I haven't been anywhere or done anything

I haven’t been anywhere

Or done anything.

I have worn a nice suit to a ball in Kigali

And taken a nap in a stranger’s hotel room at the Serena

I have kayaked across the creek below the Kilifi Bridge

And skydived onto the pristine Diani beach

To find a pretty girl holding out a beer

I have done yoga in Lamu, but only once

I spent the rest of the time laughing, and walking and riding in dhows

With the best company one can possibly have

I have been extremely hot in Yambio in South Sudan

And had beers and listened to Hugh Laurie

I have chatted up two friendly bar men at the World of Beer in Johannesburg

And gotten drunk with a powerful Kenyan governor in Sandton

I have walked by the incredibly windy streets below the Table Mountain in Cape Town

And had an intelligent conversation with a stripper at a gentleman’s club

I have gotten drunk at 8 a.m. in Istanbul

And watched two Russians start a drunken fight during a long layover in Dubai

I have stayed up all night drinking with an American girl called Caroline

I have partied at the Hotel Martinez and on a yacht moored in Cannes

I have had breakfast in Cannes, lunch in St. Tropez and dinner in Beziers

On the same day while driving along the dreamy South of France

Everyone in the South of France smokes and is in love

Except if you’re black in which case you smoke and sell umbrellas

On the street corner

I have taken train SNCF, first class, from Montpellier to Paris and wrote

I have stayed at a sex hotel (that used to be a sex museum) owned by a guy called Joe

I have seen the Eiffel tower, the Notre Dame and taken long walks by River Seine

I have had mussels at Au Pit Boulevard and attended a jazz concert at Le Duc des Lombards

I have been the only young person in a room full of retirees listening to renditions of Ella Fitzgerald

At the Sunset Sunside in Paris

I have had a good friend decorate his guest room with a maasai shuka and Tuborg

In his apartment in Oslo, and discovered shower beer

I have been to the Opera House in Oslo and had very chilly drinks at the Ice Bar

I have played a game of ‘mi chip are lustet met’ with a lovely family in a warm cabin  

On a snowy Norwegian mountain

I have sat up watching repeats of the Designated Survivor with a friend in his house in Bergen

I have taken a long morning walk and watched the sunrise by the Charles River in Cambridge

I have watched Skylar Gray and Zedd on stage on a drunken night In Boston

And enjoyed it more than I should have

I have taken the limo-liner from the Hilton in Boston to New York

I have been dazzled by the lights in Time Square and shopped in Soho

I have taken long walks at night by the Hudson River

And taken the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island

I have peed off the window of my hotel room onto the street in Zanzibar

For no apparent reason…and so has Muchi

I have flown loved ones to places where I was to spend time  

I have partied three days straight and raced boda bodas in Kampala

I have checked out of a hotel in Watamu barely an hour after checking in

Because of racism

I have camped by Lake Naivasha and spent too much time at Punda Milias

Because a lovely couple there were always welcoming

But I have come home and scratched all the places I have been on a map of the world

And realized that I haven’t been anywhere or done anything.

Why Your Job Application Is Trash And How To Improve It

Jobs are hard to come by in Kenya and word gets around quick about any vacant positions thanks to social media and the general workings of the internet.I recently put out an ad on my facebook page looking to hire someone for a TV show host position (the position has since been filled). Here is what my post read; 

This post was shared with thousands of people on text, whatsapp, facebook and twitter and as expected we got an avalanche of responses. Unfortunately, most of these people who applied stood no chance of getting the job; hell, most of them stood no chance of getting a response. 

Luckily a lot of this mistakes can be improved on and in effect increase your chances of not getting eliminated in the first round and hopefully getting the job.

What to do

Follow the instructions on the advert

Recommended Reading

Most people who advertise for job positions are busy. As such they will put details that describe the candidate they’re looking for. The rule of thumb is you should only apply if you meet at least three quarters of the listed requirements.

 Ensure you’re applying for the position advertised

The reason we advertised for a TV show host position is because we were actually looking for a TV show host. Had we been looking for a secretary, a cameraman, a HR manager or a chef, we would have said so. You wishing it, does not change the position. Save the person hiring and yourself time, email space and pain by only applying for the position advertised

Adhere to the medium of communication

 

When you do apply use the medium listed in the advert. This in most cases is a physical or email address. Send your application to the address. Don’t call, don’t text, don’t comment questions just send the bloody application to the said address.

Take time on your application

This was taught heavily in school and applies to life. Bosses care about how you communicate in real life as much as the teachers did in school. If it’s an email as my advert was, ensure your email contains the following;

A heading: This should briefly and clearly describe what you’re writing about e.g. “Application for Wedding Show Host Position”

Salutation: Say a good morning/good afternoon/Hello Miss, Mrs. or Miss So and so

Introduction and Reference: The first line should be an introduction of who you are (full names) and where you heard about the opening.

Corroboration: After the introduction, justify your application by stating ways in which you feel you meet the listed requirements in the advert. 

Attachments: Attach the requested documents and be sure to include a note in the email stating what you have attached. Try and attach everything that is requested. 

Contact Information: Make it easy for the person hiring to get in touch with you. An email address and phone number are sufficient

Sign off: Regards, followed by your name in full should be enough

Remember to double check your spellings and grammar

What NOT To Do

1. Do not forward an email that you have sent to someone else as your application

2. Do not simply attach your CV and expect whoever is receiving to start deciphering what it’s for

3. If a position asks for pictures, do not send trashy pictures, pictures of you on holiday, partying or lying in bed (these are all pictures we got)

   
   

4. Save the sad stories for your mother

   

    

Most people hiring are not looking to help you. They are looking for someone to competently fill a position they have and effectively get a task done.  Your sad stories about your sick mum or your pet that recently passed away are of no use to the application.

Nobody likes an entitled whiner, can you do the job or not?

In the words of one wise man…sisi tuna shida zetu, tuskize zako kwa nini?

5. Do not make excuses

 

There’s a very good TV show that if you find sometime you should watch, it’s called 'How To Get Away with Murder'. In one of the episodes, the lead character who is a law professor says to one of her student’s

 “The way you’re whining right now makes me believe you think I’m your mother, Ms. Pratt. Show up tomorrow, or drop out of the competition; it’s that simple.”

If half your application is excuses of why you don’t have this and that, don’t write it.

6. Don’t try to get the person hiring to do some of the work for you

I had a lot of people writing to me after my ad asking what a screen test is and whether I could do one for them. You know what these kind of people are called? Lazy! And in most cases they do not get the job.

7. Do Not Canvass

 

In business, canvassing is when you know the person hiring and you reach out to them in other ways other than the officially listed line of communication with the hope of swaying their choice in your favor. Common ways are flooding their private social media or phone with messages or asking mutual friends to call and throw in a good word. 

Now we leave in a pretty corrupt society and for some reason this has come to be almost acceptable. It is not. There are two reasons.

1.   Canvassing implies you do not trust you qualifications, skills and application to do the job of convincing the people hiring that you qualify...or worse still
2.  You do not trust the people hiring to make the correct judgment without your unsolicited call or incessant messages

Both will get you disqualified by managers or business owners who are serious about their jobs.

 Let the strength of your application speak for itself. 

Be Patient

 

Sorry to break this to you but the world does not revolve around you. You made a job application and everyone must stop what they are doing and immediately respond to your email or you will keep pestering them through all mediums known to man until they respond? You know what these kind of people are called? Entitled ass holes, and they usually don’t get hired. 

Be patient and await the response. 

If it doesn’t come; it’s clear you didn’t get the position.

It happens, life isn’t fair.

Don’t take it personally, dust yourself up, cry if you must, improve your application and try the next door.  

All the best in your job hunt. 

Making Ideas Happen

I was invited by SBC to give a talk at Strathmore University on the topic of  "Making Ideas Happen"
The following was my speech.

 

 "My name is Eugene Mbugua. I am the creator and executive producer of a television show called Young Rich. Young Rich airs every Tuesday at 8 p.m. on K24. We are currently in our sixth season and have featured over 65 relatively successful young entrepreneurs. 

You have probably heard the phrase “If it were easy, everybody would do it.”

Well having ideas is easy and as such everybody has them. Literally everybody you meet has an idea or two that they think could change the world. If you don’t believe me log onto social media right now and see.

People have ideas on how government should be run, how sports teams should be managed, how our security should be handled, how people should dress,  how this and that business should be run, how their lives can improve…the list is endless.

The same applies to business. I’m sure you listening to or reading this probably have a business idea or half a dozen. 

The sad truth however is that majority of those ideas and I even dare say over 95% of those ideas will never be implemented.

If there are so many ideas, why do so few people actualize theirs?

There is no specific formula to making ideas happen. 

The ways that one can implement their idea are as varied as the ideas themselves.  These ways often depend on the person’s situation, their environment and the idea itself.

While the ways are varied, there are a few characteristics and traits that one must possess to see their idea to fruition. Today I want to talk about two of those characteristics that I think are the very important.

The first of these characteristics I believe is passion.   This is a cliché line and I am sure you have heard it enough times. But the reason clichés are so common is because of the amount of truth they carry. 

Passion can be described as intense emotion, compelling enthusiasm or desire for something.

So you have an idea, how passionate are you about it? How badly do you want to see it done? How much of your time do you spend thinking about your idea?  How much of your time have you spent researching and talking about your idea?  How many of your friends have you told about your idea?

A lot of entrepreneurs I know myself included, and a lot of the ones who have been on Young Rich are not people you would want to spend a lot of your time with. They can be exhausting. They often sound like broken records. They constantly talk about their business, their plans, their achievements, their challenges and their new ideas. Over and over and over and over again. 

I believe my friends and the people who work and associate with me are very patient. When I have an idea, I go on and on about it. I’ll meet someone on Tuesday and excitedly tell them about my small idea and then I see this look of patience in their faces right before they remind me that I had told it to them yesterday and last week and the week before that.

So I say ‘oh’ and walk off to find someone else to excitedly tell about the idea. 

These entrepreneurs as they talk about their business or current project usually have this look of wander and sheer pleasure in their eyes. This is passion. If you lack it, chances of seeing your idea through are minimal to nil. 

You just don’t want it bad enough.

So you have your good idea, you’re supper passionate about it. You’ve pissed off your friends, colleagues and family from constantly talking about it; so then you go out to try and make your idea a reality. This is where the 2^nd trait comes in.

The second trait is so important that it has dozens of words that can be used to describe it; perseverance, tenacity, staying power, steadfastness, persistence, grit, spunk, endurance, pertinacity, immovability, constancy and indefatigability to mention just a few.

No matter how good your idea is or how passionate you are about it, when you set out to pursue it if you do not have the trait described by the words above, you will fail. 

Your idea is only splendid when it is in your head. The moment it leaves your mouth and hits the ears of other people, it will immediately encounter difficulty.  People will tell you it cannot work, they will show you someone who is doing it better, they will tell you it has never been done, or it has been overdone, they will tell you the time is not right and there is no market for it. They will say you do not have enough experience to pursue it and give you examples of others that have tried and failed.

These people, for the most part are not malicious, society, especially the one we live in is just set up to see the impossibility in things. If you lack perseverance, tenacity and endurance, your idea will die at this stage.

Suppose you give a deaf ear to the naysayers and get on with trying out your idea, you will then most certainly face a tornado of other challenges. You will lack capital, you will not meet the networks you need, you will not find people to support your dream, some will try to derail you, you will be discouraged, you will be defeated, you will lose friends and you will lose relationships.

And just when you think it’s over, some people in your team will quit on you, you will get tired, you will have sleepless nights, people will ignore your calls, customers will be scarce, and people will laugh at you. 

Legend has it that Walt Disney was turned down over 300 times before he got financing to create Disney World.

Stephen King who has sold over 350 million books had his first book rejected over 30 times.

John Grisham who has sold over 250 million books had his first book denied by publishers over 28 times until someone gave it a chance. 

Elvis Presley, one of the best-selling artists of all time was fired after his first performance and told, “You ain’t going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck.”

Steven Spielberg one of the biggest names in film today and worth over 2.7 billion dollars was severally denied entry into some of the film schools he wanted to get into.

 I started my first real company with a friend called Dexter, We wanted to teach kids in nice schools film and get paid for it. Most of the schools we went to; the guards looked us down and turned us away. 

We drew up a lot of ideas for TV shows and movies back in the day, we even spent our little money shooting pilots for some and since no one knew who the hell we were, we were unable to get them through any meaningful doors.

I went to USIU and while there, I run a small movie shop and game arcade. When I wasn’t in class or hustling elsewhere, I was a glorified shop keeper at the shop. It wasn’t the most glamorous thing to do and I’m sure many people laughed at it. 

The rejection, the being turned away and people’s harsh words and laughter are the cause of death for many ideas and start outs.

95% of people will quit at the onset of these challenges.

The 5% or less will use passion and persistence to propel themselves past them. 

Passion and persistence are what you need to make ideas happen.

Thank you."

 

You Should Start a Business While Still in University

I was invited to give a talk at Daystar University at a student event organized on 5/11/2014 by a group of very resourceful young ladies called '9 and Partners'.

 The following was my speech.

"Good afternoon, my name is Eugene Mbugua, I'm 23 years old and I'm the creator and executive producer of a TV show called Young Rich.

 

Do you know the following companies or products? 

• ·         Dell
• ·         Facebook
• ·         Time Magazine
• ·         Google
• ·         Yahoo
• ·         Word press
• ·         Microsoft
• ·         Fed Ex

Do you know what they all have in common other than being multibillion dollar businesses?

They were all started by University students; while still students. 

While we are not nearly as successful, I also started Young Rich while I was a student at USIU where I was studying journalism.

Young Rich is a television show that airs on K24 every Tuesday at 8 p.m. We tell the stories of young Kenyan entrepreneurs that have managed to build thriving businesses. The aim of the show is to inspire others to do the same. We are on our 6^th Season and have featured over 60 young Kenyan millionaires. 

We have been watched close to 2 million times online and by hundreds of thousands of people on TV every week.

About two years ago however, Young Rich was just an idea of a college kid living in Roysambu. 

From when I could remember, I wanted to be rich. When I finished high school I was introduced to film by a cousin and since then my wants changed from wanting to be rich to rich and a film maker.

I didn’t know how to do this so I went to university.

While in university I tried, in partnership with different friends, my hand in many business ventures.

For about three years my friend Deksta and I had a company that taught film in primary schools.

Teaching film at Makini School

My friend Muchi and I tried event organizing and arranged an event called Body Arts Festival where we got tattoo artists to pay us to come exhibit their works at USIU, the university we went to.

 We tried setting up a travel agency and got some friends to pay us to arrange for a trip to Naivasha. We were able to get together about ten people for the trip. On the way there however, I forgot the entire group’s stash of alcohol in the matatu and we figured if we couldn’t be trusted with a few bottles of cheap liquor we couldn’t be trusted with people’s trips. 

The Naivasha trip

We set up a game arcade outside USIU called the Game Court where we charged bored students by the minute to play video games. I believe the Game Court still runs to this day but by another owner.

The Game Court

While still at USIU, my friend Carlos got me a writing gig at The Nation so I made some money writing film reviews for  Saturday Nation.  

In between all these ventures or experiments as you may rightfully call them, I found time to attend some lectures. One of my favorite lecturers was a good man called Mr. James Mutua.  Mr. Mutua taught production classes with a lot of focus on film. The idea of young Rich was born in one of his lectures.

  

Although I can’t quite remember what the class was, I do remember that one day the topic drifted from production to why young people were unable to turn their skills into money making ventures.

The issue sparked quite a debate and was discussed at length as such issues usually are in class. Everyone tried to put in their two cents. Blaming so and so; faulting this and that system.

I don’t remember if I participated in this discussion or not but I remember that Mr. Mutua’s question rung in my head for days and weeks on end.

“Why were we as young people, unable to transform our skills into money?”

After a lot of thinking and looking around, I finally found the answer; or at least I think I did. 

My answer was that the reason we young people didn’t know how to transform our skills into money is because we didn’t know how to.

It sounds stupid and repetitive, I know, but don’t write me off quite yet.

I found that no one showed us how to make money. They made us attend classes, taught us skills and we proved that we had learned (or crammed) those lessons and skills by repeating them in exams.

They’d however not shown us how to turn the same skills and lessons into hard cash. And so my answer to Mr.Mutua’s question was that we young people did not know how to turn our skills into money because we did not know how to turn our skills into money.

At this point I’d like to make it clear that I wasn’t blaming the education system for this lack of know how.  This is because school teaches you but only real life examples can show you how to do it.

Schools teach, they don't show;life does.

I tried to find stories about young people who had made a fortune but found very few of them; stories I mean.

I decided I was going to try and show myself and other young people how they could turn their skills into money by telling them stories of those who had. To do so, I turned to the skill I had; film. 

 And so that way, from a stubborn class discussion, the idea of Young Rich was born. Over many months, the idea was molded and became a TV show.

The first episode of Young Rich aired on TV on 16^th of August 2013, a day before my friends and I graduated from USIU.

My mother, Muchi and myself on graduation day

University or College is the best place to start a business for a number of reasons.

Most successful businesses are born from solving problems and answering questions.  There are fewer places on earth that you will encounter as many problems (the theoretical kind) as you will in a college or a university.  Lecturers are always posing questions (which are ideally problems) whose answers could form the basis of good businesses.

There’s that issue that you and your friends discuss at the bar that you just can’t get to the bottom of; there’s a business opportunity.

Better still, there’s that question, that simple questions, you keep asking that no one can seem to answer; why something is done this way and not the other; there’s the biggest business opportunity.

While in university, my friends and I when we weren’t drinking would have these banters about many questions and issues that we didn’t have answers to. Lectures and classes were also full of issues and questions that we didn’t have answers to. A lot of those formed and still form many of my business ideas.

When you’re in University, you can get professional advice from experts for free. You’re surrounded everywhere by experts. Befriend that lecturer who teaches business and they’ll help you enhance you business plan for free. Befriend that law lecturer and they’ll help you draft contracts and give you legal advice for your business; for free.

 

You're surrounded by experts

Out here in the world it’s called consultancy and it costs a tone of money so take advantage of it now.

When you’re in university (unless you’re an over achiever or don’t know how to use a condom), you probably have no family and no real responsibilities to speak of. You can dedicate a lot of your time and effort to starting businesses. And if you fail; there will be no starving children or waiting land lord.

When you’re in college, you have all the networks you need to start you off on your small business.  When I was teaching film in primary schools, I used cameras borrowed from friends. When we arranged the trip to Naivasha, we got our friends to be our first customers. 

In University, you’re surrounded by people very similar to you. These people are a resource waiting to be exploited. Need a business partner? You can get one easy because a lot of your school mates are looking for their footing in life. If you’re looking for customers for your first product, they are right there.  Better still if you’re looking for cheap skilled labor for your first business, you’ll find them in your university because most students are desperately looking to spruce up their CV’s.

You're surrounded by people

When we set up the Game Court we relied on friends in the university to be our customers and spread the word about the place. When we were teaching film with Deksta, we borrowed cameras and other equipment from my friends in USIU. When I finally got the contract for Young Rich I called on my friends from University to give me capital and set us off.

Finally and most importantly when you’re in University, you can fail and it’s okay. As a matter of fact you’re expected to fail; the surprise is when you don’t. And failing is good because it means you’re learning.

On Young Rich, we have a question we ask all the subjects “what was your first money earning venture?”

Selling bread in high school was the definition of breaking bad

I have noted with a lot of interest that a lot of them answer that their first money earning venture was selling bread illegally in high school. I did too, only mine was legal and it was not bread it was ‘kangumus’ at the student run canteen where I was a shareholder in Upper Hill School. 

The best time to have started a business was to have sold bread in high school. The next best time is now; in University.

Thank you."

With the organizers of the event and Ocar of Business mind

 Twitter: @Kipnoey

Event pictures by Wilson Muchicho