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
- · Time Magazine
- · 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.
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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 6th 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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 16th
of August 2013, a day before my friends and I graduated from USIU.
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| 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.
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| 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."
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| With the organizers of the event and Ocar of Business mind |
Twitter: @Kipnoey
Event pictures by Wilson Muchicho
Event pictures by Wilson Muchicho
