No matter what industry you’re in, a strong BRAND/identity will help you stand out to customers.
Great BRANDS do not become brands by accident. It takes time to build a BRAND. Consistency is very important in BRAND Building.
To our success,
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Entrepreneur, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Speaker
E-mail: tau@taa.co.za
Skype: basi.tau
Entrepreneurship for artists is a must and not a privilege.
I am concerned that our art institutions do not incorporate entrepreneurship to the courses / workshops that they offer to aspiring artists. There is no use to produce a good dancer or painter who expects to be employed. These artists end up doing odd jobs here and there for the sake of surviving and as time goes they loose the sense of being artist.
The very same art institutions that teaches them how to dance, should also teach them how to write proposals for funding. Proposal writing should be facilitated by fund raising managers – so there is no excuse that there is NO BUDGET (famous excuse that NGO’s utter – sic). Our country needs more entrepreneurs and more self sustaining artists. Entrepreneurial artists will be able to create jobs by employing 2 or more people in their art projects and some can even open their own training institutions.
As part of their curriculum, entrepreneuship / busisess management should be incorporate in the curriculum. In a case where someone is attending photography classes or dances classes for a year or 2 years, business management workshops should be incorporated somewhere. These business management skills will make a difference in the lives of the trained photographer or a dancer. Most of these art institutions are NGO’s (profesional begging organisations) run and managed by skilled people. Why these people dont share with the artists how to write proposals and starting their own NGO’s too?
Some of these organisation they produce artists who end up working for these organisations and not even exploring their talent out there and challenge the issues with their art. Very few of these art institutions produce self sustaining artists. It is sad and they kill our art for their greediness. My view is that they do not want to teach the artists to be self sustaining so that they can be able to exploit and exploit them. In johannesburg, newtown – there are a good example of such organisations. If you can go to them and ask to look at their programme offering, very few offer business management or how to start and run a successfull NGO.
How can an institution make an artist an administrator? Why can they hire professional administrators and let the artist develop and hone their art skills further? Are these institutions taking advantage of desperate and hungry artists? If someone does not make noise about this, then we will have few artists who succeed and create their own names in the industry. Our country deserve to have more creative people who are very entrepreneurial. It does not mean if they teach me photography, printmaking, music or dance I will be able to sell my art to the outside market. The very same institutions makes us artists to feel vulnerable and go back to them and work for them. This strategy enriches them, hence they will give a better excuse why they will not teach business management as part of the programme. We dont just need good dancers or photographers or printmakers, we need good dancers who can create employment and open more and more of art training institutions.
Art institutions should stop being greedy and exploiting artists, they MUST help artists to grow and be themselves. Strategies of starting and running a successful art institutions must be departed to those who complete art programmes.
To our success,
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Entrepreneur, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Speaker
E-mail: tau@taa.co.za
Skype: basi.tau
Mobile photographer does it ANYWHERE and ANYTIME
To our success,
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Entrepreneur, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Speaker
Skype: basi.tau
“Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader. Don’t fall victim to what I call the ‘ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome’. You must be willing to fire.” - T. Boone Pickens (1928 – ), American Financier
“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” - Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997), Albanian Roman Catholic Nun helping the Poor in Calcutta, India
“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.” - Charles de Gaulle (1890 – 1970), French general and Statesman
“Leaders are not born; they are made. And, they are made just like anything else – through hard work. And that is the price we’ll have to pay to achieve any goal.” - Vince Lombardi (1913 – 1970), Head Coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” - Margaret Thatcher (1925 – ), Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” - Dale Carnegie (1888 – 1955), American Writer and Lecturer
“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.” - Dr. Robert Jarvik (1946 – ) American Scientist, Researcher, and Entrepreneur – Inventor of the Jarvik-7 Artificial Heart
To our success,
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Entrepreneur, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Speaker
E-mail: tau@taa.co.za
Skype: basi.tau
The Inspiration Firm an organisation specialising in Personal and Leadership Development will be hosting a half day seminar on 25 February 2012 on Personal branding: Positioning yourself for career success.
It only cost R500.00
Book by the 23rd of February to reserve your seat.
For enquiries call Mpho at 072.386.0603
E-mail: events@theinspirationfirm.com for more information
Personal Branding Seminar
Do you believe in new year resolutions…?
The above-mentioned question was posed to me by the President of our Toastmasters Club – Soweto Positive Speakers Toastmasters Club. She did not want me to give her a straight answer, I had to make an impromptu speech about it. I was not expecting her to choose me to make an unprepared speech, as she posed it to me i was of the impression that I had to give her an answer and continue with what I was doing and thinking at the time.
I stood up and thought, I am here to learn and improve my ability to think on my toes and still deliver and effective speech in a short space of time. Damn! I was a bit nervous, but I implemented what I had learned from the toastmasters manuals. I controlled and managed the butterflies, that wanted me to shiver. i was not going to allow the unknown fear to control me. I had to set an example to our club guests, and show them how we do it at toastmasters.
Personally I do not believe in making resolutions. I believe in continuing to implement goals that I had set in my life plan. It is of no use to continue to have a different goal(s) at the beginning of a new year. I am consistent on what I need to achieve in life, career and business. All I can do is just to divide my goal(s) into sub-goals and implement each goal on a yearly basis, depending how huge my main goal is. To some people resolutions are the way they do things in their lives and it works for them or it works for you too. I prefer not to be a resolution man.
In support of resolution, I would say better make and stick with your new year resolution, instead of having nothing at all. Resolution(s) and goal(s) serve a guides as to how do we want to be where we desire to be in life. It is upon an individual to have consistent goals or make new year resolutions. As long as you are progressing positively in your life.
I am not a resolution man, and I do not think I will change how I view resolution making.
To our success,
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Skype: basi.tau
Google Talk: basi.tau
I am inspired
I just woke up feeling happy and excited. I have never felt like this in ages, I am inspired. I wish you could all feel the way I feel.
My message for you today is, look around your environment and find something that would trigger your inspiration. Inspiration is the energy that drives us to do things that we need or have to do without feeling lazy. I will be attending a toastmasters meeting in Soweto – Diepkloof.
I love this beautiful feeling that is sparked by my inspiration.
Be inspired, I am inspired.
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Visionary Entrepreneur
Skype: basi.tau
Google Talk: basi.tau
“Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
This is my first post for 2012, I will keep on updating my blog as often as I could and when I get inspiration to share with u my stories, feelings and words of wisdom.
People are not the same and we will never be the same. If you really prefer to do things in a particular way and it works for u, never expect the next person to do things the way you do them. Generally we do things in a way that suits and satisfies us. The most important thing is doing right things at the right time in a way that will satisfy you.
Noone should be discouraged from doing things the way they do them, even if they may seem to be slow. People who are perceived to be slow people do make progress in the things that they do, they don’t deserve to be discouraged. These people deserve support and encouragement. You are not better than anyone just because you are always faster than others, that is not even your passport to discourage anyone.
To our success
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Visionary Entrepreneur
Skype: basi.tau
Google Talk: basi.tau
It is not what happens in our lives that matters, but what matters most is what we do with our lives. Spending more and more time complaining about what had happened in mine life didn’t improve or change my life, instead it pushed away people who cared in my life. I acknowledged the problems and challenges that I had faced and I was not doing anything. I complained and shifted the blame to the next vulnerable person. I never took any responsibility or took some action to make a difference in my life.
As soon as I realised that complaining and whining won’t bring any remedy or bring me closer to any remedial solutions, I changed my mindset. I started focusing on finding solutions for the current problems that I faced. I started applying my mind differently and saw my challenges as a learning curve. I took a bold step to be in charge of my life so that I could make a difference in my very own life. I became aware that I am the Chairman of my life and no-one else but me – the main leader in my life. If I am weak as a leader in mine life, unfortunately no-one will take over.
Networking with people who are more educated, smarter, successful and wealthier than I am was one of the best move I took towards finding solutions to problems that I had to deal with. I learned that smart and successful people think differently, one of their smart thinking is this – they always see opportunities in problems or challenges. Smart people always say ‘How can I learn from this situation?’, ‘What lessons can I take from this tough situation, that will make a pivotal impact in my life?’. Success and ‘smartness’ are very contagious if you hang around with smart and successful people. I stopped complaining and realised that complaining doesn’t bring solutions, but it brings more and more complainers. Honestly, I never wanted to have more complainers in my very own life, I needed to add smart, successful, wealthy and goal getters in my life.
My life is starting to improve and I am more happier than I was before. I am implementing solutions to improve my life. I am in charge of my life and I have learned that some people cannot be changed and it is a full time job changing my life, so i will not waste my time trying to change someone else. I am bolder and confident now. I am the Chairman of my life – I am in charge and one day at a time I am making a difference.
I am powerful beyond measure and will exercise my inner power to improve ME and people who are in my encouragement group. I am now hanging around with industrious people and no longer with those who sap energies from me. I add value in people who add value in me 
‘It is not what happens, it’s what we do makes a difference’ Anthony Robbins
To our success,
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Visionary Entrepreneur + Speaker
tau@taa.co.za
Skype: basi.tau
We are all POWERFUL beyond measure. No one has more power than yourself and myself. Never and never-ever allow others to overpower you, irrespective of the material gains they might have accumulated and you haven’t. We tend to give other people power to dominate and control us. People do not just dominate us, in most cases we allow them and yet we are not aware – and in some instances we are aware and think they will STOP.
The moment one realises that He/she has power to be in charge of everything the more powerful one will become. Always stand tall and believe in the things you do. Take charge of the Power within you as we are all powerful beyond measure.
Baleseng ‘Basi’ Tau
Visionary Entrepreneur
Skype: basi.tau
Google Talk: basi.tau
Personal Development
