The past three days were intense. What started off as a studio recording on Friday ended up being a long discussion about race, spirituality and African History. This conversation made me realise just how much information is out there, how much we all need to study to enlighten ourselves about who we really are as Africans and what potential we really have.
Saturday, I caught up with some friends from high school, two phenomenal women shaking up the industries of technology and education. It started off with a basic discussion about what kind of programs can be run at our Alma mater and steadily navigated to a common thread these days, a general lack of critical and analytical thinking of government that is stifling actual progress in these two sectors of our economy.
I then spent the rest of the evening catching up on episodes of the Daily Show and watching more Trevor Noah interviews. I slept pretty late on Saturday because of this. Sunday I was researching and wrapping up a term paper on Cyberbullying that also set my brain on fire.
By Sunday evening around 6 pm, my mind had reached a saturation point, the amount of information I had received in just three days had my head in a swirl. I realise now, even as I write this blog post my mind is actually still processing all this information into manageable pieces. If it doesn’t I will get overwhelmed and stressed pretty quickly.
I want to summarise some of the most important lessons I have learnt in the last three days as a quick guide to keep myself going this week.
- Stay hungry, stay foolish – this phrase may be familiar to you if you watched Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford. But this came to me after watching Trevor Noah’s interview with NPR about a year after kicking off his stint at the Daily Show with Trevor Noah. The interview touched on various things. What I latched on to was the discussion on his work ethic – his ability to work all week and travel all weekend to discover and understand his new environment. His answer to this was, simply – not wanting to be poor. You may never have been poor, but there may be a time you were driven to achieve your dreams and established a powerful routine which has since floundered. And if you are like me, because of this, you are probably constantly at a point of fits and starts. Watching this video reminded me how to get back to that powerful success routine I once had that led me to prosper with my writing.
- Don’t just read, study
Most of the people I respect and admire have one thing in common; they have a very strong mastery of content. This isn’t limited to their area of expertise, it is expansive. I spent time with Hunter who is a gifted musician and sound engineer who had so much knowledge of history, earth sciences, theology and so many other things. He had spent some 4 years researching on one given topic. Like the famous quote from Mark Twain, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” To be a better citizen I believe, you need to be much more knowledgeable to be a much better and more proactive contributor to your society.
- Focus
The latter part of my Saturday conversation with my friends made me realise my personal goals for 2018 were bang on. Primarily because I decided to focus on no more than 3 clear areas and plans for the year. Instead of spending every other day seeking grants which one friend has done for almost a decade now, it is time to become the investor her business needs. This means, yes, going back to employment in a more global network to build her expertise and credibility and broaden her network and bank account. In the process in a few years, she will be able to build the business she needs to transform not just techpreneurship in Kenya but to build a tech business that thrives.
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