Pages Of Light.

For most of my life, I haven’t enjoyed reading much. Most of the reading I’ve done has been involuntary especially in my formal education. I hardly enjoyed my primary and high school life and excess book work was the key reason. I got a C+ in form four back in the day, even after my dad paid for extra tuition during the school holidays at Kenya Science Teachers College (KSTC) on Ngong road. Dad, I owe you for real. I dread what that C+ would now be with the Matiangi effect. The education I enjoyed the most was my MBA. Yes, I surprised myself too. I performed brilliantly to the surprise of my dad and myself too. I also enrolled for an executive program in 2014 at Strathmore Business School called the Owner Manager Program (OMP), which was worth every cent. I was relieved to realise that the issue wasn’t my acute average mind, but the education system which was ill suited.

The reason I enjoyed these two courses (and excelled in them), was because the learning was very interactive and practical. Even the reading material was about real life cases where we derived lessons that we would discuss in and out of class. The best part was there were hardly any exams. One was evaluated mostly on the success of their project. I loved it. I’m actually starting another short course next week and I’m glad there will be no written exams. It will be mostly discussions and applications of material that I’m required to have gone through in advance. I hope with 8-4-4 being scrapped, we shall go back to my kind of learning, which I’m sure is what most prefer.

Back to books. Now at 40 I have developed this strange love and habit of reading books that relate to my stage in life. I’m even spending money buying books and my relas are even finding books an appropriate gift to buy me. Before this reading bug bit me, I only read the Bible, Business Daily and Expat Link – the ka free magazine they give you at Zucchini after you buy warus.

I got two books for Christmas from my family. I carried one with me for my holiday which I read quite a bit. It’s titled ‘Never Too Late To Be Great’. It’s a brilliant book with many short stories and sentences written in large font, just the way I like them. It’s only missing pictures hehe.. I carried it everywhere and took any chance I could get away from my sharks to read a few more pages. I’m learning so much about myself. It’s like books give you leakage about the future and what you should do, especially if it’s a book talking about an issue that’s at the top of your in-tray in life. My bedside table is beginning to pile up with books just like mummy shark’s, who’s an avid reader. For a long time she would recommend a book to me and I would ask if there is a movie version of it to watch instead.

If I am to list everything I’m learning from the books I’m reading now, it will take the next several blogs just listing gems of wisdom. These books have been a torch illuminating the path ahead. Some of the quotes that jumped at me from the pages were:

– Time is no longer the enemy and is not in short supply.

– I have been warming up for the last 40 years.

– Things of value often come into being too slowly for us to notice.

– Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.

The quotes above are from the book Never Too Late To Be Great by Tom Butler – Bowdon. There’s even a chapter that talks about why many people never do anything remarkable until their fifth decade. I Love it.

Another book recommended by my mentor (Mike Eldon) is, The Second Curve by Charles handy, which says, ‘Success, however, puts blinkers on us, discourages doubt, reinforces itself. Only in retrospect can we look back and say, “that was it, that was the peak, that was when we should have started to think anew.”’ I’m a victim of past success but that won’t happen again.

One more book I’m reading is The Rules Of Life by Richard Templar. Some quotes in it are:

– Be the last to raise your voice (rule 11).

– Staying young is trying out new tastes, new places to go, new styles, keeping an open mind. It is not going for the safe option. (Rule 51)

– The details of the plan don’t matter. Having one does.

– Life can be a bit like advertising. You’ll never know from which bits of effort comes the best reward.

That last gem above has helped give me gain perspective in my current, demanding public service roles that will take a lot of my time this year. I am not getting paid but you never know what it will lead to in future.

I hope we can read more books this year and watch less screens. By the way, I love the smell of paper and highlighting stuff I read, so the kindle version and online books will take time to catch up with me.

Happy reading folks.