When you have a dream, go for it. It is however necessary to realise at the onset that achieving a dream is not a straight forward matter.
Life is not a straight line. The wise further guide that there is no elevator to success; you have to go through the stairs. People that fail to realise that the path to success is winding do easily give up.
When you are working on your dream, you are challenging yourself. You are pushing yourself beyond the limits. You are going into the territory unimaginable armed with nothing but the belief that it will work out.
In this regard, wear the armour of courage. Be ready to withstand disappointments you will encounter along the way. The only weapon you need to have is to never give up.
When Macduff Phiri left a high-paying international job to pursue an entrepreneurial dream, all started well. Life was flying. It was more like smooth sailing.
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His filling station in Mchinji was doing well. He further went into farming and all was going on well. Alas, suddenly, his employees at the filling station robbed the money and escaped. As if that was not enough, armyworms attacked his farm and his yield dwindled.
His bank was on his neck in fear of him defaulting on a K25 million loan. The bank had even to ask him to report weekly at the bank as a sign that he would not leave the country as if he was a suspect on bail.
Phiri recalls: “Life was tough. I was down. My family was down. I even nearly suffered a divorce as we were financially down.”
He knew that life had to roll on. Crying would not be a solution. One of his employees advised him to start selling chicken claws.
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Phiri had to sink that low, going to a chicken farm in Lilongwe, buying chicken claws in one cooler box for selling in townships in Lilongwe.
Eventually, one cooler box ended into two, then increased. He even offered his employee a commission on each chicken claw sold.
He eventually paid off the bank loan.
“One day, the bank manager told me that the money I was taking to the bank was dirty and that was a sign that I was struggling,” he recalls.
That sticks in his mind. That was a manifestation of the struggle he was experiencing.
As he looks back and looking at the strides he has made now with his SGR Holdings, which he serves as its Managing Director, he tells people, simply: “Life is not a straight line.”
Phiri even jokes: “Sometimes my wife asks me: ‘Did you see all this greatness coming when we were struggling?’ I just say: ‘Yes, I did but frankly speaking I was just working hard on the purpose of my life.”
Phiri is a living testimony that when you have a dream, be prepared to suffer for it. When you have a dream, you should realise that along the way, tables may turn upside down, but never give up.
When Michael Jordan was cut off from the college basketball team, he never gave up. He worked hard on his dream and became the most prominent face of the sport.
When Oprah Winfrey was told that she was not good enough for television, she knew life was not a straight line. She persevered and became an iconic television personality.
Truth be told, most successful entrepreneurial dreams were born from frustrations. People have left organisations where they were frustrated all just to start their ventures and eventually grew big. Jimmy Korea Mpatsa and Edward Kaluwa are living examples of that.
Do you have a dream? Know that it is achievable. Nevertheless, be ready to suffer along the way. It will not be achieved overnight. It will not be achieved easily. Life is not a straight line.
