Do you have eyes for work?

Macho ya Kazi was not very clever nor was he strong, but he had more wisdom than most people do. People wondered why he was able to keep a job for so long and be such a blessing to his family and community yet many strong and educated people found it difficult to sustain their families. Somehow they could never keep a job for more than a few days. The secret of His success he said, was in his name. His friends went to the city every day to look for work, while he only worked where he found it.

In the nearby city there was a business man who needed many workers. He needed one to cut the grass, another to rake the grass and another to burn the grass. He needed another to cut the trees, sweep the leaves and plant more trees. He needed another to tend the flower beds, cultivate the garden and prune the flowers. Before Macho ya Kazi went to work for this man the business man hired between 3 and 5 people every day, but usually complained loudly about how difficult it was to find good and faithful workers. All the people he hired were satisfied with pay for the day!

Macho ya Kazi was hired by the business man to cut grass on Monday. At the end of the day he said to the man, “Sir, do not pay me today, I need to come and rake up the grass tomorrow”. The next day, after raking up the grass, Macho Ya kazi said, “do not pay me today the grass needs to be burned and the trees cut tomorrow”. At the end of the third day he said to the business man. “Please do not pay me today for I need to cultivate the garden and trim the bushes tomorrow”. On the fifth day the Business man was ready to pay for the work macho ya kazi had done for the week and let him go. Macho Ya Kazi took the money and thanked the business man for the opportunity to work for him. But as the rich man turned to go, Macho ya kazi said “Sir, thank you for the pay, but the grass will have grown by Monday, can I come and cut it?”  

Many people know how to work and can be very good at it, but not enough people know how to keep a job. They do not have “eyes for work”. They walk all over it, go looking for it, but never see it even when they find it and thus keep moving from one job to anther in search of work. In doing so they leave a lot of money on the table.

“Macho Ya Kazi”  means “eyes for work” in the Swahili language.

Allan Bukusi