Mind Your Business #1

By Ralph Karama

Mind your Business! Is a statement I often hear. I then ponder and wonder what business these people refer to. The understanding many of us have of a business is one that sells cakes, clothes or even jewelry. Contrary to this, I believe our lives are our sole proprietorship.

Applicable to all businesses is the urgency to keep records. Today we handle the cash book as an essential business record. It is important for one to keep track of your income in flow, debit and credit not forgetting your balance. Now I am not talking about the income coming into your compartment because of selling something, but rather your personal income.

This right here is a sample of a cash book.

BRENDA’S PERSONAL CASHBOOK

Date	Opening Balance	Credit (Money Coming In)	Debit (Money moving Out)	Closing Balance
19th May	20,000/=	50,000/=	25,000/=	45,000/=

In this case Brenda started her day with twenty thousand, received fifty thousand and spent twenty five thousand. She therefore ended the day with forty five thousand Uganda shillings.

It is expedient for us to understand that “minding our business” involves keeping records of a number of things that happen in our lives. Finance being just one of them. Otherwise our businesses will fail. Well who wants an unsuccessful life?

So are you minding your business?

At Kyusa we empower out of school youth with business development skills including record keeping in business which can clearly be applied in our personal lives as demonstrated above.

It is much easier to prepare yourself for the future than preparing a future for yourself. Start now. Mind your business!

REWRITE YOUR SCRIPT – DO NOT BLEND IN

Most of us live our lives the way our parents lived theirs. We are told to follow family traditions. Statements like “this is how it has always been done” have been drummed in our ears so loud that we hear it every time we feel we want to try something else.

Knowing that I can write my own script according to my uniqueness yet not violating the universal principles is very liberating.

We were all created with a purpose. Finding that purpose and living according to it makes you stand out and not blend in.

I have heard it said that if any two things are the same, one is irrelevant. Why then do we live in a copy, paste mode? It is like trying to fit a square box in a round hole.

Rewriting your own script takes understanding who you are. It means you having to take a S.W.O.T analysis. Find out your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  This self- examination is the answer to rewriting your own script.  The great philosopher Socrates said “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

Examine yourself by your values, beliefs, expectations, attitude and actions. This will give you the permission to live your life unapologetically. For it is when you find yourself, that you will be significant and not live in the shadows of other people.

At Kyusa, we cover Self Management as one of our modules and this has helped our Change Agents to discover their personalities and identify their passion. When you find yours, you will REWRITE YOUR OWN SCRIPT AND STAND OUT NOT BLEND IN.

YOU’RE UNIQUE: LIVE IT

 ``The greatest enemy of great is good,’’ your greatest enemy is yourself; the voice within that keeps telling you to be like other people. You then end up trying to be like others and live a mediocre life. You even labor so hard to dress like them, speak, walk and even produce the exact products when it comes to business.

A Congolese proverb says, “wood may remain ten years in water, but it will never become a crocodile.” You can never change who you are but can ignore it. You only declare yourself a slave when you decide to depend on other people’s opinions to drive your life instead of focusing on your creativity that God created you with.

If you have no plans for yourself, you shall only be part of other people’s plans which defies the greatness you ought to display. Trying to copy other people’s lifestyles has killed originality which would have birthed all good things according to John Stuart Mill. You need to resist imitation and live the unlimited life. You must learn to be yourself in everything that you do.

Imitation is limitation and no one ever becomes great by imitation. You therefore need to make your own impression and dare to be who you are in leadership, entrepreneurship, business, employment.

At Kyusa, we take the youth through modules like self management, planning, business development, creativity and innovation. We encourage our change agents to discover who they are so that they are able to serve their unique gifts to the world and live life out of their unique ability.

Therefore, let us partner in this venture of raising passion driven change agents who desire to be great by being who they are.

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change…….Carl Rogers