The Vitz-Kenyan Ceiling – Finish school, get employed, buy a vitz, Tukanana

I was all smiles yesterday when I checked the comments some people had posted on my blog from a certain employee of Temenos [Is that a Dentist Firm?? Sincerely, Sijui]. I was saddened by the fact that someone who can use a computer, in 2011, could reason like the Flintstones.

Here I am with a few REAL coders like AfroWave, SoyFactor and Muniu and real entrepreneurs like Mbugua and Majani. Hustling daily to bring out some true KENYAN SUCCESS STORY. Stories of people who started from NOTHING and became THE_THING.

If you ignore the wonderful Ushahidi and the bloated ELMA [Plus a few Cool Apps like AroundMe, MedKenya, Tuvitu, NikoHapa, c_360, m-Order], there are not many apps that we can talk about as Kenyan Apps out there turning heads. Of course, we wish to add to this in  September when my crew and I will finish some euberApps that we are working on.

The comment was something to the effect that : “If you were that Good, the the CEO of CS would hire you immediately.”. I was first offended. Me? Hired? Are you on drugs? But then it all came back to me. These people are in a small-thinkers circle. Go to school, cram and get good results, finish, get a job, climb the corporate ladder [Horizontally or Diagonally], die.

To these sad group, there is no room for real inventors. All of us must be employed and slaving for some boss somewhere to be seen as successful. If your question to “Where do you work?” is something close to, “Self-employed, IT Consultant or Startup”, If you ain’t hired, then you ain’t any good. It is this thinking, common among the mediocre, that always leaves one with a lot of month at the end of the money.

I started reminiscing on the fact that the reason that I am not working at ANY company doing anything close to telco and IT is by choice. The need to be free. The knowledge that I can go to work at 10am and leave at 9PM and no one asks me questions. It comes with discipline and sacrifice.

No wonder my CV has not been updated since 2009. What for?

Trust me, I am better off working for myself at a USD 4k project a month and bag ALL the money, that get involved in a BIG USD 2000000 project and take home a pathetic USD 2000-4000 paycheck per month. Sure, you will buy your vitz, when the real coders are still on ShoeBaru, but in time, the END justifies the MEANS.

But then again, not all of us were meant to be free thinkers. Some of us are comfortable sitting behind a computer screen and insulting all the hustlers out here. Yeah, Until you get fired.

Back to code

Wazi.