From my Inbox - The Abundance versus the Scarcity Mentality in Professional Development and Growth

A speech delivered by Eric Kimani to the Kenya Institute of Bankers, Mombasa Chapter on 1st December 2006.

When the Kenya Institute of Bankers, Coast chapter invited me to come and speak to you they gave me ample notice. One would therefore  imagine that it is very easy to have chosen what to speak about- It is not!, I thought for weeks what it is that I can speak to you that would add value both ways away from the usual advise you might find in the newspaper.  But I continually drew a blank.  Then I thought to myself why not be controversial and speak about something as basic as how our mentality affects our professional careers. I decided to talk about how our attitudes and mentality affect our career growth or stagnation- 

The Abundance versus Scarcity mentality.

 Let us start with some long winded definitions

 What is an abundance mentality- this is a deep belief that there is enough for all- enough work, enough jobs enough resources. It is living with a favor-minded attitude. One can define it also as optimism. Seeing the glass half full rather than half empty.

Thinking big and expecting big. I will draw very many examples which I seek your indulgence if they sound like self-praise- they are only meant to help clarify the message. I recently led a group of some passionate Kenyans in a charity fundraising. Some of them thought I was out of my mind to suggest that we can ask Kenyans to donate Ksh.7m. This initiative realized close to 12m! The barriers are in our minds and we will not go beyond the barriers in our minds.

By contrast the scarcity mentality is a belief that your success will simply mean someone else's failure; that there are scarce resources and if you get them you must deny someone else; that there is scarcity of jobs; that the cake is not enough and I must grab my share. The scarcity mentality is one of our biggest problems in this country today with politicians believing that they have gone to parliament to ensure get the largest share of the national cake for "their people/electorate" . 

This was also epitomized lately by a senior executive friend of mine whom I approached in September to donate money to the national charity cause I referred to above that incidentally helps more people from his village than anywhere else in Kenya. He responded that he could not help because they have a similar initiative to help his village. 

His scarcity mentality- That there is not enough for his village and the national initiative

blinded him in seeing that he could achieve what he is doing for the village in a more far-reaching manner.

So much for the definitions.

I hope to show you by the end of my talk that the difference between

successful people and the less successful is largely their mentality of abundance or of scarcity.

 People with an abundance mentality have an internal security based on a principled centered living. Their value system is self-anchored. They are not too worried of saying/doing the wrong thing because they ordinarily talk from a point of truth. This frees their mind to bigger/better thoughts because they have nothing to cover. What They said yesterday is what they will repeat today without contradiction

This internal security enhances their humility. It allows them to enjoy professional freedom. They can choose what they want to do. By contrast people with a scarcity mentality seek their validation from groups.

They will rarely want to take action on their own. The group must validate what they do. 

To draw an example from my own career, I have left employment 3 times in the last decade and at no time have I ever felt that there would be scarcity of opportunities. I believe strongly that there is something better out there awaiting you to discover. I have always relied on my sense of internal security to anchor myself. Do not owe your employment to your boss's favor or anyone for that matter. 

Believe you are the best there is and you will work towards it and become it!

People with an abundance mentality seek solitude and enjoy nature.

By taking time out in solitude and nature, you allow yourself to access

your deepest thoughts and hence your human spirit with which we are all

equally endowed. Most successful people I know will take time out to reflect. I try to take a solitary one or two night retreat away from family and work once every year and try and access my human spirit. You have to experience it to believe it. It re-energizes you.

People with an abundance mentality keep their mind and body tuned through wide reading and exercise. It is a pity that most of us stop reading on graduating. Most successful people read voraciously- they are in sync with what is going on around them. They are current. They do

not spend an hour reading newspapers or watching TV but will spend hours reading the latest management thoughts for example. I try to read as many books in year as I can. I have tried to keep fit for over 10 years and my wife who is my jogging and walking  partner can attest

to that- we call exercise our lifeline! Without the mental and physical fitness we would not have survived the vagaries of disease and the challenges of everyday life!

People with an abundance mentality serve others. Like one writer put it

and I quote "Service is the only rent to pay for the privilege of living in this world" Are you paying or are you robbing the landlord? Service enhances internal security and fuels the abundance mentality- at the beginning of this year I pledged to donate ksh. 2m to a

cause....I chair the Disciplinary committee of the Accountants; I chair Help Age Kenya, I chair The Palmhouse Foundation among many others. Nothing gives me greater joy! People ask me where I get the time- some of my friends have asserted that I have a 25-hour day!

I tell people you have time for what you value. An abundance mentality gives you time and opportunity to serve others.

People with an abundance mentality let those below them grow and hence give themselves the opportunity to grow even faster and higher. I keep saying to people that if you are good at what you do, the only place those who want your job can push you is upwards. They work with the

best minds. They seek out those who are better than them! A scarcity mentality tells you it is dangerous to let your junior became as good or better than you- nothing could be further from the reality! My career success would not be what it is without those who worked under me.

People with an abundance mentality know when to Get out before they get stale. I have left some of my previous jobs as soon as I realized that my best was no longer good enough. Some of us stay too long on jobs we do not enjoy hoping that our boss will get out of the way sooner! M y

advise to professionals who do not enjoy what they do is - for heavens sake move on elsewhere! At one time I left a job that was so well paying at the time that my wife thought I was crazy- You cannot excel where you do not enjoy!

People with an abundance mentality have a long term view of life and hence are visionaries- they are able to see what many cannot discern. They create uncharted territories. This is because they already believe everything is possible- How many times have you wondered how come that many times that successful guy/lady is ultimately right? Many say he/she knew what they were doing. The truth is that such people operate from a paradigm of abundance.

People with an abundance mentality are problem solvers and are hence popular with their superiors. They provide unusual solutions to problems. They are  able to separate people from the problems. They attract others into the team with their sincerity. I lead many volunteer teams in

very successful initiatives. I love looking for the third alternative to problems and hence my popularity with employers. The scarcity mentality on the other tells us we should not stick our necks out and should remain as passive followers.

People with an abundance mentality are courageous. One must however remember that courage is not to absence of fear but more the mastery of fear. I have experienced fear in my life- I cannot for example remember anything as fearful as changing jobs. A friend of mine told me recently that a herd of sheep led by a lion will defeat a pack of lions led by

a sheep! The courage to take action is one of the greatest attributes of great leaders. Courage is a consequence of the abundance mentality. 

People with an abundance mentality understand and respect the law of the Farm or the law of the harvest. They know how/when to forego immediate gratification in favor of delayed and long term satisfaction. They appreciate that you will reap what you planted!

They understand the need to prepare the ground, plant, weed, water and tend before you can harvest. They are not moved by peer pressure. I still marvel at some of my friends who I grew up with who tried to violate the law of the harvest - they are or have already paid dearly for this. Imagine if at the age of 18 you have your own chauffeur driven Mercedes? What would you be working for at 50? Does it surprise us that many of our kids are on drugs? We have not exposed them to the law of the farm! Those who do not know me for example may not know the painstaking effort I have put in my career, like many of you,  to get where I am today- seven years ago I was still studying! 

I still take time today to learn new technology and read widely to keep myself relevant. An abundance mentality reinforces the law of the harvest. The scarcity mentality fools us that we can cheat the law of the harvest and short-circuit it- it never works!

People with an abundance mentality are passionate about everything they take up- They live their short lives in greater harmony than mediocre people. They are ordinarily positive about much in life and this seem to produce a self-fulfilling prophecy of success. When they see a mountain they think of how best to climb it and not about the dangers of climbing. They see opportunity where others see no hope An instructive story is told of two shoe salesmen sent to Africa to see what opportunities there were. One came back saying he was disappointed that

there was no market for shoes because the Natives do not wear shoes. They other came back and saying there was a huge opportunity because the natives do not have shoes!

Professionals with an abundance mentality treat whatever they take on as a project. A project to be executed so well that it guarantees extension or another project. I like reminding people that like Tom Peters, the great management guru keeps telling us - the life of indentured servitude is over! You must treat your job as a project to be executed meticulously and create a brand name for yourself in the banking industry and believe me before long people will be looking for you to do other lucrative projects. From Tom Peters masterpiece "the Circle of

Innovation) in 1998, I discovered this ground Breaking truth that convinced me to leave my job then and never to be Employed again! Every work I do is a project. I endeavor to complete my projects successfully.

I will endeavor to finish my Sameer/Yana project as successfully as possible. I will give it my best. Some projects will take longer than others but this does change the Fact that they are projects. I appeal to all of us present to stop considering  ourselves as permanent

employees- the 21st century has no place for this! Only successful team players working on deliverable and measurable projects will survive the white collar revolution! If you are under 40 and hoping to retire in your current job, then something is wrong with your project! Seriously

re-examine your options. If there is one industry that has been the victim of change and technology, it is banking! More retrenchment has been seen in this sector that any other I know- and in my view we have not scratched the surface!! Learn how to be a project contractor

-there is no longer room for employees in the 21st century!

I would like to conclude my talk with a favorite quotation often wrongly

attributed to Nelson Mandela but is actually by Marriane Williamson and I quote;

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? You are a

child of God.Your playing small does not serve the world. There Is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~ Marianne Williamson

I hope you have enjoyed my talk. Thank you and God bless you.

Cheers!!!

Twitter Lists

Twitter list were these amazing things that gave you the ability to view someones tweets without following them or to organise a custom timeline fed by tweets from certain friends, you could have a finance list full of your Aly-Khan Satchu's and a humour list full of all the FunnyJokers on your timeline.

I prefer to get a good mix everytime I'm on so I don't use them much. I don't see any newbies doing the same. I guess we all created lists when the hype about them was on. The names of the lists also give some insight about what people think of you, I'm in lists from maafakas to friends_i_cannot_follow_y , ubuntu to goodguysclub  The range of what people think of me is pretty wide!

I'm on a total of 68 twitter lists,This post is just my way of saying thanks!!

From the Inbox (Thanks Yvonne!!)

Declaration of Interdependence
by BJ Gallagher and Lisa Hammond

We hold these truths to be self-evident:


That all women are created equal -
but each is blessed with different gifts and talents.

That all women are endowed with certain individual rights -
but each must assume shared responsibilities.

For the happiness of all
depends on the commitment of each
to support equality and individuality,
rights and responsibilities.

We declare all women to be mutually interdependent -
banding together to support one another,
sharing our experience, strength, and hope,
that all may enjoy life, love, 
and the pursuit of laughter.

We agree to encourage one another in tough times
and celebrate in good times.

We commit to taking turns leading and following,
inspiring and teaching,
listening and learning.

We agree to give credit where credit is due -
including us.

We commit to loving ourselves first - 
because we can't give what we don't have.

With this Declaration of Interdependence,
we set ourselves free -
free from old beliefs that are no longer true,
free from self-doubt, insecurity, and loneliness,
free from self-imposed perfectionism.

We set ourselves free -
heeding our intuition in all her guises,
loving our bodies through every change,
finding our voices to speak our own truths.

We set ourselves free -
to create fulfilling work,
to form nurturing families,
and to build great friendships.

We are strong;


we are beautiful;


we are generous;


we are wise.

We are women -
committed to creating
a world that affirms us all.

All you out there be Blessed & Keep Living
Its a joy to bring a smile to anothers face!!

Moa Handpainted

The Incredible Musa Omusi of Moa Handpainted just made me a new T-Shirt at Blankets & Wine. 

I took some pictures as he did it

 

QR Codes

Facebook has recently implemented a system that creates QR Coded status messages.

Whats a QR Code?



According to Wikipedia, a QR Code is a two-dimensional bar code created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

A QR code can store up to 4,296 characters of text or just about 2MB of binary data. Once intepreted, the data recorded can lead you to a website.prompt you to make a phone call or send a text or e-mail.

You can even create a vCard to add a contact to your device or provide location coordinates in Google Maps.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless!!

QR Codes need to be interpreted by a reader, the Kaywa reader is the best I've seen so far for Nokia S60 Devices, download it for free here ~ http://reader.kaywa.com (registration required)

Are there any other code readers you use?

Join the E63 Club of Nairobi on Facebook for more updates

You can create your own QR Codes here

Contract (from the Inbox)

I am very happy to inform you that I have had feelings for
you since Tuesday, the 10th of March 2007. With
reference to the meeting held between us on the 7th of
January 2008 at 1500 hours outside Georgette's house, I would like to present
myself as a prospective lover.

Our love affair would be on probation for a period of
three months and depending on compatibility, would be made permanent.

Of course, upon completion of probation, there will be continuous
on-the-relationship training and relationship appraisal schemes leading up
to promotion from lover to spouse.

The expenses incurred for coffee and entertainment
would initially be shared equally between us. Later,
based on your performance, I might take up a larger
share of the expenses. However I am broad-minded
enough, to be taken care of on your expense account.

Unless otherwise stated, the normal meeting/communication
times shall be Monday to Friday and the normal hours are:-

* Monday to Friday - Evening 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
* Any time Saturday or Sunday as the need arises

I may at my sole discretion vary or amend the said
meeting/communication hours or days.

During the relationship hereunder you shall not either directly or indirectly
be permitted to be engaged in any other relationship unless specifically
authorised in writing.

You shall declare immediately to me by phone fax, or e-mail if you
are offered or recieve a benefit, gift, award, or prize from a male third party,
where the monetary value of such gift is in excess of Ksh 500 or if the
aforementioned gift can be assigned any emotional value.

Your appearance should at all times project a pleasing image

If you accept the contract on the terms and conditions specified within,
kindly send a blank e-mail to accept.rkunga@gmail.com.

In the event I do not hear from you within a period of fourteen (14) days,
I shall infer that you do not wish to accept my offer in which event
the aforementioned offer shall lapse.

Please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned for further
information or clarification

Thanking you in anticipation.

S60 Themes

So far, these are the themes I've installed on my phone so far, Click on the image to download the theme. They are SVG themes so they'll scale to any resolution

1. Black Grid by Kimi

2. Black Steel from AX Themes


3. Just Black E-Series Theme

4. E72 Copper theme

Resurrection

My beloved E63 decided some time in December to conk out. It was basically a software issue, all of a sudden I had no access to my contacts outside of searching for them by typing callers names, no scrolling through the list, no editing.

All my Java apps stopped working, I was unable to install new apps (read antivirus) and the native e-mail client just disappeared.

All I was left with was an outdated version of my Gravity Twitter Client and Opera Mobile 10.

Now the fix was simple, re-install the firmware, it was basically a software issue, right?

Fantastic!!

A quick trip to Nokia’s website revealed that in fact, I was overdue for an upgrade to new firmware.

Heres the catch:

• I was in Lamu,
• A couple of months earlier, I'd dropped my phone while it was connected to a USB cable. I picked up the phone and the phones USB port was kaput, it was actually hanging out of the slot. Being a cheap bastard, I bought a card reader (actually, a Safaricom Modem) and a bluetooth dongle and moved on.

Now, a firmware upgrade can only be done via USB cable, so when I got back (and the January salary came in) I asked around and was referred to a guy called Oscar, my new best friend, he quickly at a good price sorted me out just yesterday.

So now, since I don’t know what happened to my phone, I’ve decided to chronicle all the apps I install.

Heres the list.

1. Opera Mini 5 (Beta 2)

http://m.opera.com/next (mobile site)

Very quickly, I installed Opera Mini. This new version is amazingly fast, allows for multiple tabs and has a download manager built in.

It was what I used to search for and download the rest of the apps I’d be installing.

2. Gravity (v1.30 Build 6305, later upgraded to Build 6316 below)

http://bit.ly/6316ALL (direct download)

Since the phones IMEI didn’t change, Gravity was next on the list. I was rather excited at how well it went.

Perhaps because of either the new firmware, all the RAM being available, or a combination of both, the installations went by pretty fast.

3. Mail for Exchange

http://is.gd/7xnGa (Nokias MfE Website)

Our IT guy doesn’t like me, so I don’t have our e-mail settings. I use Mail for Exchange to automatically backup my contacts and calendar info to my Google Account.

Symbian’s sync application doesn’t sync automatically. You must manually initiate every synchronization. Google’s workaround works pretty well for automatically backing up your info.

4. Google Maps

http://m.google.com/maps (Mobile site)

As part of their plans for world domination, Google has mapped the world. Street level maps with directions for Nairobi mean that I must join the bandwagon, although this press release on Moses Kemibaro’s blog has rekindled my interest in Ovi Maps, I’ll check it out at a later date.

5. Joiku Spot LIGHT

http://is.gd/7xsA1 (JoikuSpots website)

This handly little Java app connects your laptop or any other WiFi enabled device (e.g. an iPod Touch) to the internet via Wifi using your mobile phone's 3G connection. Its effectively a Hotspot in your pocket.

The Light version is free but protocols such as Gmail, Outlook, IMAP, Skype, MSN or FTP are not supported. Download it here - http://www.get.co.ke/files/get/73

The Premium version costs €15

That’s it for now, everything under the hood is fixed. When I grab some time I’ll work on the themes.

Any suggestions for apps I should install? Use the comments section below.

Opera Mini 5 Beta 2

Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 is out!!!
It features:
-Opera Link integration: Allowing you to synchronise your bookmarks between your phone and your Opera Desktop Browser.

Seen something interesting as you browsed on the bus? Pick up where you left off when you get to your PC with Opera Link.
Go to http://link.opera.com on your PC to sign up or Hit #8 on your Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 and scroll to "Opera Link" to get started

Opera Link also stores your speed dial settings, allowing you to have the same shortcuts on multiple phones/PCs

-Download Manager : Another first for Opera Mini Users, any download you initiate now starts up a dwonload manager. You can pause, stop and resume downloads as well as minimise the download manager and navigate to other pages!!

- Management of Search engines: One of the best features of Opera Mini 4 is now available on Opera Mini 5 b2!! Hitting #9 will now bring up a list of search fields.
Edit, select and store your favourite search engine.

- Image Quality Settings: You can now select the quality of the images Loaded on your pages, just like in OM4!! Just hit #8 and scroll to Image Quality


All these new features are in addition to the great features already available in the first Beta!!

Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 is available for Download NOW!!
Point your phones browser to m.opera/next to download

NB: Nokia S60 Symbian and Windows Mobile users, Opera MOBILE 10 Beta 2 is also available FOR FREE with the same great new features, visit the same link to download

Skunkworks 3/10/2009

Kai Wullf gave an incredible talk on fibre at the latest Skunkworks meet. I'm not saying the CEO of KDN gave a talk because he was talking as a frustrated private citizen. 

 The boom we were promised has not happened and he chose this forum, a gathering of "techies" to try and explain why.

Basically the problem is something we can all relate to.

Safaricoms new data plan is about to come to an end. The unlimited offer brought broadband into our homes and offices and we jumped right in, so much so that according to analyst Aly-Khan Satchu  data usage quadrupled!

But here’s the scenario most of us wananchi (non-techies) faced, those of us who think “Torrent” is a word used to describe rainfall. Within a few days, we just didn’t know what to do with it. We hear people download movies from the net, we hear people download music, Facebook was abuzz with links to file sharing sites and tips on how to use them but after 5 or 6 days, we were basically back to normal patterns of internet usage.

What are we in Kenya doing to use the bandwidth we now have available? IT supports business, it always has, since the invention of the computer. Technology has always adapted to what we are doing, but what we are trying to do in Kenya is change what we are doing to adapt to the technology.

The technology used is irrelevant to a consumer, it’s the application of that technology that counts. When you use an ATM you don’t think about whether it linked by copper wire or a radio link, you just need it to work, period.

We use most of the technology around us completely oblivious to what happens in the background, the landing of the submarine cable was the ultimate “back-office operation”, a new support service hiding in trenches around the country. We should concentrate on growing our core businesses. That is what will drive the demand for the new capacity and generate the critical mass required for the prices to go as low as we think they should be.

We talk of rural connectivity, but we need to start with basics, get PCs into peoples hands and teach people how to use computers. What can you do on the internet without an e-mail address? How much demand can we expect from rural areas even if we provide world class infrastructure?  

People will drive the internet revolution in Kenya , not submarine cables and fibre networks, we need to shift the focus away from the “how” to the “who” or we risk losing the opportunity we have been given.

Bidii Afrika

The Bidii Afrika forum was a lot of things to a lot of people. Initially I joined it voluntarily and I must admit it was quite good. At the time it allowed for sharing of ideas on many viewpoints and the kind of interaction I haven’t had until I joined Twitter. It even had job postings and a lot of good free stuff from Francis Chege, who went on to form Young Professionals.

The Moderator, Robert Alai, was fair and impartial and the whole thing worked well. When the history of Kenya’s technology revolution is written, Bidii Afrika will have its own chapter. It changed the way we look at a lot of things.

The experience people got from being part of a forum, from sharing ideas and stories, vacancies and classified ads and quite frankly anything that popped into peoples minds I believe opened the door for some of the bloggers in Kenya today.

But with time the content deteriorated, so I opted out, only to find I’d been added again.

“Every time I thought I was out, they pulled me back in!”

Finally I just marked reduced the frequency to “daily digest” and marked Bidii Afrika as spam.

I’ve heard that at one point Bidii Afrika had 30,000+ members. I’ve also heard a lot about its founder, Robert Alai.

I’m not going to discuss rumours. What I do know as an absolute fact is that Bidii Africa is no longer a Google Group. I also know that Robert Alai has insulted me on Twitter, so I’m inclined to believe whatever rumours I hear.

Some time back, just before the now infamous 2007 elections, as a joke, I created a profile for Mwai Kibaki on Facebook.
By the time Facebook shut it down (for impersonation) it had been written about in the newspapers and it had about 8,000 friends, a small number compared to Bidii, but I have some idea of how it feels to have something you’ve worked on shut down.

I also know how it feels to have some people hang on your every word, it can get to your head.

Arrogance used in the right way is a powerful thing, without it, the world would not have Donald Trump!

Unfortunately for me, Bidii is back, as evidenced by an E-mail I received last week.

The only advice I have for Alai is this, if it is true that you don’t have a rosy personality, check it at the door. You can be a bastard in your own free time, separate it from the work that you do.

If all this going around is “created by your enemies”, work on improving your image. Whatever you work on will benefit from that.

As a red blooded African man, you don’t need to suck up to anyone, but you also don’t have to generate needless animosity. This thing you have going with Kahenya on Twitter is ridiculous.

Start from there.

That’s all I have to say

Weekend thing

Ha!! The weekend! Its been a while!I never thought I'd appreciate them so much. It all started on Friday withe the BBC Tweetup. Truth be told we dont need the BBC to do that but it was fun anyway. I will not miss the next one.
Saturday was a day of KPLC aided blissful bumming.

FRIDAY NIGHT! It was really nice to meet the Twitterati, akina @inteligensia, @mkaigwa @sciculturist,@Kahenya you know, the real bloggers. The people @moseskemibaro called "...the most digitally connected group of people you could possibly hang out with in Kenya..."

Lots of fun, these people

Change

I had a very interesting conversation with some two guys this week. One of them's a successful electrical engineer, the other runs a popular bar in the CBD. A mutual friend of ours has gone mad. The dude is making some good money now and its changed him. He's become arrogant, unreliable and quite frankly he's pissed off too many people.

Seeing as we've known the dude for a while we decided to discuss the situation over a cold one. Unfortunately the dude will have to sort himself out. But we resolved to be there for him should anything bad happen.

So the conversation switches gears, the Electrical Engineer is getting married soon, so he's bought a new house and recently flew to China to do some shopping with the fiance, "just like that".

Naturally, this would come off as bragging to some people, but not Elec eng, dude said he thought he was a baller until he went there. He met some guys who have "real money" not the paltry half mill he blew on household appliances and a 4 star hotel on a whim.He met a guy who'd spent 1.9M on some virgin atlantic tour he takes with/without his current mama 3 times a year, compared to that my boy felt like a pauper!

You see Elec Eng is doing pretty well, he's about 5 years older than me and he thinks for some reason I'm good company. So we talk, and he talks to my friends and we drink and usually on Friday nights at the bar, we're one big happy family.
But Elec Eng isn't always there and that day I found out why.

Hanging out with us guys, he is King.

A successful self made man, driving his own (no loan) E-Class among fresh graduates makes him just that, King. The girls hang on his every word, the boys buy him drinks hoping to sumbua the chap he buys rounds. He said all this could easily get to his head, easily lead him to be comfortable and he'd loose his edge. So he keeps changing the venues he drinks in and tries not to get too comfortable. 

Similarly the manager runs a joint which is being threatened by a neighbouring one. His bar has a unique feel and is well known for its product (its not a strip club, I'm being vague so that I dont name names) . He wants to renovate it to counter the upstart. But we're advising him not to.

So what do we have here? Two guys, one who loves change advising the other not to change. Interesting

I'm back

I went for TEDxNairobi yesterday.
It was incredible. So incredible that I've been inspired to start writing again, I actually started blogging in 2006, using this and my car blog Motogari, then I just focused on Motogari, and then facebook(I have 45 notes and 212 posted items) so I've dusted off this blog and I want to write again. I want to "earn" my membership into the amazing group of people who came for TEDxNairobi yesterday, I got many a puzzled look when I said I was an Auditor at TEDx.

It was nice meeting the people I follow on twitter, lakini twitter isn't why I know Bankelele or Aly-Khan, I've been reading what these people write for years, Twitter just brought y'all abit closer.
Anyway I think I'll start with what I thought of TEDxNairobi. Moses Kemibaro, well, its was the same old same old Fibre story we've been hearing since the cable landed, But it was a good presentation.

Jacquline Novogratz: I liked the bit about giving people the "dignity of choice", If you've read the works of Dambisa Moyo and Hernando de Soto, you'll understand how true this is, treating poor people without the dignity they deserve as human beings has been a problem with aid agencies for a long time.
The assumption that all a poor african wants is clean water and freedom from the tropical disease of the month has informed the attitude towards how aid agencies operate.
Crystal Watleys presentation picked up on that, She couldn't get funding outside of the normal themes of HIV/AIDS and certainly not to simply give people information, showing them that theres a life outside of their daily hardship, something they could aspire to beyond having clean water and managing HIV/AIDS, kudos to her and congratulations to he on winning the award.
Tonee Ndungu cannot be put in words that could accurately describe him up on the stage, live, I wont even try, that was an amazing presentation.
Aly-Khan Satchu, I wish we had more time.

Bad Day

I had a really really bad day today, bad enough for me to, like a good Christian, seek help from the The Chairman of the worlds largest multinational, the Catholic Church.

The Catholic church has grown from strength to strength since its humble beginnings as Yahweh & Son, plying its trade in the little town of Bethlehem.

The brutal murder of the Chairmans son in 33 AD, a tragedy that doubled as effectively, the worlds greatest IPO, set in motion the creation of a more formal organization.

Today, from its global headquarters, the Vatican, the Church attends to the needs of its millions of shareholders and other clients. Its largest single shareholder is the Trinity group, a small private equity firm comprising of the Chairman, his son and Holy Spirit Support Services Ltd, a powerful, little seen but often felt silent partner.

The Chairman and by extension, the Trinity group, has a majority shareholding in many other similar churches. Although the other churches have similar objectives, there is no conflict of interest arising from this cross-ownership.

The church is headed by the Chairman, who leads the Board of Directors , commonly referred to as the "College of Cardinals". The Board elects one of its own as the CEO. The current CEO, Pope Benedict XVI, was elected on 19 April 2005.

The church has a wonderfully flat organizational structure. The Chairman and the Trinity Group lead the church, The CEO, whose rarely used full title is "His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God." follows. Bishops, who are seen as the modern day equivalents of a group of the chairmans sons closest advisors, the apostles, feature prominently in the churches hierarchy.

The structure is summarized below



The chairman is actively involved in the day to day operation of the church. The word, "Miracle" ,His name for the one-on-one interaction with shareholders he occasionally engages in, has been adopted in popular culture, often meaning an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers ascribed to a supernatural cause.

The church has branches in every corner of the world and given the way today went, one of those branches which will be seeing alot more of me pretty soon.

Anyway, I have a conference call with the Trinity Group regarding my Monday blues on hold while I write this, so I'll stop for now and get right back to it.

I really need one of them miracle things right about now.

Today is a dark day in Kenyas history, the 29th of December 2007 the day when instead of jubilant cries of Kazi Iendelee or Chungwa Moja Maisha Bora, we have scenes of violence and looting,
where just days after standing in line for 7 hours with people of all tribes who live around me, I dont feel safe leaving the house because I'm a certain tribe, in fact, fuck trying to be diplomatic, I dont feel safe in a place I've lived in since 1986 because I'm a Meru which means I'm a Kikuyu which today, means I'm trying to rig the election.
Politicians in both the government and the opposition have always tried to play the ethnic card during each election, but it never seemed to get out of the trouble spots.
The tribal clashes were always far away from us, way out there in Likoni, in Molo and this year in Mt Elgon.
But this time, guess what, it worked.
This time we're divided everywhere we are we're divided.
Last night I went to bed thinking Raila would win, and I was disappointed, but I was cool with it and I think many other people were. Today when the race got tighter we were put through a shameful spectacle at KICC and even worse scenes around the country that we saw on TV.
There were some islands of calm in the madness, like that cop on NTV, but today was the worst day of the year 2007. I blame the media, I blame politicians, I blame the ECK, I blame PNU, I blame ODM but most importantly, I blame myself,
for falling for all of this, for thinking about which tribe people I've known for years are, for only talking to some of my pals about the election, for the things I've said and the things I've thought about saying.
I was raised better than this so now I want to apologise and to pray for Kenya to get out of this mess. If you can please join me

Belief

My Philosophy lecturer once said,

Either there is a god who eternally rewards those who believe in him and eternally punishes those who dont or there is no such god.


If I dont believe in Him and he does exist, I shall be eternally punished.
If I dont believe in him and he doesn't exist, nothing Good or Bad will happen to me.

BUT

If I believe in him and he does exist, I shall be eternally rewarded.
If I believe in him and he doesn't exist then nothing good or bad will happen to me

It is clear that I have more to lose from not believing and being wrong than from believing and being wrong

Therefore it is wise to believe