Success Tax.

The Good Book tells us that there are only two certainties in this life: death and taxes. I’m sure we all have experienced taxes and the loss of a loved one. We can’t escape either of those two as long as we are on earth. Sometimes taxation gets so heavy that it threatens to take us out. No wonder the two are close relatives. I recently came across a notion that piqued my interest: Success Tax by Dean Graziosi. In a podcast, he shared that he is 56 years old and wealthy, but he has been hustling every day of his life since he was 14. That’s a lot of hustling!

This reminded me of a few highlights of my journey, ata kama I’m not 56 yet hehe. Part of success is dreaming, and you can also hustle in a dream, hehe. I have always loved Subarus. I remember my pals and I used to see them on the road when we were in campus and lust after them. Deep down, I wasn’t sure I would ever drive one, but my love for these cars was so great that I would visit the Subaru Kenya showroom on Mombasa road just to sit in one. I would savour the moment, getting high on the smell of new leather seats and upholstery.

I was even given a Subaru Outback poster for my enthusiasm—or perhaps to keep me from visiting the showroom too often since I couldn’t actually afford their cars hehe. I framed that poster and hung it in my bedroom to manifest that I would one day own that car. After many years of adulting and hustling, I ended up owning an Outback. They are lovely cars, but they’ve acquired a bad CV as they are now the abduction model of choice. Subaru owners need to be compensated for reputational damage, so tunaomba serikali hehe.

I kind of forgot about the framed poster until I saw it in my mum’s office recently. It confirmed that our dreams truly are valid and can come true. But we often have to pay some tax along the way for them to happen. For this dream, my tax was time, quite a bit of it. I ran my tent business for many years until finally my moti arrived. It’s good to dream and find a way to keep the dream alive. But we also have to put in the work for our dreams and desires to move into reality. Instead of day dreaming, let’s work in the day and dream at night hehe. So I’m enjoying my car after paying the tax, including ya gava. Life’s sweeter after tax.

The other success tax that I was reminded of was when doing mjengo. While I love construction, I didn’t escape the character development that comes with it. Dealing with fundis is an extreme sport. It’s like there is a course on how to disappear without notice and having a phone that prefers to be off most of the time. They even have a way of earning your trust, then, when you least expect it, they receive your money and go AWOL. That was the case with my electrician. He fattened me for the slaughter, then kulad me not once, but twice! That’s made me question my people-reading skills. Being too trusting can really bite us. Or is it just being a nice guy? They often finish last.

Another incident was losing money to a conman who posed as a salesman of a reputable water tank company. He strung me along and even gave me their company’s till number after sending me a fake but official-looking invoice. I happily paid 40K for the water tank. He even called me to acknowledge receipt and promised to deliver the next morning. That was the end of that story. I had paid another price for being naïve. Was I too trusting or just plain foolish? Ata sijui. Losing money is never a good feeling, but the satisfaction of ending the project well was worth the journey. I just need to ensure that next time I jenga, I don’t waste the lessons learnt so far.

Dean says that to live the good way, you have to live the hard way. The plan for my mjengo is to secure myself some passive income as the years go by. I believe I’m on the path to living the good way, bila money pressures and insecurities, once I am done, but I’ve lived the hard way in the process. I’ve been conned out of chums and encountered many other setbacks along the way. I can confirm that to get through the obstacles that come our way, our ‘why’ has to be stronger than the difficulty facing us. Also, somehow, the obstacles themselves are a good test to confirm whether what we are paying tax for is worth it. It’s seasoning to prepare us to handle the success that’s coming.

“Success will never find us,” Dean tells us. Time, failure and hustle all combine to make us successful. That’s the tax we will have to pay if we are to be successful. What does success look like for you folks? What tax are you paying currently? And if I may throw a spanner in the works: Are we even paying the right tax? Remember, we can’t fast-forward success tax. If we try to evade it, then we’ll likely end up in illegalities. We’ve got to keep doing the same thing, or doing it differently, until we arrive on Success Island.

When our blessings come before we are ready, they risk destroying us and turning into a curse. And that’s exactly why we should embrace this tax of time, aka success tax. Maybe if I had gotten my Subaru right after campus, it would have taken me out! So here I am now, enjoying it like a good family man, observing speed limits hehe.