If anybody should ask who the author of The New Entrepreneur is, this is how I would respond: Angus Peterson is a business-minded professional with an undying entrepreneurial spirit. In my lifetime, my path has crossed with numerous positive and optimistic people but also with prophets of doom, naysayers, and nonbelievers without a fraction of belief in achieving the impossible. It is the positive I associated with that made a lasting impression and left an indelible mark on my life. I was born into a musical family in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Being the youngest in the family I was bound to be the spoiled, and perhaps naughtiest in the family. All my schooling I've done within Bloemfontein, where I was groomed for a career in both government and private sector. My interest in business and my desire to become an entrepreneur could be detected at a very early stage of my primary school life, when I started to sell sweets and cigarettes. I was always into selling something and pushing to win competitions. Having spent three years in the private sector and a whopping twenty years in the public sector, I have seen and dealt with a lot of issues, programmes, projects, and people, in the line of duty. I found myself in retail, wholesale, logistics / supply chain, human resources management & development, as well as tourism. Over the years, I found myself developing an interest in the online business and marketing, an interest that opened my mind and eyes to global operations, especially online sales. These are actually important trade platforms and channels that entrepreneurs need to familiarize themselves with, as these are brilliant training platforms. If you are not careful, you could also learn things the hard way like I did - hoping from product to product spending money on some useless products that don't work. I can attest to the fact that it is not always the person who achieved the first grades in school, or the one who passed with cum laude at university that is your finest candidate in the real business world. Can I share an irony with you? I certainly will! At the end of our last school year, when we picked up the newspaper with the final exam results, we were greeted by shock. Names who one expected to see did not appear on the paper. Some went to study further while others like me didn't. I make these points for readers of this book to understand that it's not only those high IQ candidates who are destined for success in careers and business, but those with a strong will, courage and believe that they can. Throughout my schooling and part-time tertiary life, I have been among the median performers. My medial performance was certainly not applying to my best subjects like Business Economics in school and Business Management at tertiary. These were the subjects where I aimed for distinctions and could compete with the A-candidates. The challenge is like one of the renowned Business Educators says our traditional schooling systems do not prepare the subconscious brain of learners and that of the next-generation entrepreneurs at school's level. Fears of punishment and failure are instilled in the subconscious brain of learners, and these imprints are becoming barriers that stand in the way of success in their careers and in business. Many a time when I reflect on my life from school to be tertiary, I always think that if I focused more and applied my mind, shown commitment, I could have done better. The fact of the matter is that my aim was just to pass my final year secondary schooling and enter the labour market to earn a living because things at home were pretty tough. When I left school, I at least had the mind-set to apply the knowledge I have acquired during my school education, and was always open to learning. On the other hand, my mom insisted that I go to Teacher's College to study and become an Educator. I thought at the time I could go to acquire a Teacher's qualification and teach for a living, but the college closed down during my final year of school. Being a musician, I enjoyed teaching guitar and coaching people who knew less than I, but also provided solutions in music, even to those in the know.
