1. Sometimes I wonder if I am the problem or if I just see things that pple don't see. In 2006, 3 of us wanted to start a Medical Lab in Harare. We had no cent. So I walked into Kingdom Bank and left a proposal addressed to @nigelchanakira. A few weeks later we were called back..
2. We sat in that boardroom with the Kingdom team going thru the numbers. I think we needed $300K. Then they asked if we had collateral. What collateral futhi? "Immovable property like a house" 😳 We had nothing. That was the only time I thought of grabbing land & title deeds
3. I looked around for any venture capital - nothing existed. I looked for angel investors. Most of the people I spoke to wanted something with quick buck like smuggling cigarettes to South Africa etc Eventually I left the for Botswana
4. I met many Zimbabweans with brilliant ideas but no capital. So I decided to bring Zimbabweans together & try to create a pooled fund for collective investment. I called a meeting in Gaborone Game Park, pple came. Generally Zimbabweans respect big stomachs more than brains 🤣
5. I was young & idealistic but more driven. Thought everyone understood the problem we wanted to solve. Unfortunately we got bogged down for months on nitty-gritties plus just the unadvanced nature of Botswana's system they had no provision for the animal we were forming
6. From there I learnt that not every human being is born to prosper. I also learnt that the NOW is usually more important than the desires of the future. The 50 pple we had cld all afford to set aside P1000 every month. By my calc in 5 yrs at 3% interest we wld have raised P3m
7. The goal was to finance small businesses within & without our group. Unfortunately the Ujamaa approach to finance does not play well with our human desire for dominance. Nothing got done. When I left for USA, my goal was to start a Delaware Statutory Trust
8. I actually organized my community in Ohio to start savings & investment clubs with the hope that literacy and enthusiasm wld grow. Again the NOW is always more important. Folks ended up borrowing all their saved money.
9. In all this, the people I left in Botswana have not progressed much. The pple in my community are still struggling for capital. I still see ideas dying. I get so many business plans but I can't be of much help. This has forced me to introspect, maybe there is no solution 😭
