We bring you an inspirational story from businessman Eric Kinoti who is the founder of a well established company called Shades Systems. Termed as Forbes top 30 most promising entrepreneurs Eric Kinoti has gone through the rough road to be who he is today.
Here is his experience.
After completing my college diploma in Malindi, I promised myself that I would not go back home (Meru) to wait for some employment opportunity to come up, so I came to Nairobi where I stayed with 6 of my friends then. All of them depended on their parents to send them money to do everything. Since I didn’t want to ask for money from anyone and I wanted to be independent, I had to look for a way to hustle. I started buying milk from Waginge and supplying it to various shops and local hotels. I was waking up at 4 AM and by 7 AM, I will be done.
My friends who we stayed with used to mock me. They used to mock my dirty shoes and how I woke up early. They even branded me, ‘Eʀɨċ ĶÁ ĨŔĨÁ’ meaning ‘Eric wa Maziwa’. One thing they did not see or know is my vision. To me, apart from being busy while they were all still asleep, and making some money, I knew this was just a stepping stone to something big in my life. I knew this was a beginning of a great story.
You see, if life, when you try to do something different and something that is out of people’s comfort zones, you will get ridiculed, laughed at and some will even spat on you; but never ever give up. No one can ever see your vision of where you want to go better than yourself. To be big in anything, you must start somewhere. Everyday when I wake up, I thank God for the eggs I was selling back in Malindi and the milk I was supplying, because I know these two practices paved my way to where I am today.
It doesn’t matter the challenges, what matters is that you learn something everyday from the streets.
Today, take a step, start somewhere. What people think about what you are doing should not bother you, just continue chasing and following your dream.
