Anxiety trumps creativity and creativity trumps anxiety. Entrepreneurship is nerve wrecking, especially when things are not going according to your plan. This is probably most of the time. Over time, our anxiety builds up; it either implodes or explodes. My anxiety has gotten me to that point several times. This is because entrepreneurs, rightfully so, are always focused on achieving certain goals.

We pine over visions, we obsess about how to reach those goals and even go as far as imagining how many units our products will sell. The funny thing is, nobody has control over reality and things don’t always pan out the way we had envisioned them.

Subconsciously, we are shaken when our expectations are not met and this gets us anxious and at times depressed. It should not come as a surprise that entrepreneurs are more prone to mental pains than the general population. A study entitled, “Are Entrepreneurs Touched with Fire”, by Dr Michael Freeman, surveyed 242 entrepreneurs; 174 (72%) of them had mental health concerns, 118 (49%) had one or more lifelong mental health condition and 13 (5.4%) of them were suicidal – the numbers are rounded off.

Anxiety plays out like this… It invades our productivity and therefore our goals. All it takes is to not see progress in a day, then a week or a month. The next thing you know, you are standing at the peak of the highest anxiety hill, depressingly recalling your record of failures and doubting your future. This book tells of several anxiety-causing incidents, set in different situations, which you are likely to relate to.

It is a collection of anecdotes, emotions, feelings, frustrations and philosophies that will show you that, when anxiety is removed from your entrepreneurial process, creativity reaches its optimum. You cannot be anxious and creative at the same time. Anxiety and creativity cannot coexist, so one must give way for the other.

The ways in which township businesses are started and grown provide the best and fascinating blueprint of lessons on starting an entrepreneurship venture. These are techniques any good startup in the world employs to find traction and grow. Township Biz Fastrack gives insights into development and growth models for township based businesses.

It focuses on strong principles which most township businesses have used to start-up, but haven’t wholly adhered to in the long run to their detriment. Therefore haven’t grown and sustained themselves amidst heavy competition and ever-changing societal dynamics. One principle in the book is bootstrapping, which by example is: starting off by selling one or two strategic and/or passion products, e.g. archar, to then reinvesting the proceeds on expansion. Therefore practical learning happens with minimum risk in capital investment.

The other principle is validation. So many businesses which started off selling few items have grown on the strength of customer advice - what to stock further. The book includes interviews with notable township business owners, whom give strategic survival tactics.