PARENTING - Monday read!
I told you guys recently while chatting with our first born son Kylan Wekesa, he said, there have been times he deliberately done stuff to get me angry.
He added, on many occasions you would ignore as if nothing is happening and I realized am the loser in this game, you went about like nothing is happening with your work.
I spent a good part of my life in a children home, I reminded him. We were 48 boys and only one guy amongst us often got attention when he had an emotional breakdown. He was loved more than us all.
It was so clear that emotional games weren’t for the rest of us, all we developed was sense of duty. Life on many occasions was unbeatable that some of the boys escaped oba to where?
It was hard to pretend you were sick as a young man in the children’s home, you wouldn’t be served food because they said sick people don’t eat. First food was a massive challenge, can’t worsen it by not getting what was provided.
I tried to one time tell my mom, life was so hard, she said, son I will send straight to Kenya to look after cows, that was the work young boys in my village did. They were sent to Kenya to look after people’s cows.
Son, you see how terrible our lives are? You dare escape from the children’s home, I will send you straight to Kenya to either become a cowboy or a shamba boy. She wasn’t my ally then but I appreciate it now.
My mom was a harden battle champion, small lady with courage of a giant, once in a while she would start village wars, armed with a panga. I am reminded to ask her what used to cause those particular moments.
Back to my son, I add, I have more sense of duty than emotional appeal, I can’t spend my time telling you Bambi, that you can get from your mum. I have to spend time providing for family, taking care of business because many of us depend on, little time emotions son.
The other thing I was so clear about when they were young especially the boys, due to sports especially motocross, they often got injured. I warned them from pretending and I never entertained it. And I told them why that was important.
They run a risk of me not taking them seriously when are actually injured thinking there were pretending. I must say it’s been tough sometimes for them but as they grow, they have started understanding that I was right.
I tell especially my sons, the world isn’t kind to men, emotions are there yes but you have a duty of soldiering on. Failure for a man can be a miserable. It’s very challenging, draining, demeaning as well.
Yes, when they do well, I congratulate them and when it’s the opposite, I encourage them to invest in efforts because that guarantees better results. They have to fight to be better than they were yesterday today.
When you fight to improve against yourself, you obviously improve against others around you too. That approach reduces negative envy.
I need to go back to my walk. Someone asked me if I was team Bonds or Team Real Estate.
I am team, good well understood investments....
Thank you @KakandeAlex@nikita_helene for calling out the BS in Real Estate. There is many...
I am doing the same for bonds. If next week, I see a snake oil dealer selling chickens as a risk free investment, I will also call him out....
A Bond giving 15% per year is not risk free...
Real Estate doesn't always go up
Inflation hits fixed payment schedules more than adjustable payment schedules.
Walking is a great way to stay calm lol
Have a good Sunday...
Who cares about competition?
It's very easy to discard a market by saying "it's too competitive". The reality is often much more nuanced.
Take maize milling for example. There is a maize mill in pretty much every trading center of Uganda. Kafumbe Mukasa has dozens of them side by side of varying size.
Competive big time...
Yet, when assessing a market, it's key to beyond blanket statements and take into account important nuances:
#1 Not all channels are equally competitive: Selling posho in Kafumbe Mukasa is probably more cut throat than a Formula 1 race. Yet, who sells posho on Instagram? A brand delivering high quality posho and food products to your doorstep using instagram would probably work and it is likely to be much less competitive to go that route. You just need to crack the code (easier said than done I know)....
#2 Not all competitors are competent: A market may be extremely competitive but have you ever walked into a maize mill? The bad ones (which probably make up a fair share of the market) are borderline infested with rats. The number of competitors in itself can be deceiving...
Looking at markets as permutations of segments and channels is the way to go
Instead of discarding a market as "competitive". Folks should ask themselves:
"Can I find a segment where I can uniquely thrive?"
"Can I find a channel where I can uniquely create value for that segment?
That's it for today....
@GabrielBuule Too sad. Sorry brother for this unfortunate event. One can never get used to it even if it has happened to you a couple of times. We hope they find real jobs.
Instead of being part of scams like the one that unravelled today, find time and rear the chickens 🐔 yourself.
Me and my partners are raising 500 birds this month. We are a huge part of the process daily. Start small, aim high. Don't be blinded by huge profits.
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