Publisher's Synopsis
When I returned to my home country Zimbabwe, soon after its independence, I got a job with the state-owned telephone company as an engineer. In those days there were no mobile telephone companies. Almost every day after work, I used to stop at a local hotel for drinks with some of my mates before catching the bus to go home.
I did not own a car in those days, and I used the public bus system to get to and from work. My friends and I would often discuss different business ideas which could help us generate more cash for ourselves.
I personally wanted to save up to buy or build a house one day, and get married. I soon realized that these discussions always ended up as nothing more than just beer talk, so I determined to put some form and structure to it:
"Why don't we start a savings club in which we all pledge to set aside a portion of our salaries?"
I suggested to more than 10 people gathered around the bar.
"What will we do with the money?" someone asked.
"Well, we can develop projects in which we invest?" I suggested.
"Like what?!" someone else chimed.
"We can start a disco. The one here is lousy!"
Almost everybody thought it was a good idea, and I was chosen as the coordinator. I also suggested that next time we meet at a more serious venue, rather than a pub. I suggested the home of an uncle of mine, and we set a date for that weekend.
On the Saturday morning set for the meeting, only three of my friends pitched up!I suggested we start anyway, and we agreed to each set aside every month what would have been the equivalent of $75.
I went off and opened the bank account, At the end of the month, only two of us actually put in any money. Two others who promised to put in money continued to attend meetings for a month or two, but then we kicked them out after it became obvious they were never going to put in any money.
We went around the suburbs fixing broken lights, and gates. We invested every cent, into doing bigger and bigger projects. For me, nothing has really changed in terms of those basic principles: you start with what you have, you do what you can, you invest what you get, so that you can do bigger and bigger things. From there we built a multibillion dollar company.
