My Berlin Story

Am happy to report that a story i did about my SIFE team’s travel to berlin was published by The African Executive Magazine.
You can read it here

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My German trip.

I went on a few days trip to Berlin as a participant to the SIFE world cup. The team from my university emerged the top in Kenya, and was representing the same at the global event.
I would start by saying that, this was my first trip to the developed world. Yes, there exist a wide gap between them and the third world where i come from. It was also my first time to board a train, and i loved it. Kenya has no train service in my home town of Eldoret. Having numerous trains running on time supplimented by buses makes Berlin’s public transport friendly.
My team was booked at the Estrel hotel & convention center for the whole duration of the trip. During our free times we toured the city beating the cold with hot serving when we got them.
The whole experience was eye opening. The opportunities of networking with over 800 students from 40 countries and their faculty persons, together with business personalities from the SIFE business council which includes: bayer, kpmg, T-mobile, etc.
Another opportunity was of seeing what SIFE teams from all over the world have done in their communities in terms of teaching about free enterprise. Teams had marvelous projects with great impact.
The event organizers deserve all the kudos, they made it fantastic. I feel so privileged to have attended the SIFE world cup 2009 as a winner from Maseno university, Kenya.

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HARNESSING HUMAN CAPITAL

The winners of the 21st
Century and beyond are those who can project the “global village” melting pot
into the future, factor in current trends and upcoming trends, and position themselves either out of
harms way or into the path of prosperous progress. In conclusion, your future is your destiny to create!
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I am fascinated by technology, people and how the two have influenced each other. Humans have gone
to a great extend to create physically what they conceive in their minds.
My greatest concern is the misuse of natural resources and lack of food especially in Africa to feed the
hungry, not because we as citizens in our actions and our leadership have failed to look into the future
and decided to live from hand to mouth.
From the global recession to our own examples of companies that have succumbed to credit troubles or
are suffering it’s effects like GTV, Nu-metro, Discount Securities and so on, and with greedy citizens
jumping into schemes that swindle them their monies, leaving them exposed to a harsh capitalistic
economy that doesn’t quench their thirst for free. I see a population/society lacking in leadership. Its
lacking in vision of the future, and the need to evaluate the opportunity cost of our activities and
investments.
I believe that our creator wants us to do the best we can, where we are with what we have now. I also
believe that when given the opportunity, several, people who are currently suppressed by the economic
consequences of their previous leadership choices, would say and contribute substantially to our overall
development, tapping into the inventions and innovations of those ahead of us and sway society away
from harm by factoring in all the stakes at hand.
It is unfortunate that some animals are more equal than others as portrayed by George Orwell in his
book ‘animal farm’, and seem to want to retain the status quo that is pointing our country’s
development in the wrong direction.
Great journeys begin with a single step that has already been made for our country. This is evidenced by
the several leadership programs for young people. In as much as we know experience teaches, it’s also
true that idle knowledge does nothing. I wholeheartedly support initiatives that seek to empower young
people into positions that are influential in the society as entrepreneurs filling a need, civic leaders and
even business leaders. Young people act as a radar and assist the much experienced young leaders of
yesterday to see that the iceberg is not as small as it looks over water, so that we don’t sink the
‘titanic’
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. I take opportunities that come my way and am the change I want to be.

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Excerpted from “Profitable Insights and Observation from the desk of Lewis Laughlin”
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Titanic, Disaster, one of the worst maritime disasters in history. The luxury liner Titanic (46,000 gross tons) on
its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City struck an iceberg about 153 km (about 95 mi) south of the
Grand Banks off Newfoundland just before midnight on April 14, 1912. Of the more than 2,220 persons aboard,
about 1,513 died. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Guestless meeting

Am part of a team that is supposed to represent kenya at a global event. The SIFE world cup in berlin. Over the years winning teams have been financed by their universities, well wishers and the SIFE business council. As a team we therefore decided to approach our admin for support in hosting potential supporters and selling to them our proposals. Getting that was a nightmare by itself, with most office bearer not committing theirselves to the event. After a week of haggling and begging, we managed to get the dean, pr and student welfare guys onboard. We even got a laptop, projector and the boardroom. Things that students don’t even get from the university. We did our lines, dressed smartly, confirmed guest, and waited. Everything ready. Then an hour passed and we started getting the bottled water meant for the guests down our throats. Two hour later we was having an impromptu party, playing Gta san andreas on wide screen projector at the university boardroom enjoying the sodas and others. Talking out our disappointments and suprises. Then we did our meeting, called it a day emerging a stronger team. It was a good thing that the guests did not show up. We learnt alot informally.

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