We wish to post a story of a statistician in Kenya who makes Ksh 1 million per month from consultancy services, but his success came as a result of rejection from potential employers, who never saw anything positive in him. Here is the story.
My name is Kevin and I am a statistician. I pursued a Bachelor of Statistics from the University of Nairobi between 2001 to 2003 and graduated with a second lower in Statistics.
Upon graduating from the University of Nairobi, I started searching for employment. I dropped several applications in various research companies, banks and government, but it took too long to realize my dreams of becoming a successful statistician. In 2005, two years into my graduation, I secured a sales job at KCB Bank. The job descriptions stated that I had to sell loans to hundreds of clients before I qualify for a commission …but I was being paid Ksh 7,000 as a basic pay.
I did the job for two years with the hope of being retained as a graduate cashier. My hopes dimmed as time went by until I decided to quit and look for another job. My decision to quit was motivated by the fact that pressure was too much, my boss was always on my neck as the company chased for profits. I also didn’t like the time I was waking up and leaving the job, sometimes I could leave as late as 11 pm. Instead of succumbing to high blood pressure, I decided to hang my boots.
In 2008, after attending several interviews, I realized getting a job was an uphill task. I discovered there were more graduates than jobs in the market. At the same time more people were enrolling for university education especially for masters program. As a statistician with proficiency in Stata, R, Excel and other unique data analysis skills that most statisticians were lacking, I thought I should help those in need of data analysis services to achieve their dreams. That was the time I started moving around universities to introduce my services to students.
Two months after introducing my services and leaving my contacts to several students, one MBA student contacted me and she wanted to have her Masters thesis done within one week. I took the job and asked her to pay Ksh 10,000 as deposit before I started work. She paid promptly.
I did the work as perfect as my brain, hands, energy and intellectually capacity would afford. I didn’t want to lose the goodwill of my first client. As promised, I delivered the thesis before the week was over. After going through the entire thesis, she was satisfied—she paid me the remaining Ksh 15,000.That was the time I realized how fast you can make your money when you utilize your brains in the right way.
My first client was the one who opened floodgate of clients. After she graduated, she referred three of her classmates to me, who gave me their thesis which I did for three weeks and made a total of Ksh 75,000.
In 2010, my work had expanded and I was getting 10 clients per week. The work was overwhelming until I decided to have a team of like-minded to help me.I hired two of my former classmates to work for me.These are the people who relieved me of the work load as I went fishing for more clients.
On top of doing thesis for students, I incorporated online writing.I now have an account for online writing, which I use to get clients from abroad.
Since I started this business, I have grown in length and breadth. From Ksh 25,000 to Ksh 1 million per month. One thing I have noted is that employment can limit you, especially if your mind is in a cocoon .In employment, all you are thinking is a job promotion, salary increment and more academic papers, but in business you only think of money and how to expand your business. I am now contented with my work and I always thank God for enabling me think outside the box.
