Timothy Kitonga gives some excellent pointers including, give it your all and focus on your strengths. Nairobi Kenya Africa #000225

Click Here to download in audio (.mp3 format)

Click Here to download in video (.mp4 format)

Offer Your Best

By Timothy Kitonga

This text is in Extreme Rough draft and will be edited in the near future.

My name is Timothy Kitonga, team leader of Keystone Group, a company that deals with design, branding, and digital marketing. Now, over time I’ve realized that once you offer your best out there, someone will definitely notice whatever you’re doing. For example, you cannot wake up at 6:00 and expect to get the results as someone who is waking up at 4:00 is getting. Secondly, you cannot leave your workplace at 3:00 p.m. and expect the person who is leaving their workplace at 6:00 p.m. have the same results as you are having. So, one thing that I’ve really learned over time, over the past few years that I’ve been in business, is that once you’ve put your mind onto something, you have to put your all, you should give your all, there is nothing like a half-baked product, you need to give your all. Secondly, you need to have passion. You should ask yourself as a young person, what can I do for free and give the best value out there? Once you get that thing, maybe you can decide now I have five things that I can do for free. For example, I’m a good graphics person, I’m a good mechanic, I’m a good hair dresser. What can you do for free that you can bring the best out of that? Once you finally realize you’re regretting the five things, narrow it down to two, after that, narrow it down to the best that you can do for free. That’s how I decided to come into the creative industry, because I realized I could do business cards for free, and expect nothing to be paid for it, even sometimes I would go borrow a bus fare to go to someone to go and deliver their business cards, because I was thrilled with whatever I was doing. I didn’t expect anyone to pay me for these, but there was this one gentleman who told me “Now, this is the high time now for you to start paying for your services.” And from there on, I decided “Okay, let me just be doing the designs for you for free, and the printing for you I’ll be charging a small fee.” so that at least I could move around. But, I realized doing that only, couldn’t sustain me a lot. I really needed to go out there and give the best. So, people decided to trust me with whatever I was doing, to charge for even designs, to charge for the print work, and even to charge for the delivery. So, from there as a young person you realize that whatever you have, unless you go out there, unless you go and practice it, there is no one who is going to believe in you. Even if you have a very able uncle, a very able father, you have to prove to them that you are able and you have what it takes to go out there and fight like the other people, and there is something internal that you have really learned that is known as grit. Greatness requires internal toughness. However hard it may be, so long as you have that desire, so long as you have that toughness that is within you, you’re going to realize that somehow after a period of time, the ground is going to be easier for you than it was when you began. And another encouragement is, whatever you do, always document wherever you begun. This is where I was, this is where I am right now, and this is where I’d like to go in the future. Like for us in Keystone, we want to be the best marketing agency, especially that is run by a young generation, that can impact the world out there. We are just starting, we have not reached there yet, but where you are that’s the starting point. Come up with great ideas and someone, somewhere, they are going to recognize your effort, and they are going to recognize your capabilities, and they are going to give you the support you need. Thank you very much.