One of the easiest things in the world is to mistake an outcome for a story. A beautiful home. A thriving business. A failed marriage. A child in an expensive school. A forty-year-old with no savings. Someone who seems to have it all. Someone who appears to have fallen behind. We see the destination and instinctively begin filling in the journey. Hardworking. Lazy. Disciplined. Irresponsible. Lucky. Entitled. Deserving. Wasteful. Perhaps the most dangerous thing about human beings is not that we judge one another. It is how quickly we become certain that our judgment is correct. Because every life has invisible expenses. Not just financial ones. The kind that never appear on a bank statement or a résumé. Some are chosen. Some are imposed. Some are wise. Some are costly mistakes. Most are a complicated mixture of both. One person reaches middle age with very little savings because they spent years paying school fees for younger siblings. Another because they repeatedly made poor financi...
If you’ve ever been invited to a ‘business opportunity’ meeting at Java by an overly enthusiastic friend promising financial freedom, congratulations! You’ve had a brush with Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), the modern-day version of being sold a dream wrapped in ‘hard work’ and Bible verses. The book Just Wait Till We Are Diamond details the harrowing journey of a child being groomed into MLM life, sacrificing normalcy, relationships, and childhood in pursuit of a rank that’s just one more motivational meeting away. Sounds familiar? It should. Because as Kenyans, we’ve been fed similar illusions of success , not just by MLMs, but by society, motivational speakers, and even our own culture of blind hustle. Let’s unpack this and find real, Kenyan solutions that work. Lesson 1: “Your Success Is in Your Hands” (But Is It, Though?) One of the biggest MLM tactics is making you believe that success is 100% within your control . If you fail, it’s because you didn’t work hard enough —not because ...