In this spoken commentary, the speaker highlights Beatrice Kiruri’s contribution to the anthology We Took the Risk, praising her personal narrative that spans an internship, an international master’s degree, and a career in HR and professional speaking. The speaker emphasizes the themes of courage, faith, and agency that underpin Beatrice’s risk‑taking, noting how she often acted without formal qualifications, contracts, or connections. A specific anecdote about an unexpected promotion illustrates imposter syndrome and the broader point that no one ever fully possesses the qualifications needed for future roles. The speaker presents Beatrice’s framework of mindset, toolset, and skillset as essential preparation for a rapidly changing world, and calls for tapping into one’s source of courage—whether faith or other motivators—to shape a better future. The commentary situates Beatrice’s story within the larger collection of African women who have taken bold risks, celebrates the talent on the continent, and encourages listeners to explore the book and connect with Beatrice on LinkedIn and through the Red Jacket Speaker Bureau.
Chapters
I have a friend called Beatrice Karoi who's written a book. She contributed to it with a number of other women colleagues in Kenya, and the title is We Took the Risk. And Beatrice's contribution was absolutely amazing. She talks about everything from her internship to her international master's degree and demonstrates the risks that she took at every stage. And It's a stunning read. We seem to sometimes when we're younger have an audacity to try something because we don't know what the rules are yet, and we lose that over time as we become a little bit more professional and proper. But it seems like Beatrice has held on to her courage and her boldness throughout her career and done some amazing things with it, which is fantastic. She also demonstrates how her faith was a big part of her career growth and the courage that she really stepped into in order to do the things that she wanted to do. What I love about the story, particularly as a futurist, is that she demonstrates in some of her examples that she didn't necessarily have the qualifications or the employment contract or the connections yet to do something, but she still went and did. She looked, she found a way, she took agency over her future and didn't just sit there waiting for something to come to her. And in one particular case, she gets promoted, and she finds out about this promotion in the middle of a meeting, and the immediate anxiety is there saying, I'm, I'm not ready for this. The whole imposter syndrome that we, we sometimes experience. I don't have the qualifications or the experience to hold this position. But here's the truth. None of us really have. Okay, none of us have. the qualifications and experience we need to do the things we need to do in the future because we can't have experience with something that is not yet a reality. And the world is changing so fast, the pace is so, so incredibly fast that, that we cannot prepare ahead of the experiences we have. How do we prepare? We prepare with mindset, toolset, and skillset, which is something Beatrice refers to. We prepare with tapping into the source of our courage, whether it's faith like it is for Beatrice or whatever it is for you. We've got to tap into what makes us human and wants to pull us into the future, because when we do that, we have a better future. We have a future where we have more agency and we're not victims to anything. And I think that is the story that I really come around— come away with from Beatrice's article. So the whole book is full of stories of women who took risks to do amazing things. And the talent and the experience we have in Africa is absolutely stunning. Beatrice has a career in the HR field, but she's also a professional speaker and she's part of Red Jacket Speaker Bureau where I know her from, and she does some amazing work. So be sure to check out her book, check her out on LinkedIn. Beatrice, if you're watching, thank you very much for sharing this book with me. I really enjoyed your article and I'm so inspired. By the work that you've done. Thank you.
