LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE

Many years ago, a friend of mine was diagnosed as “terminally ill”. He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was 1 in 500. He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to, and perhaps helped cause, his disease. He wondered, “If illness can be caused by negativity, can wellness be created by positivity?”

He decided to make an experiment of himself. Laughter was one of the most positive activities he knew. He rented all the funny movies he could find – Keaton, Chaplin, Fields, the Marx Brothers. (This was before VCRs, so he had to rent the actual films.) He started to read book, magazines and funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something funny. His pain was so great he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep.

He fully recovered from his illness and lived another more years happy, healthy and productive years. He credits visualization, the love of his family and friends, and laughter for his recovery. Some people think laughter is a waste of time. It is a luxury, they say, a frivolity, something to indulge in only every so often.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Laughter is essential to our equilibrium, to our well-being, to our aliveness. If we’re not well, laughter helps us get well; if we are well, laughter helps us stay that way. Since friends’ ground-breaking subjective work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions. So, if you like laughter, consider it sound medical advice to indulge in it as often as you can. If you don’t like laughter, then take your medicine – laugh anyway.

Use whatever makes you laugh – movies, sitcoms, Monty Python, records, books, cartoons, jokes, friends. Give yourself permission to laugh – long and loud and out loud – whenever anything strikes you as funny. The people around you may think you’re strange, but sooner or later they’ll join in even if they don’t know what you’re laughing about. Some diseases may be contagious, but none is as contagious as the cure. . . laughter.

MOTIVATION

No one in this world is perfect. At time when chips is down people look up to their role models so as to be motivated. Often when we are on lows of life we seek something or someone who is going to inspire us. Like energy can neither be created nor destroyed, “MOTIVATION” cannot be created or destroyed.

MY BELIEVES ON MOTIVATION

I believe like “LIFE CYCLE” we also have “MOTIVATION CYCLE”. Let me give you an example– From the moment we breathe our first breath to our last breath we are always motivated. We are motivated by doctors at time of birth to cry as its sign of been healthy. After reaching few months we are motivated by parents to utter gibberish words, few months later we are motivated to crawl, and then walk without support. In later stages we are motivated to get educated, to get job, earn and have luxurious lifestyle. We can see here “MOTIVATION CYCLE” is running parallel to our life cycle. 

Motivation like goals can differ from person to person. For student scoring top grades is top priority hence he may channel his energy and get motivated to obtain top rank. For farmer to have good harvest can be key for motivation, similarly motivation differs from person to person and gradually changes by time. Channelizing concentration and energy towards right path and common motive is key to success. 

I believe all religious books are based on concept of motivation. If you don’t believe me, let me throw my Thesis to you (It is your choice to accept my thesis or not). The entire religious book believes in concept of afterlife. This concept is prime drive for people to do good works and it motivates monotheist to observe their respective religion peacefully. Without these motivation and perks of afterlife do you think people would follow old books religiously?

MOTIVATION TIPS

I would like to give tips to readers on how to be motivated. 
1) Be sure of your goals. Clear goals can make it easier to see the paths. Work hard towards goal and get motivated on every step taken while achieving this goal. 
2) Get inspired from role model but do not copy them, We lose our identity when we imitate them. Let these role models be our motivators. Do not mold to be exact replica of your role model.
3) Don’t copy goals, don’t think others  motivation will be your key to success.
4) Even smallest of smallest can inspire us and motivate us. Be humble enough to accept your motivator even if it embraces you.

Finally I would like to conclude that be positive and believe in yourself and give your best. I would like to twist famous comic quote and end here by saying “With great goals comes great Motivation”

ONE BILLION PER KM IS THE NEW STANDARD COST FOR HIGHWAYS IN KENYA

Kenyans are complaining that the proposed Mombasa-Nairobi expressway will cost KShs 1 billion per km. We have very short memory.

The 16.5 Kilometer Western bypass in Nairobi connecting Kikuyu and Ruaka is being constructed at a cost of KShs 17.3 Billion. We complained about this and nothing happened. The contractor is on the ground mobilising. The bypass is just four lanes with a design speed of 100km/hr.

A Chinese firm has also won tender for the dualling of the 31km Ruaka-Ruiru northern bypass at a cost estimated at between KShs 30 - 40 Billion as per Infrastructure CS James Macharia.

Interestingly the 70km Eastern and Northern Bypasses had a budget of KShs 8.5 Billion when they were first constructed less than ten years ago. Is the proposed dualling equal to construction of a new road or additional lanes?

The recently constructed first phase of the 11km Dongo Kundu Bypass in Mombasa cost KShs 11 Billion. Nobody even knows what the 13km Outering Road in Nairobi cost.

For those who talk about land compensation contributing to high costs, that is a separate cost since contractors do not compensate land owners.

If the six lane Mombasa-Nairobi Expressway is costing KShs 380 Billion for 466km then it might even be cheaper at KShs 815 million per km. Its design speed is 120 km/hr.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF OPERATING A BUSINESS

1.Loneliness
It’s a rarely mentioned problem of entrepreneurship, and many new business owners aren’t prepared for it until it happens. Being an entrepreneur is lonely . It’s a singular position, so you won’t have teammates to rely on (completely). You’ll be working lots of hours, so you won’t see your family as often. And your employees will be forced to remain at a bit of a distance.

2.Decision-making
Believe it or not, this is probably the most stressful challenge on this list. New entrepreneurs are forced to make hundreds of decisions a day, from big, company-impacting decisions, to tiny, hour-affecting ones. Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon , and most new entrepreneurs will experience it if they aren’t prepared for the new level of stress.

3.Being the Visionary
As the founder of your startup, you’ll be expected to come up with the ideas. When a competitor emerges, it will be your responsibility to come up with a response plan. When your team hits an impenetrable obstacle, your job will be to come up with an alternative plan to move forward. This demands on-the-spot creative thinking -- which should be an oxymoron, but entrepreneurs rarely have the luxury of time. The less experience you have, the more pressure you’ll feel from this, and the harder time you’ll have coming up with acceptable plans.

4.Rule-making
It’s fun to be the boss until you have to enforce something. Sooner or later, you’ll have to come up with the rules your business follows, from how many vacation days your workers get to what the proper protocol is when filing a complaint about a coworker. These details aren’t fun to create, and they aren’t fun to think about, but they are necessary for every business

5.Abandoning Another Career
If you’re going to dedicate yourself to starting and nurturing a business to success, it’s going to be nearly impossible to simultaneously manage another career. Walking away from a promising, steady long-term opportunity for something unpredictable is scary -- especially if you’ve never run a business before. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to address this. Just think through your decision logically, and don’t ignore your instincts.

6.Team Building
This is especially hard if you’ve never run or managed a team before, but even if you have management experience, picking the right team for a startup is stressful and difficult. It’s not enough to find candidates who fill certain roles -- you also need to consider their cost to the business, their culture fit and how they’ll work as part of your overall team. Such considerations are exceptionally hard when you’re under the pressure of filling those positions as soon as possible.

7.Financing
Experienced entrepreneurs don’t have it easy when it comes to funding a new business, but they do have a few advantages over newcomers. They might have a pool of capital from a business they previously sold or a steady stream of revenue they can use to fund a new business’s cash flow. Even if their first business went under, they’ve likely made investment contacts and client connections necessary to give them a leg up in a new enterprise.
As a new entrepreneur, you’ll be starting from scratch, which means you’ll need to start networking like crazy and thinking through all your possible funding options before landing on one.

WHY MANY SMALL BUSINESS ARE CURRENTLY EMBRACING OUTSOURCING

The business ecosystem is quickly changing. The need for a competitive edge, creativity and innovation and also highly talented and qualified personnel is an unavoidable part of business growth strategy. The SMEs are also feeling the need to keep up with the dynamics of their survival. SMEs owners need to understand better why they must move away from the traditional way of running a business to professional way of doing things. We are past the time when the sole owner of the company would single-handedly undertake business duties regardless of his/her expertise. Currently, productivity must be a top priority of any business regardless of size, age or nature. Small business must be handled as a serious investment with the expectation of better returns based on the strategies put in place.

Sustaining workforce that is required to deliver on business ever-changing environment and capacity is a challenge for many SMEs. Most of the business are forced to force the few existing staffs to overstretch to other duties they are disabled. Business owners find themselves strained that they can’t channel enough efforts towards business growth. It’s true that most small businesses remain stagnant over time due to many manageable factors. It’s upon a small business to examine itself based on strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities to maximise to its advantage. From this position, the firm can face competition, creativity/innovation, technological advancements, and market dynamics among other business elements in a better way. All this brings about the concept of outsourcing for small business. It hasn’t been fully considered by lots of small companies, but it’s a better option to go considering the current technological age and challenging operating environment. For the chunk of SMEs that haven’t thought outsourcing, this is what you need to know:

A chance to access the experts; it’s a dream for every business to incorporate highly qualified and talented personnel to drive business activities and agendas. Looking outside far away from geographical limitations, an SME owner has the chance to contract the best expert from multiple talents at disposal to fit in the specific business niche, i.e. digital marketing.

Reduced cost of business operation; One of the surest means to maximise profitability is to slice down costs. Through outsourcing, SMEs can curb down expenditures on rent, office space, equipment, employee benefits, and transport costs etc. which are necessary for physical employees. The savings from these costs can be easily be channelled towards the revenue-generating capital.

More time for focus; delegating some business duties to experts saves SME owner from multitasking which in most cases has been draining business productivity. Outsourcing will give the owner perfect time work on business growth strategies for the benefits business long-term survival. The move goes well in establishing business priorities that is customer-centred.

Reduced risks; Business risks are inevitable in any business environment which is always changing, from competition, technological advancement, market to government regulations. Through outsourcing, SMEs tends to avoid any of such associated risks as the contracted service providers manage the risks on your behalf and are better placed to prevent risks in their niche of expertise.

Accelerated efficiency; As a small business, being exempted from doing costly business mandates such as market research, marketing burden of which trickles down to customers is a reprieve for your business. From the economies of scale point of view, this gives a firm that little competitive advantage.

Increasing demand for remote working; the current entrepreneurial space is giving attention to the remote operation. Most experts and businesses are going the same direction. Many employees are also more comfortable with jobs that are flexible enough to allow remote working. It’s also upon the SMEs to embrace these changes get in touch with freelancers who are affordable, experienced and readily available to perform business duties without extra business burden on training as well as other overheads.

Having gotten some insights on why SMEs should consider outsourcing, some essential business functions that may feel easier to be handled by experts regardless of the stage of your business. It’s proving to be cost-effective and productive in the long run for startups or existing SMEs.

Bookkeeping; Multitasking hurts business productivity. Many SMEs struggle with this vital business element and end up with non updated financial records, no clear financial instruments making it even difficult to evaluate, analyse and control business performance. You can’t allow your business to continue committing such financial mistakes. It’s best to contract experienced team with the right technology to professionally handle your business financials at an affordable cost.

Payroll; Any mistake from bringing about tax audits which may be at the end costly to SME. The numerous regulations and tax laws for salaries require merely an expert with in-depth experience to curb the risks of making the costly mistakes, omissions and improper filing that may occur when the owner single-handedly run the show.

Virtual assistant; SME owner running the business solo may find him/herself strained by series of many smaller tasks that keep accumulating a lot of time. As the CEO of your business, the focus should be towards strategising for venture growth. It’s timely to higher an expert to help in administrative tasks to save time. The advantage here is that it’s less costly as the business have to pay only for hours duties were handled rather than spending more on full-time assistant which must be paid regardless of the job performed.

Digital marketing; Digital marketing is unavoidable for any business. Small business should seek the assistance of the experts on how better to go about this whole concept to achieve business productivity. Hiring digital marketing professional helps leverage digital medium that best fits the business needs within the budget standards. Some of the critical areas to check includes; social media management, content marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email marketing and web analytics. Each of these areas has a unique contribution towards business growth when timely and adequately used.

Areas of business to outsource isn’t restricted to the few highlighted in this article. It’s upon every single company to outsource based on its weakness and goals. Comparing the cost of hiring full-time employee and outsourcing should as well be used as a guiding element towards any decision making.

WHICH KIND OF ANIMAL ARE YOU

Have you ever been told which kind of animal you’re ? Maybe when you broke something in your house, your angry mom compared you to some animal stating even that animal is well-behaved but not you. Or maybe when you scored less in your Math exam, your father compared your brain to that of an animals?

My father keeps telling me I am a Goat. I don’t blame him though. I keep doing such things to justify his saying. Like when I was small, there was this phone call for dad. My dad told me to inform the person that he was not at home. So like a good kid I told the person that my dad has told me to tell you that he is not at home right now. My father having heard this immediately got up and took the call. My mom and sister on the other hand could not control their laughter. My father joined in too and told me jokingly I was a goat. Now, do you blame him for saying me that?

It wasn’t until few days back that I finally came to know what actually GOAT means and that it turns out everybody wants to be a GOAT. It’s pretty awesome. Yeah! You heard me right. Supposedly there is this ongoing debate among the footballers of who the goat is and surprisingly they all want to be the goat. It all happened when Messi from Argentina claimed himself to be the Greatest Of All Time(GOAT). However, there came contradictions when Ronaldo from Portugal played a breathtaking match and sealed the title of goat for himself. Now come on, all my life I have been the goat. Do you think I should just tell them to back off?

I am very possessive with me being the Goat. That’s something I have earned with lot of hard work. I am glad my dad felt I could be the greatest of all time. Let me know if you have ever been called a goat or as a matter of fact any other animal which you take pride in.

WHEN YOU FORGET HOW WE SLEEP

Insomnia is something that I experience from time to time. I don’t know why it happens— even when I try to analyze the problem I don’t really see a clear cause or reason.

A way that I like to describe insomnia is that it is like your body forgot how to sleep. One night you go to bed and all of sudden you can’t fall asleep. It is like you are all prepared to go for a swim and suddenly you are standing in front of the pool and you have forgotten how to swim. You have prepared everything but why can’t you do it? Well, insomnia is just that irrational. A whole day’s of toil should exchange for a well-rested night, but instead all you get is restlessness.

Or sometimes, you are drifting into sleep but for some reason your body decides to twitch or feel the need to wake you up. Waves of sleepiness keep coming and going; for a while you are excited, “This is it! I think I’ll fall asleep”, but after while that wave disappears and you feel restless again. You toss and turn but you can’t seem to stay in one position for too long— no position seems to feels right. It is like the whole world is trying to stop you from falling asleep; neither your bed nor your body seems to want you to have your well-deserved rest. Well, no wonder you feel restless— I mean, this is so frustrating!

If you are lucky, you usually end up falling asleep without knowing how or when you did it. Regarding this I have an interesting story to share. One time when I had insomnia, I fell asleep and woke up a few hours later. As I am a light sleeper, I have the habit of sleeping with ear plugs on. I didn’t know when and how I fell asleep but when I woke up I realized that my ear plugs have fallen off. I searched frantically for them— under my pillow, around me, under my blankets. When I found them they were placed neatly on the side of my bed, which is where I usually have them when I don’t wear them. I don’t know what happened but I must have taken them off subconsciously. I have already fallen asleep but I can still take off my ear plugs. Sleep is weird in the sense that some part of your brain needs it but the rest can still function. I guess that is why we have dreams.