Picking up the pieces after business failure

Business
1

Good evening folks. Welcome to Ted Talk or more appropriately, Ted Discussion.

A friend of mine who is employed recently intimated to me that he had decided to start planning early for his retirement. He is 39 years old now. He got employed at 28 years of age. He is married with a 4 year old and a 10 year old kid.

He earns a good, not great, salary and he came to the realization that employment may not last forever (or as long as you may want it to last) for whatever reason - technological advances, mass layoffs, pandemics, death, sickness, scandals that get you caught in the middle etc.

My friend, I’ll call him Calvin for the sake of this discussion, decided to invest in a risky undertaking. The projections looked phenomenal and if it all worked out, he would be ready to resign from his job within 5 years! Calvin ventured into this investment in 2019. He invested his life savings and even took a loan secured on a prime plot he had purchased in Nairobi for sh. 4.5m some 2 years earlier. In total, Calvin invested about 7m from his savings and from a 4m bank loan (you can imagine how much the land’s value had appreciated).

Long story short, the business failed. Calvin was unable to continue servicing his bank loan and decided to sell his land to avoid the bank from taking it and selling it themselves at a loss, repaid the bank loan using the land sale proceeds, and is now without mu h in times of savings, tangible investment or valuable property after 12 years of hard, honest work.

My friend is almost suicidal and full of regrets. He is stuck on the what ifs. I have tried to console and advice him to gather his strength to pick up the pieces for his sake and that of his family. He is a broken man. Not the same funny man I used to hang out with and have drinks. I think he can’t get over the loss of 12 years of honest work in such a short period of time.

Guys, tell me what to tell him. I will likely send him screens hots of some of the best advice from this family of anonymous men and women with both good and crappy ideas. Will appreciate this much.

[SIZE=1]Given that today I’m posting something serious I won’t urge you guys to keep fucking. You already know that you must fuck today harder than you did yesterday. Improve on your skills. Try the mongo style. That’s a combination of monkey and mango. You fuck on a tree then fall down like a mango. Be wild. Be creative. Be spontaneous. Be a fucker![/SIZE]

2

Pole kwa bibi in advance juu naona tukizika huyo Calvin very soon. Dont forget there is an ongoing suicide Olympics

3

Whether he kills himself or not, it will not change the fact that Putin is pummeling Ukraine to oblivion.
Weak men take the easy route and commit suicide while strong men dust themselves and vow to rise again.
Your weak ‘friend’ ako na kazi, loan free at this point and he wants to kill himself ?
Kama bibi ni mrembo encourage ajimalize.

4

So, in total, the guy lost 7M which he had accumulated for over 12 years. He is only 39. I think that is a loss that he can recover from easily.

  1. Your friend is only 39. He has 26 years of work left in him. That’s a lot of time to recover. The retirement age will be 65 by the time he is eligible in line with global trends.

  2. He took 12 years of hard work to accumulate that sum. However, he is assuming that it will take another 12 years to recoup the money. That is a wrong projection because by virtue of his 12 years work experience, he earns more now, is smarter, and is less likely to get fired unlike his 28 year old self. Therefore, he will take probably 6 years to recover the money if he retains the same saving habits, not 12 years.

  3. The guy is still employed. This is his saving grace during this period of financial turmoil. The worst thing he can do now is fuak up his job because of his personal issues. Its time to mend relationships at work and make sure he is on the boss’s good side.

In the end, the guy only lost 7M which may be a decent pile of cash but honestly, it is recoverable. The most important thing he should know is that it will take him less time to accumulate a similar sum than it took him previously because he is more experienced (probably paid higher), wiser, and more job-secure. He can be worth 7M in 6 years (half the time it took him to accumulate the amount).

5

He still has some land assets that are not of much worth. Maybe they’ll get some value in 10, 15, 20 years. FYI, some of the facts have been distorted to ensure that by any chance if anyone here also knows him or his story they won’t be able to decipher who the person is. 7m could be 15m (I’m not saying that ). Again, when you say he can get the 7m in half the time just remember that it will not be worth the same thing it was when he started the venture. 7m in 2019 is 16m in 2028 with our level of inflation.

6

Then there’s the burden he has of securing his kids’ futures which was the main motivation towards seeking financial independence. At 4 and 10 yrs old, the financial burden arising from his kids is still ahead of him.

7

He should just eat that L and roll with the punches. It sucks starting from the bottom, but now he knows not to put all his eggs in one basket. He still has a job so it will only suck for a while and he will recover slowly. He paid dearly for the simple elementary mistake of being overweight in one investment. Investments are never sure things that’s why you diversify because you don’t know the outcome.

If he continues wallowing in self-pity he will mess his job and that’s when real shiet will hit the fan.

8

Mwambie awache hiyo ujinga ya kujiua. I have numerous friends who lost their jobs and hustles during COVID and some are still struggling to get a footing. Killing himself will only bring more problems to his kids. Tell him to forge ahead and forget what he has lost.

9

Tuitie mazishi. By the time kichwa inakatika Kwa kaburi bibi atakuwa ba ball. You should avoid him for now.

10

What’s the reason for avoiding him?

11

People forget that the biggest wealth they have is their health. Tell him to pick up himself,dust himself and start allover. Tell him It was a slip not a fall beside age is on his side. What if he made the mistake in 2 years to retirement.
Ask him what is the worst could happen to his family when he exit the world prematurely. Watoto watasomeshwa na nini.

12

Lets man up abit guys.
This is childs play compared to what guys are going through out here…i dont see any reason to contemplate suicide.
OP sit your boy down just stare him down for like a minute and give him a cold hard slap kama ya chris rock will smith and tell him him to wake the fuck up.

13

You should tell your friend to do what he resolves to do! Life is for the living

14

Vile Haile Selassie amesema

15

Hio ni biz gani alijaribu?
That aside, your friend awache stress and focus on living Ako planteshen…one day at a time. Si lazima we succeed but ya kesho pia hujuangi. He should remain positive angalau he’s of good health anaweza recover but sio lazima pia.

16

This is the reason I insist that pragmatic men should sire one or less than one child.

17

Pia mimi nilikuwa suicidal when my Best Friend died!

But, I have lost my businesses more than twice, experience teaches!

The best wealth is HEALTH (Especially of the mind)!

18

To avoid failures, I think people should learn how to conduct a business correctly. I also advise you to take a look at https://www.pandadoc.com/ . If you are going to do your business without accounting skills, communication with clients, etc., then you will need such software.

19

Mwambie afanye vile sisi tulifanya. You get up, dust yourself, tuck in your balls and shout to yourself; Aluta continua. Some of us have fallen more times than we care to count anymore and every time tunaamuka, we count our loses and move on to the next hustle. Mwambie apange creditors wote, if any, kwa line kama watoto wa shule with vague plans on when he will pay them.
Suicide ni njia ya wajinga na wanyonge. Mimi nijiue niwache hizi kuma zote duniani. Mimi!