07/01/2026
Someone DM'd me yesterday:
"Derrick, I want to start a poultry farm with 10,000 birds."
I asked: "How many birds have you raised before?"
"None. But I've done some research."
This is why most businesses fail before they even start 👇
People want to launch million-cedi processing plants.
But they've never run a ₵10,000 pilot.
They want 40,000-bird poultry farms.
But they've never managed 100 birds to see how it actually works.
They want to open 5 locations.
But they haven't proven the model works with one.
And then they wonder why they lose everything.
You have to know that you can't skip the small phase.
You can't jump from zero to BILLIONS
Because you don't know what you don't know yet.
The lessons you learn with 100 birds:
→ How much they actually eat (not what Google says)
→ How fast disease spreads
→ Which vaccines work in YOUR environment
→ What your real profit margin is
→ How to handle dead stock
→ Which buyers are reliable
→ What can go wrong (and it will)
With 100 birds, these lessons cost you ₵5,000.
With 10,000 birds, these same lessons cost you ₵50,000.
See the difference?
Starting small isn't about lacking ambition.
It's about being smart enough to learn cheaply.
Test your assumptions.
Make your mistakes when they're affordable.
Prove the model before you scale it.
I see this everywhere:
People want to open restaurants without running a small catering test.
People want to launch fashion brands without selling 50 pieces first.
People want to import containers without testing with 10 units.
Then they lose everything and say "business is hard."
No. Business is hard when you skip the learning phase.
The entrepreneurs who win ASK "what's the smallest version I can test first?"
Then scale.
What's one business idea you're thinking of starting?
And what's the smallest test version of it?
— Derrick Abaitey
