The Importance of taking Action

Hello there. My name is Patrick, Patrick Bitature, and I am here with my daughter Natalie. Natalie Bitature, with our last in the series of the Uncommon Perspective podcast that we are sharing with you, which we chose to do so that we can come nearer to the people in the region in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, up to South Africa. There is so much content out there in the world, so much financial literacy. It's in books, but it's all tailored to the Western market or the Far east market. We didn't have enough, I felt, of the local market, local challenges with local solutions. And very many people who are successful in Africa do not share their stories. So we chose to come together, much as we have differing perspectives, because we come from different time zones. I'm from the old age and she's from the young age and she's a digital kid. I'm an analog person, so I believe in an X ray. She wants to do something different, like an mri. So there are different ways of looking at things, but we try to find a point of convergence. And I hope the discussions we've had this whole series has been useful to you because we are really targeting you. And if you followed this series and all these episodes and you don't feel changed, then we have failed and there's no point in us going forward. I would really like to get feedback from you. I'd like to know that we are making a difference in your life, because I feel too many young people out there have simply run out of hope. They've run out of hope. They have studied, they've graduated, but then they don't know what next to do. They don't have capital, they feel they're lacking knowledge. They don't have experience. Wherever they go, they ask for experience. So they are caught in a vicious circle of poverty. They feel trapped. All we're trying to do is unlock that, to give you a ray of hope so that you can go out there and start and don't wait until you've got everything. I've often said, don't wait for all the traffic lights to be green before you take off. Begin your journey, take the first step and see what comes out of it. So this time I'm going to talk more about. We are going to talk a little bit more about, pardon me, about taking action, doing something. There's no point in acquiring so much knowledge, so much intelligence, making a plan and doing absolutely nothing. You decide you're going to go to the gym, but you never get to the gym. You decide you're going to start a business. You never start the business or a farm or a little in the back of your garden, a small place where you're growing your vegetables. And that's where the difference is. Taking action. So that is the theme for today. I'm going to allow my lovely daughter Natalie to start the show and tell us what does she think the problem is, especially with us here in our region. Why aren't we taking action? Why do we feel so overwhelmed and you feel stuck and the environment is working against you, the country is working against you, the government is not helping. What holds us back from beginning with those small baby steps? Over to you, Natalie.

Thanks. I think it's such an important topic because like you said, it's what stops people from actually doing what they need to do. To take that first step is always the scariest. I think that paralysis comes from that feeling of being overwhelmed, the fear of failure, the fear of, you are an imposter, you're not ready for it. A lot of the questions I get from women are about imposter syndrome and how to handle that. They don't feel prepared, they don't feel supported, they don't feel qualified to start the business, to apply for that job. And it's that fear that holds people back. And I feel like you need to build that confidence and get used to just jumping, try, take the first step. I think with entrepreneurs, we are used to being more risky. We're used to trying and failing and getting up and trying and failing and starting something new. But that is something you develop over time. And in our culture, we're taught not to fail. You are punished, you're ashamed, you should not fail, you should not get bad grades, you should not do something wrong. And yet you need to fail. We have to embrace failure. It's living in America that really taught me that. In California, they're like, you have to fail fast. That is the motto. I was like, what? Fail fast, fail forward. And they brag about it. My last company went bankrupt. I tried six different startups before I started this one. And they talk about it openly. And I just felt so embarrassed for them. What do you mean? You're saying this, you went bankrupt or you failed at this. But that culture of not being afraid to fail is how they've grown and innovated. They. That's why Silicon Valley is the innovation center for the world, because we have to embrace that failure. If you don't fail, you don't learn. And I think the fear of failure is one of the Big things holding us back. Yes. There are so many obstacles along the way, like capital, like qualifications, like a mentor, like, where do you start? How do you actually begin? But those are practical things. Those are tasks. Once you overcome the fear of starting in your mind, you can overcome all those tasks. And the way I always talk about it with the ladies that I train is when you have to climb a whole mountain, you do it step by step. But if you just look at the mountain, you're going to be terrified. How am I going to do this? If you break things down into small tasks, each of them is manageable on their own. The fear overwhelms you. That anxiety, that pressure in your mind is so much bigger than the reality. When you're actually moving, it's step by step. You gain momentum, so you get the rhythm of things. You learn, you grow, it gets easier. But the first step is always the hardest. And that's why I feel like we need to get people to push off, to jump, to just get used to starting that process and encourage each other. Don't be ashamed. Don't be embarrassed. I went to the gym once this month instead of 10 times. How I said I was going to go, or I started the business, but I only sold one product this month. That is something to be celebrated, not to be ashamed of. Because you started, which means you're already ahead of most people. And it means the hardest part is you've overcome it. Because once you get used to starting and trying and going and keep going, that's how you gain the momentum and it becomes easier. And that's how you succeed. At least that's how I think about it.

Indeed, to succeed is important, but success does not come easily and doesn't come the first time around. And the problem, I find is too many young people feel they don't have the tools. They don't feel empowered to go forward. Yes, you graduate on day one of graduation. You look forward to a party. You throw that hat in the air and you scream, then what? The journey is just beginning. You've got to look for a job. The house won't come over your roof. You won't get transport, locomotion wheels. You just won't get the things you want in life. And then you start losing hope. You become despondent. What I'd like to assure the public is you've got to start and you've got to take your life in your hands. The responsibility is yours, nobody else's. If you don't do that, you'll always be Sitting on the hedge, and that's dangerous. I learned the hard way. I was like any of you out there who didn't know what to do. I didn't have confidence. I was so unsure of myself. Indeed, I was the firstborn, first boy from my mother. And life was easy until I got a very hard slap, a slap in the face that knocked me sideways. It was the time of IDI Amin. That government was so perilous. We lived in a very hard time. Unfortunately, the rest of the world thought IDI Amin was a clown. And they were laughing, listening, what crazy things he was doing. But he was systematically using the state to butcher its own people. And for nothing, doing nothing wrong. And that's where the travesty of justice comes. You get up one morning and somebody chooses. He wants your house, he wants your car, he wants your life. And he can take it. And he's not held accountable to me. That was such a deep cut, and it transformed my life. We lost everything. Not just the father, but the food provider. He provided everything for us. And I was at that very delicate age where he was my hero. So it really cut deep and it woke me up. And I had to transform from a boy to a man overnight. And going out into business, I didn't go there because I thought I wanted to do business. I needed to survive. I needed to look out for the younger ones. I needed to help my mother, who was a widow. She had six children. She had five at the time, but she was expecting. And she'd lost her husband. And she didn't know where to start. So that was a very trying time. And I had no idea where to start. And maybe some of you have heard about my story, because it began with a story of looking for sugar. So my life was fundamentally transformed on that one day when we needed sugar, just sugar for tea on the table. And then my younger brother, who insisted on having sugar, started crying, and he cried for sugar. He couldn't believe that we'd come together for the first time since my father died. All of us together. And mom was there. She made us tea. And the tea had no sugar. You'd say, maybe he's spoiled. That's not a big deal. The deal was in the message, because he cried. He caused my mother to cry. And when I saw my mother crying and crying and looking up to the Lord and asking God to take us all, swallow us, because she had run out of hope, that cut deep in my heart. That night I resolved. I knew where we had lived in Kenya. And we used to walk down the road where the shop was with sugar in a bag. You ask for a kilo of sugar. They put in something like a big spoon. And they wait for you, and they give you sugar. I didn't have the money, but I knew at least where the sugar was. And that was in Kenya. At 13, I got on a bus. The little money I took from my mother's handbag. Without her knowing. I went on the Akamba bus. It was an overnight bus to Nairobi. I crossed the border. I was asleep. They left me on the bus because I was half the time asleep. And when I got to Nairobi, I found my way to where we used to live. And I went to that little shop. And they'd heard that my father had died. But there was no communication in those days. So they called the neighbors. They took me to a relative and they said, what are you doing here? They were shocked. The main thing they wanted was to get me back to my mother safely. I told them I'd just come for sugar. All I wanted was a bit of sugar to take home. Because my mother was crying to give sugar to my brothers. So they gathered them some resources and they packed in five kilo bags, four or five of these bags, put them in a suitcase, and they took me back to the bus. They couldn't call my mother. We had no communication. They said, rush back and never do this again. Of course, by the time I got back home, my mother was worried sick. She thought they had taken her son. Because when somebody disappeared in those days, you think it's the state that has taken the person. Because the state was systematically killing its own people. Anyway, I got back safely with the sugar. And the neighbors had come to mourn with my mother. Because the son was missing and were scared to report to the police. And I walk in carrying this bag, heavy bag of sugar. She held me so tight, crying with joy and pain, but relieved that I was alive. She squeezed me so tight I could hardly breathe. But she was happy I was back. Then they opened the bag and they all saw this sugar. Where did you get this sugar? And I told them why I had gone to Nairobi to get sugar. It was a hard to tell story. The neighbor said, please, can we buy some? Whatever price. So they bought some. And we only needed a bit of it. But they paid such a price. So delighted to give six times the price. And we had a lot of money then out of this little sugar. And that's where the spark came. I could provide a service. Do a good. Do a good service. Somebody and make people smile when they are giving you money. They do it with pleasure. To me, when you tick all those boxes, it brought some energy in me and I said, I've got to do this again. And that's how I started my journey in business. I didn't have capital, I didn't have a plan. I knew there was a problem and I needed to solve it. And that's what matters. Finding a solution. Try. You may fail, you may falter, but you've got to keep trying. And that's what's most important. And that was the beginning of my journey. I try to now look for gaps in the market. What service can I provide? What good can I provide that somebody is willing to pay me for it? Happily, later, a premium. And along the way, that's how I got into telecom. I wanted everybody to have a mobile phone. They had to pay me even if I got $1. But I managed to sell over 10 million phones in one country. Then I went to Kenya and then I went to Tanzania and I sold phones. And my target, even if I made $1 of profit, but I was empowering people to have this phone. And that made a very big difference. Because we all want success. You can choose your success, but you've got to do something about it. It won't just come and land on you. Now that is my world, my perspective. The younger kids of today see things differently. They think they can sit on a laptop, solve all their problems by pressing these buttons on a laptop. Some people got lucky doing that, but too few ever succeed. What do you think is the problem in Africa? Because this is a big problem where our demographics are screaming jobs, hope a better tomorrow. What do we have to do?

I think it's great that you shared that because what's missing is that spark. Unfortunately for you, it was a negative thing that changed you and changed your mindset. Because it's easy to watch these kinds of things. It's easy to learn things, to read books. But how many people are applying what they're learning to go from planning, thinking, having these dreams and to being action oriented. A huge difference. And that's one of the challenges we have as young people. Like you said, we are used to getting things quickly. We're used to doing things online. But I don't think we have a culture of being action oriented. It's not something that gets taught. I'm not saying it just as Africans, I just mean as human beings. Also, it's not something that you teach children to be action oriented. You don't think about it. But people who are successful, people who are moving forward and doing things, are action oriented. There are people who talk about things. We all have that friend who says, one day I'll do this, one day I'll start a business. One day I'll be this. How will you ever get any of those things if you're only talking about it? How many people do we know that read so much? They're like encyclopedias. They can tell you about anything, but that's all that they do. We get stuck in other areas, yet we need to be action oriented. The only way we're going to change things, the only way we're going to close the inequality gap, the only way we're going to move away from poverty, come up with solutions, innovate, change things, create is by being action oriented. And that spark, that shift, that's why it's interesting to see how you put it in your perspective from this bleak, terrible, difficult time in your life. Somehow that shift happened, that spark happened and it got you moving. And once you started moving, you've never stopped. So it just takes one shift. Once you get into being action oriented, you can't slow down. It doesn't go away. You can't go backwards. Actually, last night someone was telling me that the grind chooses you. Once you're used to hustling and moving and grinding, you can't slow down. You can't switch it off. You can't say, okay, I'm now 35, I'm going to retire, it's over. And I also don't think it's only about being young. I think many older people also struggle with this. And once you get older, you also think it's too late. But we're living till a much longer age now to just because you're 40 or 50 or 60, it's not too late. I've met so many inspiring older people. I interviewed a lady in her 60s who started a business in her 60s for the first time in her life. She had been employed and retired and started a business. And now she loves it. She's employing people, she's growing, she has so much energy.

Good. Good for her.

It's never too late to make that shift. Of course, the sooner you make it, the better. You have more time to be action oriented and accumulate all the things you want. But it's about that shift. And that's why I think it's easy for people to say, I have these troubles. I don't have enough capital, I don't have the right Network, I don't have the right mentor. If you change your attitude, all these things will be open to you. It's easy for someone to say, I was given everything. Me, I was born into privilege. There's capital, there's mentors, there's network. Whatever I need, I have access to it. But I still have to be action oriented because there's no point in having all those things if I don't get up and do anything with it. So if you change the mindset and you believe you can get those things and you start to act, if you actively look for a mentor, if you actively look for capital, you will get it, you will find it. But if you only sit and think about it, or make plans or have dreams, all of it is not possible. You won't achieve anything. But that's why I feel like educating people about changing our mindset and becoming action oriented and whatever can inspire you to make that change. Because. Because for everyone, it's different. That spark, that moment, whether it's in a movie you see or it's someone you talk to, or it's something you saw or you read, something has to make that shift happen. And I don't know how to find the formula to get that to happen to as many people as fast as possible. That's the skill we need so that we all get that shift, we all become action oriented. Once we start acting, you start moving, you start trying, you start to do all these things. So much is possible.

That formula, once you learn how to make 2 shillings become 4 shillings and then 4 shillings becomes 8 shillings, 8 shillings becomes 16 shillings, 16 becomes 32. Once you've got that formula, you don't stop. But that's where people don't get the formula. Once they get from 2 to 4, they want 4 to become 64. It doesn't happen like that. You've got to take those steps, you've got to grow gradually. You need time on your side. We've talked about time and the role and significance of time in people's lives, especially you young people, because you think you have time on your side and you live forever. Today in Africa, the percentage that lives above 80 is below 5% that lives above 80. So let's assume the biblical 80 is the mark. So if you work backwards and see how much time you spend the first 25 years, I think I've talked about this is you are learning, you are learning how to live life, how to date, how to have a family. All those sports are in the learning. So it's between 25 and 40 that you've really got to work hard to find your trajectory. Are you on the right trajectory or are you shooting downwards? Because you've got to go through a phase of growth and that takes time. And the longer it takes, the more substantial it will be. It's like building a house. It takes time. The bricks, one by one, and you give it some time so that the cement dries, then you put more bricks. You can't put all the bricks and pile them on one thing. Very few buildings stand the test of time if you build them too fast. So you've got to have that process and build. Then by the time you're 50, you're consolidating what you've acquired by 40 so that you can have a decent life, because your energy levels start going down. Now, people who retire at 60, they come out with their pension money. Yes, I've heard a story that you can start and succeed when you are 60. Yes, you can. But the learning curve is going to be steep for you because when somebody Begins business at 25 or 30, they can make a few mistakes. There's room for error and recovery at 60. If you lose your working capital, to rebuild it again is risky. You won't have the energy, you won't have the drive, you won't have the luck, because there's an element of luck, serendipity. So all these things come into play. But what I do know, and here I use the spiritual angle, is that all of us have got a gift, a gift from God, whether it is your Allah, whoever it is, you've got potential. It's in you. You just have to unlock it. It's like something special in a deep well. You may have to go deeper. Some people, the well is not so deep, but you go deep into that darkness and find what can you do? What is your natural gift? And once you unleash it, it's amazing how your life will change. Your life is really in your hands. You can make a very big difference. Anyway, we are going to run out of time soon and I'd like to assure our viewers that we will continue with this episode, with this series of discussions. This was all about differing perspectives, or a perspective from the young, a perspective from the old. So they were really coming from different directions, but we found a point of convergence and we hope that we're helping or adding value to the people out there who have these challenges, but who have who to talk to about them. So we've talked generally about many things and Some of you have got questions, so we're going to switch into a live chat where you can ask me questions, some of you can send them in advance, whether it is on WhatsApp, on email, on Facebook, on Twitter. We'll try to harness the common questions and then I'll answer them live so that we can go through a session dealing with your problems, where you see a problem, trying to find local solutions that can help people deal with their day to day problems. Many of the things we talked about were general because we are shooting, we are targeting a market across Africa and many of the people responding lately are mainly in Uganda because they could relate and that is also important. But we've covered very many areas and one area that was very important for me was the area of resilience and I talked about grit. For those of you who have not watched the episode about grit, please look for that episode. It is useful and I break down grit to show that you've got to follow your guts, your gut instinct and you've got to have resilience, you've got to be innovative and you've got to have tenacity. Without that, it's really hard to survive in the entrepreneurial world. So you've got to work towards developing these strings and when you tie these strings together, you form a strong rope that can take you to shore. It will take you across safely, something you can trust. So as I end, I'd like Natalie to say a word or two on her side to wrap up what you think is going to happen in the coming series.

It's been so interesting to hear the feedback. I've been getting so many DMs. That's what we call them now. Daddy.

What?

DMs.

Okay.

On different social media platforms, people have given us so much to think about, so many questions. So I look forward to moving forward with that. For me personally, I'm trying to take on more women. I'm making more time to mentor more women, to give more time and more space so ladies can join the HER mentorship group and follow me. On social media. I try to respond to all the inboxes and dms that I get, but I think that live will make a big difference because I think a big gap people have is not knowing where to turn. And like you said, a lot of the content out there is super western, but here we have experience and a local perspective and an African narrative. So we're happy to be there and be supportive for that. So I think in the next series we'll have different topics, we'll have different guests. We see what we can do from this, but it needs to be driven by the people. So let's hear what everyone wants us to talk about, what they want us to discuss, who they want us to interview or speak to bring to chat with us. I think it will be a lot of fun.

Fantastic. That would be fantastic. She's really pushing the gender equality angle. She's such a woman empowerment representative or champion, and I support her. I really think we cannot grow this economy, we cannot grow the continent unless we really give women their fair place and they can bring so much horsepower, especially in the economic space, transform people's lives. So we've got to give that a chance. I look forward to hearing from you your feedback. What did she call it? DMs. I look forward to your DMs. Thank you very much.