The Intoxication of Starting a New Business

In one of his blog entries, Dallas Mavericks owner and billionare Mark Cuban makes some interesting comments regarding starting a business and the spirit of entrepreneurship. He says, “There are few things more exciting than starting a business and getting things rolling. The fear, the adrenalin, the excitement, the hope that every entrepreneur feels, are all intoxicating. In fact, very often they are TOO intoxicating. Very often, along with some success comes the feeling of invincibility. I have been in situations where I have told myself that Im smart, I know what Im doing, that I will figure things out as I go, so its OK to take on this new opportunity.” (Emphasis mine).

I know what he is talking about because when I was in college at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, I started the Center of Knowledge as part of the SHEBA partnership (Stephen Herman Eternal Brotherhood Association). The Center of Knowledge was a resource unit that provided lots of personal growth materials to students at my college campus. Stephen was and still is a very close friend who worked with me in equipping so many young people back home in Kenya. Both organizations lost traction when I left Kenya and came to the United States but I can’t forget the feeling of invincibility I felt as I walked around the campus and toured the country speaking at high schools.

Mark Cuban’s article is very insightful. He talks about the ‘fear’ of starting a new business. One of the books that greatly influenced my thinking when I started the Center of Knowledge was “Feel the fear and do it anyway” by Susan Jeffers, PhD. This book helped me conquer so many fears in my life as I attempted to create at that time what was a huge undertaking for a college student. For me it was very much like a metamorphosis. When I was a kid growing up in Nairobi, Kenya, we had lots of ladybugs in our part of the country. I used to enjoy watching the process of change that happened as they metamorphosised into adult insects. At the larval stage, few people can tell that it will ever turn into anything that can fly. Soon it transforms itself into a pupa and makes a cocoon around itself. The final stage of maturity comes when changes happen INSIDE the cocoon. The larva BREAKS OUT of the cocoon and becomes a beautiful ladybug.

Nothing excites me more than embracing positive changes. Every single change I have embraced over the past seven years has completely revolutionized my life. I moved from Africa, to Texas, to Colorado, to Massachussets, to Tennessee, to Nebraska and now Cincinnati, Ohio. While this might seem like too much change, it’s been a journey towards the ultimate. I thrive on change! I’m intoxicated! Opportunity has knocked on my front door and I won’t be caught raking leaves in the back yard. I’m ready! All systems are tuned up and ready to fire. As Robert Schuller said, “You can’t fire a missile from a canoe!” If Mark Cuban will define my spirit as intoxication, I’ll accept his definition based on the context.

A Dream Whose Time Has Come

Early when I developed the dream for the Better Life Company, I came across a quote that greatly inspired my desire to work hard at formulating a concise strategy for realizing the dream. The quote was, “A dream is a goal given substance, direction and time”. I think I read the quote in a Fast Company magazine article around 1999 or 2000. My greatest labor over the past couple of years has been in developing the philosophical foundations of the company. My belief is that the bedrock of a solid mission, concrete core values, a lasting vision and achievable strategic objectives will become the source of true success for the organization.

Better Life Company is a living organism and it will adjust to changing times, environments and situations in order to stay on the cutting-edge of innovation. While the company currently exists as a single entity, it will grow and replicate in order to fully realize the extent of it’s potential. By starting off as a single entity we are able to develop a position in the market and harness leverage that will provide us with the momentum for realizing our true position.

It’s all about timing now. We have given substance to the dream and have a clear direction. Voltaire once said that an invasion of armies can be resisted but not a dream whose time has come!

Better Life

As a student at the University of Nairobi I always spent lots of time in solitude as I pondered about the future and what I wanted it to look like for me. The more I did this, the more it became clearer to me that I wanted to live a better life than what I had seen and experienced up till that time in my life. I never at that time desired to leave the third world and head for the industrialized West. I loved and still love my country but somehow as I began dreaming about a better life and developing my vision for life, it became imperative that I had to leave the country for a while.

Living and experiencing a better life does not have to mean that you leave your country. In some instances a change of location might be in order but it is more a matter of disposition than position. The idea of the Better Life Company was conceived after I had altered my disposition. I had to change my outlook on life and that elevated my thinking as I began to see myself as a more productive and visionary member of society. My whole purpose in life now is to empower others with knowledge, skills, wisdom and resources that will enlighten, encourage, equip, embolden and enable them to embody the better life. My vision deep down is a world in which all people are fully empowered with all they need to live a better life.

The idea of starting the Better Life Company has been in my creative womb for almost seven years (1999 - 2006). During this gestation period there have been many attempts at shaking off the dream and letting it go for the desire to work my way up the ranks of an already established company. The fact that the dream continued to live on clearly indicated to me that this was my destiny. The Better Life Company will be unveiled and nurtured into an excellent organization. As the organization grows, it will give birth to different susidiaries which will endeavor to realize this vision in many different areas of life. We can all achieve a better life. The best is yet to come. I want to encourage you to join me as we both give our very best in helping others attain a better life.