In case you missed it, Chris Kirubi was on Jeff Koinange Live on Wednesday 10 April 2014 1000hrs local time. The interview was lengthy but at no point boring. A lot was discussed, but the one thing that stuck to my mind is his response to the question on what he is worth. He said that what he is worth is the past and he is only concerned with what he can make in the future.
This got me thinking, imagine what world of good it would do everyone if we stopped concentrating on the past and instead focused on the present and the future.
Entrepreneurs go through cycles of good fortune and failures and since entrepreneurs are very human, the failures hit harder than the successes elevate. The mind replays those instances of failure and diminish the successes such that, at some point all that is left is the failure.
I
thought to myself, what could we all achieve if every moment we are awake was
spent in creating the future we want, both in the mind and in actions, rather
than reminiscing on our past failures and successes.
The
other thing that was very clear from the interview is the level of passion that
this man has for the Kenyan youth. And why would he not be passionate? Kenya
has over 15 million youth, of employable age, and of these, only about 1
million are formally employed. When politicians look at this group all they see
is votes and goons who can be called upon to cause mayhem and raise hell to
further their causes. When the entrepreneur, Chris Kirubi, looks at this group
he first of all sees his customers (every time you use BIC, you are his
customer). For his customers to afford BIC, MIADI, and BEACONS (do not for a
moment think that these are the only brands he controls) they need money in
their pockets. In any case no one will buy premium chocolates like Beacons if
their stomachs are not full in the first place. It is no wonder then that one
of his answers was that he needs Kenyans to be rich, for him to make more
billions.
The
second thing that the entrepreneur sees is the untapped energy that the youth hold.
China built its economy by tapping into its vast labor reserves. We are in no
way close to the level of labor in China, but we still have 14 million
unemployed youth and until all these individuals are engaged in ‘legal’ income
generating activities, the Kenyan economy cannot realize its full potential.
Love
him or hate him, his challenge to all who hold contrary opinions is very
simple: “How many people have you employed?”
Click to view the interview
