Choices

 

414

You have two choices in life; to enjoy what you do or do what you enjoy. The rest is up to you.

Character

 

 

Nobody likes failure and everyone loves success. But character is the sum of failure and success.

Thoughts - 416

STRATEGY

STRATEGY

Strategy is translating ideas into action. It is neither an art nor a science, it is a discipline. It takes effort. And though there are methods that make it understandable for a group of people to work on a single project, it is also intuitive, responsive and proactive by design. Its success depends more on the advancement of the situation than an immediate solution. It focuses on resolution and is therefore progressive situational and comprehensive.

Strategy is independent of education, experience, background or privilege. It is framed by these things, but is more initiative and application than knowledge exposure or understanding. It is the combined wisdom and considered counsel of a person or group of people. It is vision in action expected of a leader but used by anyone who aims to achieve anything.

Strategy builds recreates, reframes in the short term, long term and medium term. IT is independent of paradigms, systems and structures. These are its building blocks. Strategy works in these things. Those who are unable to develop strategy are stuck in a time zone, culture or attitude even though it may need reform. Without strategy a community will not develop, it will need AID, funding as people perish.

Strategy implies ownership, copyright and patent. Without strategy a person or a community has no right to these things. Without strategic input, you cannot own a project. He who has the strategy owns the project. Another word for strategy is funding, technical assistance that mobilizes mental and material resources for a cause. Funding follows strategy. Funding or resources do not inspire strategy. Strategy will mobilize and attract resources.

Strategy is the relationship between vision and task. If there is no relationship between the two then whatever is happening is mere activity. The functions of strategy are planning, logistics organization and administration. Strategy is founded on hope, expectation, faith and work. It anticipates success and evades failure. It is justified by opportunity and inspired by achievement

Allan

August 2010

Religious Unity

 

There Can Be Religious Unity!

Can there be such a thing as religious unity? How can it be when we are so different in faith, dress and culture?  How can it be when you are a Jew and I am a Hindu? How can it be that me, a Catholic, can work with a Muslim and be one nation? Should I convert you to my religion so that we can work together? If we integrate the good of religion to better the nation, we will achieve religious unity.

Every man and woman is religious. No man has ever been able to abandon his god, as much as any man can abandon a personal vice. It does not matter that this god be gold, good looks or grass. Every man and woman will live by the principles, virtues and values of their god or their personal vice. 

In Africa, all nations are made up of many people groups and clans. In these nations, people groups may claim superiority by numbers, wealth and culture or even religion. No nation can get rid of people groups, yet no nation can survive, or succeed, unless people groups unite in the purpose of nationhood. What matters is not the tribe we come from, but that each of us does our duty to the nation.

Religion is spiritual. Religion has a duty to worship God. Religion has a duty to bring men to God. That is a good thing, but driven by competition for numbers we try to dominate each other. We strive to multiply our numbers by methods and means that are sometimes questionable to prove that we are the superior religion. This only removes the focus from our duty to the nation to our differences of opinion.

I have a dream like Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King. I have a dream where black, white, yellow and orange live together in one nation. A nation where people are judged not by their colour, but the content of their character. I have a dream that we can build a great nation by working together. I have a dream that today we will learn the principles of this present reality. The reality that, as iron sharpens iron, we can hone the harmony that will heal all the nations of the earth.

I have a dream where people will not be judged by their religion, but by the virtue of their values. I believe that competition is good if it is driven by devotion to godly values. If competition is driven by the principles of a virtuous life on which God and all men agree such as humility, chastity, equality, forgiveness and love for your fellow man, then I would love to live in such a nation, because godly values have no religion. I would love to live in a nation where no man has to convince me by the principles of doctrine to join in his worship, but rather where I will be attracted to worship God with him by the virtue of his life. I have no business to challenge you to change your religion if my testimony does not speak to you first.

So what is my object? The matter I submit to you is not what tribe, religion or nation you belong. My object is that we belong to a nation and it is our duty to inspire that nation to unity, acts of charity and the fear of God. We may have our differences on matters of faith and belief, but it is our common duty to ensure that the people of the nation, in which we live, give up personal vices and uphold the virtues and values of a godly nation. In this one duty, we must properly represent God.

The fact that we are religious is only evidence that we all seek after God.  Though we live in a physical kingdom, we live by the virtues of the spiritual kingdom. We belong to two nations. We are a people of privilege. We have always had dual citizenship.

 Our focus should be on the well-being of the nations and the eternal destiny of humanity. Our duty is to give hope and courage to mortals in this world and prepare them to meet God on the other side. If we do this well, it will not matter to which religion we belong, but that we will have done the will of God. Yes, we can unite for the good of the nation!

Allan Bukusi, 7-8-2010

MBA

 

Build your house and get an MBA

 

In my father's day, an average civil servant could buy a house if he planned his income well. He could also afford a mortgage and get a housing company to do the planning for him. In those days the government would pay you to live in your own house. Today the thought of owning a house is beyond the means of the average income earner. It is a dream. Mortgages are available, but you need an upper level six figure incomes to access them. Anyone with a five figure income or lower six figure salary must find another to their dream house. In reality, a house is not a dream, it is a necessity.

 

When you consider that rent consumes between 30 -60% of your income you know you need a house. If you are not living in your own house, you are working very hard for your landlord – your family comes next. By owning a home of your own you can recover the money which you give away as rent. Renting a house is not an investment. Rent does not make you rich. However, it does make your landlord wealthy. When you arrive at this point in your career you are ready to build a house. If you never come to this financial understanding of your circumstances you will never build a house.

 

Now that you are psychologically ready and sufficiently motivated to own a house, the obvious place to start is check with a mortgage companies. After a thorough search of what is on offer in finance institutions you will realize that it will take you 15-25 years to own a house - if you can keep up your current salary and maintain your current expenditure for all those years. Two problems make you think carefully about whether you can successfully service a mortgage. One is that you will be retired before 25 years are up. Two, the rising cost of living and your growing family will not allow you to contain your expenditure the way you would like.

 

The option you have remaining is to build your own house. A friendly contractor will price your dream house at a figure close to the offer made to your by the housing company. This may make you give up your dreams but because you are serious about building, you sit down and work through "how to build a house". You will find that there are five elements to the process. There is land, design, materials, manpower and management.  The price of the house will be determined by this building mix.

 

If you insist on building in a high cost area, the price of building the house will go up on account of the land. If you choose some "undeveloped" freehold land, you will significantly reduce your land cost.  Choose a modest house design if you want to build and move into your house during your lifetime. In the old days our people built houses with mud and sticks. Many of these houses not attractive by today's standards lasted many years. These days' people insist on cement. There is no difference in function. Both these structures provide a dwelling place. My point is that there are major cost and labor implications based on the material you will use. You will need specialized manpower to build your dream house if you are not a contractor. And finally you can save yourself a huge amount of money by becoming the project manager yourself. Tailor your dreams to fit your reality. Now you are ready to begin.

 

The process I have just described in the previous paragraph also outlines the process steps of actually building your house. You will first of all need some money to buy some land.  If you have some savings – great! If you are a member of a cooperative this could also be your first stop for finance. If you have experience in buying a car or other large asset, you already have the competence to successfully manage asset finance. Use that skill to arrange your finances to obtain the money you need. Tip - Do not go for the loan before you have identified the land.

 

The process buying land is a tedious for a beginner. Be warned that the process is fraught with conmen. There is a legal process for buying land in Kenya. I plead with you to engage the help of a friendly lawyer who will advise you on the process of purchase and acquiring a title deed. Your lawyer may charge you for the services, but you will never regret the services of a good lawyer. Many people have lost their money and the dream of owning a house because they chose to save money by not engaging legal help. Year one.

 

The design process is one you can begin at home with your spouse and family. Draw sketches of what you would like. With the help of a builder or designer you can quickly come round to what you can afford. My only tip here is plan the house to be homely. Don't build a house just to impress your neighbors. Make it simple, manageable and a place you could live in forever. During this year plant trees on your land. Toy with ideas of landscaping and begin to enjoy your purchase. As often as you can take your family to the land for picnics. Make your family part of the dream. Ask them to work with you and help you save for the building project. Enjoy the journey with them do not make it stressful. By the end of the year you will have paid back a significant part of the money on the land and will have settled on a manageable design. Year two.

 

In your third year start gathering materials. You will find that you can set up a site house and begin to accumulate the basic materials such as stones and sand, identify a hardware store where you can make arrangements for supply of building materials. Consider all the logistics you need to put into place like water for building and transport for the materials so that when you start building you are not held up by undue delays.

 

Identify a competent builder who can interpret your plan and build the house and guide you on the building process. You may want to have your designer supervise the construction process too. All this is preparatory work. Make sure the builder quantifies the costs of the four phases of construction as accurately as possible. Foundation, walls, roofing and finishing. As a rule of thumb the cost of the "foundation" and "finishing" are the largest. This knowledge will help you plan your cash flow to manage the building process. You can take a short break at the completion of each phase. Year three.

 

Begin the works in year four. You will have saved up money to transfer the plan from paper to the plot. If you had taken a cooperative loan you will have finished the land loan and be ready to take a building loan. This is the year you take up your project manager role. Supervise all stages of building and be on hand to correct any queries that come up during the building process. Expect to spend evenings, weekends, much of your free time and extra money on phone calls making decision about the building. You will have two jobs – your regular job and your new job as site manager. Year four.

 

Year five will be an exciting year. You will want to move in as soon as the house is habitable. You will be filled with joy as you thank God that you have nearly completed the impossible. You will need to keep the discipline and determination to finish the job properly. Some people are happy with 80%. Put in that extra effort to finish it well. The attraction of moving in and saving all that annual rent is overwhelming. Congratulations! Year five.

 

 By the end of year four, you will have developed excellent project management skills. I can guarantee you that building your own house will not just build you a house, but also make you a better manager, organizer and leader. It will not be the only house you will build in life. You will confidently manage family, church, community projects, business assignments with excellence because you had the courage to build a house. You will have gained competence you never knew you had in you. As you move into your house you will have earned your MBA (Master of Building Abodes). Building your own house builds you as a person.

 

 

Allan Bukusi

August 2010

 

Training

 

Excellent Training

 

Reforms attitude, polishes skills until to become competence and provides not just knowledge but know-how.

Allan Bukusi

August 2010

Man & Destruction

 

MAN & DESTRUCTION

All men, women and children tend to destruction. We work hard to destroy everything we are given be it toys, children family, homes property and our very lives. It is a human thing that is only checked by the salvation experience. But this does not put a stop to the madness, only the grace of God turns to construction. Those who never become constructive do not understand redemption.

Many "virtuous" people remain destructive and refuse to play a role in their own redemption. Many more refuse to take responsibility for their success or even attempt to work out their own salvation. They fear construction. We keep our destructive nature as a sacred pet which we use to make people have pity on us by showing them how hopeless we are.

Allan

September 2010