It's October 10th today, a holiday that used to be called Moi day or Remembrance day but I'm no longer sure if that is still its name these days. What I am sure about is that it is a holiday, and I hate it. I have a number of entrepreneurs here at GEC who hate it as well. But wait a minute, doesn't everyone love holidays, a chance to relax, take time off, enjoy the fruits of one's labour?
Not entrepreneurs. For an entrepreneur a holiday means: lost opportunities, lost income, absent employees, delayed cheque clearances, delayed deliveries et cetera. Holidays are the number one killers of entrepreneurs.
Don't get me wrong, holidays like Christmas and Easter are welcome, even feted by entrepreneurs. But what's with these irrelevant holidays, what are we celebrating today anyway? Earlier this year there was an even more irrelevant holiday called Prayer day. And let's not forget the dubious "celebration" holiday right after the last general elections.
Understand where I am coming from, with a workforce of 11.85 million, every holiday we lose 94.8 million man hours, or in money terms: 2.4 billion shillings!! (figures from www.cia.gov ) Enough said, ban the irrelevant holidays and lets get back to work.
The year was 2014, July to be precise. I had just concluded chairing the organizing committee of the first and only Toastmasters Speech Fair and Annual Dinner event, a precursor to TEACON. This event had been a bold experiment, expanding on the traditional Toastmasters Annual Dinner by incorporating speech contests into an afternoon and evening affair. It broke many norms and conventions and succeeded thanks to a number of Toastmasters who were ready to support change. One of those Toastmasters, SEMA Toastmasters President Anthony Wang'ondu, DTM soon afterwards sent me an intriguing email. Caren Wakoli, a member of his club, sought to introduce her Ethiopian friend who was seeking connections with Toastmasters across East Africa to form a district. Now, I have a friend in Ethiopia called Yosef Fantu, a member of the Toastmasters Club in Ethiopia. He wrote to me asking to be connected to Toastmasters Kenya so that the clubs in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia can come together to establi...
Comments
We should expunge his name from all the schools, streets & definitely the "holiday"...
Will kibz want a day for himself as well?