Patience, Feathers and Founders – What Birdwatching Taught Me About Entrepreneurship

By Kristine Pearson. First published on the author’s LinkedIn page.
I used to think birdwatchers were a bit odd. Then ten years ago, I picked up a long lens and started photographing the visitors to my Cape Town garden and everything changed. I even understood why the game Angry Birds got its name; many of them really do look pissed off.

Whether in the wetlands of The Gambia, on the shores of Lake Naivasha, or in the bushveld back home in South Africa, I can lose hours waiting for that perfect moment when light, colour and flight align. It’s not all serenity as there’s plenty of frustration. Birds don’t follow direction and just as you’re about to click, they fly off. Bird photography, I’ve learned, is part patience, part instinct and a generous dose of luck.

Isn’t that a lot like entrepreneurship?

It might sound like a stretch, but over the years I’ve realised that this solitary hobby has quietly sharpened how I approach mentoring and coaching entrepreneurs. Solitude often opens the space where creativity flows. Birds have taught me a few lessons that work just as well for building enterprises in Africa.

Patience and timing

Birds seldom appear on cue. You can wait a long time before one lands in view. Don’t entrepreneurs face the same reality? Markets don’t open instantly, investors take time to respond and opportunities often appear when least expected. The skill lies in waiting with intention, ready to act when the moment comes. As a mentor, I encourage founders to cultivate patience while creating their own timing and luck.

Observation and listening

Birdwatchers pay attention to every sound, whether a rustle on the ground, the alarm call of a bird sensing a predator nearby, or a chirp from high in the treetops. Each signal carries meaning if you’re alert enough to notice. Entrepreneurs need that same awareness: to sense when something in the currency market shifts, a competitor moves, or a customer’s tone changes. Mentoring often means helping someone sharpen that instinct and helping them tune in more closely to what they might otherwise miss.

Focus and clarity

A poorly created pitch deck is like a blurred image. The intent might be there, but the message is lost in the lack of focus. Just as an out-of-focus photograph fails to draw the eye to what matters, a cluttered or confusing deck leaves investors unsure where to look. Too many words, too many slides, or too many concepts dilute the story. A clear deck, like a sharp image, guides attention with purpose in every frame, every bullet, every number working together to reveal the bigger picture. Clarity of vision is what carries entrepreneurs forward.

Adaptability

Birds are unpredictable. They instantly swoop, dive and change direction. As a photographer, you adapt by shifting your angle, adjusting your lens and moving quickly, sometimes with a tripod, sometimes without. A tripod offers stability, but it can also slow you down when the moment demands a quick reaction. Knowing when to stay steady and when to move is part of the craft.

African entrepreneurs know this reality only too well. Pivots, setbacks and missed opportunities are part of the journey. The key is flexibility – learning when to hold your ground and when to change course. I try to help founders see adaptability not as a compromise, but as a strength that keeps them responsive to whatever flies their way.

Diversity and beauty

Africa is blessed with extraordinary birdlife, each species with its own colours, calls and flight patterns. According to the reference guide, The Birds of Africa, there are 2,339 bird species on the continent, with 1,561 or about two-thirds found nowhere else on Earth. From pink flamingos inhabiting the Rift Valley’s soda lakes, to speckled mousebirds in Ethiopia and fish eagles along the Zambezi River, the variety is astonishing.

The same is true of African entrepreneurs, whose ideas are shaped by their culture, context and creativity. Each one brings a different song, a different way of taking flight. Bird photography reminds me to celebrate that diversity and never expect every business or founder to look the same. In both worlds, beauty lies in the difference in colours, calls and courage that make each one unique.

The ecosystem

Birders think in terms of habitats, not single species. A healthy bird population depends on the strength of the whole ecosystem. Likewise, strong businesses thrive when communities, supply chains and environments are flourishing, too. As a mentors, I try to help entrepreneurs see beyond their own venture and recognise the wider systems they’re part of and to pay it forward.

In the end, photographing birds has taught me that success comes from patience, observation, focus, adaptability, appreciation of diversity and a keen awareness of ecosystems. These are exactly the qualities that entrepreneurs (and those who mentor them) need to thrive in Africa’s dynamic, challenging and opportunity-rich landscape.

Whether I’m holding a camera or sitting across from a founder with a big dream, I understand, like the most captivating birds, entrepreneurs know how to soar.

NB: I have taken every photograph myself with a Canon DSLR and either a 400mm or 600mm lens.