Over the weekend we had a lock-in, which is similar to a sleepover, except we don’t sleep, well I didn’t anyway. It was hosted at the house I’m staying at and we had about 30 young people in attendance.
Richmond was talking about success and keys to being successful he went around the group asking for stories of success that people knew. I was amazed at how many people either knew someone, or had. A story of their own when they had started a business, or invested some money, and made a success out of it. Every person there could tell you either a story about themselves, or a story of a friend or family member, every person.
I reflected on the kind of reaction we would get in the west, if we asked that question. I don’t think we would get even three personal stories in a group of a similar amount. I think we would get plenty insight into far removed success stories – well know start up businesses like Uber, Facebook or Google, or famous Entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson (Virgin), Peter Jones (Dragons Den) or James Kaan (Dragons Den).
Gerald told part of his story, to wrap up the evenings activities (before the long awaited midnight BBQ, which wasn’t actually ready till 4am). He has been raised in Jinja, and was the eldest in the family. His father passed away while he was still in school, and with him their source of income, and the ability to pay for school fees.
In response to this, his mother decided to buy a large bag of maze flour from the wholesaler, and then she sat herself at the side of the road each day, selling it by the kilogram. Meanwhile Gerald worked elsewhere, earning various amounts, that enabled him, with the help of his mother, to continue in school. He got through school thanks to maze flour and now his mother owns her own maze flour mill. She has become the wholesaler, who she once went to to buy from!
I think we all have some ability to generate incomes, to make a success of ourselves in life. I think we have squashed this in a way in the west because we have so many barriers to jump through in order to start a business (to which there are none here). If Gerald’s mum had had to complete a health a safety course, ensure her work place (the side of the road) met certain standards for distributing food, set up a distribution chain, meet with Tesco’s, Asda and Sainsbury’s to agree a deal, she never would of made it.
We are also too comfortable, there is too much to loose by starting a business in the west, whereas here, there is everything to gain.
