90,000, in those days money!

Yet, I got started. I found a way to get a VCC (virtual credit card) by paying somebody, who paid somebody, who paid somebody else abroad who then bought the VCC and emailed it to us, which we then used to buy the ebooks we needed to buy.

I found a way to open a PayPal account in Niger and used it to sell my first ever ebook (I'll share the story about this ebook soon).

Sure, the account was later frozen with some of my money in it,but I got my first $2,000 using it.

It was HARD but I thought the internet was...

the most fascinating thing I had ever encountered and I KNEW in my heart of hearts, this technology was my ticket to freedom, success, and riches.

I stuck to it and survived. And all my dreams have come true.

So forgive me when I hear people complain they can't get a card...

or about designing a website, and I think they are lazy and annoying.

You think you have problems? No you don't! You are in gloryland.

You have everything I wish I had.

You have cheap internet.

You have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

You have mentors, coaches, people...

...who are willing to teach you, even if it's for a fee.

You have Paypal, Paystack and 1,000 other options.

You have WordPress.

You have YouTube.

You have $1 apps, $20 software, and again, stupid cheap internet.

You have =N=20,000 smartphones.

May no complain be heard from you again my friends.

When you complain, you padlock close the doors to solutions.

Stop complaining my friends. You have everything. What is missing is YOU.

Apply YOU, apply your mind. No, problems wont go away but you will conquer them and WIN.

I teach my experience in these places.

Follow me for more.

Twitter - @ronaldnzimora

Instagram - @ronaldnzimora

Facebook - Join my group here: facebook.com/groups/1262997…

YouTube - Subscribe to my YouTube channel here: youtube.com/channel/UCMPH5…

Thanks for reading.

Blessings.