Yesterday I spent an unprecedented 2 hours or so thinking about what exactly I want from this gift called life. The time has come for me to do exactly what I love to do which I believe will inspire, entertain and inform you. I want to live life- experience each day as though it were my last, not dreading each day because of the challenges it brings.

With that said, I’ll be going into self-imposed hibernation to re-design my site so that I can offer flagship content- content that will change people’s lives and not be merely rants or simple musings. I’ll be spending more time (2 hours is not nearly enough to dream, plan and act on 70-odd years to come) contemplating and planning my world domination strategy. I’ll be tweeting my progress, but I won’t post a thing until I precisely plan to.

I’ve got big and mighty plans for my presence on the web, and these plans require preparation and prayer. But thanks for tuning in so far. It’s been a blast.

See you in a few months time.

~Kangai~

I’ve been putting off this exercise for a while, uniting with millions of procrastinators worldwide who hadn’t found the time to look back on what succeeded and failed in 2009. But I’ve found the time, and I even found a template from http://writingherlife.blogspot.com that I found while flipping about the internet looking for a cool way to share my achievements with the world.

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1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Learned how to really forgive, although it’s still a process.

Persistent migraines and a few allergic reactions, all due to stress.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I’d rather quote a bible verse… Actually, just read Isaiah 54…

*Re-posted with Seth Godin’s permission. This is his most recent post, as of July 30, 2009 3:00pm Kenya Time.

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“All I do is work here”

Over the past few months, I’ve had quite a few interactions with several people who work at a (previously great) brand.

One person will email to ask me for a favor or a connection, and I’ll point out that just yesterday, I got three emails, all spam, from three different people at the organization either selling me something irrelevant or sending me a press release I didn’t ask for.  And the unsubscribe button doesn’t work. And I’ve unsubscribed ten times before. When I pointed this out, he said, “Oh, that’s those guys. I’m not related to them, all I do is work here. If you don’t like getting that stuff, you should take it up with them.”

Then, a few days ago, I heard from someone in a different group at the same company, asking for help with a project she was working on. I explained that the last time I helped someone in her group with a project, I was misquoted, my time was wasted and they violated whatever trust we had. Susan said, and I’m quoting precisely the same line, “All I do is work here. They pay my salary, but I’m me, not them.”

No, Susan, you are them.

The reason your brand is falling apart is because so many of your colleagues are saying the same thing, denying the same responsibility. Consumers don’t believe (or care) that there are warrens and fiefdoms and monarchies within your company. All they know is that you leverage that brand name every day, as you have for decades, but now, instead of using that brand to polish your reputation as an individual, you’re being forced to accept responsibility for the actions of others.

Do you really think someone who worked for Bernie Madoff will go far with this line? “I’m not Bernie, I just worked with him every day and took a great salary when times were good…” Not sure what the difference is. It’s even worse in your case, because you know what’s happening. You know, but you don’t want to do anything about it.

If you’re not proud of where you work, go work somewhere else. You don’t get the benefit of the brand when it’s hot without accepting the blame of the brand when it’s wrong.

This morning I found a blog (randomly) created by 15 year-old Jordan Chank- a resident high-school student in Canada. Jordan, through the power of New Marketing (the web and all its bells and whistles) has created a platform where he can experiment with niche markets, build his brand and make some extra cash on the side (extra being around $10,000 as a consultant). He’s a programmer, linguist, consultant, web designer, coder, photographer and physics-buff.

The world is growing smaller and smaller, as globalization takes a stronghold. Having a job nowadays is not an end in itself. It actually is the end.Why? Because being simply employable and having the basic skills required for the job is one of the greatest dangers that you face.  Because once you’re employed, chances are that you’d work very hard to remain employable, especially in this age of retrenchment. Staying under the radar and not working to do something remarkable is the bane of many Kenyan employees’ existences. Having a job and standing out is a paradox in and of itself. And that’s what’ll get you retrenched.

So do what Jordan did. Work on branding yourself, on writing, on learning Nordic languages (he’s proficient in two), on traveling, on learning C++, on investing and saving… Build yourself into something more than just an easily replaceable commodity. How? Just as the world is my oyster, Google can be yours. And just because you’re so cool, here are a few resources you can use. This post also goes over a few.

Resources

1. Track your money through mint
2. Download the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People In Context
3. Wanna learn Japanese? Chinese? Hungarian? Teso?
4. Post-graduate degrees can be financed rather easily even for internationals (thanks Doreen for the heads up!) More scholarships can be found here!
5. 10 Blogs and One Site that will boost your happiness!
6. Get Rich Slowly, and make some money while you’re at it.
7. Learn how Chris travels all over the world for an average of $340 per flight!
8. Need some inspiration? Read Mariatu Kamara’s story- The Bite of the Mango or check out 1000 Awesome Things.
9. Build your résumé and post it on the web for everyone in the world t see (let me know if you need any help coming up with yours!)
10. Play Monopoly, read a random blog, or learn a new skill like knitting, deep-sea diving, public speaking or Setswana.

As Seth mentions in Meatball Sundae, “the number of individuals trained in human factors, mechanical, electrical and software engineering, and in industrial and interaction design (all at once) is small indeed. And that’s the skill set leveraged by Ideo.”

FYI: Ideo is the world’s best design company.

Pucker, finger, bootom-lip, hand, throat, teeth, roof or palatial... there are so many ways!

It seems silly to think about it, but I recently wondered whether anyone could whistle in bass. No high-pitched trills, no middle-ranged calls. Just simple, deep bass tones whose vibrations would send tingles down spines and cause girls’ nape-hairs to rise ever so subtly. But honestly- what would the challenges be? If you could overcome those challenges, what new worlds would be open to you? Where would you go? Who’s albums would you collabo with (think Akon meets Kamaru)? Which babies would you scare with your scrunched-up face focusing on producing low notes through tightly pursed lips? Which lover would you melt with your renditions of James Brown/Tim Storms hits?

On the plus (and very attractive) side- you’d be on the same level as Swiss yodellers, Andrea Bocelli, Dolly Patton or Britney Spears. You’d be on the road 46 weeks of the year, you’d rack up a couple million frequent-flyer miles, and you’d make your village of Kanyuambora quite famous, just as another famous man did for his Kogelo hometown. And if Mavuno’s resident bassist (Benja- you know who you are) works mighty hard to develop this skill, there’s no wondering where it’ll take him, and by extension- the church! Benja- this could well be your calling! Ponder over it for a while.

And think about all the other uses of the much-overlooked whistle! And now- in Bass! You’d be in demand in so many industries- communicating with aliens, deep-sea diving with whales, cow-whispering, coaxing cats from tall trees… Oh the possibilities. And think about all the competitions you’d be eligible for. You could enter the Feadaíl Irish Whistling Competition where you’d go head-to-head with past and present champions like 2003-2007’s Aníde Uí Bhennéis, whose County Limerick swayed audiences, boggled judges and made little puppies whimper in delight. How cool would it be if Benja “Umevunwa” Bassman or Boris “Mike not Makena” Mbeizz Kutoka Muthya won the title of Irish Feadaíl 2009? That would put us on the map for something other than skinnily sweating it out over 26 miles.

And did you know that the historic city of Louisburg, North  Carolina,  USA, is the world’s whistling capital? They even have a National Whistling Convention every year! How cool would it be to head to North Carolina every April to participate in “Happy Whistler’s Week”, compete against other American whistlers, take breath-control classes at the International School for Whistlers and generally shatter the international misconception that Africans live in trees and eat wild berries for lunch? (Don’t they know that their ambassador lives in the big acacia down the street, with monkeys as their ever-present neighbors? And they call us primitive!) Benja- you could show them a thing or two, being the only African bass whistler… ever! Plus each contestant gets a handy little downloadable guideline!

Question- what’s your companies whistling range? Is there one so remarkable and unforgetable that everyone who sees/hears/touches/smells/tastes it is amazed and blown out of this world?

Answer- hire or incorporate your own Benja “Umevunwa” Bassman.