AAP Consultancy

"I was waiting in line for a ride at the airport in JKIA. When a cab pulled up, the first thing I noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for me.

He handed me a laminated card and said: 'I'm Abdullahi, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, I read the card. It said: Abdullahis Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew me away. Especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Abdullahi said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'

I said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'

Abdullahi smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, Lassi (savoury drink), water and orange juice.'

Almost stuttering, I said, 'I'll take a Lassi.'

Handing me my drink, Abdullahi said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The Star and Sun Times today.'

As we were pulling away, Abdullahi handed me another laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'

And as if that weren't enough, Abdullahi told me that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for me.

Then he advised me of the best route to my destination for that time of day. He also let me know that he'd be happy to chat and tell me about some of the sights or, if I preferred, to leave me with my own thoughts.

'Tell me, Abdullahi ,' I was amazed and asked him, 'have you always served customers like this?'

Abdullahi smiled into the rear view mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard about POWER OF CHOICE one day.

The Power of choice is that you can be a duck or an eagle.

'If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. Stop complaining!'

'Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.'

'That hit me. really hard' said Abdullahi.

'It is about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle.

I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers.The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy.

So I decided to make some changes, slowly ... a few at a time.When my customers responded well, I did more.'

'I take it that it has paid off for you,' I said.

'It sure has,' Abdullahi replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it.My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on it.'

Abdullahi made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like a duck and start soaring like an eagle.

Start becoming an eagle today ... one small step every week..next week... And next...And....

Thought for today…...

You don't die if you fall in water, you die only if you don't swim.That’s the Real Meaning of Life. Improve yourself and your skills in a different way.

Be an Eagle.
*Start everyday with a positive mindset.*"

5 THINGS THAT CAN KILL YOUR DREAM

1. Fear: Fear is one of the most significant obstacles that can stop people from pursuing their dreams. Fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, fear of what others might think - all these fears can hold you back and prevent you from taking risks or stepping out of your comfort zone.

2. Lack of focus: If you don't have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, it's difficult to work towards that goal. Without a specific target in mind, you might find yourself wandering aimlessly and lacking the drive to take action.

3. Negative self-talk: The way you talk to yourself can have a profound impact on your ability to pursue your dreams. If you're constantly telling yourself that you're not good enough, or that you'll never make it, you're likely to lose motivation and give up on your aspirations.

4. Lack of perseverance: Achieving your dreams often requires hard work, dedication, and perseverance. If you give up too easily when faced with setbacks or obstacles, you may struggle to make progress towards your goals.

5. Lack of support: Having a strong support system can make a big difference in your ability to achieve your dreams. Surrounding yourself with people who encourage and believe in you can give you the confidence and motivation to keep working towards your goals, even when things get tough.

ADVICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES

1. Build a home earlier. Be it rural home or urban home. Building a house at 50 is not an achievement. Don't get used to government houses. This comfort is so dangerous. Let all your family have good time in your house.

2. Go home. Don't stick at work all the year. You are not the pillar of your department. If you drop dead today, you will be replaced immediately and operations will continue. Make your family a priority.

3. Don't chase promotions. Master your skills and be excellent at what you do. If they want to promote you, that's fine if they don't, stay positive to your personal.
development.

4. Avoid office or work gossip. Avoid things that tarnish your name or reputation. Don't join the bandwagon that backbites your bosses and colleagues. Stay away from negative gatherings that have only people as their agenda.

5. Don't ever compete with your bosses. You will burn your fingers. Don't compete with your colleagues, you will fry your brain.

6. Ensure you have a side business. Your salary will not sustain your needs in the long run.

7. Save some money. Let it be deducted automatically from your payslip.

8. Borrow a loan to invest in a business or to change a situation not to buy luxury. Buy luxury from your profit.

9. Keep your life,marriage and family private. Let them stay away from your work. This is very important.

10. Be loyal to yourself and believe in your work. Hanging around your boss will alienate you from your colleagues and your boss may finally dump you when he leaves.

11. Retire early. The best way to plan for your exit was when you received the employment letter. The other best time is today. By 40 to 50 be out.

12. Join work welfare and be an active member always. It will help you a lot when any eventuality occurs.

13.Take leave days utilize them by developing yr future home or projects..usually what you do during yr leave days is a reflection of how you'll live after retirement..If it means you spend it all holding a remote control watching series on Zee world, expect nothing different after retirement.

14. Start a project whilst still serving or working. Let your project run whilst at work and if it doesn't do well, start another one till it's running viably. When your project is viably running then retire to manage your business. Most people or pensioners fail in life because they retire to start a project instead of retiring to run a project.

15. Pension money is not for starting a project or buy a stand or build a house but it's money for your upkeep or to maintain yourself in good health. Pension money is not for paying school fees or marrying a young wife but to look after yourself.

16. Always remember, when you retire never be a case study for living a miserable life after retirement but be a role model for colleagues to think of retiring too.

17. Don't retire just because you are finished or you are now a burden to the company and just wait for your day to die. Retire young or whilst energetic to enjoy waking up for a cup of coffee, enjoy the sun, receive money from your business, visit nice place that you missed and spend good time with family. Those who retire late, spend about 95% of their time at work than with their family and that's why they see it difficult to spend time with their family when they retire but end looking for another job till they die. If they don't get another job, they die early.

18. Retire at your house than at government accommodation so that when you retire you can easily fit into the society that raised you. It's not easy to adjust to live in a location after spending more years at company house or at government house.

19. Never let your employment benefits make you forget about your retirement. Employment benefits are just meant to make you relax, get finished whilst time is moving. Remember when you retire no one will call you boss if you don't have a viable business.

20. Don't hate to retire because one day you will retire either voluntarily or involuntarily.

Hope this will help you look at life positively

Happy Sunday! Everything is hard in some way. It’s hard to be in the wrong relationship. It’s hard to be in the right one. It’s hard to be broke and miserable, it’s hard to achieve your dreams. It’s hard to be stuck in the middle, not really feeling anything at all. Everything is hard, but you choose your hard. You choose what’s worth it. You don’t choose whether or not you’ll suffer, but you do choose what you want to suffer for.

May you overcome all your struggles in Jesus name.

The most profitable company in Kenya today, is arguably, Safaricom.

Best performing companies listed in global stock exchange bureaus, companies that make the top 100 Forbes list and financial heavyweights such as Google, Facebook, General Motors, British Airways etc all have one thing in common with a car wash, a chapati dondo kibanda, a kinyozi, a salon or a wine's and spirits business in Kiamaiko...

That they are all businesses. And Business is the sale of goods and/services with the sole purpose to gain profit.

Profit is a financial gain, attained especially through making the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.

What makes safaricom succeed in it's profits? Their ability to keep their cost of production low while maintaining a steady and diverse revenue stream selling 'air'.

Safaricom does not physically bring data and airtime to you. They no longer need to rely on printing scratch cards, they don't need to even keep their customer care in their building anymore.

They have an accountant, an auditor, a salesman, a manager, a record keeper and a C.E.O. who ensure the business runs smoothly as the technical team ensures your data bundles are 'eaten' and that you have stable home fibre.

This applies to all those businesses I've mentioned above.

Zuckerberg doesn't just code Facebook and sits back in his house making billions. No.

He has a salesperson selling to advertisers, he has an accountant, he has a record keeper, an auditor, a manager and a C.E.O to oversee his operations as he concentrates on the production aspect of his business; such as trolling Trump supporters 😌.

In your boiled eggs and smokies business, your chicken business, your barbershop or beauty parlor, you only succeed if you have all these people.

And all these people are all dolled into one; YOU.

You need to have the mentality of a big corporate entity to break even.

Be your own market researcher.

Be your own salesperson.

Be your own auditor.

Be your own manager.

Be your own CEO

And be your own production team.

You have no choice.

Now, corporates shortlist the right people for those positions.

They give them probate working conditions. They micromanage them. They check their discipline. They do team building. They resolve office conflict through internal systems.

You have to give yourself probation. Micromanage yourself, check your own discipline. When in conflict with your emotions, develop a mechanism on how to resolve it. Don't spend your revenue without accounting for it. Even if it's yours. Don't bring your family drama to work. If you have a toxic partner, best they stay away from your work place. The minute you treat your hustle like it's a bluechip company, then the greater your chances of success.

If you treat your hustle disrespectfully, it's shall disappoint you.

There are many people who love to say how risky or difficult running a business is, or farming is... Their problem is that they don't have any expertise on the dynamism of making something work.

A bluechip company will do research before opening a branch. Meanwhile, a wines and spirits hustler will open one because 'huku watu ni wengi na hakunanga pub'.

A Forbes ranked entity will spend money on advertising and marketing to get noticed and to gain new traction in a new territory. A salon owner will go to instagram and post ' friends ain't loyal they don't support my hustle'

A stock exchange listed company will have a CEO fired for gross misconduct and sexual harassment at work. A mtumba seller will call his girlfriend to his stall and start bickering over texts she stumbled upon while he was fitting a client...

If you don't apply winning standards on your small hustle, it will deplete you, frustrate you and you turn into these bitter people who imagine every nice car on the street is 'pesa ya tender' or that every successful business person has a sugar mummy or a sponsor.

Lack of business acumen is what makes hustlers run around the mill.

And that's where Flipside Hustle comes in.

From the desk of VC