Kazi kwa Vijana

When the Lion is satisfied the jungle becomes riddled with quiet calm and resolve, and such is evident in life when Men are well fed. At last, a taste of tranquility, serene environment with lots of Austerity.

In order to rule in the world of Business, Financial muscle is essential for survival in this Industry. Lots of financial health, strategic thinking in matters planning, synergy etc is key but most key is Staff members and the working environment.

Millennials…also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers. We are the young employees at our workplaces who make the work environment very interesting. Currently, you will not walk into any office and fail to get one because we entail about 50% of our workforce.

Let me first take you through the transformation of the career generations at the workplace.

A while back, our offices were flooded with the traditionalist workforce. These are the workers who believe in the old systematic way or basically archaic methods to get work done. These are persons who follow work processes to the latter and are not really concerned with new methods that make work simpler.

After the traditionalists came to the Baby Boomers. The only difference they had from their predecessors is that they are more of team players and are comfortable with verbal and personal interaction as a way of communication. More often than not, they follow what their leader says and are not known for challenging the status quo.

Succeeding the Baby Boomers is Generation X. With these individuals communication has taken a completely different course. We embraced technology, work independently and prefer to use voice and emails to convey their messages and ideas. They have been able to make the world a global village by use of new media.

As technology kept evolving, Generation X kept adopting new ways of working and communicating which gave rise to the Millennials. These are the current majority of workers in our offices. We are tech-savvy, have great ability to multi-task and their main motivation is to reach our own personal goals. We prefer an instant way of passing information; Instant messages, Instant emails, Instant video and voice calls, not forgetting the use of social media.

We must appreciate that it’s not easy working with or managing various generations at the workplace. Management are interested in results, profits, efficiency but these generations particularly the millennials feel that the workplace needs to accommodate them better.

How are we managing the workplace to make sure we accommodate these generations so that we increase efficiency?

The perception given to the Generation Y is that of lazy individuals who look for the easy way out and want ‘hand me downs’. The earlier generations might be skeptical about them but I feel if we give them a chance to lead and use their creativity, they will do well not only for themselves but for the workplace.

There is so much we can learn from this new breed of tech-savvy individuals. From my experience, sitting among them and giving us a chance to teach you new ways of getting work done actually improves the working relationship within the company. Take it from me, you can do with the energy, passion, and creativity that we have. You may be wiser but we may be more effective. We need one another and it’s vital to create a working environment that supports the growth and development of young people.

Remember, we need mentors and teachers who will guide us as we move up the corporate ladder. Be willing to teach but also be willing to learn.

While most companies do their best to embrace millennials, they too must do the same due diligence to their employers. Work cannot always be fun, games and social media. Learn to do more than what is required. Step out and show the world what drives you and how effective you can be. Leadership is earned over a period of time and is based on your actions. Listen, learn and value everyone around you.

I applaud those who have experienced the value of having a younger workforce and are doing their best to continue mentoring them and giving them opportunities.

Let’s be open to working together for the greater good of our society.

“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” –Vince Lombardi

Born to Herd

One evening around 40000 years ago, on the steppes of East Africa, a small group of our distant forefathers prepared to hunt down a woolly mammoth. There was, of course, enormous risk in pursuing such a large beast. But these hunters belonged to an band of about 40 men, women and children who had endured a long drought. A single mammoth could feed them all for many weeks, so the prize seemed well worth the risk.
The men spent that evening sharpening spears and building up their courage; the next day, they recited incantations passed down from their ancestors and dabbed their faces with colorful paint and blood portions. The knowledge that a few might be sacrificed on the tusks of the mammoth was largely forgotten in the excitement of preparation and the anticipation of reward.
Surprisingly, that scene from the mists of time tells us quite a bit about investor behavior today. Many human social and emotional drives emerged over millions of years of evolution. Our species’ earliest survival instincts, inherited from pre-human ancestors, drove them to hunt in packs – especially when they preyed on much bigger species – and to aggressively defend their band. Strong herd emotions helped prehistoric peoples summon the will and courage to take risks, to join such hunting parties, and to collectively protect their families and villages. To act individually would have been exceedingly irrational. To act as a group was vital to survival and thus highly rational. Each and every one of us is descended from those who took such joint risks and survived.
Modern cultures still incorporate some of these behavior patterns. The same herd instinct – those strong and emotional group impulses, the collective exuberance and excitement of the hunt or of battles against marauding predators or rival groups – has been passed to us. It often manifests itself in our investment decisions. And while at times investor herd behavior has been highly destructive, it has also produced many of capitalism’s great achievements.
Participants in economic bubbles join the crowd, even though, in the final analysis, individual losers often vastly outnumber individual winners. But just as the herd instinct allowed the prehistoric hunting party to accomplish something significant for the group – something that no individual could do on his own – so it has occasionally hastened major developments that benefit whole economies. The railway booms of the nineteenth century revolutionized transportation in America, Western Europe and Africa helping open new markets. The Internet frenzy created a revolutionary aid to communication and commerce.
Yes, such booms and busts often cause economic instability and massive investment losses, with no commensurate benefits for many. And yes, in recent years, they have spawned some outrageous betrayals of investor trust. But by fueling investments in high-risk, high-return ventures, they also have produced broad benefits for society that might not otherwise have occurred, or at least not as quickly.

This is a twist in the traditional view of economists, who typically define the individual’s behavior as irrational in the context of group behavior. In Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, economist Charles P. Kindleberger noted that “mob psychology or hysteria is well established as an occasional deviation from rational behavior”; in such situations, ”the action of each individual is rational – or would be – were it not for the fact that others are behaving in the same way”. The Economist Robert Shiller, in Irrational Exuberance, argued that herd like behavior, ”although individually rational, produces group behavior that is, in a well defined sense, irrational.” In neither view does it make much sense for individual investors to enthusiastically join the “irrational” pack. And yet investors frequently do, and they have done so repeatedly over the centuries. Something more instinctual than economic logic must be at play.
John Maynard Keynes recognized the primal origins of these “irrational” economic forces. “Our decisions to do something positive,” he wrote in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, “… can only be taken as the result of animal spirits – a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities.” These “animal spirits” developed over millions of years of evolution. They gave early man the courage to migrate out of a small patch in East Africa to populate unknown lands and the cohesion to survive enormous adversity – several Ice Ages, massive droughts, predatory beasts, and hostile neighbors. Today, the residual, instinctual legacy of these prehistoric peoples drives herd like, “irrational exuberant” investment decisions that, while often harming individual investors, may collectively benefit society. As descendants of those successful mammoth hunters, we do what over eons we have become hardwired to do.

HEAR ME OUT

It’s your second year or third year in business, things seem to be going well, you are beginning to make a good amount of profit and life seems to be going great. You look back at your business plan and model and it looks good. However, the market begins to change, everything has taken a plunge, inflation is the order of the day, elections are nearing and everyone seems to be hoarding money/resources. You begin to wonder if at all you are ready or had planned for this? Can your business sustain itself for the next six months; will you be able to retain all or most of your employees?

It is important to plan your business and business model in a way that will factor in all possibilities. You can play the ‘What if’ game or generally look for loopholes to help you get solutions before disaster strikes. Every time I am out to make serious money, I figure someone somewhere is playing the ‘what if’ card on me. They think something unexpected may happen resulting to failure.
More often than not, they are right. However, a real business man/woman is able to spot this long before and either plan for it or get his/her money out and into another investment.

Every business is a risk taken. It’s vital to consider where else you can find the extra income. I once wrote about not placing your eggs in one basket as a means to financial freedom. You need to take note of that and make it happen. Let’s face it; you are not a professional footballer or athlete whose personal Manager has made plans to secure their future even after their retirement. As a matter of fact, there are some who become bankrupt once their careers are over or once they retire because they never thought to add another string to their bow (another source of income).

Diversification is the name and rule of the game if you want to be wealthy. Strive to have more than once source of income, broaden your investments. That way, whatever happens in a ‘What if’ scenario, you will be secure.

Be wise, whether you are in business or employed. Do not wait to act once you get fired or retrenched; it might be too late. Sustain your livelihood by letting your money work for you.
When I went to Spain sometimes back, I was amused by a local quote concerning debt. I noted it down and vowed to share it with my readers someday, “debts are like children: the smaller they are the more noise they make,” So the quote goes.
But many people, having been raised to have a rigid worldview concerning debt, struggle to use the avenue to build a fortune. When Obama got into office, he said that he found the national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for him as he stepped into the Oval Office. That’s the reality of debt. Even super powers have debt. But how can you take advantage of debt and use it to build an empire?

The reality that a majority of us cannot buy a house, buy a car, or go back to school to advance our education using cash is real. Getting a loan to finance our dreams is not bad at all but the secret to being successful is being smart with your money. It actually does take money to make more money.

So what is the difference between good debt and bad debt?

Good debt in a layman’s term means debt that creates value. For example, if you borrow money to buy land, go to school or start a business then that is good debt.
Debt is good, as long as it brings high return on investment. In my history of investing, investing in stocks, bonds, land and other high return investments is a healthy habit. However, it is important to realize that sometimes even the best ideas do not work out.

It is all a risk. You could go back to school and still be jobless especially during economic downtime's. Those who have just completed their high school education, usually have high hopes that once they go for higher learning they will earn more. But sometimes they get out of school only to find no employment or low entry jobs that they may think are ‘beneath’ them.  The secret is very simple, just take risks that are well calculated and wait for a good return on your investment.

It is great and commendable if you get into debt in order to start your business. The country needs more entrepreneurs and banks needs to soften their lending rules for such outliers. But even the best ideas also run the risk of failure. However, that should not dampen your spirits. When I started out, I didn’t know that I would build the business empire I have. But focusing on the next step, with determination and working smart, I achieved my goals. My advice is that you research well on the demand for your goods or services.

Bad debt, on the other hand, is borrowing and investing on products or items that depreciate and also are a liability. Buying expensive clothes, being a ‘sponsor,’ buying and over indulging in alcoholic drinks sometimes to impress friends, regularly eating out as well as using credit cards can be classified as bad debt.
I hardly ever eat out but when I go out I make sure that it is of value to me. If for example I am going to meet a business partner or an investor then it is a worthy investment to eat out. Therefore, before you go into debt, make sure you take the time to really ask yourself why you are borrowing the money. Will it add value to you? Is it a proper investment with high returns?

Of late there is a craze… Everyone wants to buy a car. While it is convenient to get a car, it may not be a good idea to get into debt for a car. It’s the kind of investment that will bleed your pockets in terms of maintenance, fuel, etc. Once you are done paying the loan for it, the car’s depreciation will make you realize that an alternative investment would have been better.
Remember that what eventually sinks a ship or crashes a plane (preventable causes) are a series of mistakes done repeatedly over time.

Conclusion

In a world that is rapidly changing, the only people who will rule are those who will take risks. In fact, the biggest risk is not taking any risk at all. In a world that is shifting really fast, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. Rise up and try out your idea. Save up for your initial investment. Take a bank loan and dare to venture into the realms of the unknown where risks are numerous but the rewards are many.

Decide if you will continue to report to trade your valuable 8 hours per day or more to build someone else’s ambition or you will risk falling into debt, having a few sleepless nights but be free from the curse of poverty

Earn, Spend, Save OR Earn, Save, Spend?

Which of the above do you actually do?

I once read about the choice of being wealthy, being totally in your hands. And I must say that to this very day, I revere those words.

I’ve heard it said, pun intended, that the only way to make money is to either inherit it, to marry into it or to steal it. But in all fairness, the majority of us cannot fall under any of those categories.

I am not one who believes on getting rich but rather, generating wealth and building your asset base. However, majority of us have one problem, we want to live lifestyles that we cannot afford or sustain for that matter.

A friend of mine once asked how we define the middle class and I would say, ‘those who live beyond their means’. This is very true because you are 

  either driving an expensive car that is on loan, living in an apartment which you are struggling to pay rent or struggling somewhere to keep up with your lifestyle.

We want to become successful and get rich but we do not want to embrace the culture of saving. Now, how else do you want to get capital to start your own business or money to invest in the real estate and the stock market?

For a majority of us, our parents probably couldn’t afford to take us to expensive schools where we made connections with rich folk that have the resources to patronize our business. We went to normal folk schools and probably received substandard education and probably had an even harder time landing that first job.

But what are we doing to ensure that we fend for ourselves and those around us?

We all have what I call ‘wealth’ goals… from owning a home, having a certain make of a car, having a desired bank balance or simply meeting all your obligations, yet you still have money left to play with.

But how many of us dedicate their energy and time towards achieving these goals?

You need to identify your most valuable and profitable activities that will help you achieve these goals. Don’t just sit and borrow money, let your money work for you. Look for various avenues to invest and grow your cash.

Spend less, save more and accumulate wealth and money that you can freely spend in future.

Keeping your finances on your mind on a daily basis makes a huge difference because if you don’t focus on it, then your finances suffer. It has worked for me and I am sure it will work for you.

All the best!

X - TAFARE: Day1 Dear diary of a son of soil, no perso...

X - TAFARE: Day1

       Dear diary of a son of soil, no perso...: Day1        Dear diary of a son of soil, no person is what he thinks, he is! People aren't successful because they have money, they h...

Day1

       Dear diary of a son of soil, no person is what he thinks, he is!
People aren't successful because they have money, they have money because they are successful.
       For every positive Want, we have a negative Want which we WILL NOT Admit & which we are not aware exists.         You give your dominant attention to what you really want.
If you want friendship & love, ~ don't criticise, hate, be jealous, envy, revenge to dominate your attention, don't make your desire for privacy obvious.
You want happiness, don't go about depressed, angry, rejected, resentful & self-pitying.
       You will draw to yourself that which you positively think about..
Look out for day 2

Strength Within

Strength Within

A wise man once said "the wind and the ocean quarrel. He who pays the price is the sailor in the Boat."
 
I was trying to reflect on this proverb which got me to think ...

Visualize a straight walk-away which will take you directly to a desirable goal. you imagine yourself walking determinedly along that walk-away when suddenly it is blocked by an Obstacle of UNKNOWN substance, height, width, thickness. You then ASK yourself,

What should I do?

• Would you  attempt to force your way through the obstacle & continue toward your goal, fully realizing that you might never reach the other side of the obstacle?
• Would you attempt to climb over the obstacle & continue toward your goal, fully knowing that you might never reach the top?
• Would you attempt to walk around either side of the obstacle & continue toward your goal, fully realizing that the obstacle might be so wide you might never reach the end?
• Would you return to your starting point & resume life as usual?
• Would you stop at that point and begin on a new life?

 The kind of answer you come up with should be able to inform about the nature of person you are!!!
Before you rethink that decision allow me to INSPIRE you with a brief story..

A group of war refugees were planning to escape by traveling over very rough terrain. Since they had to walk, they pondered long over whether they take a Mother and her little girl. Finally they decided to try, with the strong men in the group carrying the child. For three weary days they trudged along and their path became more and more difficult.

Eventually, unable to keep up, an old man collapsed. He begged the group to go on without him and leave him to die, that they might save themselves.The group sadly started forward and then the Mother of the little girl took her child and returned to the Old man. She gently placed the little girl in the old man's arms and calmly said, "You can not quit now. It's your turn to carry my little girl".

Then she returned and followed the group of refugees. A little later they looked back and there was the old man walking determinedly with the little girl snuggled in his arms.

Sometimes the key of WILL POWER is handed us in our darkest hour.

A Wise