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My Once-Molly (The Job To Be Done),











My dear Molly, how are you? I hope you are good. I am well as well can be, with the flooding, the inflation, and all. Anyway, grapevine (or maybe, I am a stalker) has it that you are nowadays into the beauty business. Very soon, I too will be emulating you. We may be compatible at all, conquer the world together as business icons.

My dear Molly, it may interest you to know that I am doing business training – my bank, UBA, and its founder, Tony Elumelu, is that special. Always seeking to empower African entrepreneurs. The excellent thing about the training is that it is very practical to today’s and the coming future business needs. As a matter of course, we also are directed to additional reading to widen our entrepreneurial minds.

The Job To Be Done. Clayton M. Christensen. In the words of Johnny Nash, ‘I can see clearly now that the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles on my way…’ What a beauty this is! It is something you should look up, understand what is it you are selling to your customers… rather, what it is they are buying from you.

My dear Molly, I have slept in Karen – proper aristocracy, the place. New money, the individual. Grew in the village, came to the city, started a business, became a tycoon… and what did I apply on my skin? Arimis. You remember when a designer drew a near design for the product and Kenyans condemned the design in droves? The Job To Be Done. Arimis has nailed that.

So, yesterday was Labour Day. How did I spend my day? Locked up in the house. I could have mopped over you, but instead, I read a book. ‘Shoe Dog’. Phil Knight. NIKE. It’s a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful book. The ending had me in tears. Oh, so beautiful the challenges, the persistence, the building blocks being arranged to create a unicorn... So vulnerable the author – warts and all. 

So, what is it I am selling? Stories? Community? Emotions? In the process is the becoming. ‘Becoming’. Michelle Obama. Another beautiful book, now competing with ‘Daughter of the East’, Benazir Bhutto, as my favourite autobiography. To which I have like seven versions of ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’. I firmly believe that (business) leaders should be readers. The thing about a memoir or autobiography is that it is the distilled wisdom, experience and knowledge of the author.

Plus, reading for pleasure is pleasurable, improves your language, thinking, and you are able to cross multiple borders at once. As Bob Marley sung, ‘Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds…’ In reading is there freedom.

Dear Molly, I still remember fondly that you were a reader too. At the time, though, love coloured our lives, so, you did a lot of romance. Something (again, I am not stalking anyone) tells me that you still read, and widely. Hopefully, you can share your reading list. More so, on business and entrepreneurship. At least, for the sake of the special thing we once had.

Anyway, Molly, I have said enough and you are busy running a business. I am also busy trying to build one. I am sure too, that soon, I’ll figure out ‘The Job To Be Done’. My USP. Unique Selling Proposition. Then, the sky will no longer be the limit – cliché as it is – as to what my business will be able to achieve. And while at it, change countless lives. As always, the old adage holds true. ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.’

Yours in Entrepreneurship,
Sant Mark

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