⭕️ Lessons from Kenya: Part 1

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Hey there,

Mambo vipi? (Greeting in Swahili)

As you may have seen on my Instagram, I have been on a 6 week speaking tour across Kenya with my friends Sam Demma and Brian Nyambego empowering young people across the country.

So far, we have gone to 14 schools speaking to over 4100 students and had 4 media interviews (including Kenya’s biggest radio show).

I know I said I will take a step back from writing here this summer, but we’ve almost reached the halfway point of the tour and there have been so many takeaways that I couldn’t resist myself from sharing.

read time: 8 mins

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Opportunities This Week

In addition to these, here’s the living document of 25+ Youth Leadership Opportunities.

Stories from Kenya: Part 1

1) Secret to Life from a 95 year old:

They are currently protests going on in Kenya and on one of the days, we had to cancel our engagements and leave the city to a safer location.

So our friend Kamata decided to take us to his village in Gatundo and as part of that we met his family and friends growing up.

One of the people that we met was his 95 year old grandad - he was super funny and had so much energy.

He shared with us stories about the founding father of Kenya and how they got independence, reminded us about Adam and Eve and how we are all brothers and sisters and shared stories about his family tree.

Seeing how sharp his memory was and the amazing energy he possessed, I couldn’t stop myself from asking him - “What’s the secret to a long life”?

This was his response:

His relationship with God. He spends hours every day praying and meditating. He felt so confident about it and thanked God for everything he has.

Religious or not, my takeaway from this was it’s important to have a sense of spirituality.

When we talk about our wellbeing, we often talk about our mental and physical wellbeing. But we often forget our spirtual wellbeing.

Living in North America where there is so much emphasis on the materialistic world, I often forget about this piece and it’s something I want to takeaway from this experience.

2) Don’t Play for the Points, Play for the Love of the Game:

This is one of the ideas my friend Sam Demma shares in his keynote to the students.

And it’s been so relevant to the phase I am in right now.

In my last newsletter, I talked about how my whole life I have always been so reactive with my decisions and what I spend time working on.

From an early age, our systems are built in a way where you’re incentivised to play for the points - whether it is getting good grades at school for uni apps, maintaining a GPA for your job apps, or performing at work to get that next promotion.

I saw this idea of playing for the love of the game come to life when we visited one of our friend’s dad John O’lander who was 70+ years old.

Even though his main business is a drilling company, he spends most of his time at an art workshop making handmade leather products.

He gave us a tour around his showroom and workshop, and with every product he had a story about it.

I could see his eyes lit up when he showed us this one leather bag he spent hours designing and stitching.

When we asked him “How long did it take you to make it?”

He quickly replied - one month.

I was left with inspiration hearing that.

I couldn’t remember the last time I spent a whole month working on only one thing. And simply doing it just because I loved doing that.

We sometimes get so caught up in the day to day trying to run after the next thing that we lose that inner child in us that loved building and making things.

John loved his craft and by doing what he loves, he built a successful business from it with his pieces selling for a minimum of a couple hundred dollars.

Ask yourself, if you’re playing for the points or for the love of the game?

3) Habits of a 24-year old International Speaker and Best-selling Author: 

One of my biggest inspirations and mentors has been Sam Demma.

Sam’s story is interesting - he worked his whole teenage life to become a professional football player (it’s not soccer), got a full-ride sports scholarship to go to a Division 1 college in the US only to get multiple career ending injuries before he could start.

Sam went back to high school, did an extra year and learn’t a life changing lesson from one of his teachers on how to change the world: Small, Consistent, Actions.

And he did exactly that. He decided his Small, Consistent, Action would be picking up trash on his way back home from school.

This eventually turned into a whole organization that has picked up 3000+ bags of waste and given 6000+ volunteer hours to young people.

This led Sam to find his passion for public speaking.

So he decided to drop out of university after a month and a half and go full time on speaking.

Over half a decade later, Sam has done 600+ events across North America, done multiple tours and has a best-selling book: Empty Your Backpack.

So when Sam invited me to take his tour to Kenya, it was a no brainer.

Even though it was voluntary and I had to take out 2 months away from work, I knew the best way to learn from my biggest mentors is to just shadow him.

I’ve always dreamed of a career in public speaking and writing my own book one day - what better way to learn about it then to spend time with someone that has done it successfully.

I have always wondered what’s the secret behind Sam’s success that most people don’t see.

Here’s a couple habits, I have noticed in the last couple of weeks:

1) Not using his phone first thing he wakes up. Most of us do this as our first thing. Using your phone first thing can affect your remaining day depending on the content you consume.

2) Morning Routine: Journal, meditate, read and then start your day.

3) “I don’t make promises I can’t keep”. This is the phrase Sam uses when he wants to say no to something. One reason for his success is being honest and strict about what he commits his time to.

4) Movement every day: Your internal environment creates your external. No matter where we are, Sam makes sure he does a workout every day. Sometimes it’s as simple as a couple pushups, situps and squats in our small hotel room.

5) Remember people’s names: Everyone we meet - from the waiter at the restaurant to a staff member at the school, Sam makes sure he remember’s people’s name and addresses them with it.

6) Give, give and give (even when no one notices): there have been so many moments in this trip that Sam has done things (small and big) in silence without taking any credit for it.

I can write a whole book about some of the other things I have noticed but I will leave it for another day.

Hope you can takeaway something from this.

My friend, I am starting to get some clarity in terms of what I want to do after this trip. I have slowly started working on things and I am excited to be on this journey with you.

I just want to show some gratitude for giving me a chance and being part of this community I want to build. I feel lucky that I get to have this platform and go through both ups and down with you.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, friend.

Sending you good vibes from Kenya,

With love,

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