Last week I met with the buddies I made through hiking. It had been a long time since we gathered to break bread (and drink wine, hehe). When you climb a mountain with other people, something happens. You form a bond that doesn’t go away. Maybe it’s sharing the spiritual experience at the summit, where we feel a little closer to Sir God. He too seemed to prefer having His appointments on the mountaintop. We see that a couple of times in the Bible. Moses went to receive the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, for instance.
Most people climb mountains for a reason. We all had personal reasons that took us up there. Perhaps that’s why summiting together bonded us. It felt as though, in reaching the peak, we had also surmounted some of our own inner struggles. That was back in 2023 when we climbed Mt. Kenya, though we had done some hikes before that trip and several more after that. Our itchy feet keep bringing us back to those trails. We love being out in nature; it’s the paracetamol that brings down the fever of life. Last Saturday, though, we hiked horizontally to a watering hole for a meal and drinks, hehe.
We had a lot to celebrate as folks went round the table sharing what they have been up to. Some have new jobs, others have new homes, and others have even found love. We were happy for each other, and since there’s little dignity to preserve when you spend a week climbing a mountain together, we assumed meddling rights and interrogated each other further. When it was my turn to give my update in detail, I mentioned my not-so-new appointment as Tournament Director of the Magical Kenya Open Golf Championship. I shared how I have often wondered what all this public service in golf means. What’s the endgame? How can I milk it further for my benefit? What’s the meaning of it all? That’s when the meddling started, since I had opened the door.
One of them challenged me to look at my various leadership experiences as a chain of events and not stand-alone occurrences. He used the concept we learnt in primary school maths: simple versus compound interest. Simple interest is interest earned on the original or principal sum. It’s best for short-term loans because it keeps borrowing costs predictable. According to my hiking gang (that’s the name of our WhatsApp group, by the way), I’m looking at my current role in golf through the lens of simple interest. I’m trying hard to predict what this role means and what it will lead to.
They were telling me I was being short-sighted, but in better English, hehe. Maybe they were right; I’ve been so focused on how I can benefit from this role right now. I haven’t connected where I am now to where I have come from, nor have I zoomed out to view the winding road that brought me here. Folks, when we zoom in too closely to our current reality, we risk failing to see how we got here in the first place and where it might be leading. Maybe zooming out would give us better perspective on our journey.
That’s where compound interest comes in. This is the interest earned on both the original sum and the accumulated interest from past periods. It works best for long-term savings and investments because your earnings make more money. Folks, could we be overlooking certain experiences simply because we view them as isolated events with no remaining value once we leave them? Could we be wrong in that perspective, especially when we hear that no experience in life is wasted?
I have been on this golf journey for twenty years now, having joined Limuru Country Club back in 2006. It has turned out to be nothing I planned or anticipated. But every role or responsibility has built on the previous one, and that’s how I’ve ended up here. How can I use the learnings and achievements from previous positions to maximise this one? Better still, through that long view, how can I perform better in my current station in life in a way that influences my next season of life? Even as I ponder that, my friends encouraged me to remain faithful and diligent to the task at hand because the future, while we prepare for it, remains largely unknown.
Folks, for us to compound the gains of our actions, we need to hold a long view and remain consistent in our efforts. Compounding only works when we resist cashing in early, choosing instead to reinvest our gains so they generate even greater returns over time. Our lives and careers work that same way. One stage is a building block to the next, unless we squander the opportunity and the stepping-stone becomes what is used to stone us down. If we erode the gains in one season, we end up starting from a point of disadvantage in the next one. While we can still succeed, we will have to work twice as hard compared to someone who is building directly on previous accomplishments.
May we adopt a compounding perspective in life, because that cumulative effect over time becomes the momentum that carries us forward. We will eventually reach a point where we see higher returns with less effort—in both our impact and our income.
PS: Our webinar is next Friday. Grab a ticket and join this live session with me. I have written you stories every week for almost ten years. Now I will be speaking to you. Karibuni folks. There are still some seats remaining. Registration details are below.
Success to Significance Webinar
You've built the career, the title, the reputation — everything success was supposed to give you. So why does it sometimes feel like something's still missing?That's exactly what we're unpacking in Webinar 1: When Success Isn't Enough, the opening session of my new Success to Significance series for African leaders in midlife. In one honest hour, we'll talk about the transition every high-achiever eventually faces — and how to cross it well.
Friday, 25th September12:00 – 1:00 PM (EAT)
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Thank you Lucas for these insights. Indeed one stage becomes the foundation on which we build the next stage of life and we need to build patiently, carefully.