“Passion is not about what work you do. It’s about your attitude towards it.”
Passion is something that can be found anywhere your heart feels ignited. For some that lighting of the fire inside comes from within the establishment of their own business, for others the fire is found within the company they find themselves working. One such example of working within your passion in the corporate world is that of Mbo Luvindao who is the Branch Manager at Bank Windhoek’s Specialist Finance ESME Department. 99FM’s MYD Smart spoke to Mbo Luvindao to find out how he found his overflowing passion within his job. Mbo is the head of the SME Development at Bank Windhoek, which is a division that offers services and products that assist SME’s to build the business of their dreams.
99FM’s MYD Smart asked :
Do you think it is important for a person to have passion for the work that they do?
“Passion is very important in all we do. Without passion it is impossible to be successful. I read something last year written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He said If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. Passion is not about what work you do. It’s about your attitude towards it.”
How has working with passion helped you in your career?
“Being passionate and enthusiastic about my work has helped me tremendously. I was so full of zeal for my work that I even learned aspects of Banking that, at the time, fell outside my scope of work. I am especially passionate about service delivery, everyone at Bank Windhoek is passionate about service. Passion guarantees job satisfaction and growth.”
How important is having passion for what you do when talking SME’s starting their own business?
“Start-ups need a lot more assistance than simply financing. Most of the time, they need someone who is prepared to walk the journey with them. It’s not always easy, but being passionate about SMEs enables me to go the extra mile to ensure that the person sitting in front of me has the best possible chance of making their dream a reality.”
What are you passionate about?
“I’m passionate about my wife, my family, my job, but most of all I am passionate about my faith in Jesus Christ.”
What was the most inspirational piece of career advice you ever received?
“One of my mentors once advised me saying that In business today, change is the price of survival. Everything changes and everything is changing. You cannot avoid it.”
“At Bank Windhoek; we believe in small businesses. Apart from creating jobs, they empower the youth, women and disabled. Bank Windhoek offers a wide range of products tailor made to assist SMEs, whether start-ups or existing businesses looking to expand. We also offer a subsidized mentorship service to help small businesses with capacity building.”
Mbo Luvindao says that at the Bank Windhoek ESME Department they do not only provide loans, but also business mentorship to selected successful SME loan applicants to ensure that they acquire the necessary skills and support to run their business successfully.
Bank Windhoek has ESME Finance Branches in both Windhoek and Oshakati, but entrepreneurs can also approach their nearest Bank Windhoek branch, or agency for assistance.
You can get in touch with Mbo Luvindao and the Bank Windhoek’s Specialist Finance ESME Department through Bank Windhoek’s website here : Bank Windhoek