Uta Do? By Agatha Verdadero

‘So…, What Do You Do?’ ‘Aaah…, I Hassle!’

If you are young like Mr. Roundsquare playing hide and seek with job interviews, then don’t let a badge of disappointment mar your brow at the realization that you didn’t land in your dream job, or put your talents where they matter most—and often in one of those a white or other lighter coloured jobs. There might just be a hope and a glimmering smile for you in form of a book. An enterprising business genius—she insists she’s no Branson or Trump in this field, but still gives inspiring and accomplished rags-to-riches stories—has come up with a Young Entrepreneur Series on how to get started and support for you business idea. To offer you ‘solid tips and practical info on what you need to know, do and say as you hustle your way into the business world.’

The book’s title Uta Do?, Sheng’s (a youth’s version of Kiswahili is a cocktail of English and Kiswahili spoken lingo spoken widely by Kenya’s youth) means what and how you would do what you have to do’, is narrated by an all-knowing omniscient, Mjuaji, whom the author utilizes to blend in with the intended young readers—in whose language she speaks—so that they can to stop dreaming and start doing what a man must do. 

In the words of Doreen Baingana, its editor, ‘you may have cleared college, or high school, but now what? Or may have worn out your pairs of shoes, and hired suits better than our Mr. Roundsquare in a bid to land into that dream job.’ But things never work out the way you wish them to, and it hits you that this was neither in the pages that you missed after reading all those books nor wasn’t taught in your bright college years.  Basically, how do you make things happen? How do get your bling-bling job kick? 

Imagine this. You wake up one morning, and BAM! It hits you! You have a novel idea for a new start up of your talents or the current passion that you could turn it into a money minting project. But before you can go to the bank, it occurs to you have no idea about the finer workings of the bank. This book offers to guide you through these rigorous processes.

It promises too, to guide you through its three-part presentations that you don’t need to be a straight-A student or an MBA graduate to grasp the concepts of entrepreneurship. You just have to be persistent and committed to your goals. You too can make it if you try if you follow the numerous success-story real life examples of all those who have made it—against insurmountable odds—to the dream of swimming in a pool filled with thousand shilling notes after someone bought into their business idea, but be prepared to sweat, bleed for its fulfillment.

One such remarkable example is Kenya’s leading chain of supermarkets’, the proprietors of Nakumatt that nothing came easy — the first principle of the school of hard knocks for you. But don’t despair, don’t give up!’ one of the proprietors advises. ‘Don’t think you’ll forever remain a non-starter. There are ways of overcoming those difficulties. And reading the book is definitely one of them.

Besides the usual preachy and often inspirational ‘God-has-plans-for-you and life-is-what-you-make-it talks, the book offers practical hints on how to struggle as a hustler (the word hustle herein used here to mean those that need others to help to realise their dream) and keep your business idea alive in the faces of your clients, without being a nuisance at the same time. Addressing her fellow netizens (we who live a good part of our lives online) in the last part—the post presentation tips—she gives great links and pages in the internet that are updated with ways of breaking into the entrepreneurship world.

For the hopeful Mr. Roundsquares, the fine art of ‘hasslin’ is not in the hasslin’ itself, but in the attitude you maintain as you do it. In the words of Oprah Winfrey, ‘the big secret in life is that there’s no such big secret. You can make it, if only you try.’  

The petit 93-paged book—devoured at one sitting—can be grabbed from most bookshops in Nairobi, or online at www.storymojaafrica.co.ke, its publishers, who offer you to publish your business ideas—if you have any burning ones. Never hesitate. Who knows? Your idea could become the next published book!

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©Roundsquare