Young and Visionary

Entrepreneur | Pan-Africanist | clean water activist | Student | Dreamer

I have read a lot about Young entrepreneurs in different field, I have met and engaged many of them in different platforms. I myself believe I am an entrepreneur in fact I live to be an entrepreneur. But what is entrepreneurship? A friend of mine once said entrepreneurship is like a chronic disease those who have it will never get healed. Its like motherhood, it posses one and makes them a parent to ideas. all these are very philosophical and very true explanations as to what entrepreneurship is to different people. I have come to discover that entrepreneurship to me is very simple. Providing opportunities to those who have the ability but cannot do it for themselves.

As a young man in college I can say I was a bit lost, joining USIU-A with the aim of graduating with a bachelors degree in journalism. In high school I was great at languages, I was average in maths and for some strange reason loved chemistry. I moved from almost being expelled to being recognised in various positions in high school including  school captain. Leadership has always been a part of my life. One very interesting thing about entrepreneurship though is that we never really realize we had the bug early enough. I always found ways to make money even as early as primary school. I always had the language for trade. In High school, I often played the merchant at times. It all started with writing love letters on behalf of the Form Fours at Gladphil High School for a loaf of bread or some twenty shillings. The business grew into not just writing and the packaging of these letters but i also did the artwork on the cover winning many hearts for my elder brothers not knowing I was in business.

As I got older I ventured into other avenues as the lower classes now looked upto to me, I was their captain, the best debater in the school and looked the part too. I began bringing in merchandise such as the shoes I liked to basketball jerseys and even books. To cut the long story short you always know who you are and if you don't the people around you will show you.

As I read about Sangu Delle and his efforts to build a better Africa I was intrigued, captivated, informed, inspired and to some extent surprised. Here is a young man two years older than myself, who has done it all. He is 27 years old, three degrees from Harvard and a CEO of his own Non-Profit organization. What does he do right that most young people in Africa don't? look at it this way, he went to a primary school just like I did, he went to a secondary school just like you did and university just like most of us did. Now, I know my very good friend Pauline Muthoni (a Mandela Washington Fellow) might want to slap me for this but this guy simply has one thing that most of us lack. He has immense passion! Passion for whatever he does. His passion was seen all the way as a child when he wrote to the President of Harvard as king to join the institution at the age of five, he even got a response from Neil Rudenstine asking him to keep in touch.

Passion contrary to most peoples beliefs will drive you to achieve great things. A man is liberated when he finds his true passion, for with that he can change the world. I have struggled with finding my true path. I am passionate about film. I am passionate about telling the African story in ways no one has before. I am passionate about empowering the youth and helping them tap into this resource that is passion. The biggest lesson I have learnt from Sangu Delle is that people want jobs, people just really want to be economically empowered. The biggest realization for me however is that we have turned away from using what our people are passionate about and led them to things that they are worried about. We need to be driven by something bigger than us, dreams fuelled by hard work will see us build a bigger, better and free Africa.