A Keynote Address by Eric Kimani to WordAlive Publishers Retail Partners Seminar on 6th June 2008
I am honored to have been asked to come and speak to people who deal in knowledge- most of you here sell books and material for study.
I was asked to come and speak on how to succeed by exploiting our strengths and opportunities.
To set the mood for this talk I will share a story I read recently about a middle-aged woman who was hospitalized and had a near death experience and in the experience God told her she had another 43 years to live. Upon recovery she decided to have a facelift, liposuction, a tummy tuck and the whole works that made her look like a 25 year old. Unfortunately she was shortly killed in a vehicle accident as she crossed the street. She appeared before God upset and questioned Him “I thought you said I had 43 more years to live?” God replied “I did not recognize you”! God wants you to be who are. Each person here today is unique. When we seek to be like the next person we loose our identity.
I propose we start by defining Success.
How do you define success?
Many people talk about success, but few understand it. Everybody wants to be successful but few get to be successful. Most people want to be successful but few understand how to be successful. Most people want to be successful but few achieve the success. Many equate success with lots of money and high office. True success has evaded men for thousands of years as epitomized by the words of one of the most successful men in history- King Solomon who conceded that everything is meaningless.
So what is success? True success in my humble view is achieving your goals and in the process finding fulfillment. The measure of true success is looking back at your life at the age of 80 and saying a resounding “yes I lived a successful life”. If we accept that true success is fulfillment, then we will not have a problem accepting that there are very successful people living in Kibera and Mathare slums as there are in the up-market Runda and Muthaiga.
What about our strengths and opportunities?
Remember the biblical story of Moses- God did not ask Moses to go look for a complicated piece of equipment to use for his miracles- instead he asked him to use his herdsman staff and converted it to God’s staff of deliverance. Perhaps you are a teacher, manager, cook, etc and God is asking you to release your tools of trade or talent - that is what he needs not what your neighbor has!
Do you know your strengths? Do you believe in them?
We limit God by limiting our thinking and our aspirations. I firmly believe that we can be anything or achieve anything we want to. Mahatma Gandhi said “I claim to be no more than an average man with below average capabilities. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have if he or she would put the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith”. It is our perception that shapes our destiny. Remember the biblical story of the men who were sent out to go and survey Canaan and came back with a report that the Israelites were grasshoppers compared to the giant people they saw there! Caleb perceived them as beatable in the name of God. We run a family micro dairy processing which has survived an industry with a very high business mortality rate in the last 12 years and competing fiercely with the giants. We perceive ourselves as equal to the task! Seven years ago we set out to set up a college and I told some colleagues that I foresee us offering degree courses to Kenyans inside a decade- I see the dream being fulfilled much earlier!
We limit ourselves by wanting to be like others. You are who you are. I cannot begin to narrate to you the many friends I know who have lost it trying to be like others. I remember a friend who, wanting to keep up with his peers and seeing as if they had much head start decided to put his hand in the cookie jar and nearly ended in jail! It is okay to compete with other people but it is silly to want to be like others.
To find success we must remember that opportunity is described as a haughty goddess! The window of opportunity is small and closes fast. We must not procrastinate. We must learn to swim in deep waters and learn to sometimes swim upstream. Many of us give up too easily. When the business does not work for a year or two they give up in search of easier things. We need to teach ourselves perseverance and persistence. In the early 90’s when we decided to invest in milk processing, I recall walking the corridors of many banks and financial institutions looking for financing. I recall one bank manager who sneered at our proposal asking how we intended to compete with the then giant KCC. We persisted and finally found a willing financier. Like someone put it “determination and persistence makes you omnipotent”.
To find success you must adopt an attitude of abundance. Never say to anyone or yourself that “I cannot afford”. Always have a mentality of the ability to afford. I tell people that if you came to me for example and said that East Africa’s largest company, Safaricom is on sale and whether I would be like to buy it, my immediate answer would be yes! I will illustrate to you why.
Where I live I had a neighbor who owned the empty plot next to me. For many years I told him that I would like to buy the plot although I had absolutely no money to buy it! For the many years he assured me that should he decide to sell it he would consider me. I made him an offer every year although I knew I did not have that kind of money. Then he decided to give it to a selling agent who marked up his price by 1.5m shillings. At around that time my now immediate neighbor, a foreign diplomat, was interested in the property and asked me if he could come into my compound to see my house. He explained to me that he had been offered the plot for 7 million shillings and was considering buying it. I explained to him that I could sell it to him for 6 million if he agreed to pay me half million shillings commission. He agreed. I called my friend and made him a cash offer of 6 million. He accepted. This was a win-win situation for all- my friend got his 6 million instead of 5.5; the diplomat paid 6 million instead of 7 million and I got to keep half a million shillings!! The lesson here is that never say you cannot afford anything!!!
Each of us has the potential and opportunity for success. It is our attitude that determines who succeed and who fail. We need to cultivate an attitude of abundance as opposed to one of scarcity. An instructive story is told of two shoe salesmen sent to Africa to prospect the market for shoes. One came back with the report that there was no prospect because “the natives do not wear shoes”. The other returned with a report that there was a huge market for shoes because “the natives do not wear shoes”. One looked at the issue from an abundance perspective while the other looked it with scarcity. Your attitude will fuel or limit your success. How far you go with your business will largely be limited by your vision and abundance or scarcity view of life. Many of you here will tell you that the reason that they are not succeeding in their book retail business is because Kenya has a poor reading culture. This is precisely the reason you must succeed! The opportunity to build a reading culture is great. How many of you know that about 10 years ago yogurt was foreign as a milk product in Kenya and a preserve of only the more financially endowed? People said Kenyans would not drink it until Dalamere Dairies came and proved us wrong! Today every small town has its own home-grown yogurt! Break the barrier in your mind that Kenyans do not read. Make them read and create business- a good sales person is not one who waits for customers to come to him –it is one who convinces a new customer to buy his product! I am sure there are people here more successful than others in the same business and we will rationalize that it is the location, it is the family, or it is the money they have etc but take it from me the most important is the attitude!
How far can one go?
From what you have heard so far I am sure you can gather that how far you go depends on you- You must first believe it is possible; that you can succeed in your plans. I have just concluded a most rewarding career at Sameer Africa limited of “Yana” fame and one of my attractions to the group was to learn some of the reasons behind the phenomenal business success of the founder chairman Mr. Naushad Merali. One who rose from a petty trader and is now undoubtedly one of the top billionaires in Kenya? I sat in many meetings with him. Besides what else people may be said about him, I will tell you this- he has a complete mentality of abundance; he believes everything is possible; that everything is doable. I have watched a whole board of directors hesitate to do things he just feels should be done big time and in due course his optimism was proved right.
To find true success we must not try to cut corners- the shortest route is not necessarily the best. You do not need to cheat your way to win. When I was a younger man I once desired to buy a bicycle and while I was admiring bicycles at a big shop in the city, a gentleman whom I did not know but apparently knew me came over and told me that for what the shop was selling he could secure the same bicycle for me at less than half the price. I was foolishly elated and agreed with him – after all he seemed to know even many of my relatives and was an elder man. I parted with the money foolishly thinking I had struck a great deal and waited for him for hours on end before I realized I had been conned. I wanted to reap where I had not planted. We must understand that the law of the farm or the law of the harvest as it is otherwise referred, is sacrosanct and immutable. Long term success is for those who understand that for one to harvest in the farm one must go through the natural motions of preparing the land, planting, weeding and weeding again before one could hope for a harvest! If someone came to you with a ridiculous offer to supply you books at say half the price- think before you commit to buy. This would violate the law of the farm. My understanding this law has been a key cornerstone in shaping my life in the last decade. It teaches me to have the patience to invest long term; it teaches me to plant trees that take years to grow; it teaches me that this natural law is inviolable and those who dare to violate it pay dearly for it!
I have also discovered that people who make a lot of money are not necessarily initially after money but they succeed looking for solutions to problems of mankind. Bill Gates was looking for a solution! When I speak on entrepreneurship, I remind people that the only long term competitive advantage that a firm or individual may have is innovation. If you want to succeed better at being the best book sellers, you must distinguish yourself from the average book seller by providing your customer with superior solutions to their problems.
To find true success you must learn to compete fiercely but fairly without cutting the line. We must not cut corners. Bribery and scams may produce temporary advantage. Do not for example pay the city council askari to avoid the fine for say failure to have a valid business license – pay the license and if you do not have it pay the fine! Don’t pay the head teacher or some official to get that huge book order. Only last week I read that the government has lost five billion shillings to book scams. I have discovered in my short career that bribery and scams destroy the self-confidence of the giver and the recipient. People who get involved in these scams never have enough. They try to buy respect and recognition with money and die frustrated wondering why the world does not respect and acknowledge them! I often tell the story of our milk delivery trucks at Palmhouse Dairies and our experience with demand for bribes. For all the 12 years we have ferried milk into the city we have never paid a bribe! Initially we got into all manner of trouble with false charges and arraignment in court. This lasted at most for two years. Both the police and our drivers learnt a lesson that has served us well for the next decade! Years ago I knew a businessman who could afford to buy 10 brand new Mercedes Benz vehicles but struggled for years avoiding paying a few thousand shillings for duty and tax! At Palmhouse Dairies we bought milk on credit from some farmers in a place called Kagwe. It became uneconomical to do so due to among other things a very bad road network. We gave them notice and ensured we paid to the last cent at a time when many newly started processors far bigger than ourselves took off with millions of shillings belonging to small scale farmers as they went under!!! To this day some of those farmers travel many kilometers to bring us milk. If you want to succeed at what you do make your word one of honor!
To find true success at what we do it is important to understand the business you operate in. I am delighted for example that those of you here have chosen to attend this partnership training. Many people try to imitate others and do not invest the time needed to learn the business. I have seen multi-million businesses fail because of failure to understand the basics. I tell the story of how a few years ago I invested a sizeable amount of money in a business venture I knew very little about. In about eighteen months I had nearly lost 1.5 million shillings! I learnt a lesson I can share with you that it is foolish to invest your money in a business you do not understand. Attend training if you must. Study if you must. Many people ask me why I studied law and although I joke and tell them it is because I understood the logic behind the saying that “the law is made for the guidance of wise men and the strict adherence by fools” the truth is that I wanted to understand the law to help me in my work and business. I for example wrote the business plan for Palmhouse Dairies in 1995 backed my understanding of law and accountancy; I have incorporated many of our businesses with minimal legal help; I write our business proposals for funding! To succeed at what you do you need to hunger and pursue relevant knowledge.
To find true success you need to surround yourself with able people. You cannot succeed working alone. Many people have asked me how we have managed to run successful multi-million ventures while still employed and doing much more work in the community. I have always told them that those who employ me do so because they trust me to work for them. Why can’t I trust others to work for me in equal measure? We employ almost 100 people directly in the dairy, the school and the college! We trust them to run the business. If you want to succeed you must want others to succeed. Recently we sent one of our managers to India to shop for certain machinery. The idea behind this is to encourage him as well and motivate him to help us succeed! I learnt one of the secrets behind the success of many successful business people is that they gets others, often more intelligent than themselves to work for them!
To find true success we will need to identify the changing trends in our industry and ride the wave of change. We will need to anticipate the changes that will happen in publishing and the education system for us to ride the wave in our industry. Do not wait for change to change you because ordinarily it is painful and unforgiving. Long before the big dairy players in the market encompassed plastic packaging we foresaw that this was the direction that the market would take. We were among the first pioneers and today this is the dominant and growing packaging method in the world. What are the likely things to change in your industry? What are you doing to ride the wave? How are you incorporating technology into your business? Look for trends and changes and ride the wave.
Before I conclude this talk I would like to speak about one of our greatest pitfalls as Kenyan and particularly African business people who I consider have an unnecessary attachment to land. I sit on two financial institutions board and I can share this with you from experience. We make money say as booksellers and as soon as we see a little profit we buy a piece land to the south, another to the east and another to the west- all in the name of not keeping your eggs in one basket! Some will even invest a little in a matatu or two! This lack of focus is a disaster for particularly the African entrepreneur. I recently witnessed the case of a very successful woman who goes to a bank and borrows Ksh 10 million to expand her business. Decides to diversify and buy shares of Ksh 5 million and in effect the business expansion fails for lack of capital. The bank makes a forced sale of her shares at half the original value and takes her properties to recover the balance. It is not necessary to own pieces of land everywhere- their management is not worth the effort. By managing our three family businesses from the same proximity we are able to enjoy economies of scale and a little more focus on management. When we built a second house for rental next to our current house, we had a choice to go and put up a block of flats in the more profitable East of Nairobi but we considered that not only would it cost us in travels to supervise and manage, but overall we must have saved at least 20% of the total costs of construction due to the proximity. I appeal to us to have focus. Plough back your profits for a time to grow the business. Business needs nurturing. It takes time.
I would like to conclude this talk with a true story told to me recently by a friend narrated to him by someone who worked closely with one late African president. The late president was mentor to the narrator and had built his career through the years to rise to one of the top 5 people around him. As befalls all of us, the late president died in a hospital overseas and this gentleman in the company a select few went to pick up the body for return and burial to his country. When they got to the airport, they were delayed unnecessarily by the release order of a junior customs officer who had to certify the coffin. It was unimaginable that the body of the late president who wielded so much power could be held at the whim of a junior customs officer. After a long and irritating wait the customs officer released the coffin and inscribed the following words “Cargo without value, charge no customs duty”. The man who told this story gave his life to Jesus that day!
As we seek success, we must remain focused on the fact that we are but cargo without value and the only true value we can bequeath the world is to ensure we lead impactful and significant lives- to live in the hearts and minds of generations to come.
The secrets to doing this is the subject of another day but I must leave you with an underline that Character and Integrity remains the only proven key to enduring success.
I trust I have provoked our thoughts adequately on this subject.
Thank you and God bless you.
© Eric Kimani 2008
