Tribe and faith in business

When anybody starts a business, she or he actually thinks about its sustainability and growth, which brings in the element of the type of people one would love to surround themselves with while pursuing the business dream.
When I started up Great Lakes Safaris Ltd, I was partially naive, fairly unexposed and had lived for only five years in Kampala, a city that felt so complicated for me then. 
Of course, I was hungry for success and like I have said before, I was tired of struggling for basics. I wanted to get better and was willing to work hard. 

When I look back, I appreciate the fact that I grew up in Salvation Army Children’s Home, Tororo partially because of the struggles that came with staying in a home of less advantaged people but mainly because of the fact that we the boys came from different parts of Uganda. 
We spoke Swahili as a uniting language, something I’m forever grateful for and a number of other good reasons including my regional travel. 
I blend easily in both Kenya and Tanzania. In Kenya, people think I’m either Bukusu (cause of Wekesa) 0r Kikuyu because of my looks and in Tanzania, people say am Chagga.

Anyway, when I started Great Lakes Safaris, I thought I should get some people from my tribe to work with, partially because my circles were very limited. 
I knew about three Bamasaba driver guides and one Acholi former classmate I thought was a great driver guide and still is. I had never been confronted by tribal challenges before, let alone business challenges.

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The Mumasaba driver I first got was a very experienced guide. I had seen him work for other people without much trouble and I expected he would do the same with me. So I got a group of Dutch tourists (around June 2002) for a five-day safari in Uganda and since I was busy, I needed someone to take them to the national parks. I chose this Mumasaba mainly because we belonged to the same tribe. I handed him money and an itinerary the day before, plus a hired car. I wanted to make sure my clients were happy; I would do anything for that to happen.

The clients were staying at Speke Hotel before their safari in other parts of Uganda. I had picked them up from the airport myself and the clients were meant to leave Kampala at 7:30am the next day. I called the hotel at 7:20am just to make sure the driver had arrived and they said no. I quickly got on a boda boda, rushed to the hotel and I apologised for the mess. In tourism, we say it’s better to be one hour early than one minute late. I then got on the boda and headed straight to Kalerwe where the driver stayed and I found him asleep and drunk. I realised I was in trouble. Meanwhile I was keeping hope alive with my clients via telephone

At Kalerwe, the guide’s wife called him out and I asked him why he was doing what he was doing. He said, “You young man, in our tribe a young man like you cannot question me like that.  When did you grow old enough to do that? You have just entered this tourism field and I can assure you that you will fail. You have no respect and you think you are the first to do this he?” asked. I looked at the chap and just asked him to give me what was left of the money I had given him. “Let me sort this out and we shall discuss tribal matters later,” I said.
I got another driver and the clients left Kampala at 9:30am. I got what would have been small company profits at the time and made sure our good clients got a small refund for the inconvenience then made sure the guide had enough money to finish the safari. 

Meanwhile, my mind registered the fact that I had used a wrong criteria of selecting who to work with at the time. I decided tribe would never determine who I would work with going forward.
I am sure if I said I am going to work with only people from Moroto, I would face similar challenges anyways. My classes didn’t end there because I needed to build a team and building one is purely trial and error stuff especially to new entrepreneurs, something many young and upcoming entrepreneurs tell me about when we meet. That doesn’t mean I have perfected the art of selecting people because I still make mistakes big time but the difference is that I’m able to confidently pay timely quality labour.

For now, I employ majorly Balokole (Christians) and yes, I could write a whole book about that stupid mindset of mine then. What was most interesting is that when a Mulokole failed to perform, they would try to use scripture to guilt-trip me. 
Thankfully, I was introduced to the Bible (this is probably the most important thing that happened to me as young man) many years ago and had a fair grasp of it and combined with my street knowledge I was able to take on anyone.

At some point Great Lakes Safaris grew faster than I could handle in the hands of only Balokole and I will only live to remember what happened, thankful that God saved the business. I am the type who would rather die broke than fail to pay someone who has worked with me or provided a service agreed upon and I can confidently write about it here. Even in the hardest of circumstances, I will make sure people are paid.

If ones doesn’t run a business, they will never understand how unrewarding it can sometimes get. A person who fixes a few million dollars on a fixed account and gets a good rate is better off than an individual whose turnover is a lot but has to deal with all types of human headaches which are continuous.

The writer is an investment expert
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