Seven Seas Technologies founder and Group CEO Mike Macharia. PHOTO | FILE |
Award winners, organisers, The Business Daily, yet again - and distinguished guests, congratulations - you’ve done a great job.
As a previous 40 Under 40 awardee, I can empathise with the pride you must all be feeling today. It’s a great accomplishment. I turned 40 this year and am no longer eligible for this award, so I want to encourage you to enjoy it whilst you can.
Today, we stand together, as entrepreneurs, change agents, visionaries, mavericks, CEOs, as artists, as Kenyans and as temporary guests on God’s earth. We stand together, witnessing unprecedented change across our nation.
Like all things temporary, there is always the opportunity to create lasting and permanent change. To make such a change, we must know who we are.
So who am I…?
I’m a husband to my wife Connie, who’s here tonight. I’m a patriot because, despite all the challenges we face, I love my country. I’m a mentor because I know how important it is to pay it forward and to give back. I am a father to my four-year-old son, Leo. A son, brother, mentor among others.
I am a ‘happy soul’ because - despite the challenges, despite all the occasional noise - I am endlessly optimistic. I am an out-and-out entrepreneur - it’s in my blood.
I am also a Young Global Leader (YGL), and the founding curator of the Kenya chapter of the World Economic Forum (WEF) community: a network of exceptional talents, committed to making a difference to their societies.
The reason I am telling you this is because - sometimes - in our darkest moments, we need to know who we are. We need to know who we are when the lights go off; we need to know who we are when no one is watching.
When I started out and founded Seven Seas Technologies (SST) Group, 15 years ago - just like the crazed guy in the video I am about to show you - some people looked at me and mused: “That guy, Mike: he’s a real lone nut!”
I was on the dance floor by myself. But, as you’ll learn in this three-minute video, it is that ‘lone nut’ who creates the movement that inspires many and makes the difference.
And, just as the speaker Derek Sivers said - once a lone nut himself, who helped to change the way music was bought and sold on the web - the real differentiator is the first follower, not the leader at all.
As an entrepreneur, we all need followers. And as an out-and-out entrepreneur myself, I had lots of followers who I owe a great debt of gratitude to. My late SST Chairman, James Gachui, is one, of course, who was my first follower on the dance floor.
Now I want to come back to the unprecedented change I cited earlier.
You should feel privileged to be living in a very special moment because Kenya is changing. And you can be the change agents at the centre of that change. Many of you already are, as you have been recognised here today. But you will know yourself this is really just the beginning of your journey.
Healthcare is seeing remarkable changes throughout Kenya. There are buildings shooting up everywhere all over Kenya: international headquarters for global brands in Nairobi and new retail outlets as consumption grows.
In the transport sector: there are highways and roads, airports, cities. Above all, what I want you to know is that it is people - people are central to this change.
It is the people in this room, and many more just like you, who can spot a problem or a challenge and turn it into an opportunity.
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work…” These were words spoken by a man who knew what challenge and hardship looked like, for Thomas Edison - the inventor of the lightbulb - failed more than 1,000 times.
I challenge you today: find solutions to the traffic chaos that exists; postnatal deaths is just waiting to be fixed. Solve them, then seek monetary gain. After all, Kenya’s problems are Africa’s problems - there is a great opportunity to create “collective prosperity”.
Kenya, and the world, is waking up to a new story. In the new story, we live in a more interconnected world than ever before. The media coinage “globalised village”, has never been so real.
In the new story, the CEO and entrepreneur understand the interconnectedness of their business with the wananchi. In the new story, business leaders understand more deeply than ever how their actions - and inaction - as leaders, affect the kid-on-the-street, sniffing glue?
How do the operations of my business have an impact on a society as a whole? We need to ask ourselves those Big questions, with a capital “B”.
As awardees in the Top 40 Under 40, you have all recorded individual achievements, but your achievements – my achievements – are nothing if they do not impact other people. The old story of greed and individual accomplishments, is slowly dying.
I encourage you, as leaders and those driving Kenya forward, to help write this new story of collective prosperity and ensure it wins out over individual achievements.
We all need to perform a mathematical trick and find a formula by which we can make 1 + 1 = 11? This new story is how we will create a bigger, brighter Kenya.
As we go about our work collectively, as change agents, we need to have a deep understanding of what makes us happy.
I have devised a so-called Happiness Wheel that distils the seven most important tenets of what constitutes happiness: Soul - The self, the “I” that inhabits our body. Without a comprehension of our soul, we are like light bulbs with no electricity… External Self - My soul feeds who I am in the external world, the change I want to create…
Family - It all comes back to family. My beautiful wife, Connie; my four-year-old, Leo, who I love beyond words…
Work - The first three are a foundation for my work and the change I will drive through my business. If I don’t get the first three right, the fourth - “Work” - will not follow…
Community - If the first four are not making a difference to the wider “Community”, then I am not achieving the principles of my “Happiness Wheel”
Country - By now, we are working from the micro - the soul and the self - to the macro: country. The work that I do as an entrepreneur, and as CEO of SST, must have a wider impact on my country. I need to know that when I finish - just as there was someone before me who had a dream for me, for us - someone else will live the dream that I helped create for them.
World - My vision of “collective prosperity” is a global one; it’s not just about Kenya or Africa, though that’s where it begins. How can we, as Kenyans, make an impact on the world…?
Remember: Kenya is changing - and you are the change agents. Who are you when the lights go out…? If we are to be the change agents we know we can be, then we must know our core virtues.
Find out if: “you can trust yourself when all men doubt you…” the late, great English poet, Kipling, once wrote. Sometimes in life, however much we complain, what holds us back is not the external world around us, but ourselves.
Again it is important to be sure “if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - and not lose the common touch…” Kipling again.
The message: however far you and your business travels, stay grounded. Stay true to your “true north”. Invest time in getting to know yourself: it may be the greatest investment you will ever make.
Whenever I think about “standing out” from the crowd, I recall Apple’s 2007 ‘Think Different’ campaign: the initiative that changed perceptions, created an unstoppable movement - and ultimately saved a business.
Some of us, for want of a better word, are a little bit “crazy”. There are people in this room who are changing the world around them - you are “change agents”.
But you may also be the five cans short of a six-pack that makes you different: like Steve Jobs and Apple, you believe you can change the world.
Ask yourself: what makes you different? Despite being a little whacky, we have to become a society of doers; we have to make stuff happen.
We cannot just complain and quibble and fight on social media; you have to eventually stand up and be counted.
You have been recognised today by The Business Daily because you do stuff; you get stuff done. We may have nice black-tie dinners, but this is the spark that will push you still further to the next level.
As my wife Connie will tell you, from time to time, I can get be a little “crazy”. I remind myself of it every day, as I’ve framed the words and hung them on my wall. But I know I must do; I must act.
Sometimes, to quote that famous Apple advertising campaign, “Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do…”
Kenya is changing - and you can be the change agents at the centre of that change. Nobody wants to be that “lone nut” on the dance floor.
The new story I spoke about, is being written in Kenya: don’t envy, emulate. Don’t be jealous, be inspired. What’s possible for anyone, is possible for you. Collectively, we can make it happen: we can all be story-tellers of Kenya’s new story.
For over half a century, Kenya has been soul-searching and trying to find itself. One Kenya sees opportunities where there are challenges; the other Kenya sees problems.
One Kenya says: ‘Give me a chance and I will prove myself.’ The other Kenya says: ‘Prove yourself first, then we will give you a chance.’ Kenya is changing - and you can be the change agents at the centre of that transformation.
Grow wings because we are in the year 2015 - and it’s time to fly!
Mr. Macharia is founder and CEO, Seven Seas Technologies (SST) Group; Chairman, Kenya IT & Outsourcing Society (KITOS); and is one of the 2014 World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Young Global Leaders. He delivered this speech at Kenya’s Top 40 Under 40 Men, held on Friday night.
Follow him on Twitter: @MikeMachariaSST.
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