Most entrepreneurs are very familiar with rejection and detractors.
Nkosinathi Innocent Maphumulo, known as DJ Black Coffee, shared how he deals with naysayers.
The South African DJ, record producer and businessman sat down for an interview with American entrepreneur and internet personality, Gary Vaynerchuk on his daily vlog Ask Gary Vee Show last year. The show which focuses on entrepreneurship, marketing and social media trends has featured the likes of public speaker Tony Robbins, health expert Dr Oz and YouTuber Casey Neistat.
Power in rejection
DJ Black Coffee told Vaynerchuk that he uses the experience of his first album as a solo artist as a reminder to follow his own instincts rather than give in to the critics.
“My first album was an album of remixes,” said DJ Black Coffee. “So I went around asking the guys that was doing what I was trying to do, [if it was] worth it doing an album of remixes?
“They were like ‘what do you mean?’ I told them what if I take the old music that’s around, remix it and release it; do you think it would be a success? And everyone was like: ‘Come on dude, people know the songs already. You’re wasting your time.'”
DJ Black Coffee explained that despite the negative feedback, he went ahead with his idea because he believed in it so much. “(I) released that album as my first album. I won an award for it; my debut album got an award. It was an album of remixes that I was told I was never going to make it. This is how I started.”
He added: “Find power in rejection. Use that power to fuel you to do even better.”
DJ Black Coffee owns the record label, Solistic Music, a music streaming app, Gong Box and co-founded the project, F.A.M Academy which is a Fashion, Art and Music Academy. He is also a private investor who has invested in on-demand cleaning startup, SweepSouth, and the point of sale payments provider, Yoco, a fin-tech startup.
His accolades include winning the 2016 SAMA Best Dance Album and the 2016 Album Of The Year Best Engineered Album International Recognition, the BET Award for Best International Act: Africa (in 2016), and the DJ Awards: Best Deep House DJ for 2016 and 2017.
