Eric Kinoti is one of the most popular Kenyan entrepreneurs. He has been featured in the Forbes' 30 Most Promising Entrepreneurs in Africa. Kinoti believes that sharing knowledge helps in building more successful entrepreneurs.

"One of my biggest goals is to help as many entrepreneurs as possible to succeed. From the challenges I faced, I recognises the importance of mentorship and how important it is to inspire and guide young people venturing into business," he says.

Here is a powerful write up by Kinoti detailing the difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur...

For me an Entrepreneur, in the purest sense, is the person who identifies a need—any need—and fill it. It’s a primordial urge, independent of product, service, industry or market. Entrepreneurship is about the future and sustainability, an entrepreneur identifies a gap and creates a lasting solution and not just for money but for the future generations benefit and sustainability.

On the other hand, a business person is that person who identifies a weakness and capitalizes in that just to make profits. For example a typical business person is that who while in a pub drinking and discussing stuff, notices another person is doing well in what he/she is doing and rushes to do it without doing any research or getting to know the hurdles involved.

who opens a butchery near another does that because he knows probably customers are complaining about the other butchery’s services. He gets into the business to make money. And that the primary principle of a business person.

Eric Kinoti recently released a book dubbed The Starting Point. Go to to read the book.