Rich, poor dad aside, glory is within reach

“It is that time of the year when everyone looks up to better things in the New Year. I share in this but I am not sure if I am ready to take the big step. How can one tell if it’s the right time to pursue their ambition?”

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Your question brings to mind the names of men who are generally associated with the words ambition and greatness. Such a list includes Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte and more recently Vladimir Lenin and Adolf Hitler. All of them have in common, the fact that they killed to achieve glory.

Viewed this way, ambition is a terrible thing because it leads, in these cases to murder and extensive destruction and pain to society.

One could also look at the other side of the term, and here, one finds Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, and who in his autobiography alluded to the self-made man.

His story is one that typified the concept of rags to riches. He was the son of a poor candle maker, who was virtually unknown in his early days. Against all odds he came from low social status of abject poverty, in the process breaking away from the trajectory defined by his deprivation, to become a very rich and famous American, who is the defining reason of the American dream, of which is said that any American can rise to his maximum potential. In the case of Franklin, hard work and a solid moral foundation were keys to his achievement.

The memory of mzee Njenga Karume is fading with time, but his book tells the story adequately. titled From Charcoal to Gold, the book describes a man of modest education who went on to accumulate immense power and influence, in his view through hard work and determination. He achieved his ambition of being in the midst of the rich and famous through hard work.

A number of recent autobiographies in Kenya tell similar stories. Dr Betty Gikonyo tells her story through her book, The Girl Who Dared to Dream. Her story starts on the slopes of Mount Kenya, with the loss of her mother at an early age, but goes on to tell of her ambition to become a doctor like her elder brother. She achieved her ambition and more.

Kalonzo Musyoka also tells his story in the book Against All Odds and here again we see the son of a peasant going on to become famous in the political arena.

In different ways, these are all stories of men and women who have gone on to achieve more in life than one would have expected from their humble beginnings.

Reading through some of the increasing number of autobiographies, some good others not so good, one begins to wonder if being born in privilege is a mistake.

Recently, a number of men and women in their 50s and 60s have begun to change the narrative and to state the fact that they have no apology for not having had a deprived past. Two presidential candidates in the just-concluded polls are from such backgrounds. Some people have suggested that their battles represent a clash between two sons of the rich and famous. Both are clearly ambitious men.

At a recent social gathering, a man from such a background got a little drunk and spoke out his heart. His father went to Makerere, was a senior civil servant at independence and he attended European schools in the early sixties.

He was dropped and picked from school by a driver and later went to university in the UK. Upon his return and with some help from his parents, he had set himself up in business and stood up for himself at social and business circles. As he said, he no longer had time or desire to apologise for the fact that he went to school in shoes, for him water came from a tap in their house, and he always had three square meals daily.

As often happens, alcohol had led him to discuss an aspect of his life that had remained suppressed. He hated the fact that he was lumped together with the sons of rich men who in their 40s and 50s were totally lacking in ambition.

This outburst has led to the conversation about individuals and their ambitions. It was thus concluded that sons (and daughters) of the rich and famous can hold and achieve their ambition, in exactly the same ways as the sons (and daughters) of peasants.