From Point A to Point B: Finding the Missing Link Part 1

One of the biggest problems that has managed to vex me for a long time now is finding a concrete vision and achieving it. How do I move from a twenty something struggling campus student to be the person I see myself to be when I look into the mirror? Do I have a concrete goal and vision that can be summarized in two to five sentences? What should I do to get myself from where I am to where I want to be? I am sure I’m not the only young Kenyan (or even globally) who has had to grapple with questions and problems of this nature.

The good news is that I’m still in campus, which means that I have some time left to think through these things and come up with a definitive strategy to apply when I am let loose to roam the big, bad world. This is not to say that those who have already finished college cannot come up with their own visions and plans. It is because I view college to be the middleman between the real world and the imaginary world of children, allowing us to re-calibrate and match our expectations to reality. It is a time to grow as a person, build philosophies that will act as the clarion call for your moral compass. It is the time to lay down the foundations for the course that your life shall take, assuming everything else remains constant.

I am still in the early stages of formulating my own strategy. What I know for sure is that I should have a vision and plan for how I want my life to be within a quantifiable period of time. It is the height of folly to simply let the worldly forces present in our life to have unfettered control over your circumstances and direction in life. While some people might sugarcoat it as ‘discovering oneself’, I refuse to just sit around and wait for things to happen to me, even though I have no idea of how to bring about what I envision for myself.

When I recede deep into the dark crevices of my mind, I keep having thoughts of being a problem solver on a massive scale, dabbling in almost every sector in the global economy, with an emphasis on healthcare and financial services. While I love technology, it’s dizzying pace of advancements only serves to make me very cautious about it, which means that I will only endeavor to have a relatively small presence in this sector as compared to the rest. However, this is not written in stone. I am nothing if not a pragmatic and very rational person.

The second thing that I have discovered about myself is that working as a cog in a huge machine is not a particularly pleasing activity for me. I’d rather be at the helm, even though I am fully aware of the weight of responsibility that the position holds. Making tough decisions that affect lives profoundly is not an easy thing to do, as I am quickly beginning to discover in the hospital wards.

As such, the broad strokes of my vision for my future involve being at the helm of one or several entities that are involved primarily in healthcare and financial services, with the objective of spreading like a virus to almost every sector and niche in the economy. That only makes me seem like a hungry, lust filled modern day capitalist out to conquer the business world like a reincarnated Napoleon. However, I do not believe that this is so. I genuinely want to bring change, but I also want freedom. And I have to admit that being in control is somewhat alluring. I will not hide behind a mask of humility and pretend to only want to change the world.

I also want a good life for myself and for those that I love and will love. The definition of ‘freedom’ and ‘a good life’ is certainly going to be contentious, but to me it means being able to travel all over the world and interact with people from all corners of the world without worrying about paying my monthly bills. It also means being afforded the chance to think about small and complex problems that afflict the human race, without really having to tow the line advanced by a superior. If I want to build something outrageous that only makes sense to a few people but is still effective, I want to be able to do it without having to grovel and plead with someone who would probably not see the light. Simply put, I want to be in control over my own life, and my own decisions.

So far, I have discovered that a lot of small things that would not be deemed to be important are actually crucial to finding the missing link that will transport me from where I am right now to where I want to be in ‘x’ number of years. Information is critical. Getting exposure on a global scale with limited resources is not an easy task to do, but thankfully all you need nowadays is a good WiFi connection and a compatible device and you’re good to go. The more exposure I get, even if it is in field not related to healthcare or finance or any other core field I’m interested in, the more my mind will expand and begin to synthesize new connections between things that were previously thought to be incompatible.

Being continuously plugged into the pulsating artery of the information superhighway is crucial, for information will fuel the generation of ideas, which is the best way of bridging the gap between the Goliaths’ of today and the Davids’ like me (granted, there is another way to look at this whole David-Goliath story, but that is neither here nor there at the moment).

There is a lot more that I feel is necessary to move from point A to point B, but I have already breached the limit I have set for each single post, which means that this is a conversation to be continued later. As a parting shot, I think laying the groundwork or foundation, even when you’re not really sure of how the final structure will look like in the end, is a determining factor that will weigh heavily in making your plans succeed or fail. Laying the foundation early (and making that foundation as big as possible) will open more opportunities than any of us could imagine. This is what I’m working on at the moment, and will elaborate further soon.