11/05/2024
PREPARING FOR SUCCESS
If there is a major lesson I learnt from my wife’s first pregnancy, it was the importance of preparation. Being a first time experience, we had to do a lot of reading and seeking advice from all kinds of experienced people within our reach to avoid being surprised at any one point. We had to have prior knowledge of everything to expect. Every day, I kept a keen eye on my wife and whenever I noticed any unusual change, I would quickly consult a doctor. I wanted to be sure that such a development posed no significant threat to the wellbeing of the mother and the baby.
A few years ago, while I was walking along William Street, in Kampala, I got the shock of my life. Right on the side of the road, I witnessed a woman delivering a baby in her car. I later gathered that she was aware that the pregnancy was due, but she went ahead and came to town without any preparation – by driving herself first of all, then not moving with someone to help her in case of an emergency and not carrying any cloth or anything to deliver on if the hour of labour came. It was the kind passersby who intervened and helped her with some pieces of cloth on which she delivered and wrapped the baby. As the crowd gathered and shuddered at this woman’s lack of preparation, she argued that she had packed everything necessary and left them in the bag at home, knowing that if she felt labour pains coming she would quickly drive home, pick her bag and rush to hospital. How wrong she was!
When we are not prepared, opportunities can always ambush us unexpectedly, like this lady’s labour, only to find we are not ready to seize them. We need to look at our ideas, dreams, careers, jobs and businesses like a pregnant wife because they give us ‘babies’ in terms of profit, salary and other fruits. If we looked at things that way, we would do everything possible to prevent ‘miscarriages’ and ‘still births.’ We would ensure that we never lose jobs for not following instructions. We would not lose a customer due to negligence. We would not spend more money than we earn. We would not keep arriving at work late or forget to attend a business meeting and call that a small error.
How you prepare for the delivery of your baby is the way you should prepare for your business, career, job, investment or relationship to produce fruits. When we are buying anything for our pregnant wives – such as medicine, food, drinks or clothes – we are always conscious to first ask: Is this safe for an expectant mother? In the same way, we have to always ask ourselves whether what we are doing or not doing is safe for our ‘pregnant’ business, job, career or dream.
One of the costly mistakes that many Ugandans have been making is entering ventures without doing sufficient research. Someone hears that there is a lot of money in importing textiles from Turkey and he/she just puts in money, without even knowing how goods are cleared at the customs. Someone sees many customers in a salon in a certain arcade and immediately rents space nearby and also opens a salon, even without any knowledge and skills in the field of beauty and fashion like his/her competitors.
I always share the story of my friend who dug his own financial grave by jumping into the Irish potato business that he had no clue about. It all started when he went to the village and found many people owning supermarkets, building houses, setting up farms, buying cars and progressing generally. “Where do these people get all this money?” he asked. “They buy Irish potatoes here and sell them in Kampala,” he was told. “If these villagers who have never gone to school can make such huge amounts of money from potatoes, how much more will I make, I who is a graduate?” he reasoned. We tried to convince him to first do thorough market research and come up with a proper business plan, but he wouldn’t listen. He thought we were dragging him into unnecessary details.
With no knowledge whatsoever about Irish Potatoes, he borrowed UGX 3 million and went into that business. He teamed up with people who had hired a lorry and off to Kisoro they went. He bought Irish potatoes and threw them onto the lorry, and soon they were on their way back. Upon reaching Kampala at 3am, the lorry kept branching off to the various stores of the other traders. It was then that he got the first rude awakening; it hit him like a tonne of bricks that actually he had not planned for a place to keep his stock! He ended up improvising his girlfriend’s room for a store. Then he started looking for buyers.
A few days later, his colleagues had finished selling their stock and were asking him to plan for the next trip, but he had not yet secured a single customer. A few days later, at the warning of a terrible stench, he checked and found that his stock was rotting away. Little did he know that those who know the game of the trade, the moment they arrive, no matter how tired they are, they always first pour the potatoes on the ground and sort out the bad ones before they spoil the rest. It was too late to sort them; he only managed to save a tiny fraction of the stock.
Meanwhile, he had not yet sold anything from his stock. He would go to a restaurant to try and interest them into buying his potatoes, but upon looking at the sample they would tell him, “Sorry, this type is for cooking. It’s not good for chips. When you bring the ones that are good for chips, come back.” This was another shocking realisation, that actually before going to buy Irish potatoes, he should have looked for buyers and found out which types are suitable for each category. Out of frustration, he decided to give out the few ‘surviving’ potatoes on credit but failed to recover the money from the middlemen. Remember, he had borrowed the capital he put into the business and it had interest. You can imagine the stress that followed. But what caused all this? The answer is simple: Failure to prepare.
It is unfortunate that many people have good desires and ambitions, but they lack preparation. At the beginning of each year, many Ugandans make New Year’s Resolutions. Some vow to build residential houses by the end of the year so that they can get saved from the menace of monthly rent. That is a good wish but without preparation, it can’t happen. In such a case, preparation would involve finding out the price of land in the area of your choice, talking to people in the field to have estimates of how much it will cost you to build the kind of house you want and drawing a plan of how you are going to raise the needed funds.
Preparation can be physical, emotional, financial, intellectual, spiritual and so on. When Nelson Mandela was asked how he survived for 27 years in prison, he said: “I did not survive; I was prepared.” Indeed, had he not been prepared, chances of surviving those harsh conditions for all those years would have been minimal…
… to be Continued…
The above passage was picked from INSPIRED BY BITATURE, a powerful book chronicling the success story and revolutionary business ideas of PATRICK BITATURE the mogul behind Simba Group of Companies. Written by a prolific author, Robert Bake, the brain behind inspirational giant World of Inspiration Uganda, the book is turning thousands of lives around. Copies are on sale at UGX 49,000 (approximately USD 13) and is available in the Bookshop inside Obunuzi Cafe & Restaurant in Wandegeya – Kampala, opposite YMCA main gate. Those who need delivery and those outside Uganda can call or WhatsApp the author directly on +256757256237 | +256779911844 to arrange how the book can reach you (for those outside Uganda we shall give you an option of receiving a soft copy in PDF which you can read on your phone or computer).
This 2024 do all it takes to give your dream some supernatural momentum. You were carved for greatness; don’t accept anything less.
Shallom!
