Every
week I search for stories that I find inspirational. Instinctively, I look for recognizable personalities
and accounts of how they pushed through adversity and beat the odds to achieve their
goals. However, perceptions of success
can vary greatly from one person to another, especially between different
cultures. Success is often measured by
fame, but far more frequently, it’s the stories of ordinary people who do
extraordinary things that inspire us to act with more intention in our lives.
Here’s the story of a young man who found success just by trying to help keep his
community healthy…
Living
in Kitale, an agricultural town in western Kenya, Joel caught dysentery at the
age of 16 from drinking contaminated water provided to his community. His recovery from the illness was slow,
giving him time to think about the problem.
If something didn’t change, there was no reason he and others would not
be infected again and again. He decided
that he should do something, and began thinking about solutions.
When
he got out of the hospital, he started working on a plan. With the help of some volunteers, Joel dug a
borehole on community farmland to get to the fresh water underground. Still in high school, his life savings
totaled around $95, but he decided to invest all of it to buy the pumping
equipment needed to extract the water.
The project was a success, and subsequently provided clean drinking
water to hundreds of households in his village.
Later
that year, while walking in the rain, Joel spotted a water tank next to a
closed yoghurt shop. The tank was
collecting the rainwater from the gutters on the roof. He suddenly had the idea to trap rainwater,
store it in a reservoir, purify it and then sell it to the public at an
affordable cost. Despite having no
money, he convinced the owner of the yoghurt shop to lease him the tank. Then he set out to find a purifying machine. It was an expensive piece of equipment, and
Joel spent three months presenting his idea to every local bank and funding
organization in the region. They all
declined. Finally, his thoughts turned
to his family land. It had been lying
fallow for years, and Joel persuaded his mother to let him sell it.
Selling
the land financed Joel’s purchase of a water purification machine and the
operational costs needed to begin production.
During the wet season, the company would harvest rain, then purify and
bottle it, and they would market the product in the dry months. Though it took time, the company eventually
gained a foothold against more established competitors by offering clean,
locally-produced drinking water throughout Kenya and Uganda at half the normal
market price.
The
success of that company, Skydrop Enterprise, brought Joel MWale international
recognition, several awards and grants, and a place on the Forbes list of Africa’s
Best Young Entrepreneurs. It also
brought him to the world stage. After
hearing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg describe a hypothetical start-up that
would arise and grow from zero to 200 million users within two years, Joel
decided that he would be the person to launch it. He sold Skydrop for $500,000 and began his
newest venture, Gigavia.com, an educational social network that brings social
media into classrooms, transforming it from a distraction into an educational
resource. In its first 5 weeks online,
more than 1 million people signed up as Gigavia users.
Joel’s
story reminds me of a simple formula that has been repeated throughout
time. Find a need in the world and fill
it. Most often, the need is something you
can personally identify with. To live a
life full of purpose and meaning, examine where your personal interests, skills
and passions intersect with the needs of others. Once you identify this unique intersection,
seek ways to organize your life around those commonalities through employment,
entrepreneurship, and even charity. This
is the path to everyday happiness, and very likely will lead to living your own
extraordinary life.
Until
Next Week,
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