Bagamoyo beach is beautiful, especially this morning. The weather is cool and you can hear the sounds of ocean waves as they flow slowly at the shores of the Indian Ocean. The beach is clean and it’s nice walking along enjoying the sea view while breathing slowly imagining God’s creativity and what he has endowed us with on this beautiful planet.
Yesterday I decided to give myself a break to Bagamoyo just to regroup my mind and explore the beauty of the universe. This morning I woke up earlier because I wanted to explore more about Bagamoyo and as I was walking along the beach I came across some buildings which looks very old but very unique. If I am not mistaken they should be 400 years old but you could see a peculiar architectural work which still seems to be very strong. I met some few fishermen around and had an opportunity to ask a bit of a history about the buildings and am told that this is what used to be the slaves’ departure point during East Africa’s most famous slave trade when thousands of our grandparents were degraded to the level of commodities being shipped to work in plantations in Europe.
That’s the essence of the name Bagamoyo which emanates from Swahili word ‘Bwagamoyo’ literally means ‘no more hope’. In fact as our grandparents reached this place before being shipped to Europe, they lost all the hope not only about meeting their children, wives and friends again but also about their own fate as a number of them died on sea before reaching Europe. The story of this place has reminded me something very powerful in life and this is hope. Hope is what makes us keep moving even during our deepest tragedies in life. Hope gives life a meaning and a reason to find life worth living even when things are falling apart.
As I write today it’s almost 400 years since our grandparents lost hope right here at Bagamoyo. Now there is no more slave trade and you and I can walk around freely enjoying the sea breeze like this. But this does not mean that life is now beautiful and there is nothing to make us lose hope anymore. Probably, the things we are going through now are as bitter as what our grandparents experienced during slave trade.That we have every reason to lose hope and fall apart.
Few meters from the beach, there is a resplendent modern structure designed in a way that makes a balance between African art and modern architectural structures. I like the name, Millenium Hotel, here is where I slept and looking around gave me a lot of fascinating ideas about life and what can a human being accomplish in life. I arrived here at night yesterday and couldn’t really see this simple but beautiful structure properly. But when I walked around this morning, I started to ask myself difficult questions; I presume that this place was just a jungle before this structure was put in place. And probably, the owner had a dream but didn’t have enough capital to put this structure on. I don’t know the owner but I think what he had in mind was more powerful than the money. He had two things; a dream and hope.
In my seven years of entrepreneurial career, I have learnt that most of us have brilliant ideas even more that what I have seen here at Bagamoyo but we never put our ideas to life because we lose hope even before we try, because our dreams are too big compared to what we think we have to make them a reality. If God would have given you the power to see the amazing ideas people have, you would be amazed how this world would have been if these ideas could be implemented. May be we could have devices which tells you what will happen at your home tomorrow, maybe we could have a machine which can fly to Europe within a minute, who knows?
When the white brothers were working on an idea to invent an airplane, were seen insane. At that time never on earth was ever been made a machine that could fly like birds. Some argued that the white brothers were challenging God. Until when the airplane was made and people could fly is when people saluted the white brothers and the rest is history. It also happened to Joseph Mfugale one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in Tanzania, founder of Peacock Hotel. Mfugale started as a mere carpenter to go on establishing one of the very successful hotel chains in Tanzania. A standard four leaver, Mfugale had a dream to become rich and had the guts to overcome all the obstacles on his way to achieve his dream. One day I invited him to speak at East Africa Speakers Bureau’s entrepreneurship Master Class and he said “ When I was building Peacock Hotel in the early 1990s, most people laughed at me saying this hehe thinks is clever more than anyone, how can local guy own a hotel? ” he explained
Many of our ideas are killed before they are implemented because we are most likely to receive discouragements than encouragements. Like for the white brothers and other many people whose ideas changed the world, human beings never think that something is possible until it’s done. I understand that you might have abandoned a lot of your brilliant ideas because someone told you that it will never work or you just thought that you are not good enough or thinking that it is too big for you. You are not different from many achievers. It always looks impossible at the beginning because starting is always challenging. It’s just like when you learn driving, starting a car is always an issue especially when you are told to put on a gear while releasing the clutch and pressing the accelelator. But what works always is courage. The courage to make something happen and the courage to accomplish your dream. It’s doesn’t matter what that dream is, what matters is for you to make your dream a reality.
Nothing is impossible. You can always build something from absolutely nothing. You can be the next IPP, you can build an empire like National Housing, you can be the next Stephen Jobs, and you can do anything from absolutely nothing. We human beings have the creative power. All the great structures you see in the cities of New York, Paris and Pretoria were once an idea by a person like you and me. Coca cola and Toyota was once an idea. What idea do you have now? How big it is?
Have the courage to pursue that dream and here are some few tips to assist you in your journey. Don’t look at where you stand today; look at where you want to be.
- Have the picture of what you want to accomplish in life and imagine that you already have what you want. Imagine the model; the structure and everything you would wish to have
- Start reading about, learning the stories and talking to people who have walked the path you want to take, learn their challenges; their golden rule to success and their philosophy
- Look at yourself and the things that are within your reach that you need to transform your idea into a reality. Start small with the things that are within your reach but have a big dream in your mind knowing exactly what you want but not necessarily how you will make it happen because the HOW will come in a process
- You don’t need to have a perfect idea but start doing something about your idea and you will keep on shaping your idea as you move along. Always remember that you will always have a room to improve your idea but the courage to jump start something will give you a reason to move on even when you will meet people who will discourage you to abandon your burning desire
- Always look outside the box and find out alternative ways to make your idea more appealing and unique. For instance you can travel away from home just to explore different opportunities and the environment which could support your idea
- Be selfless and open minded. Invite or keep like minded people who will give you support, connections, moral encouragement, guidance or cooperate with you to accomplish your dream It may look like a nightmare but it is always as simple as this.I remember when we started National Tour Operator Ltd, which is in the car hire and tour business, www.nationaltours.co.tz we did not even have a single car. What we had was a dream and hope that our dream would one day be a reality. And this is what exactly happened. There are a lot of many other stories to make you believe that it’s doable. God will never give you a dream without the means to pursue it. If you believe in God, believe that you are created in his own image and that the power to create something from absolutely nothing is also within you.
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