I spent four years as a high school teacher, balancing the rigid logic of Mathematics and Physics with unpredictable family farming. That was in the mid-90s. I learned that survival in farming, much like in business requires the courage to pivot. We replaced traditional cash crops like coffee and tomatoes with poultry and learned to coax life from a small backyard garden. More sobering is going through the experience of seeing environmental change in under four decades transforming livelihood sources permanently.
It was a struggling school club with under ten students that first showed me how a small spark can ignite a global flame.
When I was appointed patron of the UNESCO club, it was on the brink of termination. I did the unthinkable; I reached out directly to the UNESCO headquarters with nothing but a handwritten request for guidance. What happened next didn’t just save the club, it changed the school’s policy, sent our students across international borders to represent Kenya, and taught me a lesson I carry to this day:
Scarcity isn’t an absence of abundance; it’s a test of your willingness to show up when
the odds are stacked against you.
The Underdog’s 100-Letter Gamble
While teaching in a local village long before the era of the internet or mobile phones I decided to pursue a Master’s degree. With no clear path to funding, I wrote over 100 handwritten applications to institutions worldwide. I travelled kilometres to Nairobi just to sit in libraries and gather addresses from pamphlets, and academic magazines. I was an underdog, a village teacher competing against seasoned university academics and researchers for prestigious grants.
After years of constant rejection one “Yes” from the African Network of Science and Technological Institutions (ANSTI) funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) changed everything. “I find your persistence exceptional” the Director of ANSTI told me. He wasn’t just awarding my academic potential; he was betting on my refusal to give up.
Why I Created Beyond Genβeta
Today I look at businesses through the same lens I used to when I was cultivating in my family’s farm and that rural classroom.
I founded BGβS because I believe that protecting our planet isn’t just an ethical choice but rather it’s a business necessity.
I help organisations translate complex data into agile strategies that protect our natural capital without sacrificing commercial success.
I’ve learnt that a farmer doesn’t dig up a seed to see if it’s growing, he/she trust’s the process happening beneath the soil. At BGβS, we are planting the seeds for a future where the economy and the natural world thrive in harmony.
