The road to success

July 16, 2012 in Business, My opinion, Self, Work, Zambia | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

I won’t lie, I like money. I dream of the day when I have enough money in my bank account to take care of myself, my family, and my most important charities. But I also like to know I earned my money. Only on my lazy, depressing days do I dream of winning the lottery!

I guess there is something about working hard and by using talent and knowledge to make money that makes me feel like a success. Anything other than that, well, maybe it wouldn’t be as rewarding. But of course this path is the hard way to climb the path to success. It’s littered with frustration, disappointment, and stress along the way. And there’s no roadmap that tells you how to reach your destination, no short-cut, no show way you’re going to get there. Yet when we begin the path we look forward to getting to the end-point, without knowing how or when we’ll get there.

Ok that isn’t entirely true. There is a roadmap – it’s called strategy. The problem is sometimes we don’t know how to develop that roadmap (strategy) or worse still, how to follow it.

The challenge I find in my pursuit for success and financial rewards (not necessarily the same things), is that I seek to do things that I enjoy, things that I take joy in learning about and getting better at. So sometimes I forget that I’m trying to make money too! But that’s me, I can’t imagine being in finance because I can make a lot of money that way – I’d die of boredom, quite literally.

The downside is that you can get too bogged down doing the stuff that excites you, that you’re passionate about and not make any money from it. So the challenge is to find the balance. Which brings me back to strategy.

To set out on your path, you have to know where you’re going. What is your end-goal? How will you know you’ve got there if you don’t know what it will look like, what it will feel like? Believe me this is easier said than done. Especially if you’re setting out on this course with other people. You all need to be on the same page about where you’re going, because when those detours, bumps and roadblocks come, you need to know how to stay on course and keep ‘the end in mind’.

Among my many challenges, this has been one that continues to crop up. Finding a direction that everyone agrees on. And then back to what will it look like, what will it feel like?

What I’ve realised is that when you’re in management you need to take a step back from the day to day operations, even when it is chaos on the floor, to go back to focussing on the roadmap – keeping the vision always in sight.

So while I’m back in the UK to ship the rest of my stuff (yikes, i’ve really moved for good!), I’m doing the step back thing to look at the bigger picture. The plan is to get back on track once I can figure out what success means, where the end-goal is, and sell it back to the rest of the team.

But first I’m going to watch some day time TV and eat some real junk food – aah the joys of fast food. :)

Reading this blog is good insight that failure can be enroute to success – don’t be scared of it!

Humbled by Slim

July 4, 2012 in HIV/AIDS, Life, young people, Zambia | Tags: , , , , , | 1 comment

As you probably know by now – though maybe I haven’t mentioned this before – as much as I love producing TV programming, I actually hate being on set – it all takes so long, setting up, testing sound, sorting out lights, re-takes blah blah blah.  And shooting with 5Ds means you can only shoot for 12 minutes before you reset … none of this is good for a person like me who needs to be constantly doing something (i only sit still when watching tv).  So I’ve been less than thrilled that because of the two major projects we’re working on, I had to step in for Freddy, my brother and creative director, on the Brothers for Life Zambia shoot.

 

Paul Da Prince, Slim, Kangwa Chileshe, Cactus Agony

We’re shooting the mid-campaign review documentary that tells the story of the issues the campaign addresses from the perspective of every day Zambians living these issues.  So I’ve sat through an interview with Owas Mwape – a local celebrity who gained notoriety for his domestic violence saga with his wife, that the BBC made public soon after the Chris Brown-RiRi bust up.  I went with the crew when Cactus interviewed Chibamba Kanyama, now DG of ZNBC and author and motivational speaker, who is passionate about the abuse of alcohol and raising young people, especially men, as productive being ins society.  Then I sat in on the breakfast with the brothers – Cactus Agony, Paul Da Prince, Kangwa Chileshe and Chibamba Kanyama as they met as a group about 11 months after they were brought together as the inaugural ambassadors.  It was all well and good, and somewhat interesting, but I would have preferred to be at my desk responding to emails, looking at the scripts for the drama series were working, looking at the style profiles for the cast and even editing the blogs for the Safe Love site.

 

Today when I was asked if I’d go to the Slim interview, I said no.  I had a thousand other things to do.  But I had to approve the questions before they could go.  Reading the questions and seeing that Slim was going to talk about prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, I realised it could get a bit hairy and it was such a sensitive topic that I reluctantly said I’d go.

By far this was the most powerful and emotionally charged interview I’d done or seen.  To be honest, I’ve been doing this HIV work for so long, it wouldn’t be untrue to say that I’m a little jaded.  It all seemed the same type of story was told, and there were only two:  the poor person living with HIV in the third world (sorry developing country), who has overcome so much – by being HIV+, or the person living with hiv who has no story to their name other than they live with HIV.  Ok I’m being cynical, I do think that a lot of the stuff you see about people living with HIV has no depth to it, it’s almost like their whole life revolves around being HIV+, we de-humanise them in a way.  But Slim, Slim was different.

If you don’t know Slim, you might have seen him on MTV’s Me, Myself and HIV – a programme I conceived with my colleague at the Staying Alive campaign, though it didn’t turn out the way I’d envisioned, it did introduce Slim to the world.  And was the first time Slim came out as being HIV+, six years after he’d found out he was positive.  As much as I appreciate the work that documentary did, it didn’t do justice to Slim as a person – which sometimes the visual product can do, when you can’t interact or engage with the subject.  But I digress, the show told the story of a young man who was born HIV+, that would be Slim.  It also told the story of Slim, the music producer and singer.  The one correction I’d add to that story was Slim was not an upcoming producer, but actually was the producer behind Slap Dee’s first big hit – Gold digger.  I thought that was important to mention, but then again, I’m Zambian, so I know the value of that.  

Anyway, I digress!  The reason we did the interview was to go more in-depth into the story of Slim being a child living with HIV, I obviously can’t give too much detail on the interview – so you can watch the show! – but Slim did bring across the pain of being so young – 15 to be exact – and diagnosed with HIV.  And knowing the kind of stigma that was still around then, the loneliness of a secret of that magnitude.  It touched me so deep, yes me, the jaded one.  I guess because he made all of us in the room feel that emotion – I swear you could hear a pin drop in that moment (and I was with a bunch of guys too!).  

Again because of my years of doing this, and realising how easy it is to exploit a person living with HIV, to get that story that you want, the ‘human angle’ etc, how we can make the virus be more than the person, I asked him if it bothered him that this is the story people keep asking him about, about his HIV status and how it is to live with the virus.  ’No’, he said.  ’I believe this happened to me for a reason, and I know that by sharing my story I’m giving hope and encouragement to someone, someone who might be in that dark, lonely place that I once was in.’  Ok, it might not have been quite as profound as I re-phrased it, but it was his ability to think about the good he could be doing by sharing his story that touched me.

I don’t always think that people know the power their life stories – and we all have them – can do for other people, and when someone as young (he’s 23) could be so honest and so visionary about the impact they could have on someone else, well that’s just admirable.  For a lot of people it’s scary to open up and talk about something so life-changing like that, scary, embarrassing, humiliating, you name it – because most people put themselves first, instead of looking at the value in their story and it’s impact on others. Slim comes from a humble background, he’s still pushing his music career, but he’s taking his role as an HIV+ activist seriously to help other people, and simply by using his voice.  That’s powerful too.  You’re not going to see Slim starting an NGO, or giving up his music career to focus on telling his story, but you ask him about his life and he’ll tell you.  And that’s the other thing that I admire about him.  He’s doing what he loves the most – music – but he’s also willing to do his part in building our community by spreading the word about HIV.

My words can’t do justice to how I felt today, and what Slim sparked in me – which I can’t talk about yet – and I hope that we captured it on tape for you to see in the interview, but one thing is for sure, Paul Slim Banda is one of those people God sent to earth to inspire us.  (Now you know how moved I was because I’m not usually that corny or sappy!)

When the show is out, I’ll let you know!

Content: Local television

June 17, 2012 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

My passion is tv, it’s always been my passion, from when I was 12 and decided I was going to be the next Steven Spielberg. I then had a stint directing my own series of short form (no longer then 60 seconds each), now I want to be the next Jerry Bruckheimer! So it is understandable why I’m passionate about content.

When I was in London I had the opportunity to work with talented tv production people, but I hardly worked on the nitty gritty of film production. Being back in Zambia, I realize there are loads of people who are interested in working in tv production (and other creative industries actually), but the challenge is that most people don’t necessarily have the skill-set and are kinda happy with their sub-standard work anyway.

My passion and appreciation of quality means that I can’t be happy with sub-standard work. And this belief that good enough for Zambia is good enough quality doesn’t bode well with me. Unfortunately, the reality is that quality costs money. And even more unfortunate is that there are very few people, companies, organizations etc, willing to pay the price for quality – in Zambia that is.

The consumer doesn’t help either. As the viewing public we don’t demand better. We also accept that this is as good as we can get in Zambia. Come to think about it, it’s pretty much how we live our lives in Zambia, thinking this is it, not expecting or hoping for better.

But that’s not me. I truly am of the ‘impossible is nothing’ way of living. It doesn’t help that I don’t know how it can be done, if I have to rely on the current production people. It does start with me refusing to believe that’s good enough, and making sure they know it, making sure they know that to work with me they have to bring their best, and even that’s not good enough.

There are many stories in Zambia, and if we don’t tell them ourselves, who will? Once we have the stories to tell, then we need to focus on presentation. Presentation of content is king.

The meaning of life, or is it death?

June 10, 2012 in Life, My opinion, Self | Tags: , , , | 1 comment

Last week we buried my uncle (for the purpose of our Zambian tradition where everyone is an uncle, I mean my mother’s brother). At the same time, my sister buried her husband’s sister. Yesterday, we found out a close family friend’s brother had died.

Death, they say, is a natural progression of life. But we like to think that death comes at the end, when you’ve lived your life, when you’ve enjoyed your life. Looking at the people I know who have died in the last week, that isn’t always the case.

When people die, we feel sad, we mourn their life, we ask God why He had to take them away, we try to accept that it was their time and we need to move on with our lives. We feel for those who have lost a life partner – a husband or a wife, those who have lost a child, a parent, a sibling, shake our head, say a prayer, and move on with our life. Unless it’s an immediate loved one, we easily move on with our lives, and hope for the best for those who have been left behind.

From my experience, those who have been left behind, focus on the death, sometimes unable to move on, hoping to find an answer as to why the person died. In my own life, I’ve lost (why do we say that, like they’ve been misplaced?) two brothers, now two uncles, a nephew, a best friend, and numerous aquaintance. My reaction to their deaths is based on my relationship with them. One brother, I felt like I lost a part of me, but I was also riddled with guilt – had I done enough for him while he was alive, sadly I always knew the answer was no. And even in his death, I’m failing to honor his memory properly – but that’s another blog.

Now, as I’m older, I look at death in a different way, a reminder to live life – every day. With my uncle’s passing, which was truly tragic, because it didn’t have to be, he died alone – none of us as his family there, all getting on with our lives, always thinking there was tomorrow to see him, tomorrow to check on him, tomorrow to pay him attention, tomorrow for anything he might need. Yet we all forgot the fundamental words – that the present, is a gift.

We do this all the time, take the present for granted. Always thinking about tomorrow. There are definitely times when you need to think about tomorrow, if it’s about finances, or education, or a career, but when it comes to relationships, tomorrow is definitely not something we should worry about. Relationships are very much in the present, and that’s all relationships you value be it a boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife, parent, or child, or sibling. Those you can’t get back tomorrow.

Even as I write this, I struggle questioning my own relationship, looking at the flaws and wondering if I can deal with them, as opposed to looking at the positives and recognising the fact that this might not be the ideal relationship I always dreamt of, but that it is the perfect relationship I’ve been in my whole life. Should I keep looking at tomorrow for the answer or enjoy the present I have in my life today?

We always question the meaning of life, asking what our purpose on life is, but we can go through all of life only to die without knowing our purpose. Perhaps our purpose is in death, to remind those who live to truly live life and know what we value in life before we die and are returned to the earth.

Time Is of The Essence. No it isn’t, TIA baby

May 22, 2012 in Business, Life, Lifestyle, My opinion, Zambia | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The reality of working and living in Zambia is finally hitting home – big time. When I first moved back, just over a year ago, I loved the fact that I had a work-life balance – well, that I had a life altogether!

But now I realise that I might have more of a life and less of a career. Welcome to Africa they say, or my personal favourite TIA (This Is Africa). Time is anything but of the essence. You can spend days on end waiting for feedback, approvals, quotes, suppliers showing you their work, and anything else you need to actually make anything happen.

We signed a contract with a new client in January, which was supposed to end at the end of July, out of the four deliveries, we have just delivered on one thing, while we wait in vain for feedback to allow us to move forward – the downside of being consultants or an agency, you can’t move ahead without an approval to do so!

This waiting game means that you lose the momentum, and in some cases the drive to do it. My boyfriend laughed at my two hour gym sessions – saying it would be hard for me to find the time to do it during the week – but the joke’s on him. I can take 2 hours off – say lunch time to be on the safe side (as if), and still come back to find myself still waiting.

Yesterday someone remarked that working in Zambia is like being on holiday. Yes that it is. But the frustrating thing is that once they give their approval, they expect the product/service to be delivered the next day! Really?

And this is why I think it is important to run a business with products or services you control – because you’ll have the time to!

But seriously if this behaviour of slow moving work-place environments continues is it no wonder we’re lagging behind in development (when we used to be ahead)? Or that employees are unmotivated to function productively?

I am glad I can go spend hours in the gym, or wander the mall at lunch time, or not work on weekends etc but you know what they say about an idle mind (and idle hands!). Plus it breeds frustration on my part. I’m not used to not doing stuff, not using my brain, not… functioning. But now that I’m getting used to this sad reality, I’m working on using the time constructively – not just seeing what’s going on online (besides I keep finding stuff on Kim-Ye, which is just boring), or catching up on twitter and facebook, I’m using it as an opportunity to develop my own stuff – stuff that is time-dependent only on me.

No point in sitting around complaining is it? The world is our oyster and only we can determine our future and our legacy – go out and take it!

May 18, 2012 in For fun, Lifestyle, My opinion, Zambia | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

My saturday mornings pretty much start the same – the overwhelming dread of the possibility of the road traffic police at the checkpoint on the Great East Road.

At some point or another most people in Zambia dread these encounters with the road traffic police and the checkpoints. The problem isn’t only that there are too many unlicensed drivers (or drivers who lost their licences or licences got expired and never been renewed – my excuse! really it is…), but because of years of the police abusing their power to corruptly get money from motorists, people have forgotten that they are legally in the wrong too!

It makes me laugh when I hear people complain about the police harassing them, because they haven’t gotten round to getting their driver’s licence, let alone taken the test! Rarely do they stop to remember that technically, the police are right to stop and fine them. Yet it is seen as another way for the police to harass citizens and use it as an opportunity to extort money from them. Sadly, more often than not this is true.

The other day my sister and I were having a conversation about this – after a friend’s usual run in with the cops (obviously not me!) – after this friend told them that she didn’t have the money to pay the fine (she finally admitted that she didn’t have a Zambian licence – she had a European one, which they didn’t even ask to see), and they threatened to take her to the police station where the car was to be impounded and she was to be thrown in jail until someone could pay the bond. Knowing she really didn’t have cash on her and wanting to do the right thing, she asked which station would she be taken to so she could call someone to meet her at the police station with the bond money. The police officer instead told her to return later that day to the same checkpoint to pay the fine.

Sounds fishy? You could say perhaps it wasn’t worth the police officers time or paperwork to take this lady to the police station, but if procedure is procedure it should be followed, regardless. Plus does it make sense to fine an unlicensed driver or even a driver who fails to produce their driver’s license and then let them go on their merry way? Is this perhaps why Zambia has such a high level of road traffic accidents? All these unlicensed drivers who don’t know the road traffic rules driving around, could be quite dangerous.

With police officers using their position of authority to intimidate and therefore extortion people, it’s obviously why residents have little respect for the law, and see the police officers more as a nuisance than respect them for the work they have to do. Changing the head of the police department will not change this problem – does he know what’s going on at every checkpoint in the country?

Though educating people on the law would help. Do you pay your fine at the checkpoint or is it to be paid at a police station?

How do we make it easier for people to get driving licenses so that everyone who drives can get one – seriously full medicals are long! Making legal documents easier to get would help for sure i.e. in the UK you fill in a form with the necessary paperwork and mail it off, within 7 days or so you get your license – viola! And then understanding the road traffic laws would be the next obvious step.

Proper procedures, which don’t really inconvenience people would help reduce corruption I’m sure, and then police officers can focus on real and necessary duties than just harassing ordinary citizens! But knowing that you can just bribe any police officer who stops you, doesn’t really inspire anyone to become compliant or to respect the law… Just saying…

Lusaka Living: The Law

May 18, 2012 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

My saturday mornings pretty much start the same – the overwhelming dread of the possibility of the road traffic police at the checkpoint on the Great East Road.

At some point or another most people in Zambia dread these encounters with the road traffic police and the checkpoints. The problem isn’t only that there are too many unlicensed drivers (or drivers who lost their licences or licences got expired and never been renewed – my excuse! really it is…), but because of years of the police abusing their power to corruptly get money from motorists, people have forgotten that they are legally in the wrong too!

It makes me laugh when I hear people complain about the police harassing them, because they haven’t gotten round to getting their driver’s licence, let alone taken the test! Rarely do they stop to remember that technically, the police are right to stop and fine them. Yet it is seen as another way for the police to harass citizens and use it as an opportunity to extort money from them. Sadly, more often than not this is true.

The other day my sister and I were having a conversation about this – after a friend’s usual run in with the cops (obviously not me!) – after this friend told them that she didn’t have the money to pay the fine (she finally admitted that she didn’t have a Zambian licence – she had a European one, which they didn’t even ask to see), and they threatened to take her to the police station where the car was to be impounded and she was to be thrown in jail until someone could pay the bond. Knowing she really didn’t have cash on her and wanting to do the right thing, she asked which station would she be taken to so she could call someone to meet her at the police station with the bond money. The police officer instead told her to return later that day to the same checkpoint to pay the fine.

Sounds fishy? You could say perhaps it wasn’t worth the police officers time or paperwork to take this lady to the police station, but if procedure is procedure it should be followed, regardless. Plus does it make sense to fine an unlicensed driver or even a driver who fails to produce their driver’s license and then let them go on their merry way? Is this perhaps why Zambia has such a high level of road traffic accidents? All these unlicensed drivers who don’t know the road traffic rules driving around, could be quite dangerous.

With police officers using their position of authority to intimidate and therefore extortion people, it’s obviously why residents have little respect for the law, and see the police officers more as a nuisance than respect them for the work they have to do. Changing the head of the police department will not change this problem – does he know what’s going on at every checkpoint in the country?

Though educating people on the law would help. Do you pay your fine at the checkpoint or is it to be paid at a police station?

How do we make it easier for people to get driving licenses so that everyone who drives can get one – seriously full medicals are long! Making legal documents easier to get would help for sure i.e. in the UK you fill in a form with the necessary paperwork and mail it off, within 7 days or so you get your license – viola! And then understanding the road traffic laws would be the next obvious step.

Proper procedures, which don’t really inconvenience people would help reduce corruption I’m sure, and then police officers can focus on real and necessary duties than just harassing ordinary citizens! But knowing that you can just bribe any police officer who stops you, doesn’t really inspire anyone to become compliant or to respect the law… Just saying…

Special Needs, a challenge for Zambia

May 16, 2012 in Life, Zambia | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

My younger brother was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome when he was born – 22 years ago. At the time we were living in London and he was able to access services to help improve his quality of life.

When he was three years old we moved back to Zambia, and that was pretty much the end of services to improve his life.

There was a school at a local hospital which was for kids with special needs, but whether it was understaffed or not properly skilled workers, Kwangu (my young brother) seemed miserable there. Though he couldn’t (and still doesn’t) speak, there were way we could tell that he was not thrilled to go to that school.

It was also a challenge for my mum, as it was soon clear that he couldn’t be left at the school alone. This meant that she had to spend her day there, making it difficult for her to have a job – at the time we were all kids, so was necessary for my mum to work so both my parents could provide for us five kids that were home at the time.

Sooner rather than later Kwangu left that school. My mum and other concerned parents formed the Parent’s Partnership for Children with Special Needs (PPCSN) in an attempt to provide the necessary services that were missing for their children, all with varying special needs.

It was admiral, but really it was a bunch of (mainly) women, older women, who had no real clue of what to do. They decided they wanted a school that could properly serve the needs of their kids and that of the community, especially as reports would suggest, the policy to provide education to children with special needs was only reaching approximately 10% of the kids that needed it.

PPCSN actually did research, funded by Save The Children Sweden, that was quite astounding, regarding the numbers of kids that had a mental disability. At the time (circa 2003), they found 1,334 children in the nine wards of Lusaka district that had a disability and 96.4% of them received no assistance from government or any other social institution. Slightly over 50% of those eligible to go to school were not in any school. Further to that, it was found that within their own communities:

87% had no access to special education
89% had no access to skills training
63% had no access to rehabilitation
69% had no access to assessment
69% had no access to special care
70% had no access to recreation
46% had no access to health care

That may have been nine years ago, but I doubt very much that a lot of that has changed. If anything there might be more kids living with special needs.

However, my mother and her group, despite those statistics and virtually no source of funding soldiered on. I remember some of the stories my mum would tell us, about parents in the townships who had to chain their child to a tree to ensure they didn’t wander off, while they went to work as they couldn’t find anyone to care for the child. Chain a child like a dog!

It didn’t help that mental disabilities is not a well understood illness and people felt that it was related to witchcraft, which scared them even more to have anything to do with children with special needs. I felt that first hand when my brother had to go into hospital and my parents were out of town at my uncle’s funeral. The nurses were even too scared to give him his medication. My sister and I ended up providing the care that the nurses were supposed to provide.

Eventually PPCSN were to have their school! After some fundraising walks, a fundraising premiere of GI Joe (thanks to the folks over at Paramount Studios), and some goodwill from private citizens, a small community school – Hidden Voice – was established in one of the high density areas of Lusaka.

The school still can’t provide enough for its students, let alone the vast number of kids that could benefit from the services, but it’s a start.

My kid brother is now too old to attend the school, and we have tried to improve his quality of life as much as possible, but he is an example of how bad things can get for kids with special needs when the services just aren’t there. There’s very little we can do for Kwangu now that will improve his educational and skills needs, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop championing for the services for other kids like him.

I just hope that sooner rather than later people will understand the need to include children with special needs when they refer to access to education for all.

The Death of Type A Personalities

May 7, 2012 in Life, Lifestyle, My opinion, Self, Zambia | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

I write because it helps me express myself and how I’m feeling. Sometimes it’s easier than other times. I feel the challenge of being a Type A person – which I’ve never particularly thought of myself as being. Yes I’m fiercely ambitious and can (occasionally) be an over-achiever, and yes success (of the financial kind) is top of my list, and some people may call me a workaholic, or work obsessed, but I guess because nothing I do do I ever think is good enough, I’ve never considered myself Type A. Though coming to think of it, isn’t that the very reason why I probably am Type A? Constantly pushing myself to be better?

Anyway, my point was the last couple of weeks have been particularly challenging for me. Working in Zambia is probably not the best place to work if you have a Type A personality. The work ethics aren’t on the same point, there is not much of a go-getter attitude and really hard work isn’t actually valued or rewarded. In fact looking around – and I’d say thanks to the media (well they are the eyes and ears of the people) – there aren’t many examples of how hard work, drive, ambition and dreams can turn into success, wealth and personal growth/satisfaction. Instead we have examples of how doing the least amount of work and a poor attitude can get you by, and in some cases also succeed (though those examples are marred with potential corruption and scandal and other unworthy characteristics).

So it’s easy to understand why a company, despite how long you have worked with them, despite how much business you have thrown their way, to still treat you with disrespect and try to con you in some way or another. The attitude of ‘I don’t care if I lose your future business because I’m going to exploit you today to make a killing’. The saying a bird in hand is worth two in the bushes is totally lost on business in Zambia – from my experience that applies to both small and large businesses.

Also the limiting ourselves nature of people. When did we stop dreaming? Where is the can do mentality? Initially I found it amusing when one of our employees couldn’t say where they wanted to be in five years, then I thought that maybe it was because they didn’t want to tell us if their plan was to move on. But the more I talk to people, the more I observe people, the more I realise that loads of people don’t have a plan past today – and that’s probably to get home to some food and TV.

I have big dreams that I can’t limit just because of my gender, or my age, or the country I’m in, that’s ridiculous. From the age of 10 I started dreaming that I wanted to win an Oscar (best film and best director), I may not have that dream anymore, but I never thought because I was a girl born and living in Zambia that it wasn’t possible. My dreams may have changed, but they’re still big. And therein lies my problem.

My loyalties mean that I don’t want to leave anyone behind as I continue to move forward in my life (read career), but what happens when you feel those very people are holding you back? You feel as I do, a condition prone to Type A personalities (so I read), and that’s stress and depression. And if you dig further (ok do more google searches) you realise that depression is simply latent anger, which could be a result of frustration (that part I’m guessing).

And then it makes me think. Is it that there are no dreamers, or ambitious people in Zambia? Or did the frustration and challenges around them kill them? To be honest I can see why getting home to food and TV can be a hell of a lot easier and comforting than constantly working against the tide.

We’ll see how this chapter plays out.

The Business of SMEs

April 26, 2012 in Business, My opinion, Zambia | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

After working for someone else for eight years, I do believe that the way forward for me is being my own boss, or at least working in a family business where my boss is someone I share the same bloodline with.

I do find the challenge of a start-up exciting, especially when it’s something you love to do. But it’s not easy, especially if you’re not blessed with buckets of money. Balancing the love of what you do and trying to make money from it can be a challenge. More so when you have to go to banks who only want to look at your financial statements to ensure you’re worth investing in.

I know the bottom line is the bottom line in your business, but understanding the vision and people behind a brand is just as important. I get excited when I talk about the work that I do and the opportunities for growth. But most of the financial institutions I was talking to weren’t interested in hearing about that. After awhile I thought, hold up, I might need the capital injection right now, but equally I need a bank or financial institution that believes in what we’re doing and wants to be there supporting our growth.

Too often SMEs, that is small and medium enterprises, are treated as unimportant, because their annual turnover is less than (by the standards of the banks I saw) $500,000. Though in a market where the majority of people live on less than $1 a day, I don’t think a turnover of $500,000 a year is not too bad. Plus there are so many examples of companies that were SMEs and are now the biggest companies in the world – pretty much all the biggest companies in the world!

The challenge of resource mobilisation can put a dampner on your mood and the mood of your staff in the office – if they ever get wind of what you’re going through. And that low feeling can suck the soul out of you. Yet your soul is exactly what you need to keep pushing forward.

Entrepreneurs can help stimulate the economy, not only because they are willing to take risks and innovate in markets that might not be stable, but they can also create jobs and new technologies to develop markets. This is something that the west is more comfortable pushing, but in Africa, where we didn’t even have the bulk of the economic recession, we’re still of the mindset that entrepreneurs are too risky to invest in.

In a market with limited job opportunities and a defunct welfare system and virtually no pension plan, what is there for the mass market to do if not to create their own employment? And if that employment can create more employment and stimulate the economy, the government should be investing in that. And the smart, creative and risk-taking banks should also be driving that opportunity.

It’s funny that even now, when there is more competition among banks, with European, American, Zambian, South African, and Nigerian banks in the market, they still act like there is nothing to compete for – like they are the only players in the market. I’m big on loyalty, so if I find a bank that is good to me now when I’m in need, I’ll be loyal and stay true to them. But that requires working with a bank that is like-minded, and preferably one that can make decisions locally. It doesn’t help me if your bank makes its decisions from the UK, where they only care about businesses with an annual turnover of $1 million.

So I’m trying to stop getting frustrated with the banks, but rather re-think my strategy, I’m not looking for a bank who can help me, I’m looking for a bank who I can work with to grow my company, and therefore their business too.

I may ‘only’ be an SME today, but as Chris Bridges said, here’s a binoculars and look out for me!

Peace and love

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