I’m MD now. This means I’m an owner in the business. I don’t just have a sense of ownership (like back then in the General Manager (GM) days) but it’s actually my problem now – it’s a little scary but that’s what makes it all the more exciting. I committed to writing a blog every month this year so here goes. I feel strongly in my heart to share my journey to this point. You see, I’ve always said yes to being a leader, a prefect in school, the president of the debate club and when I first became GM, leadership was not unfamiliar territory – being “the head nigga in charge” is my thing, or so I thought, because I later realised that, it’s easier said than done. Being a natural born leader is a thing but it’s not a thing. It’s a thing at a basic level; lead by example and stand at the front of the line like in school. As you advance in leadership, things become a bit more sophisticated and you have to start over. Go back on a journey of self discovery and unlearn some of the trash you learnt when puberty hit and respect amongst your peers was one of the most important things in life – fitting in as we famously called it. If you didn’t fit-in you were not living your best life. Believe it or not it changes a human being. In the book; The Psychology of Procrastination, Dr.Hayden Finch, PHD writes about our brains being capable of changing. “… new pathways are built all the time, and sometimes new neurons grow.” What this means is that if you practice certain habits consistently over time they become part of your character, you become a person who exercises or who wastes time, good and bad alike. Most times these changes happen subconsciously, we change and we call it growing up. Great leadership is deliberate. Whilst natural born gifts are good, great leaders are made not born. I went on a journey of self authoring and personal development and that is when the real journey began. I’m still on the journey. This is not the story of how I became MD though, this is the summary of the crucial things I’ve learnt that propelled me on my journey: I’m writing this almost like a letter to anyone that aspires to be a leader and can’t wait to get there, tell people what to do and enjoy their life because there was a time when I thought that was the Boss’ M.O. In the past five to six years I’ve learnt five important lessons:-

Time spent reading is never time wasted. Reading improves your vocabulary so you always sound smart when you speak, that, motivating as it sounds is not the main thing though. The main thing is that, that thing you are struggling with right now has been explained in detail and published. When you read the book it will all make sense. Over 90% of life’s challenges have been experienced before.

Time management is one of the greatest skills you can ever master. Let’s do a quick exercise, think about the amount of money you get paid every hour, you can even choose to do the exercise using minimum wage or use that number that you believe is your “true” hourly rate, take that number and multiply it by the amount of time you spend doing various activities. Say you are using UGX 5,000 per hour, if you spent 2 hours gossiping, that is a UGX 10,000 investment in gossip. The higher your hourly rate the higher your investment. Great time management is investing appropriately in the activities that will enable you to achieve your goals.

You need to be in the right company. Surround yourself with people that want to see you succeed. Remember you are investing your time in these people and they are investing their time in you. Be deliberate about the friends you make. Make sure it’s people that you can learn from and can teach something.

Find yourself a mentor. You can invest in a professional program or find the closest suitable person within reach and shadow them. Whichever way you choose to do it this will shorten your journey to the corner office.

You never arrive and you get to put in the work. Stay away from dead people goals: It’s tempting to become content and complacent especially when you feel like you have achieved much. There’s a famous saying, “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” BUT it’s also said that, “Just cause it ain’t broke, doesn’t mean that it’s as good as it gets.”

And, so I choose to take on challenges with a skip in my step knowing that I’m living life at it’s best.