A thread of Learnings, stories, failures & small wins over the last couple years. Of success, men and being 40 years

https://twitter.com/TimKipchumba/status/1476211646456545282

This election, think and pay attention to Kenya Kwanza & Azimio’s tax reform agenda.When tax rates go down, it stimulates economy, producing growth, jobs, lowering interest rates & rates of unemployment which in turn create more jobs & increase tax.. review of both manifestos At the heart of tax reform is

-simplification of tax regime ; making it easy for folks to comply and pay taxes
-lowering tax rates and overall tax load to reduce tax burden and allow workers and entrepreneurs to keep more of what they make
-and encouraging reinvestment

One of my biggest failure ; Closing down our pig farm (with friends) when it had become the largest farm in NorthRift. We are selling around 20 per month.

We had a contract with farmers choice. One day they just stopped coming. Brokers started to offer us 50% and some lessons Biggest lessons;

Raise enough working capital and diversify your markets. If we had raised working capital or Kes 1M in good time, managed to get credits for the feeds (deductible from the sale of pigs) and set up retail pork chops, we would have likely kept the farm

Never fly @PrecisionAirTz. There is nothing precise about their airline. I thought it was only today! Check in prior. Flight to leave at 6.30pm. They refuse to issue boarding passes and say flights leave at 10.30 No prior communication from @KenyaAirways (booking) & Precision Air 10.30pm becomes 11.30pm and then 00.30 and …it’s 8+ hours as I write this. Sadly passengers say it’s typical & common. Lies each hour with different attendants. Poor attendants! For once I feared my life on the plane!

This election;

Expansion of State Power, aside runaway corruption, debt ballooning, employment crisis, in the last 8 years, is perhaps more than anything else state inspired hopelessness amid rapid expansion of arbitrary power of the state & curtailment of individual freedom One thing is to steal the money. Another thing is to steel the hopes and the freedoms of the people you lead. Take the money but please at least inspire hope and find ways to allow for individuals freedoms and self determination to thrive.. but ….

2021 small list of things to be grateful for

-Couple family road trips; Northern Kenya trip with son’s
-254 Global + 1st pre-seed deal
-$7M+ new contracts at @QuestworksKenya (solar, construction)
-@mentorthon birthday surprise
-Friendships (offline) & on @Twitter -4X workout each week
-Awesome friends that came through
-International logistics & supply chain @sourcelogic
-Opening our doors at @PHostels for students at @StrathU @SBSKenya @RiaraUniversity @Kmtc_official
-Getting back to building alkiraresidences.com
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Of success before 40 years, financial independence and other myths.

There can be so much pressure to be successful especially because everyone seems to be successful. Let’s bust this myth before this year ends beginning with @TimKipchumba It’s almost everyone that has not yet made it by 40. It’s not just you alone. Most of succes takes time. We are accustomed to the 10,000 hour rule but for fast majority of folks, that success takes more than 10 years. We are what new science on success calls the late bloomers

Passive INCOME, Untold Project Stories & my progress with a small tiny studio project

Last year, following my own advice to generate a small passive target $, i raised $130K from - my Sacco, friends & savings, i decided to develop a property.

Here is what happened (thread) Owned the land from before. about 800 metres from Campus, good tarmac road and some retail shops. And determined that I could potentially develop studios - self bed roomed. Outperformed competition in value (better rooms, internet, 3 phase power etc). Projected completion in June

Record WORST way to ship Goods into Kenya is by @FedEx.

-Almost Always 15 late even for air shipments
-Most lousy partner locally in Kenya
-Phones that barely go through.
-Bad end to end service.

Why don’t they just stop this business? From anywhere (China, USA). Look at customer reviews

Anxiety antidote: Gratitude & Grinding
I’m the last person to be anxious. Yet I am often. Today I remember my late dad earned $30/per month when I was in high school & I won @WorldVision scholarship. My pocket money for 3 months at @StrathU was $30. I won, @EABL_PLC scholarship. I think progress measured in decades amounts to significant change- both in wealth, knowledge and character. What i see in modern life is that we forget, we socialize up and generally don’t remember where we have come from. Life changes a lot. It changes Better

Startup Goal:

Learn what to Build to meet customer needs

How:
-Generate ideas
-Build ideas into products.
-Turn products into engine of growth.

- @ericries Most important Questions when building a startup

- What do we BUILD that offers validated value?
-How do other customers get to know?

Solar Power, Case and Investment Thesis (for corporate/industrial companies) and all of us end user (thread). Inspired by Blackout tonight.

Here is how your electricity bill looks like. The main numbers to think about are the consumption units and the total monthly bill. How does this look over the year? There are months you spent significantly higher.
Pay attention to the unit cost- consolidated tax inclusive cost is around 21.93 Kes/unit to Kes 23.64. Or an average of , $22cents/unit

Understanding Venture Capital (VC), Who is involved & Some terms (Thread);
@bfeld makes the case that VC sort of begun with $70,000 AR&D investment in DEC. Ken Olson and Harlen Anderson received funding from Geroges Doriot. George Doriot sent out a letter expressing his interest in investing with proposed terms, today's termsheet. For $70,000, we would like 78% of the company, resulting in $90,000 post money valuation

When I turned 35: I gave a small speech that I now think it was almost resignatory speech (it there is a word like that) among a few friends. And it was centered on making impact and being able to create a decent garage for our kids! Startups and business is generally tough and almost like some sort of a lottery (market fit, team, f$unds, economy etc). Yet it’s the Safest bet especially for us here in Africa.

#TVETNaHELB : Enjoy Ksh.40,000 for your TVET fees from HELB

Now in its 3rd annual edition Mentorthon (Mentorship Marathon) is a national volunteering platform to give 42 hours annually to mentor high school students (Thread) #Mentorthon Our model combines mentors, brands, content, fun and technology to create a platform to inspire, encourage, and develop capacity in young people #Mentorthon