http://www.china.org.cn/.../06/content_25581684.htm HOW I WISH THIS IS HURLINGHAM, NAIROBI

Arguments aside I have one request: please believe in the soil on which you were born. The opportunities are vast and the doors are just opening, don’t be left behind. This is my story and how it paid to believe in home, maybe it’ll inspire those who believe we won’t make it. I completed high school in 1997 and got admitted to a London university for a degree in economics. My father agreed to pay the tuition on condition that I cover all living expenses on my own. So when I set foot on campus I only had money to last me 2 weeks, luckily I found a job in the first week at the student union pub. It was donkey work with minimum pay but I had no alternatives, so for 4 months I slaved under an a**hole boss. My break came through when I happened to hear one of my uncle’s friends discussing a quote he had received for painting his 2 bedroom house, it was an outrageous amount, but that was the going rate at the time. I offered to paint his house for a third of the price provided he buys me the paint and rollers, he agreed and that marked the beginning of my painting business. Word of mouth went round and within a month I had 3 more houses to paint allowing me to quit my lousy job and working for myself, regardless how messy it was. Within three months I couldn’t manage to cope with my studies or completing houses in time, so I roped in my flat mate and together we were doing pretty well. We started advertising our services in local newspapers, dropped flyers in people’s homes and expanded our services to small repair jobs, and in 8 months we were a team of 11 students painting around 5 houses a week. By the end of my second year at university I had saved up around 20,000 pounds from the painting, but we got competition from other students who saw how successful we became and it was just a matter of time before our profit margins would be eroded. I started looking for new ideas, and along the way spotted an old rundown 2 bedroom house that was put up for sale for 45,000 pounds. I knew that such houses in good shape could easily fetch £60,000, I knew I could renovate the house for less than £5,000. But no bank would give a foreign student any loan so I went running to my uncle and sold him my idea, he agreed to take the mortgage on my behalf for a 20% cut in the profits. We bought the house, renovated it and within 3 months the house sold for £66,000 and that marked my entry into the buy repair sell business. I kept on with this buying and selling till I graduated and ended up selling 6 houses in total. Upon graduation I got a £22,000 per year job offer at an investment bank, I worked with them for 3 months as my final house was in the process of being sold and immediately the sale went through I packed my bags and returned home. A lot of people thought I was an idiot to leave a well-paying job in the west to return to an uncertain future in Kenya but I didn’t care. When I came back I had no idea what I was going to do, there is no way painting houses would sustain me and we didn’t have a vibrant property market for my buy repair sell scheme. I brainstormed for around 3 months with no good ideas coming through. One of my friends from UK relocated back and he rented an apartment on ngong road in a building called maki apartments, I went to visit him and that is when I knew what I’d be doing next. Maki apartments was an entire lifestyle package, I liked the architecture, the amenities and thought there is a huge potential market for such apartments. I had come back with around £200,000, and in 2001 it gave me around 23 million shillings. Having set my mind on building apartments like maki, I started shopping for a piece of land and eventually bought half an acre in a westlands suburb for 11.5 million, completing the transaction, getting the plans and permission set me back another 1 million. I was going to build 2 blocks of 4 bedroom apartments each with 8 units, including swimming pool, gym and a nice garden, the construction quotes were coming at around 45 million but I only had around 10 million. So I started approaching banks but no one was willing to lend me any money and there were no early buyers at the time. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I decided to go it solo and instead of giving a full contract I negotiated a labour contract. The construction started and the money I had was pouring out fast, but luckily I found two buyers, one of them was the guy I bought my hardware supplies from and the other one was the sand and ballast supplier. I got 1.8 million for an apartment from them, but they promised to supply me all the materials required to finish the project and I would pay them once I finish selling. I was no longer stressed about the completion of the project so I focused my energy on marketing the apartments and sold of everything within 6 months of completion at an average price of 4.5 million. I got around 20 million from that project and have moved from one project to another ever since, around 4 months ago I sold my 650th unit. Believing in this country has paid out way better than I can imagine, I hope some of you can do the same. I’m not saying come and buy property but look around you, see the opportunities and take them. There are quite a number of Kenyans working in Europe but how many times have you thought of going to see the flower auction at Aalsmeer and coming home to grow a few roses and sell them there. There are numerous Kenyan bankers working out in the west , but how far do you think you’ll climb up the corporate ladder, at home it’ll be twice as faster. I know so many brilliant professionals working for measly pay here at home, why not come together with a few colleagues and start your own firm. Please believe in this country and pray politics doesn’t kill it, that’s all.

@vky: Most of the wazuans miss the IMPORTANT part of your life story. Being prepared-you had the savings of Ksh 23M and the vision of what to do.Plus, you took the risk when it wasn't all clear. The preparation,risk taking and vision are the building blocks of success in any business venture.From Muguku,Merali to James Mwangi.... Unfortunately, people will only read your story and go..Real estate will make me a millionaire.

Vj-- very inspiring... enough respect VJ