Many are inboxing me asking to send money to me. I AM NOT TAKING MONEY. Please send it directly to the school’s bank account:
Chizeza Secondary School
Account Number: 4566-00626518-405
ZB Bank, Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe
PLEASE RETWEET for others to see. That is how we can help others by having empathy, just a free RETWEET to help these poor kids!
F.O.P.O The Fear That Silences Bold Builders
(And Why Entrepreneurship Is the Ultimate Public Exam)
Last year, I shared how building a business can feel like walking through a minefield with no map, no protection, and no guarantees.
Since then, the terrain hasn’t gotten easier.
But one thing has become clearer:
Creating and building a brand is like writing an exam in public. One that never ends. Where everyone from customers to competitors, ex-staff to friends becomes a marker.
And Most of the Markers? Haven’t Even Taken the Course.
They’ve never managed payroll.
Never stood in front of staff with empty hands and a full heart.
Never faced a cold chain failure the night before a critical order.
Never had to pray for a bank transfer to reflect just to pay salaries that were due last week.
Yet they critique every move:
“How can a whole brand fail to pay rent?”
“I knew it wouldn’t last.”
“He’s doing too much.”
This is what F.O.P.O. Fear of Other People’s Opinions does to entrepreneurs:
It shrinks vision.
It drains courage.
It convinces you to play small, stay silent, and dim your fire just to avoid judgment.
But Here’s What They Don’t See:
They don’t see the 2:30am shop closures followed by 5:00am reopens for almost 1100 days consecutively.
They don’t see the 6months of daily 5:30am prayer sessions with a The team because you believed the project wasn’t just commercial, it was spiritual warfare.
They don’t see the months you smiled in meetings while internally shattered, because you were running a brand on fumes and faith.
They don’t see that for five months, 70% of your revenue went to alternative power, just to keep the business alive.
They don’t see you, as a leader, standing before your team congratulating them for enduring, even when you knew the project had failed.
Because everything rises and falls on leadership.
Let Me Say This Clearly:
If you're building something real
If you're building a brand that shifts culture
You will be:
• Judged
• Mocked
• Watched
• And still expected to deliver.
And when you fail; not if, but when
They won’t whisper.
They will amplify.
So the test is not whether you’ll fall.
It’s how loud you’re willing to fail,
And how gracefully you rise; again and again and again.
So What Now?
You need what I call the KUPENGA-KUDHUNYA mindset
The MAD mindset
Where:
• Resilience is strategy
• Thick skin is your armor
• And silence isn’t shame it’s focus.
“Ziva kuti hapana ari kuuya.
Asi kana ukamira,
mangwana vanouya – kuzoseka, kana kurumbidza.”
To My Fellow Entrepreneurs:
This journey isn’t for everyone and that’s okay.
But if you’ve chosen it, understand what it demands.
You must be willing to lose publicly, bleed quietly, lead endlessly.
Because even in your lowest season
You’re still building legacy.
So let them mark your paper.
Let them mock your errors.
Because one day, that same exam you failed in public;
will be the case study they teach in private.